Toxic Pools Zone

Zone This is the easiest stage - And thats saying something in itself. After the intro Sonic jumps from the water shakes himself off and gets to going! The main bot here is the cluck. Don't stand on the platform at the bottom for too long, or the Rexxon will come up and chomp you. The first Emerald is in a large vat. You must knock out the levers on both sides of the vat to drain it. Then, go up and use the barrel to row yourself to the emerald. The other 2 are on the mine cart. Go up to he area with the barrels and knock out the levers on both sides. Go on the mine cart and go all the way down on both sides for the next 2 emeralds! Boss Once all emeralds have been collected, keep heading to the top left of the zone where you can find the boss: Scorpius - A scorpion type monster with a Robotnik head. Pure D Ugly. The easiest way to defeat him is to jump into his curled tail and bounce around in there being careful not to fall out. Its elatively easy - but if you fall out, you'll have to make your way back up to the boss room. In the event that you do fall - try to aim yourself for the side ledges so you wont leave the room. Once the tail comes off, keep hitting his back to finally defeat him.

Lava Powerhouse Zone

Zone This zone isnt too hard but it takes some patience to get through it without frustration. The main enemy here is a bird like bot called a Ferron and a few Clucks. Watch out for the lava here, and be careful not to slip into the vat of boiling lava at the bottom of the pinball areas. From here on, there are no second escape chances like the Rexxon pit. The first emerald here is easy. Locate the pressure room. In the middle, at the top is an entrance to the Pipe Maze area. Just go up the middle tube bouncing off the Clucks to launch yourself into it. The emerald is at the top. You may notice the other two emeralds right there in two tubes to the left and right of the main one in the Pipe area. You have to go up the left or right side of the Powerhouse and flip yourself into either of the air jet tunnels. Keep jumping to make the air jets push you up to the emeralds. Boss The boss of this stage is a vat of hot gas with 4 Robotnik heads circling around in them. Just get in there and knock them out. Then get into the vat and decimate it. Easy as that.

The Machine

Zone Before I saw the Showdown I thought this was astronomically hard. But its more tedious - especially for first time players. So prepare yourself for a few hours in front of the tube....Welcome to the Machine - the CPU for the entire fortress! Two of the emeralds in here are in the main room, with some searching, you should find them. Just time your jumps right when you jump in the holes. Two emeralds are on the left side rooms with the flippers. Use the flippers to go up the side of the walls by holding down the flipper button as Sonic rests on it. One of the many tunnels leads to the emerald. The same goes for the tall room on the right side. At the top, above the main room, accessible through either side, there is a giant room full of Roboticizer tubes and Prison Pods. Break them open to free the animals. The one in the very middle holds the fifth and final emerald. Get it to open up the boss room at the very top of the stage above the Prison facility. Boss This boss is actually the roboticiser itself! It's one of the easiest bosses to deal with..It sends animals into the machine and roboticizes them into Clucks, Ferrons, and Busters as they come out. Try to avoid them. First thing to do is knock out the tubes that send the animals into the roboticizer. Once that's done, jump up and into the roboticiser, just like the Powerhouse Vat - and destroy it from the inside. Now on to the final stage....

The Showdown

Zone This is by far one of the hardest stages in any Sonic game. With the fortress crumbling into the active Mount Mobius volcano, Robotnik is preparing to launch himself out of here! Taking place at a GIGANTIC construction area you must work your way upwards into Robotnik's War Room in his giant ship.... trial and error exists a lot here. Hope that you get more trial than error or you'll find yourself losing all your lives. For the first emerald, find the area with the stell plates. To destroy them, go up farther by aiming yourself for the plungers. Get the emerald. Now go into the two side rooms. If you use the flippers and shoot yourself up you'll go into a tube with the emerald. Also look for ways to get to the windsocks for a quick and easy emerald! Now shoot yourself outside and jump down the extreme sides of the stage. Use the flipper to catapult yourself back up the sides. Catapult into a tube that gets you the emerald and sends you back down the side. Thats the best way we can explain it. Boss If you managed to do it correctly, now that you have all 5 emeralds, either shoot yourself up the sides to the dead center of the board or go up to the dead middle top of the stage where these missiles are falling down. Jump up the tops of the missiles and into Robotnik's war ship....Robotnik is HUGE and ugly - And he is easy IF you just take your time and DONT RUSH !!!! Hit the plunger beneath his Super Egg-O-Matic. Everytime you hit the plunger, something different will happen. Claws could come out that grab you and drop you back down when you use the flippers to go up. Giant windsocks could suck you in and throw you at the windows. If that happens 3 times, the window will break and you will fall back to the board. And if that happens you'll have to get back up there and start ALL OVER AGAIN. If you go up and nothing happens, it'll be open. When this happens, do NOT hit the plunger again! Keep going up the sides and plug Robotnik on the top of his ship, cracking the glass on it. After 10 hits he's done for. You've beaten the game!

The Special Stage

The Bonus Pinball Rooms The bonus rooms can only be accessed if you have finished the stage with at least 50 rings before you finish off the boss. There are three total rooms each of which providing you a break before getting back to the action. Also - check out the cameos... ^_^ Room One - Toxic Pools - Trapped Alive The Freedom Fighters have been locked away in containment chambers, but Robotniks busy guarding in his Egg O Matic! The objective - Destroy the roboticiser tubes serving as their prisons and free The Freedom Fighters, while avoiding Robotnik who can easily knock your ball out of action! Room Two - Lava Powerhouse - Bust The Teeth Don't worry about the targets behind the moving Robotnik head - Your true objective lies at the big bucked teeth of Ivo Robotnik! Knock out the teeth with pinpoint accuracy and you may get a prize! Room Three - The Machine - Destroy The Pod Guess who's guarding the Prison Pod! Scratch is back and to help himself out hes decided to clone himself to keep that pesky hedgehog from freeing the animals. Destroy Scratch and his clones and then go willy nilly for The Prison Pod !! Multiball Play You get a multiball mode in which you're supposed to hit Crawl (badnik from Casino Night Zone). However, 2 Cluckers (badniks from Wing Fortress Zone) guard in front of him as bumpers, and the Crawl has a very powerful shield.