Sonic Championship (thing)

Robotnik has built the Death Egg II in orbit high above the world and Tails' rocket, the Lunar Fox, needs all eight Chaos Emeralds to reach it. It can only carry one person! How can our heroes choose who should go? They hold the Sonic Championships in which the best fighter will collect all 8 emeralds and face off against Dr. Robotnik himself.

You choose from one of the eight heroes and progress through a series of stages on your way to the Death Egg II. You always follow the same path and always meet the same characters. Unfortunately, given the standard fighter difficulty progression, Knuckles is always the first fighter you face and he is always a pushover.

Each character has an assortment of punches, kicks, slaps, and throws as well as one specialty. Sonic has a Spin Dash, Knuckles has a Knuckle Glider maneuver, etc. If you are at all familiar with the series, the specialties are pretty predictable. The only new Sonic character introduced in this game was Bark the Polar Bear, with a devastating Shoulder Throw. Bean the Dynamite who, as his name suggest, throws bombs is from an odd Sega side-scroller called Dynamite Dux.

The fighting system uses the Virtua Fighter et al. standard of Punch, Kick, and Guard buttons. Almost every character has a PPP and a KKK combo. Tapping the joystick in a direction with a button press will usually give you a move logically equivalent to the motion. During a match, each character has a certain number of barriers and some moves that, if blocked, will break a barrier. If you run out of barriers, you can't block until the next match (assuming you survive that long.) Hitting towards with the Punch and Kick buttons uses a barrier and activates your Chaos Emerald's power which performs a "Hyper Attack" and boosts your speed temporarily. Tapping all three buttons as you are knocked backwards allows you to recover to your feet very quickly.

The combo system is very simple. Air juggles are possible but not necessary. The CPU player can be defeated fairly easily through repeated application of your special attack. They will usually block and loose a barrier leading them into the dangerous situation of being without barriers and unable to block.

Metal Sonic is the first boss and has everyone else’s moves, very similar to Dural in Virtua Fighter. He will most likely be a player's first real challenge since he is notably faster than any of the other fighters. If you get to Round 2 against Metal Sonic and didn't loose any other rounds previously, you will transform into Super Sonic and be invincible. The programmers assumed that if you made it this far without losing, they aren't really denying you anything.

The last match against Robotnik is only 30 seconds long. If you beat him in time, you escape and get the "good" ending, otherwise it's Game Over for you.

Characters and their levels:

• Knuckles The Echidna - South Island Zone
• Amy Rose - Flying Carpet Zone
• Bark The Polar Bear - Aurora Icefield Zone
• Espio The Chameleon - Mushroom Hill Zone
• Miles "Tails" Prower - Canyon Cruise Zone
• Fang The Sniper (J)/Nack The Weasel (US) - Casino Night Zone
• Bean The Dynamite - Dynamite Plant Zone
• Sonic The Hedgehog - Giant Wing Zone
• Metal Sonic - Death Egg's Eye
• Dr. Robotnik - Robotnik's Hangar

Soundtrack Track List:

1. Advertise - K.I.Y.O.
2. Character Select - Get Into The Wave 2
3. Game Start - Are You Ready?
4. South Island - Lovers
5. Flying Carpet - Back To Soul
6. Aurora Icefield - Black Bed
7. Mushroom Hill - Come On, Mr. Sonic
8. Canyon Cruise - Blue Garden
9. Casino Night - Here We Go
10. Dynamite Plant - Try Again
11. Giant Wing - Fire Stone
12. Chaos Emerald
13. Death Egg's Eye - Never Let It Go
14. Death Egg's Hangar - Hurry Up
15. Mission Complete - Egg's Fanfare
16. Super Sonic - Everything
17. Sonic vs Knuckles - North Wind
18. You Are Winner - Winner's Fanfare
19. Name Entry - What's Your Name?
20. Ending Theme - Take Me Away
21. Continue
22. Game Over
23. Character Select (Not in the game)
24. Sunset Town (Not in the game)

• Bark can't crouch.
• If you play a VS. game where one player is Sonic and the other is Knuckles, the BGM will be Sonic vs Knuckles (North Wind) regardless of the stage. This music also plays at the Robotnik bonus round.
• A Saturn port was planned but later scrapped.
• This game uses the same arcade hardware as DOA.