Sonic the Hedgehog: Robotnik's Revenge

***Sonic the Hedgehog: Robotnik's Revenge*** is a platform game in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series, developed by Sonic Team in collaboration with Sapphire Studios and published by Sega for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. It was released worldwide on June 23, 2009, the 18th anniversary of the release of *Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)*.The game serves as both a direct sequel to *Sonic & Knuckles* and a soft reboot of the *Sonic* series as a whole, the first in a series of games that bridges the gap between the classic Sonic games and the *Adventure* era. The story follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna and Amy Rose on a mission to prevent Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik from taking over the region of Vesten (located on one of the continents on Sonic's world) and turning it into his dream Robotnikland. It is notably the first game developed by both Sonic Team and Sapphire Studios.

## Plot

Taking place around two months after the events of *Sonic & Knuckles*, the game's story begins with Sonic the Hedgehog and his best friend and sidekick Miles "Tails" Prower taking a break from traveling the world and pursuing adventure, now residing in Starleaf Forest, in the region of Vesten. Sonic has been taking the time to relax and develop a closer friendship with Amy Rose, who now lives close to Flora Falls, and Tails has been tinkering with his many inventions. Life is peaceful...

Meanwhile, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik has been concocting his latest evil plan under the cover of darkness. Searching for a power source that will aid him in his next endeavour, he returns to the Floating Island in an attempt to steal the Master Emerald once more, only to be chased off the island by its guardian Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles pursues Robotnik to Vesten, with the evil genius putting his plan to completely take over Vesten and turn it into his own Robotnikland into action, sending his robot army on a rampage across the region, forcing the local animals inside of his Badniks and building factories to power his dream empire. After encountering Sonic again, Knuckles teams up with the blue hedgehog, as well as Tails and Amy, in a quest to liberate Vesten from Dr. Robotnik's control, destroy his Badnik army and defeat the doctor once again. Journeying across the region's diverse landscapes, the heroes traverse through the Peridot Park, Sapphire Shores, Rosy Hills, Winter Fields, Cryptic Cave, Forgotten Temple, Vulcan Valley and Noxious Nocturne Zones, once again collecting the legendary Chaos Emeralds, before reaching the Cyberpunk Chaos Zone. It is here, in a giant electrical plant and factory dedicated to providing power to Robotnik's forces, that Sonic and his allies sight Robotnik making an escape in his airship, the Flying Egg. After a chase through the skies on the Tornado, Sonic boards the Flying Egg, making his way to the bridge and transforming into Super Sonic in order to fight Dr. Robotnik, who is now piloting a giant mech suit. After winning this battle, Super Sonic uses his power to destroy the Flying Egg. Robotnik manages to escape, although greatly humiliated by this most recent defeat at the hands of Sonic and his friends. The game ends with Sonic and Tails returning to Starleaf Forest, Amy returning to her home near Flora Falls and Knuckles returning to the Floating Island to continue his duties as the island's guardian.

## Gameplay

Gameplay focuses on either Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy. Despite the visual appearance of each Zone remaining identical for each character, each Zone has a multi-path layout which features moderate differences depending on which character is selected, in order to create a level more suited to each character's unique gameplay styles, although these differences are not as prominent as in *Sonic Adventure*, for example. Objectives and bosses, however, remain the same regardless of which character is selected. The gameplay itself is very similar to the classic *Sonic* games, albeit with more variety, as *Robotnik's Revenge* features four playable characters with distinct abilities: Sonic can run the fastest and jump the highest out of all of the characters, with his gameplay style mainly focusing on speed, Tails can use his twin tails to fly yet he moves slightly slower than Sonic, Knuckles can push and lift up heavy objects and glide through the air using his dreadlocks, and Amy can run slightly slower than Sonic, has above-average physical strength (yet not as strong as Knuckles), good agility and the ability to use the Piko-Piko Hammer to break objects, giving her strength as an all-rounder character. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles can all use the Spin Dash to move through levels and attack enemies. Like with all classic *Sonic* games, Rings, Capsules, Signposts, Star Posts and Chaos Emeralds all make an appearance as prominent game elements throughout *Sonic the Hedgehog: Robotnik's Revenge.*

*(Special Stage info under construction)*

## Characters

*Sonic the Hedgehog: Robotnik's Revenge* features four characters accessible to the player:

### Amy Rose

The following characters also appear throughout the game, albeit non-playable:

* Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
* Badniks

*(Under construction)*