#doomsday zone

WIPs :)

So in one of the cutscenes for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles we get to see that the canon ending to this game, is the one where you collect of the Super Emeralds and become Hyper Sonic and fight Eggman in Doomsday Zone.

Also, Sonic Channel's Super Sonic info says the following about STH3&K. "By collecting all the emeralds in the main game, you can transform into Hyper Sonic, which is even more powerful than Super Sonic."

So yeah Hyper Sonic is canon, however it doesn't show up anymore to avoid DBZ comparisons from what has been stated. An in-universe explanation could be that the Chaos Emeralds must be charged up into the Super Emeralds by the Master Emerald, and Knuckles doesn't let Sonic do this as he himself won't use the Master Emerald for himself.

Extra note, while it was claimed that the Hyper Forms aren't canon this wasn't ever actually said. The claim originates from GeneHF on Sonic Retro's discussion boards, the one titled Sonic Runners announced (Sonic Team/Mobile) which was started Dec 28, 2014. Credit to definitivedubs post on Sonic Retro under the title "Only male hedgehogs can turn Super" made Feb 21, 2023. As they are one was able to find where this claim originated. So GeneHF claims that "The Super Emeralds and the Hyper forms are non-canon. They may never be referenced again." They also claim that this is from the Sonic Bible and that Iizuka said this stuff publicly, but provide no source. Note, I'm not addressing the Sonic Stadium stuff because that literally leads nowhere. Written by Eris

Knuckle walks out of the altar, stunned. Then, as he gazed helplessly into the distance, he noticed something eerie appearing around the lake. Knuckle felt a shiver run down his spine when he saw the huge round egg-like object.

"That big egg is the legendary dragon's..."

The egg must be the one that brings misfortune to the island, as depicted in the legend on the altar of the Chaos Emeralds.

-Sonic 3 Japanese manual, Translated by Sega's PC division, done for the release of the Sonic & Knuckles Collection. X

It’s not another blatant “omg Knuckles is stupidddd” moment, because the dragon he’s thinking about was actually conceptualized as the boss of Doomsday Zone, as seen in this concept art seen in an MTV video:

(See: Super Sonic to the left, and the same illustration with Super Sonic battling a vaguely draconic figure)

Though whether or not the original plan was to have the dragon be an actual mythological figure, or one that Eggman creates (making the egg bit a lot more literal) is up in the air, since we didn’t learn much more about it.

And while not exactly confirmed, this bit of lore seems to have been taken and used for Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure, since we actually see a mural of Perfect Chaos in the Mystic Ruins (very draconic), a character who did bring misfortune to the island of the Echidna.

It’s a nice way of reusing previous ideas, the concept of Super Sonic battling a dragon being reused for the Perfect Chaos battle similar to how a lot of cut zones from Sonic 2 were repurposed for Sonic 3.

Additionally, the idea of a dragon Super Sonic boss in a classic-styled Sonic game was also used for the Black Dragon in Sonic Superstars, making this really come full circle.

Look, I understand the concerns about power creep and transformation creep, no one want Sonic to just turn into "a new transformation is the only way to solve any and all narrative problems" Dragonball style. but Hyper Sonic EXISTS. It played the deciding role in the Angel Island prophecy and stopping the Doomsday Zone robot from getting away with the Master Emerald. The power has crept already. The question to ask now isn't whether it should exist or not, but how it should be USED. Personally, I think accessing Angel Island and the Hidden Palace shrine should, lore wise, be the only way to do it, so Sonic would have to collect the Chaos Emeralds, go to Angel Island, go to the Hidden Palace Zone, place the Emeralds on the shrine, do the special stage challenges (because those should come back in the 3D games too) to power up the Emeralds, and have them be transformed temporarily until they run out of "Super Emerald transformation juice", turn back to the normal Chaos Emeralds, and scatter again.

Both in terms of gameplay and lore, it allows everyone else to get their own unique super forms while ensuring Sonic has his own unique, special main character only transformation. Purely on a gameplay level, it also makes Sonic's playthrough last longer, especially if they handle it like 3 & Knuckles did, where you've got to re-collect the Emeralds after a Super Sonic playthrough, or after finding the Hidden Palace Shrine.

I genuinely think it should make a comeback, even for one game, or even just as a gameplay contrivance. It encourages multiple playthroughs and increases replay value with the barest minimum of effort and assets. Literally just some animations, colors, effects, and sounds for Hyper, the work that would go into making the Emerald shrine, maybe a "you can now play as Hyper Sonic" screen, and the special stages, if you even go as far as needing to include them.

Because the boss design of Sonic games seem to be "if we come up with a really good idea, hold on to it for dear life."

So you get a lot of final bosses that are just trying to be Doomsday Zone again: Perfect Chaos, Finalhazard, Metal Madness, Devil Doom, Solaris, etc.

And then we get to Sonic Colors, which actually introduced some new, good ideas to a final boss! So we get the Sonic Colors final boss again in Sonic Lost World. And again in Sonic Forces.