It wouldn't have been anywhere as cool though. Also just checked, that plane in Angel Island looks nothing like what we get to see in Mushroom Hill. Then again, Flying Battery is as big as an entire zone, so it's possible we just saw a different part of the blimp.
Perhaps Flying battery zone had been a background prop which was supposed to fire shells from the background rather than overhead dropping. ( sonic team may have been rushed and didn't finish what they set out to do with the prop. Edit: WTF is that thing at the helm of the Zone anyways? looks like some possum/racoon creature wearing a metal turtle shell as a hat from the Mario games.
True story: I recalled seeing Triple Trouble ads. Knowing it was the 8-bit variation on Sonic 3, I assumed that guy to be Nack or some such.
lol wow also looking at the sprite sheet there seems to be guns that look like they swivel around. possibly twards the screen. and the mole creature's booth looks like it could tuck up into the bottom of the ship. hnmm another thing I noticed, if you imagine the Grey sort of part without the army pattern notice the ridge spacing, its kinda layed out to resemble a rounded object, as well as how the prop moters are attached to that grey area, yep lools like a blimp to me, lol yeah thats the mole thingy lol, couldn't tell from memory or the blurry screen I nabbed earlier.
I actually thought about this one (different color due to the fire), except that everything else is different too. This is the best I could do for a full comparison of Angel Island's and Mushroom Hill's Flying Battery in Angel Island Flying Battery in Mushroom Hill Completely different design, but same NAILS ON THE CHALKBOARD ass grinding sound. I don't recall the sound being as harsh back in the day though. Maybe the old, simple mono speaker could handle it, but goddamn that's the WORST sound ever displayed in a Sonic game in surround sound. But I wonder why they completely changed it? I'm willing to bet it wouldn't have been different if it were flying over Carnival Night like it was supposed to after the game was split. But that still makes me wonder what the transition would have been between Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis...
