Very weird Carnival Night boss (S3&K) glitch

Tiddles eventually implemented EggRobo in the FBZ boss. As for the single object theory, I'm not sure; the chassis does break off when you defeat the boss.

 

It's essentially that, but more complicated. I think some levels set Egg-Robo automatically when playing as Knuckles, but some need a specific object. Sometimes Robotnik appears as the Mushroom Hill boss for some reason...

The Robotnik sprites in the FBZ boss are separate to the rest of the boss (I think), but there are no matching Egg-Robo sprites, and no switch is made.

 

I can't recall this happening on an MD emulator (or hardware), but I've read about it. Sonic Jam goes one better: EggRobo and Robotnik alternate heads. :v: (I don't think there's a video.)

I remember reading theories of why Robotnik turned up for that one fight, then disappeared again, and thinking "just accept that the developers made an oversight!"

 

RedStripedShoes called it pretty much right, though it's less about objects and more about pure tiles.

There's one Nemesis-compressed tile block for the Eggmobile plus Robotnik's face together. If you're playing as Knuckles, the Robotnik face part will be overwritten in memory by Nemesis-compressed art of EggRobo's face (plus the mappings and animation speed change slightly). This doesn't happen in Flying Battery because separate artwork is loaded for Robotnik's face. The same is true of some other bosses Knuckles should never see: Lava Reef 2, Death Egg 2 (except for the final dash - which of course is the only time a regular Eggmobile shows up) and the LBZ2 ball launcher spring to mind.

So what's the problem with Mushroom Hill? This bug occurs only if you restart from the final starpost in the level (either from death or a bonus stage) and go right quickly. Something unpleasant happens, possibly due to the Kosinski decompression queue filling up because other level art is still loading, so EggRobo's face overlay will load incompletely or not at all. If you examine Robotnik carefully in this situation, you'll notice that his moustache moves too slowly (at the speed EggRobo's head should bob) and that his hit and killed expressions are misaligned because the slightly different EggRobo mappings are in place.

I "fixed" both of these in Sonic 3 Complete by checking for Knuckles' presence explicitly and using a different pattern load cue - in FBZ it loads a custom EggRobo sprite built from a cross of the ending and normal boss versions, and in MHZ it adds a Nemesis copy of EggRobo's face to the PLC, so that it doesn't make any difference whether the Kosinski version turns up or not.

It does get blocked by an object to prevent the player falling back down, but it looks like the ball only cares about base level geometry. Even if it did interact, all bets are off regarding object collision if the objects are off screen - as we can see in so many Tails bugs. They could've had it bounce on a horizontal coordinate rather than on the actual floor, but that would've made it a pain to reposition.

Here's another tip for getting through CNZ2 quickly: shortly after the famous barrel, you'll be running down another diagonal barber pole thing from left to right, top to bottom, that crosses over one going in the opposite direction. Jump down here and head left once you reach the floor (or just jump across to the opposite pole if you time it right and keep some momentum, and head back left). That skips out a whole chunk at the end of the level, though it's not as big as the skip posted earlier, and you miss out a big ring if you care about that.

 

I just noticed that in the video I linked before, upon defeating EggRobo, Knuckles drops out of Hyper mode, and is then damaged by the Eggpod as it swings back under the platform. This is probably nothing, and I assume it would happen to other characters and in the original, but I thought I would point it out.

 

What actually hit him was the fire. That wouldn't happen as any of the other characters, because the mech doesn't shoot fire while swinging unless you're playing as Knuckles.

 

Oops! Thanks for the correction. If it was the Eggpod, I'd almost be inclined to call it a bit bug-ish, but the flame is more understandable. I wonder if anyone's died in rage because of that!

 

Never had that happen, but maybe I'm just lucky.

 

Or unlucky... by doing Hyper Sonic's "Jump Dash" at exactly the right time (and the margin for error is usually ~1-2 frames), you can jump through the barriers in the FBZ2 WFZ rehash part, saving about a minute of waiting. You can also use it to skip path swapper and screen lock objects - it's one way of getting onto Knuckles' path in CNZ2 (not that it's any use).

 

With Hyper Sonic's double jump you can also backtrack through most doors in Lava Reef Zone 1, and maybe even enter Knuckles' path from near the end and go through it in reverse for a bit, iirc. I can't check this right now since I'm at work but I'm pretty sure you can.

 

The Let's Glitch Sonic 3 & Knuckles video series exploits this glitch a lot when playing as Hyper Sonic.

 

It's not as much a matter of timing as it is a matter of being at the right position. Place yourself so that the object you want to go through is barely offscreen and do the jump dash. When going left, you can go through thicker objects than when going right, as seen in the Lava Reef Zone part 2 video (and maybe others) in the Let's Glitch Sonic 3 & Knuckles series.

 

The boss going off to the right is nothing special. He just drops the ball as normal. If it happens to go off the screen, he follows it to pick it up.

 

I can honestly say you're not the first person to say that to me. :v:

That boss is very quick to beat when playing as Sonic, as you can pretty much hit him any time with the Insta-Shield. I usually beat him before he's even picked up the ball. It does take a while as Tails, though. It's near-impossible as Knuckles, but you're not supposed to be able to fight Egg-Robo in that machine.

I don't think there are any other bosses that can be glitched in the same way. Bosses that throw things and then chase after them are very rare.

 

Actually the very first boss in Sonic 3D reminds me of Carnival Night Zone's boss in a way -- they both throw something on the floor and pick it up afterwards. The only difference being that Green Grove Zone's boss doesn't use electricity to attract you towards him.

 

Does anyone know of THIS glitch?