Spring Stadium Zone


 * See also: Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island



Spring Stadium Zone is the third level of Sonic 3D for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Saturn, coming after Rusty Ruin and before Diamond Dust Zone. As with other stages in this game, Spring Stadium consists of two standard Acts followed by a third Act containing only the boss fight. In Acts 1 and 2, Sonic must free captured Flickies from inside badniks, depositing five of the birds into a Goal Ring to progress between sections of the level (usually three per Act).

Spring Stadium is the first Robotnik facility which Sonic reaches on Flickies' Island, and it's built very much in the style of Sonic 1's Spring Yard Zone: a mad fusion of bouncy, pinball-y fun and spiked pits of death. Many of the spring-pads set into the floor are fakes, but others will send the blue hedgehog shooting into the air, enabling you to access high ledges or leap straight over the aforementioned spike pits. And cunning spike pits they are too; with retracting metal blades that you can just about run across safely, if you're quick. But lose your Flickies in one of them, and you'll have quite a frustratingly tough time collecting them all back.

Boss


Having learned from his mistakes in Rusty Ruin Zone, Eggman now fits his Egg-O-Matic with its own set of claws - ones that haven't degraded to ham-fisted slabs of rust after hundreds of years immersed in salty water. The fat man pilots his boss contraption around this spiky arena, occasionally swooping down low in an effort to pulp Sonic with thses flailing mechanical arms. Dodge round behind the Doctor and spin-jump to hit him. If you're feeling dangerous, you can leap on the springs at the top of the arena, braving a spike-filled ledge that's high enough so you can attack Ivo even when he's up in the air.