Goal Plate

Goal Plates, known as Bonus Plates (ボーナスプレート) in Japan, Bonus Panels and Signposts, are signs that mark the end of an act in the earliest games of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Goal Plates are simple-looking grey signs with an image on each side. The plate part in signpost starts to spinning, when a player moves past the signpost and after for while it stops while having something different image on the plate part, meaning the completion of the act/zone.

Signposts can be found normally at every first, second or sometimes third act of zone or even one time at Special Stage. It can have several different gimmicks that can be utilized.

Description
Goal plates usually consist of a grey signpost upon which rests a spinning plate with many different images. It is unknown, however, if these images are normal or mechanized, because Game Gear titles reveal some signposts that have an empty, back plate. This implies that the picture on the front plate changes to different one while spinning at one point or during flying in the air.

The goal plate, in early titles for Genesis/Mega Drive, are usually set on the a straight route. Upon passing the goal plate, the player has finished the act and an image of the character being played as appears on the plate. Several games add more gimmicks to the area around the goal plate. These gimmicks include bonus points, rings, extra lives, and more. Sometimes the pictures on goal plates are seen to move.

After several main series appearances, signposts were replaced by capsules and eventually Goal Rings (as of Sonic Adventure 2). Despite that, signposts have made several appearances in spin-off titles and in Sonic Generations.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
The signpost was first featured in both versions of original Sonic the Hedgehog. In the 16-bit version, goal plates are situated at the end of the first and second acts for each zone. The front displays the face of Doctor Robotnik until the player runs past it. This causes the signpost to spin, and the image on the sign changes to a picture of Sonic. Both pictures have yellow backgrounds. If the player has over 50 rings, a giant ring can be seen floating in the air to the right of the signpost. Should Sonic jump into the ring, he will be transported to the Special Stage. The 8-bit version of the game also features signposts (called "Bonus Panels") at the end of first two acts of each zone in the game. However, the end of the stage has a slightly different gimmick. When the player moves past the bonus panel (with a picture of a question mark), it flies into the air and spins. The signpost falls and stops spinning, but the picture displayed on it is randomized. Certain pictures give certain bonuses: the picture of Robotnik gives nothing, the picture of a ring gives 10 bonus rings to the score, Sonic's picture gives an extra life, and a picture of an exclamation point (shown only if the player has 50 rings) transports the player to the Special Stage. Bonus panels are also seen at the end of the Special Stage.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Signposts are next seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Their appearance and function stays much the same. However, signposts are now seen only at the end of each zone's first act (except for Metropolis Zone, where it appears at the end of both the first and second acts). The signpost is not seen in Sky Chase Zone, Wing Fortress Zone or Death Egg Zone, which have only one act each. After running past the signpost, the signpost picture changes to one of the character currently being controlled.

In the 8-bit version of the game features signposts (again named "Bonus Panels") at the end of first and second acts of each zone. The post section has red, blue and grey colored stripes. As in Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit), the goal plate flies up in the air once the player passes it, spins, and lands with a random picture shown on the front. The picture of Robotnik gives the player nothing, the picture of a ring gives 10 extra rings, the picture of Sonic grants an extra life, and the picture of Tails gives a continue to the player.

Sonic CD
The goal plate is also featured in Sonic CD, retaining the same function from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In this game, signposts are situated at the end of the first and second zones of each round. The posts now have wide initialization support at the bottom. Before rotating, the goal plate depicts Doctor Robotnik giving the player a thumbs down. After rotating, the goal plate depicts Sonic smiling and giving the player a thumbs up. If the player has 50 rings, he or she is able to enter the Special Stage via the giant ring floating in midair to the right of the signpost. Before the signpost, the player also runs past a smaller post stating "Goal" on its plate.

Sonic CD also features similar posts called Time Warp Plates which are used to travel in time.

Sonic Chaos
Goal Plates appear once more, this time at the end of the first and second acts of each zone in Sonic Chaos. It is depicted with design similar to the one it had in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. When the player runs past the signpost (with Robotnik's picture on it), it flies up into the air, rotates, and lands with a different picture. The player's overall speed, which apparently is based on the completion time of the act, is seen tallied above the goal plate in kilometers per hour. The highest overall speed possible is 999km/h, which earns the player an extra life. If the back plate shows a bonus panel after rotating, the player must spin it again.

A random picture is displayed when the signpost lands, and certain pictures give certain bonuses. The picture of a Flicky gives nothing and the picture of a ring gives 10 extra rings. If the player is playing as Sonic, the picture of Sonic gives an extra life and the picture of Tails gives a continue. If the player is playing as Tails, the picture of Sonic gives a continue and the picture of Tails gives an extra life.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Signposts made another appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its add-on continuation Sonic & Knuckles, where signposts (called as end level markers in instruction manuals) are no longer situated at the end of the act. Instead, these objects drop down from the top of the screen following the defeat of the first act's sub-boss (and, in most Zones, at the position of the sub-boss when it was destroyed - one exception is the Carnival Night Zone, in which the signpost always drops in the middle of the screen). Instead of Robotnik's face, (which can only seen while rotating), after spinning the signpost shows either V posing Sonic, smiling Tails or serious Knuckles showing his fist, depending on who is the playable character.

The player can also earn extra points by jumping into the underside of the signpost, knocking it upwards. Knocking the signpost in this way earns 100 points each time. The act ends when the signpost touches the ground. Making the signpost land in certain locations will make a monitor appear, containing either rings or one of elemental shields.

Sonic Triple Trouble
Signposts, now recalled again as "Bonus Panels" made an appearance in Sonic Triple Trouble, as being once again featured at first and second acts of each zone. These bonus panels have a grey post with ablue winder at the bottom of the plate. Like in Sonic Chaos, the player also has to run past the bonus panel again, if it shows the plate's back. As the Sunset Park Zone's act 2 ends and after the bonus panel getting rotated once in the air, it however starts spinning down and the screen starts to move right automatically, moving on to the third act.

Bonus panel shows Robotnik fully posing before it gets rotated to another plate picture. Like in Sonic Chaos, the Flicky plate does nothing and the Ring plate gives 10 extra rings. As with Sonic being playable, the Sonic plate gives an extra life while the Tails plate gives now 10,000 points. While having Tails, the Sonic plate now gives 10,000 points and Sonic plate gives contunue. The game also has a Knuckles plate that gives continue and plate with Chaos Emerald on it, the player earns 50 rings for next act automatically.

Sonic Drift 2
The signpost is seen dropping down at the end of every race of Sonic Drift 2, when the player wins the race. Signposts have normal, grey looking appearance and having now Sega logo on its back. Depending who's the playable character, as it drops down while finishing the race, it either shows pointing Sonic, Tails holding his hands, blew kisses giving Amy, laughing Eggman, boxing Knuckles, egoistic Fang and Metal Sonic with creepy stare while everyone having "WIN" on the plate at same time.

Knuckles' Chaotix
Knuckles' Chaotix features completely different looking signposts, possibly having the feel of three dimension and fit to the Robotnik's built Newtrogic High Zone. Also unlike other games, Signposts are now featured at the end of four acts in each zone, while fifth act usually ends after defeating the boss. It is also seen at the end of Isolated Island, which only has single act. Second kind of special rings are also seen above the signpost leading to the Special Stage, (if the player has 50 rings during completing act) which will also disappear if the player doesn't enter in it.

Before getting spin around for while, it shows right-angle head of the plate having yellow Robotnik silhouette on black background standing on red sharp post. As the player touches the signpost and spins for while, it shows its front side which has green background, white spiky center with "GOAL" in the middle with yellow, blue and red colors.

Sonic Blast
Signposts made an appearance in the first and second acts of each zone in Sonic Blast, as having a similar look from Sonic Triple Trouble with ablue winder at the bottom of plate despite being more lighter. Before the plate gets spinning, it is shown to have an empty back. Yellow Desert Zone act 2 has signpost being set on the left side of the entire act. Like in Sonic Triple Trouble, the plate with Robotnik gives nothing, Plate with Ring gives 10 extra rings and Chaos Emerald gives a continue. As the player has Sonic, plate with Sonic gives extra life and plate with Knuckles gives 30 rings, while playing as Knuckles, the signposts does the opposite thing. The game also features a plate of Super Sonic, which gives both extra life and 30 rings at same time.

Sonic Pocket Adventure
Signposts are seen in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, as being featured at the end of major zone's first acts. It however drops down to the ground for rotating around for few seconds until revealing Sonic with V pose on the yellow plate, like in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It apparently makes the game only in series, that has no Eggman in the plate. There are also giant rings on the right floating if the player has 50 rings during that time, as he would be enter to Special Stage.

Sonic Advance
Different signposts are seen in Sonic Advance. It appears at the end of first act of most zones in the game, but this time, it was grey with an Eggman Empire symbol on one side. The image on the back is not shown due to the characters running past it after hitting it while the camera follows it while results pop up. Signpost is not featured at Egg Rocket Zone as the player completes the first act by jumping in the turbine inside on top of the rocket.

Sonic and the Black Knight
Another different variations of signposts are featured at most of levels in Sonic and the Black Knight. These signposts are wooden and stating GOAL on the plate. As the player only has to run in front of it for completing certain levels in the game, the other side of the signpost is not seen.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4
Normal looking signposts made appearance at major zone's first, second and third acts in all episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, while having simple grey look with different plate pictures at each episode. In Episode II, there are also wide initialization support at the bottom, like in Sonic CD. First and second episodes also have giant rings leading to Special Stage while floating right in the air, if the player has 50 rings on the hand. Only first acts that doesn't feature signposts are Sky Fortress Zone and Death Egg mk.II Zone.

The first episode has already Eggman posing on the plate while it reveals Sonic with V pose after spinning for while. The second episode has different poses of Eggman and Sonic on plate while it can also include one with Tails (it is only possible to get on online co-op multiplayer). However in Episode Metal, it has Sonic posing on the plate before being spinning and changing the image for one with Metal Sonic in it.

Sonic Generations
Goal plate makes appearance in both console and Nintendo 3DS versions of Sonic Generations at the end of Act 1 in every level, so Classic Sonic can complete the act. In the console versions of the game, the Goal Plates are very similar to those in original Sonic the Hedgehog, while having extra animation for Sonic's plate. For some reason, Nintendo 3DS version's Goal Plates have one side showing Classic Sonic and the other side showing Modern Eggman, while the console version's Goal Plates show Classic Doctor Robotnik instead. Hitting the goal post every ten times without making it fall to the ground awards the player with multiples of 10 rings.

In console versions of Sonic Generations, there are two missions that involve taking the Goal Plate to the end of the mission. In both missions, if the Goal Plate lands on the ground or on a platform, it adds five seconds to the player's time. After that, if Sonic doesn't jump over the Goal Plate, Classic Eggman starts laughing at the player in the signpost.

Sonic Jump games
Signpost is also seen in all three Sonic Jump, Sonic Jump 2 and 2012 remake of the game with same name, as the player has to get upper end of each act to change the plate of Eggman for one with Sonic after while spinning.

Time Warp Plate
Time Warp Plates are signposts being only found at Sonic CD. Unlike other normal signposts, these variants can be found around the every first and second zones of each round. There are two ones as some of them states "Past" and second ones are stating future; by choosing the way which timeline of zone the player wants to go. After running past of one the player has to build enough of momentum to transport in time and it is possible to travel back by using another one.

Goal Signpost
The goal signpost is another variation of signposts, that are also seen in Sonic CD. It seen moments before the player is coming running past the signpost, as the purpose of goal signpost is to prevent the time travelling on the right side of the post and locking the screen, as the player is unable to turn back to the zone.

Unused Content
In earlier game appearances, there is unused content related to the signpost inside of the games' coding, including other signpost pictures that could be seen in the game. Some signpost pictures are slightly different at a prerelease version of the game. Many of them include:
 * The Nick Arcade prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has completely different signpost plates of Sonic and Tails, who look directly to the viewer, similarly to the Robotnik one.
 * Sonic's pose in signpost in Sonic CD 510 prototype is slightly different, while having a nicer look and different hand pose at the same time.
 * By using Game Genie codes ASCA-AAHC + ASCA-BA9Y in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 allows the player use Knuckles, who however turns out the be just like Sonic. However, the signpost at the first act changes to Knuckles with Sonic's palette. This is also able to do by glitching and restarting the game in locked-on versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.
 * Sonic Triple Trouble would have featured a plate with Fang posing on a red background. The purpose of this plate variation is unknown.

Trivia

 * Similar wooden signs are seen in episode Eggman for President of Sonic X anime, which main characters hold for Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe, who are being chased. They answered correct for questions of Chris, Tails and Amy, until they fail to answer Sonic's question "Who's the coolest guy around? Me or You?", thus getting sent to the jail.
 * If the player moves beyond the signpost in the air, the plate of the signpost still starts rotating around in original Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Advance. However in Game Gear titles, the player is able to move on the right side of the signpost without touching it.
 * In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, if Debug Mode is activated, when you go to second act and use and "S" box, Hyper Sonic will be seen on the goal post.In the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 games, the player has a  possibility to move around in the background while the score results are being calculated at same time. It is possible if the player jumps at the right time on off-screen while the results music starts playing.
 * In both versions of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik's yellow cape is not seen at the signpost, possibly due the palette issues.
 * Sonic Blast is the only game among all Game Gear/Master System titles where Super Sonic has ever make an appearance on a bonus panel.