Caterkiller


 * For the Badnik also known by the Japanese name Nal, see Sandworm.

The Caterkiller (ナール) is a caterpillar-like Badnik model created by Dr. Robotnik, which makes its first appearance in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Caterkiller seems to be a favorite design of Robotnik, since it is re-used in many other forms. For example, modifications of it, called the Sandworm and Catakiller, Jr., appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Caterkiller appears at Marble Zone and Scrap Brain Zone in the original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. To defeat Caterkiller, the player must jump or roll into/onto its head with the Spin Attack, otherwise the player will take damage, and will scatter the Caterkiller's segments all over the place. If you destroy a Caterkiller in this way, an animal friend will not be freed.

In the 8-bit version of the game with same name Caterkillers only appear at Scrap Brain Zone. Caterkillers also have an identical pattern to the 16-bit counterpart, however even if the player manages to destroy these Badniks, it doesn't have animal friend inside of it, which is tradition in Master System and Game Gear titles.

Sonic 3D Blast
An unnamed caterpillar Badnik with the same appearance is seen in Sonic 3D Blast as it can be found at game's intro cutscene and Green Grove Zone Act 2, leaping between holes in the ground. As seeing spending its time underground, it will pop up from two dark pits which the Badnik jumps between. Attempting to defeat the Badnik with a spin jump while it's in the air may prove difficult, as mistiming the leap may make Sonic lose his rings (and Flickies) by connecting with the spiked tail. A more cunning method is to charge up a Spin Dash right on top of the hole; the robot will dive right into the spinning hedgehog and be destroyed, freeing one of Flickies of the Island.

Sonic Jump
The original Caterkiller doesn't make appearance until at Mountain Zone in the 2012 remake of Sonic Jump. Caterkillers act like they did in their first appearance, although they like to fall down to the lower platforms.

Sonic Lost World
Caterkiller appears in both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions of Sonic Lost World. During the game, it turns out that Badniks, including Caterkillers, got hijacked by the Deadly Six. These Badniks move on slowly to certain pattern like Snale Blasters and due to having segments, the player has to hit the head section with the Homing Attack, because hitting it to the other segment will make both get hit, as the Caterkiller will get destroyed while the player loses their shield, rings or even life in Nintendo 3DS version. They are seen in Windy Hill Zone 4 and Silent Forest Zone 3 in the Wii U version of the game.

Defeating Caterkiller is slightly different in both versions. In Wii U version, they are large and the player has to hit on to its head by doing Homing Attack or stomping. In Nintendo 3DS version, if the player pays attention to the by using a Somersault Kick on the Badnik, it will be easier to destroy Caterkiller without getting hit at the same time.

In the end of first act of Windy Hill for Nintendo 3DS, Sonic will also find himself running away from a much larger Caterkiller on the linear road with rock obstacles. In this appearance, Caterkiller do have more pink skin instead of purple and has eyelashes on her eyes, giving the Badnik a feminine appearance. After getting away from the Caterkiller, the player reaches the Capsule and completes the first act. These gigantic female Caterkillers are later seen in Sky Road Zone 1 in Wii U version. They are featured as moving obstacles during max-speed sections or larger enemies at the single planetoid section. Giant female Caterkillers burrow to the other side of the planetoid and will make shock waves, when their head collides to the ground. The player has to perform multiple hits to its head in order to defeat them to make a giant Spring appear.

Physical Appearance
The Caterkiller's model is based on a real-life caterpillar, both in its shape and the way it moves across the ground, stretching its four segmented body parts up and down to crawl along its programmed territory. It has two antennae located at the tip of its head.

An interesting feature of this Badnik is its ability to separate its four body parts if one of its 3 spiked segments are hit. As long as the head remains intact, this Badnik will continue to survive, albeit scattered throughout the area. Teeth can be seen on the front of the Caterkiller, but they have never been documented to have attacked with these. Standard colors for the Caterkiller model were a purple body shell with a gray underside, with a smattering of yellow for the antennae and spikes.

Abilities
The Caterkiller's main attack pattern lies in its ability to only have one segment that can be destroyed without any injury to the attacker, making it more of a defensive Badnik than an offensive one. As stated in the Physical Appearance section above, not only will the attacker be hurt if they try to hurt the last three segments, but the segments will detach and scurry around the area, causing even more potential damage. Sonic had to be extremely careful when dispatching these enemies. The Caterkiller will also sometimes turn, but it is possible to hit without taking damage/losing a shield when Sonic is not invincible.

Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Caterkiller appears in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic manga. At the beginning of the Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 2 story ''Clash!! South Island'', Caterkiller chases Pocky at Marble Zone until Sonic destroys it with his Spin Attack and saves Pocky. A little later Picky emerges from the wreckage of the Caterkiller, serving as an organic battery of the Badnik.

Sonic the Comic
Caterkiller badniks appeared numerous times in early issues of Fleetway Editions's Sonic the Comic as part of Doctor Robotnik's Badnik army. Because of a different artist in each story, Caterkiller's appearance has been slightly different. Despite having a strong bite, Caterkillers weren't smart in its early appearances, but at the time, later models have got faster and were able to burrow through the ground. Caterkiller has also been seen in many pin-ups and few covers. It first appeared in issue 1' story "Enter: Sonic", as getting destroyed by Sonic.

In issue 3's story "Mayhem in the Marble Zone", Caterkiller along with others have lead Tufftee's friends to a pit in Marble Zone, who would later threaten to drop Tufftee to the lava pool instead of crushing him. Because of Tufftee's strong nature, the Badniks instead send in Badnik Processing Badnik to deal with him until Sonic spins into the action and destroys all Badniks and saving Tufftee and his friends.

In issue 12' story "Hidden Danger!", a damaged Caterkiller can be seen terrified as it thinks Sonic evading capture. It was later seen with other Badniks, attacking to to Sonic who has memory loss during the story but as his memory comes back, the Badniks were quickly destroyed. In issue 111's "Hero of the Beach", Caterkillers were sent tunneling under the sea to attack Skegpool from below, but during the attack, Tails happens to take them all down at once.

Archie Comics
Caterkiller badniks have also been appear in early issues of the Sonic the Hedgehog series from Archie Comics, appearing as a part of Robotnik's Badniks. Sonic first faces a Caterkiller which attempts to block Sonic's path but got hit by a wave of Mega-muck. Some of his operations include being part of a crowd of Badniks in Casino Night Zone, trying to ambush a so-called wedding between Sonic and Princess Sally, being once again the first Badnik to fight Sonic at the Robo Hobo Jungle, which Sonic points out during the fight and after that, he manages to get information about Nack the Weasel and also threats to drag his head against the ground at high speed. However, he let him go.

In issue 119, a second, drastically different looking model of Caterkiller was sent by Eggman to overrun Furville, but Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower managed to put it to a stop.

As Sonic decided to visit the Island of Misfit Badniks, Caterkiller and numerous other Badniks nabbed him. As usual Sonic quickly beat all Badniks, but as Pseudo-Sonic arrives, the duel between them makes the island sink down. Caterkiller as leader, seeing Sonic going away, makes a promise that they will return. Badniks with Caterkiller return with revenge plan with enlarging Pseudo-Sonic, but got interrupted by the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters. Caterkiller led the last wave of Badniks which includes Jaws, Bat Brain and Buzz Bomber. However as wrapping himself around Ray, it gets knocked out by Pseudo-Sonic and all of them got crushed by Big Fluke into a cube.

In issue 226 of Genesis arc., Caterkiller tries to attack Sally in Marble Zone, but got captured and destroyed by Rotor. Other Caterkillers later got destroyed by Sonic and Buzz Bomber. At another place and another time in issue 242, two Caterkillers attack to Sonic, Shadow and Tails in the Olympic stadium. These models look a little bit different and bigger looking, as these models have no feelers, but they have white blank eyes and a cannon, which sucked Tails and Shadow in. Sonic manages to destroy one, but another one manages to get away and off-screen Eggman captured them with an Egg Capsule.

Merchandise
The toy company Tomy has released Caterkiller action figurine during the release of Sonic & Knuckles as it also includes a series of 21 Sonic figurines and these figurines came in packs of four under the Sonic & Knuckles label and were also released individually under a Sonic the Hedgehog label.

Related Badniks and Upgrades
Although Caterkiller haven't make many appearances in games, there exist different modifications that may have based on the Caterkiller.
 * Crawlton from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is similar in design, almost an 'upgrade' of Caterkiller. It appears in the Mystic Cave Zone, like Sandworm after it, it is blue and yellow rather than purple and yellow.
 * Kemusi is an enemy that looks very similar to Caterkiller in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, with more rigid movements and spikes underneath.
 * Bead Worm Boss, boss of Gigalopolis Zone from Sonic Chaos seems to be like giant version of Caterkiller.
 * Catakiller, Jr. (known as Meramora in Japan), appears in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It is a version of Caterkiller that has the added ability to hover and protects its body with an energy wave.
 * Sandworm from Sonic & Knuckles greatly resembles the original Caterkiller, although it is blue instead of purple. It does not crawl, instead burrowing through quicksand, and can even leap out of the sand to attack the player. In Japan, both Caterkiller and Sandworm are known as Nal, making them the same Badnik.
 * Wood Butarundorf, a boss mecha in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble seems to be another giant modification of Caterkiller.
 * Unnamed Badnik is an analogue to Caterkiller at Botanic Base in Knuckles Chaotix.
 * E-05 Boa-Boa in Sonic Adventure seems to be successor of Catakiller, Jr.
 * Wamu from Sonic Advance is similar to Caterkiller and mostly Catakiller, Jr.
 * Kubinaga from Sonic Advance 2 appears to be mix of Caterkiller and Crawlton.
 * Guruguru from Sonic Advance 3 is another successor of Catakiller, Jr.
 * Muugaden from Sonic Advance 3 bears resemble to the Caterkiller.

Trivia

 * Caterkiller was originally intended to appear in the Spring Yard Zone instead of the Marble Zone, but was switched with Spikes late in development. Caterkiller appears as a default badnik of the Spring Yard Zone in Sonic 1's Debug Mode.
 * Caterkiller was the first Badnik Sonic encountered in the Archie Comics instead of Moto Bug.
 * Crawlton, a badnik of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, appears in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, but the Badnik has a pink color-scheme like Caterkiller. Originally in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Crawlton had a dark blue appearance, which may be character design error in the film.
 * In Mega Man X3 there is also an enemy named Caterkiller, but does not bear any resemblance to the Badnik.