Sky Sanctuary Zone (Sonic & Knuckles)


 * This is about the stage in Sonic & Knuckles. You may be looking for Sky Sanctuary (Sonic Generations).

"Take the battle to the clouds when Sonic fights Robotnik's Badniks on the floating ruins of an ancient time!"

- Instruction manual

Sky Sanctuary Zone is the sixth zone of Sonic & Knuckles and the twelfth of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It follows the Hidden Palace Zone. It is a collections of ancient ruins located in the sky above Angel Island. It is a holy territory and a sacred precinct where it is forbidden for anyone to enter besides Knuckles the Echidna.

Sonic's Story
As Sonic, the level is much longer. Sonic must jump from platform to platform, climbing up the zone and chasing the newly risen Death Egg before it gets too far in orbit. Knuckles briefly helps Sonic by activating a bridge on the Sky Sanctuary, but he wasn't able to continue further to help due to exhaustion (presumably from Robotnik's earlier electrocution attack) Sonic must also battle numerous EggRobos, which hover in place and fire lasers straight ahead when Sonic moves into view, and which can be defeated like regular badniks. Sonic must also fight Mecha Sonic in this zone, in three separate boss battles. In the first, Mecha Sonic pilots Doctor Robotnik's wrecking ball Egg Mobile (from the Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog); in the second, the robot pilots the whirling bubble-pod mobile from Metropolis Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In the third battle, Mecha Sonic attacks on foot, without an Egg Mobile. After this final battle, Sonic runs up a corkscrew ramp to the top of a tall floating landmass that crumbles beneath him, then leaps aboard the Death Egg. (Note that, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, playing as Tails will initiate Sonic's version of the level.)

Knuckles' Story
As Knuckles, this is the final zone of the game, and consists of two boss fights against Mecha Sonic. The level in itself is very short, with only three Rings to help see Knuckles through the fights. The zone is very small - just a flat, boss arena - after most of the zone fell apart in Sonic's storyline. In the second fight, Mecha Sonic uses the Master Emerald to transform into Super Mecha Sonic. Knuckles must race to gain back the Master Emerald for Angel Island, which is actually seen to sink in the background as the battle progresses. After Super Mecha Sonic was defeated, his destruction was severe enough to destroy any remainder of the Sky Sanctuary zone, with Knuckles barely escaping.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sky Sanctuary Zone appears as a racing course in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as an unlockable course called Sanctuary Falls. It retains its look from Sonic Generations.

Trivia

 * In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, a remix of the zone's music also played.
 * All three of the fights with the Mecha Sonic bear some similarity with bosses in earlier games, although the second fight is made much easier by the Insta-Shield move, something which Sonic did not have when facing the original version in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The last battle with the two Sonics on foot can be likened to the fight with Mecha Sonic in the Death Egg Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
 * This stage reappeared in Sonic Generations, with more of a tropical look to the sky fortress.
 * If you finish the stage with a shield power-up, notice that when Sonic leaps off the corkscrew, his sprite is just left suspended barely off screen, and half of his shield will remain visible in midair.
 * In Knuckles' story, the longer you take to beat Mecha Sonic, the more the island in the background falls. At 10 minutes, which is the normal time limit, the island just disappears under the Sky Sanctuary.
 * In the Sound Test option, the Knuckles and Sonic (and Tails) version of the zone is separated by two acts.