Special Stage (Knuckles' Chaotix)


 * You maybe looking for Special Stages in general.

Special Stages are a series of special levels that appear throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, specifcally during the Sega 32X exclusive video-game, Knuckles' Chaotix. The obscure Sega 32X game Knuckles Chaotix featured a strange type of Special Stage. Though it had the same basic formula as the Special Stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it had many odd quirks that made it very different. Accessed in the same manner as Sonic the Hedgehog/Sonic CD, these stages featured a hexagonal tube that the player ran through. The player could run across all six sides of the tube.

Description
The object was to collect a certain number of Blue Spheres scattered across the tube in order to reach the Chaos Ring at the end. Unlike Sonic 2's Special Stages, reaching a checkpoint without having all the required Spheres would not end the stage, but would simply repeat the section. The catch was that your Ring count steadily depleted as you remained in the stage (in a manner similar to Super Sonic), and the stage would end once you ran out of rings. You could find some rings in the stages, but the primary source of rings was those you had brought into the Special Stage. This made Knuckles' Chaotix's Special Stages unique in the respect that the more rings you were carrying upon entering the Special Stage, the easier it was to successfully complete. However, no matter how many rings you held, if you fell out of the tube through one of the stage's many pits, the stage automatically ended.

Trivia

 * In the upcoming video game, Sonic Lost World, one of the zones called Desert Ruins on the Wii U version, the honeybee-esque zone is very similar to these Special Stages.