Gumball

Gumballs, also simply called Ball (ボール) in Japan, are floating round-shaped objects found at Bonus Stages. Each of different looking Gumballs contain different item, something else or nothing, that the player mostly or not can picked from monitors as well. Depending on the Bonus Stage, these items are seen floating up or falling down to unknown.

Gumballs are first seen in singular Bonus Stage in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, in which the player needs 50 rings and enter the star circle above Starpost. Here, Gumballs are inside of large Gumball Machine where the player is able to release them out by rotating the crank on the machine once. Once releasing them, Gumballs start falling down unless the player picks one of them before he/she falls down as well. In Sonic & Knuckles, Gumballs are also collectible items in Glowing Spheres-type of Bonus Stages. If the player touches smaller lighting ball, it will transformed to Gumball, that starts to float up. The player has to touch it again to get the power-up inside the Gumball.