Crabmeat

Crabmeats (ガニガニ) are crab-type badniks created by Doctor Robotnik which first appear in original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Crabmeats are one of many slow-paced badniks that are capable of shooting energy balls or homing missiles from its claws.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Crabmeat first appearance is in the 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog. In the game, Crabmeats are found in Green Hill Zone and Spring Yard Zone. At both zones, they can be seen slowly moving back and forth but they also stop to shoot energy balls on both sides. The player can easily defeat these badniks with Spin Jump or Spin Attack.

In the 8-bit version of the game with same name, Crabmeats can be seen at Green Hill Zone and Jungle Zone. They usually act like their 16-bit counterpart, however Crabmeats, like other badniks in the game don't have animal friends inside of them, like all badniks in Game Gear and Master System titles.

Sonic Rush Adventure
Similar, but possibly different type of enemy appears in Sonic Rush Adventure. These enemies have been only featured at Coral Cave and are possibly built by Eggman and Eggman Nega.

Sonic Rivals
Crabmeat appears in Sonic Rivals, only being featured as a collectible card.

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
Crabeat makes appearance in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, it can be seen as an obstacle on some of the Sonic the Hedgehog themed race tracks such as Whale Lagoon.

Sonic Colors
Crabmeats make reappearance with upgraded models in Sonic Colors, they are featured at Aquarium Park and eventually in other levels. In this game, instead of shooting energy balls, they are now capable of shooting homing missiles at the player.

Sonic Generations
Crabmeats make another appearance in Sonic Generations. These badniks are now featured at Green Hill and like in Sonic Colors, they can shoot missiles from their claws. However if a Crabmeat hits the player, it will fall over in laughter for while.

Sonic Jump
Crabmeat also appears at Green Hill Zone in 2012 remake of Sonic Jump. Crabmeats move normally on platforms and the only way to attack in them is to jump at their underside.

Sonic Dash
Crabmeats will make appearance as enemies in the upcoming Sonic Dash. There are usually three in row or separated ones that try to block the player's way. However the player has ability to jump over them, dodge them or use the Spin Attack to destroy them. As the player starts to run faster, dodging or destroying Crabmeats might become harder.

Sonic Lost World
Crabmeat badniks are set to make appearance in upcoming Sonic Lost World, where they have got more cartoony look from earlier games. Sonic Lost World also features two types of Crabmeat badniks, as regular ones are similar to ones from earlier games with red color scheme. These types can be found at Tropical Coast.

The second type of Crabmeat badniks are seen to be featured in Frozen Factory Zone Act 2, which are loosely similar to ones from Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations now with orange color scheme. As Sonic turns himself into large snowball in the act, Crabmeat tries to fire it's missiles towards the player. Missiles are able to destroy the whole snowball and the player automatically loses a life, if he/she has not collected all sticky rings from snowball at previous Star Post.

Physical Appearance
Crabmeats, as their name implies, were inspired by the real life crab. Its main mode of locomotion was dependent on its four short legs, which allowed it to scuttle around its territory. Two photo receptors located on top of two stalks on its head allowed it a great range of vision as enemies approached it. The two pincers located on the side of this Badnik were actually only for show. The real weapon was hidden inside the pincer itself, a device that allowed it store up concentrated amounts of energy.

Later models of Crabmeat (see Archie Comics adaptation below) were shown to have a vocoder installed, allowing them to communicate directly with Dr. Robotnik. The standard colors for the Crabmeat are red for the pincers, torso, and head; gray for the vocoder and legs.

Abilities
When an enemy is spotted by the ever-watching Crabmeat, it begins to build up its store of concentrated energy. As soon as the weapons are fully charged, the Crabmeat will stop in its tracks, extend its claw, and fire two balls of energy from the barrels located inside of the pincers. Sonic found the Crabmeat's fatal flaw quickly; it took a good deal of time for the Crabmeat to fully charge its weaponry, making it a sitting duck for the hedgehog. In Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations Crabmeat can fire missiles from inside of both of the pincers.

Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic
Crabmeat appears in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic manga. In the Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic Volume 2' story ''Clash!! South Island'', Picky explains to Sonic that Ricky and Cucky have been trapped by the Badniks and so Sonic heads to the rescue. In Sparkling Zone, he confronts Crabmeat and Newtron who attempt to attack him. Sonic defeats them easily and finds out that Ricky and Cucky were inside of them.

Sonic the Comic
Crabmeat appear in various early issues of Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, being standard units in Doctor Robotnik's badnik army and can be seen taking part in battles. Later in the comic's run, it is shown that parts of Crabmeat were used to design The Seven Badniks, which were built to repel the invading Palmtree Panic Zone forces. Crabmeat was part of an unprecedented three Badniks, having his claws as a weapon on Crabaton, Crabinator and Buzznik.

Archie Comics
In Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog, a certain model of Crabmeat was designed specifically to aid Dr. Robotnik in his schemes to take over the world of Mobius. It had a built in vocoder, allowing it to talk directly to the mad genius. Robotnik stated at one time or another that he actually preferred having the faithful Badnik serve as his assistant rather than his whiny nephew Snively. In Sonic the Hedgehog #39, in order to betray Nack the Weasel, Robotnik altered Crabmeat, giving him the ability to become very large. Shortly after Crabmeat tossed Nack out a window, he was destroyed by the new Mecha Sonic.

Crabmeat later appeared on the Island of Misfit Badniks along with many of the other scrapped badniks Robotnik Prime had designed, but the island was sunk when Sonic and Pseudo Sonic collided in a battle against each other. Crabmeat notices that both Sonic and Pseudo Sonic were evenly matched and suggested a "Bighorn Challenge" to settle the fight. The island sunk as a result, and the badniks faked their deaths to avoid suspicion. Later all badniks including Crabmeat were planning a revenge scheme involving enlarging Pseudo Sonic. However it was corrupted by Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters. During the fight, Crabmeat was seen to be zapped by P.B. Jellyfish. All badniks were eventually crushed into a cube when Big Fluke landed on top of the island and Pseudo Sonic.

Crabmeat was later manipulated by the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra which got defeated in Titan Metal Sonics body and tries to find a better replacement until it finds the inoperable Metal Knuckles laying in the ground in Albion. It then absorbs itself inside of it from Crabmeat body.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
Crabmeat played a very minor role in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. Towards the beginning, after Sonic rescues Tails and the Old Man, a Crabmeat approaches them on the beach. Laughing, Sonic and Tails allow the Crabmeat to pinch the Old Man (after which it scuttles away).

Merchandise
The toy company TOMY released a Crabmeat action figurine during the release of Sonic &amp; Knuckles.

Related Badniks

 * Taraban
 * Shellcracker
 * Unnamed badnik of Green Hill Zone in Sonic Blast.
 * Gami-Gami
 * Giant Crabmeat

Trivia

 * In the episode "Depths of Danger" of Sonic X, there appears a single crab that resembles Crabmeat. It keeps causing trouble for Sonic, who tries to find a Chaos Emerald throughout the episode.
 * Kani, or gani, is Japanese for crab.
 * In the Ristar video game, there's a lobster-like enemy in the Planet Undertow level which can shoot fireballs from its pincers, much like Crabmeat.
 * Crabmeat appears in Sonic and the Black Knight in a few winning fan arts.