Crabmeat

The Crabmeat (ガニガニ) is a recurring enemy in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They are a mass-produced, crab-based Badnik model created by Dr. Eggman. Crabmeats are slow-paced Badniks that are capable of shooting projectile balls or homing missiles from their claws.

Appearance
Crabmeat, as its name implies, was inspired by real life crabs. 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 and fire them as large harmful laser spheres. Eventually, the claws were refitted with missile launchers as the laser attachment took too long to fire before being attacked.

The standard colors for the Crabmeat are red for the pincers, torso, and head; gray for the vocoder and legs. In Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, Crabmeats have given sleeker appearance with yelloy under-bellies. In Sonic Lost World, Crabmeat returns to its original appearance, although they come in two variations: regular red types and sleeker orange types.

Powers and 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. This is why Eggman eventually decided to replace the laser attachment with rocket launchers, with took less time to fire and reload.

In Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, Crabmeats were given the opportunity to try the new rocket attachment. Later on, in Sonic Lost World, there were built two designs of Crabmeats, as regular red types shoot energy projectiles and orange types can shoot homing missiles.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Crabmeat first appeared 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 Rivals
Crabmeat appears in Sonic Rivals, only being featured as a collectible card.

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. They do not shoot energy balls or homing missiles but they attack with their claws striking upwards; attacking them from above is dangerous. They do move from side to side fairly quickly when not attacking.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, the Crabmeats appear as a moving obstacle on some of the Sonic the Hedgehog-themed race tracks, such as Whale Lagoon, where they try to block the racers' way. In gameplay, they can be destroyed by drifting into them or by using a Pickup item on them, causing them to disappear.

In terms of appearance, they have a cartoony-moving eyes. They also exhibit more real-life crab movements.

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
In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, the Crabmeats appeared as an enemy. 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 the 2012 version of Sonic Jump. Crabmeat moves normally on platforms and the only way to attack them is to jump towards their underside.

Sonic Dash
Crabmeats make an 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
In Sonic Lost World, the Crabmeats appeared as an enemy. This time around, they have received a cartoon-like design from earlier games, but the game also features two types of them. During the game, it turns out that Badniks, including Crabmeats, got hijacked by the Deadly Six. First type of Crabmeat Badniks are similar to ones from earlier games with red color scheme. These types can be found at Tropical Coast Zone 1 and 4. In order to defeat these enemies, the player has to either use the Flying Kick twice or the Spin Dash, as the Badnik falls upside down and will be defeated after second kick.

The second type of Crabmeat Badniks are seen to be featured in Frozen Factory Zone 2 and Lava Mountain Zone 3, which are loosely similar to ones from Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, now with an orange color scheme. As Sonic turns himself into large snowball in Frozen Factory Zone 2, Crabmeat tries to fire its 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.

Sonic Runners
In Sonic Runners, Crabmeats are common enemies found in the power type characters' stages. In this game, there are only the regular red types of Crabmeats, which do not fire projectiles from their claws, but instead move quickly back and forth or stand still separately or in groups.

Red Crabmeats come in three types. In addiction to the regular ones, there are golden types which grant 300 more points when defeated, and black ones called Super Crabmeats which only Color Powers and power type characters can defeat. All Crabmeat types contain Animals inside them.

Sonic Mania
In Sonic Mania, the Crabmeats appear as an enemy. In terms of design, they look exactly like how they did in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In this game, they only appear in Green Hill Zone.

Variants

 * Taraban
 * Shellcracker
 * Unnamed Badnik of Green Hill Zone in Sonic Blast.
 * Gami-Gami
 * Big Chaser

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
In the Sonic the Comic series published by Fleetway Editions, the Crabmeats are a part of Dr. Robotnik's Badnik army and some of the oldest models in service. They appear in a few of the early issues during the comic's run. In later issues, parts from some of them were used to create some of the Seven Badniks.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Crabmeats were one of the Classic Badniks-the first generation of badniks produced by Dr. Robotnik. One Crabmeat unit in particular served as Robotnik's first loyal lackey for some time during the comics' early run. Eventually though, the Crabmeats were rendered obsolete by more advanced robots and got decommissioned. For there, the Crabmeats would only make a few appearances in the storyline.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, a Crabmeat played a very minor role in the beginning of the movie, where Sonic allowed the Crabmeat to pinch the Old Man Owl to snap him out of a shock.

Sonic Boom
In the Sonic Boom televisions series, the Crabmeats, here called Crab Bots, are a mass-produced robot model created by Dr. Eggman. They serve both as Eggman's sentries and foot soldiers which the doctor uses for his frequent attacks on Team Sonic and Seaside Island. However, they are not very powerful and easily destroyed in intense combat.

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

Trivia

 * "Kani", or "gani", is Japanese for "crab."
 * In the Sonic X episode "Depths of Danger", there is a single crab that resembles Crabmeat. It keeps causing trouble for Sonic, who tries to find a Chaos Emerald throughout the episode.
 * 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.