Buzzer

Buzzer (スティンガー) is a wasp-type badniks created by Dr. Robotnik, that first appear in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Buzzers are successors of Buzz Bombers from the original Sonic the Hedgehog with two engines, a red head, and a black stinger. Similar to Buzz Bomber, it keeps flying in the sky while shooting energy projectiles to its target.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Buzzers make their first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, flying around and firing the player in Emerald Hill Zone. There can be single or two of Buzzers flying around at same time back and forth, similar to Buzz Bombers. Unlike Buzz Bombers, Buzzers hover much slower in the air.

As the player is closer enough, Buzzers stops moving and start firing its projectile in 35 degrees downward while the speed of projectile is medium. Despite that, projectiles can be easily avoided. The player can defeat Buzzers by Spin Jumping on them.

Sonic Blast
Unnamed, closely similar looking bee-type badniks appear in Sonic Blast. These badniks can be found at Green Hill Zone and apparently they have almost identical movement and attack pattern comparing to Buzzers. The projectiles that badniks shoot are incredibly small and can be really hard to recognize.

Sonic Pocket Adventure
Buzzers make appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, as like other badniks from Emerald Hill Zone, these badniks are featured at Neo South Island Zone. Buzzers have a more yellow look in their in-game sprites, but like other badniks their attack pattern is not different from its first appearance.

Sonic Advance
Buzzers return in Sonic Advance, as it is featured at Neo Green Hill Zone and Angel Island Zone. These models use a propeller pack to hover. Buzzers in this game fly above the player and try to fire an energy projectile when the player is close enough. The player has to avoid the bullets and can destroy this badnik easily.

Sonic Advance 2
Buzzer makes another appearance Sonic Advance 2, as it is featured at Leaf Forest, Sky Canyon and Egg Utopia. In the game, Buzzers prepares to sting the player above when he approaches. However, bullet-firing Buzzers also appear in Sky Canyon, but these versions use the original jet engine rather than the propeller.

Sonic Pinball Party
Propeller-type Buzzers make small appearance in Sonic Pinball Party, as two Buzzers appear at single Sonic Board, which is based on Angel Island Zone from Sonic Advance.

Sonic Advance 3
In Sonic Advance 3, Buzzers make an appearance in Sunset Hill and Chaos Angel. Buzzers in this game are solely the bullet-firing type from the previous game. Unlike other appearances, Buzzers are powered with rings, that can be collected after defeating it.

Sonic Rivals
Buzzer appears briefly in Sonic Rivals, as it is only being featured as collectible card.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4
Buzzers make reappearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 as Eggman creates new models of badniks to get rid of Sonic. Buzzers can be found at Splash Hill Zone, shooting energy projectiles to the player with bigger stingers. Despite having new models, Buzzers act really much same from its first appearance at Emerald Hill Zone.

Sonic 4 Website Info

 * Buzzer flies in from Emerald Hill Zone, ready to blast Sonic with his stinger cannon.

Sonic Colors
Buzzers make another reappearance in both the Wii and Nintendo DS versions of Sonic Colors as they are featured at 2D sections of Sweet Mountain, Starlight Carnival and several Game Land acts, that are related to previous stages. Buzzers have another redesign as badniks are having now four wings on its back.

Buzzers have similar attack pattern from previous appearances, but they hover more faster from place to another. However their energy projectiles are much slower during its firing forward. Some of Buzzers are just hovering at one position as the player can utilize the Homing Attack to get higher levels or even across bottomless pits.

Physical Appearance
Disappointed by his earlier badnik design, the Buzz Bomber, Robotnik went to work on a new model of bee-like robots, called the Buzzer. There are many differences between the two. Although the stingers of both models work in a similar fashion, storing energy, the Buzzer's tends to more look wasp-like in design. The jet that propelled the Buzz Bomber, stored on its undercarriage, was moved to the top of the Buzzer, which unfortunately gave it a lower top speed. Also, whereas the Buzz Bomber was connected solidly throughout its design, the Buzzer was basically a head and abdomen connected to its rear end by a thin metallic pole, giving it an appearance physiologically similar to a mud dauber wasp. The Buzzer's standard colors were a red faceplate, black torso, and a typical yellow and black striped design for the back end where the stinger was located.

Buzzers in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 are slightly different looking as rocket engines are much larger as its stinger. In Sonic Colors, Buzzers are given yet another redesign as rocket engines being small, are now set on each side of the body. This is because Buzzers now have four wings set above the body.

Abilities
The Buzzers are commonly paired together, although solo units are not necessarily uncommon. They drift lazily across the landscape until they find a target. When the target is sighted they will pivot their abdomen, stinger extended, and fire a concentrated thermal energy ball at the enemy. Although slower than their predecessor, the Buzz Bomber, the Buzzer were programmed to fire at more random intervals, making them less predictable when trying to avoid them. Sonic is easily able to kill them due to their low speeds.

Sonic the Comic
Buzzers make appearance in many issues of Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, as being part of Dr. Robotnik's badnik army during his dictatorship time at Mobius. Comic sometimes mixed Buzzer with Buzz Bomber due the similarities.

Buzzer usually is seen many times as fighting along with other badniks against Sonic the Hedgehog and Freedom Fighters. The badnik is first seen in issue 17 as reporting Robotnik about Sonic's escaping. Buzzer was also listed along with other badniks in the "Sonic's World" feature of Sonic the Summer Special.

Trivia

 * In concept, this robot would have also burned the bridges in Emerald Hill (or, if hacked there via Debug Mode, Hidden Palace due to the bridges being the same object), but it was scrapped early in development. It's likely that this was secondary unimplemented behavior rather than a separate enemy variation, as both design documents and the Nick Arcade prototype's source code identify them as "wasp".
 * In the Christian Whitehead-produced 2013 mobile re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, this behavior was restored in an alternate Buzzer object resembling its prototype appearance in Debug Mode.
 * The Buzzer defies normal logic, since its engines are located on the top of its body but moves slower, when the opposite should occur since this design would not have as much lift.
 * Because Sonic Generations has been devolved at same time with Sonic Colors, Buzzers are actually low polygon models of yellow Buzz Bombers that similarly shoot energy projectiles.