Death Egg



The Death Egg is a massive orbital fortress, constructed by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. A true study in evil mega-engineering, the spherical spacestation resembles the face of Eggman himself, with concave eye-sockets and a moustache rendered in kilometres of vacuum-hardened plasmasteel. Hosting some of the Doctor's most deadly creations of all time, this vast stronghold serves as the scientist's final base in the early Sega Genesis-era games.

=Game Appearences=

The whole plot of Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles is driven by Sonic and Tails' efforts to destroy the original version of this space station. Eggman's greatest work is, however, robust stuff - over the course of those three games, the Death Egg survives a fall from space and a failed launch, yet still makes it back into orbit eventually!

Although the original battlestation is destroyed during Sonic 3's Death Egg Zone, Dr. Robotnik has created new iterations of the facility in later games; Sonic Battle being the most recent.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)
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The first (and, many would argue, hardest) iteration of the Death Egg comes in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit), as the eleventh and final level of the game. After Wing Fortress Zone's destruction, and hitching a ride to space aboard Robotnik's fleeing rocket, Sonic makes his way inside the battlestation - to be greeted immediately by two of the most difficult bosses in any Mega Drive Sonic game. Consecutively. With no rings in the entire zone.

What could go wrong?

Silver Sonic


Silver Sonic is perhaps the Sonic robot which bears most resemblance to our spiny hero - apart from being a little taller, and steel. This is a difficult fight, and what with the absence of rings, just one slip-up is deadly. Silver Sonic has many different attacks that are mostly similar to Sonic's, such as the turbo-dash and spin-jump. However, the most challenging move of Silver Sonic's is his jump-and-spike-launch-attack. The best way of avoiding this is to kill the robot before he gets a chance to use it; spin dashing Silver Sonic the moment his jet-boots touch the decking. Sonic can hit him 4 times in one bout if you time it right. Then accrue another 4 hits (total of 8) to the robot's head to defeat him.

Once Silver Sonic is vanquished, Sonic in a quick chase scene with Dr. Robotnik, before the Eggman jumps into the final boss robot...

Final boss
Not that the scientist isn’t a bloated whale already, you might think, but this is even worse. As if Eggman has taken the idea of a metal Sonic, decided there had to be a metal Robotnik to balance things out, and then gone insane with egomania.

This mecha towers over twenty metres tall, bristling with antennae and sensor dishes. Its torso is spherical, with red and yellow paintwork mimicking the Doctor’s own jumpsuit. Immense robotic limbs branch from the central mass, secondary motors roaring as the arms swing and titanic feet ram down one in front of the other. A pink dome of a head bulges out from the top of the central sphere; vast metallic moustache twitching back and forth beneath its pointed nose.



It's the final battle! This giant Eggman mech is debatably the hardest boss stage in Sonic 2. With no rings at all, one hit will end it for the spiky blue hero. Robotnik's attacks include launching his arms like rockets, trying to stamp on you, and dropping right on your head with his targetted slamdown. Also, don't get caught behind the robot - Dr. Robotnik launchs a pair of grenades at you which pretty much guarantee death. Just be patient, and restrict yourself to attacking the head only when the mecha bows its feet after landing from one of its jetpack flights.

After 16 hits, if you have all seven emeralds, the good ending is unlocked. If the player defeats this boss, the Death Egg explodes, and Sonic just about survives by hurling himself out of an airlock into space. Looking like the end for Sonic as he descends through the Mobian stratosphere, Tails appears and catches Sonic on the Tornado, thus ending the game.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the Death Egg, slowly floating above the clouds, begins a gradual decent towards Mobius, eventually crashing into the floating Angel Island, forcing it into the ocean. In an attempt to repair the Death Egg, Eggman tricks local guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles, into collecting the Chaos Emeralds (currently in the possession of Sonic and Tails) for him, to use them to power the ship. Needless to say, this plan fails, as on the Death Egg's re-launch, Sonic sends it plummeting back to the island.



Sonic and Knuckles
The Death Egg is sent crashing into the top of the lava reef zone in the events of Sonic and Knuckles (or in the second half Sonic 3 and Knuckles for those playing it locked on). In a last ditch-effort to fix the Death Egg, Eggman hatches a scheme to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles. He does so, and Knuckles finally sees Sonic and Tails as the good guys and Eggman as the bad guy. The three of them set off to catch Eggman, and Sonic and Tails leap onto the now-rising Death Egg from a tall pillar in the Sky Sanctuary. Sonic, with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, transforms into Hyper Sonic, has the final showdown with Eggman in outer space, wins, pulls the Master Emerald back to mobuis, drops it safely on Angel Island, and peace and harmony are restored. The Death Egg was apparently destroyed again.



Sonic the Fighters
In the questionably canonical Sonic the Fighters, the Death Egg II is built. Sonic and friends have a tournament to see who gets to fly up to it and destroy it. The player's character of choice flies up and has a fight with Metal Sonic, followed by Eggman. After defeating Eggman, the Death Egg II explodes, and the game ends.It seems to have an EggRobo face than Eggman.



Sonic Battle
Finally, in Sonic Battle, another Death Egg (most likely not the same one from the Megadrive games) makes a brief appearance at the end, although it is just a small arena for the game's final bosses, Doctor Eggman himself and then a berserk Emerl. This is most likely it's strongest incarnation as it is shown the ability to destroy several solar systems with the "Final Egg Blaster".

Sonic Drift 2
In Sonic Drift 2 for the Sega Game Gear, the Death Egg is the final track on the hardest mode. Not really relevant story-wise, though.

Other Space Stations
Although they don't take the name "Death Egg", several of Robotnik's other orbital facilities are clearly designed along the same lines as the original station. See the main articles for more details on:


 * Silver Castle, which looks a lot like the Death Egg when falling in the ending, is the final zone in Sonic Blast.
 * Dead Line, in Sonic Rush.
 * Egg Utopia, from Sonic Advance 2.



Space Colony ARK
While Eggman may have been taking inspiration from his initial space station in designing the cosmic fortresses mentioned above, it seems that even the first Death Egg wasn't entirely Robotnik's own idea. In Sonic Adventure 2 we are introduced to the Space Colony ARK, an orbital research facility built over 50 years ago by Ivo's grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. The ARK is fairly similar to the Death Egg(s), with the exception that the actual structure is a hemisphere as opposed to the Death Egg's full sphere. On the 'face' of the ARK lies a superweapon called the Eclipse Cannon, which, when viewed from below, makes the space station resemble Professor Robotnik's face in the same manner as the Death Egg resembles his grandson.

=Archie Comics=

In the Archie comics, the Death Egg has a three-issue story, fitting titled the "Death Egg Saga".

The Death Egg was a massive airborne weapon created by Dr. Ivo Robotnik in 3235. While the games were at best vague about what exactly it was the space station was supposed to do, the Archie storyline specified it as a mass-roboticizer, capable of converting all life on Mobius. Although it successfully made it airborne, the Death Egg met with destruction when Tails set it to self-destruct while Robotnik was distracted battling Sonic.

The Death Egg's development began some time in mid-3235. Production of the super weapon fell behind schedule when Robotropolis was struck by a massive earthquake. Shortly afterwards however Robotnik ensured that his SWATbot work force picked up the pace and completed the Death Egg on schedule. Following the Mecha Sonic fiasco, the Death Egg was ready to ascend into the sky. Dr. Robotnik left his nephew Snively in charge of the city's reconstruction efforts (the city was almost completely destroyed when Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles smashed into it causing a mini nuclear blast) while he personally oversaw the Death Egg's launch.

=Fleetway Comics=

The Death Egg appears in the UK Sonic the Comic in its adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and again for the adaptation of Sonic 3. Here STC remained mostly true to the game portrayl, apart from specifying the Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 space-stations as seperate entities (a necessary plot device, as the total destruction of the Sonic 2 iteration had been shown in some detail within the comics). Also, the Death Egg's impact did not cause the Floating Island to splashdown into the sea.

=Notes=

Trivia

 * The Death Egg is a blatant reference to the Death Star, the giant planet-destroying space station from Star Wars.