Health Gauge

The Health Gauge (often referred to as the Boss Gauge for bosses ) is a recurring game mechanic in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Like the traditional game gauges, Health Gauges are an attribute assigned to game characters, which includes enemies and playable characters alike, that indicate their physical health. When the Health Gauge of a player character reaches zero, the player is defeated. When the HP of an enemy reaches zero, the player might be rewarded in some way.

Description
The Health Gauge is an energy bar that appears in gameplay. Its exact design depends on the game and in which contexts it is used. Its function is to measure the remaining vitality of an entity in the games it appears in. Health is usually measured in a finite number of Health Points, often shortened as HP. When an entity with a Health Gauge takes damage, usually from enemy attacks or hazardous obstacles, the Health Gauge will be depleted by a certain amount. Should the Health Gauge be depleted completely, the entity will become incapacitated. How many Health Points an entity has varies between types and individuals.

In the playable characters' case, the Health Gauge replaces the Ring health system in the games they appear in. In all cases, the player's Health Gauge is displayed on the HUD. The amount of health players lose with each hit depends on the strength of the hit's source, and sometimes the player's own defense. If the playable character's Health Gauge should reach zero, the player will defeated and often lose a life, causing them to restart from the beginning of the latest battle/level or from the last qualified checkpoint. Should their Health Gauge be depleted, the players can in most cases restore their health by different means, often by collecting Rings and power-ups, using certain techniques or something else entirely. In general, the different methods of regenerating health depends on the game's genre. In action games, this method is very quick, whereas fighting- and RPG games feature slower paced methods to match the gameplay and realism. In certain games, it is also possible for the player's to increase the amount of HP their Health Gauges can carry by means depending on the game.

In enemies' case, the Health Gauge serves to display how many hits are required to defeat enemies or bosses. The display of enemy Health Gauges are slightly more flexible. In regular Sonic games, modern bosses may have their own Health Gauges displayed on the HUD while lesser enemies may have their Health Gauges displayed above them as intangible icons. In certain fighting games and similar ones however, the Health Gauges for bosses and enemies may be displayed in the same manner as the player's. The amount of health enemies lose when damaged by the player also depends on the game and situation. Sometimes, the player's attacks can only take a certain amount of health from specific opponents (e.g. the Egg Buster always loses 1/3 its total health when hit), and in other cases the player can take away more health the stronger the playable character's attributes or moves are. In a few games, both cases may even apply; in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), regular bosses and enemies only lose a set fraction of health from standard attacks, yet in the battle with Solaris, the Arrow of Light can away more health with one shot than the Spear of Light. Similarly in Sonic Unleashed, Sonic the Hedgehog's attacks always take away the same amount of health while Sonic the Werehog's Skill take away more health the higher the Werehog's parameters are. In games with emphasis on fighting though, enemies will lose health in the same manner as the player. When a regular enemy's Health Gauge is depleted the enemy will be destroyed/defeated, and when a boss's Health Gauge is depleted the boss fight will be cleared. Unlike playable characters, it is only under rare circumstances that opponents can restore their own Health Gauge; examples are like when failing to success a quick time event against lesser enemies and bosses in Sonic Unleashed.

SegaSonic the Hedgehog
The first incarnation of the Health Gauge appeared in the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog. In this game, they are used by all playable characters. Their Health Gauges appear on the bottom of the screen, just next to the respective character's icon, where they are displayed as simple blue bars.

The player can replenish the Health Gauges by picking up Rings. If a character's health gets critical, the Health Gauge will flash red.

Sonic the Fighters
In Sonic the Fighters, the Health Gauge is used by both the player and the opponents for the first time. Owning to the gameplay of Sonic the Fighter, both the player's and the opponent's Health Gauge share the same design.

In this game, the Health Gauges are displayed on the top of the screen as segmented, orange-framed green bars on both sides of an Emblem-like Ring (the one on the left is the player's and the other is the opponent's). The amount of health opponents lose depends on the power of the player's attacks, and vice versa. As the Health Gauge is depleted, its bar will turn from green to yellow, and then from yellow to red.

Sonic Adventure
In Sonic Adventure, and its remake Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut, the Health Gauge (referred to in this game as the life gauge ) is utilized not only by playable characters, but also by boss characters for the first time. This would become a recurring feature throughout Sonic the Hedgehog series since then. In this game, the Health Gauge is a white-framed gauge with a cyan energy bar. Its background is colored grey for bosses and red for playable characters.

The Health Gauge is only used by the Tornado/Tornado 2 during the Sky Chase Acts, where it appears in the lower left corner of the screen with the word "Tornado" written above it. When it comes to boss battles, the Health Gauge appears in the upper right corner of the screen and has the word "Target" written above it. When the bosses take a hit, they will always lose a set fraction of their health.

Sonic Adventure 2
In Sonic Adventure 2 and its remake Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the Health Gauge, also referred to as the HP Gauge, is used by both playable characters and bosses alike, much like in Sonic Adventure.

In the playable characters' case, the Health Gauge is used by the characters for the Shooting Battle Stages. Their version of the Health Gauge is displayed on the bottom of the screen and resembles a grey rectangle with a blue energy bar and black lines along the upper rim. Its energy bar changes color according to the gauge's capacity: at 100-50% capacity it is blue, at less than 50% capacity it is yellow, and when critical it is red. To refill the Health Gauge, the player can either collect Rings or Health Item Box power-ups. In Dr. Eggman's case, the Health Gauge can be increased by 1/7 its original size with the Protective Armor. It will also turn the Health Gauge's bar dark blue.

In the bosses' case, the Health Gauge is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen and resembles a transparent white-framed rectangle with a dark blue energy bar and the word "Enemy" below it. Like in Sonic Adventure, this Health Gauge will always lose a set fraction of health when the bosses take a hit. Additionally, its energy bar will turn red when the bosses' health turns critical.

Sonic Heroes
Sonic Heroes introduced the concept of standard enemies that require more than one hit to defeat. This lead to standard enemies being featured with their own Health Gauges, which was carried on to future games as well.

In Sonic Heroes, Health Gauges are used by standard enemies and non-playable bosses (except Metal Overlord). In this game, the Health Gauges are displayed as round speech balloon icons above the enemies with a segmented energy bar and a number representing the enemies remaining Health Points inside them. The amount of health the player can take away from enemies depend on the intensity of their attacks. Additionally, the Egg Bishops have the ability to restore surrounding enemies' Health Gauges and its own.

Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, the Health Gauge (referred to in this game as only HP ) is used by all playable characters in the game. Though unseen, each opponent the player faces will also have a Health Gauge of their own.

To the player, the Health Gauge is a blue and black-framed gauge displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. Inside it, it has a red background and an orange-yellow energy bar, and on top of it lies the Ichikoro Gauge. Early screenshots of Sonic Battle, however, showed the Health Gauge as a white and black-framed red gauge with a yellow energy bar. The amount of health both player and opponents lose depends on the power of their attacks, and the recoil damage from impacting structures. During battle, characters can also use Heal Skills to refill their Health Gauges at various rates.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In Shadow the Hedgehog, Health Gauges are utilized by three different elements in the game: enemies, bosses and vehicles.

The Health Gauges for enemies are displayed as green bars with a white outline and black drop shadow above that appear above each enemy. In this game, the player's regular moves, such as the Homing Attack, Slide and Punch, can always only take away a set fraction of the enemy's health. Different weapons, however, can take away different amounts of health, depending on their damage output. The Health Gauges for bosses (referred to as Boss Gauges ) are displayed as grey gauges on the bottom of the screen with a yellow energy bar inside them. Despite the larger amount of Health Points they carry, their mechanics are the same as the lesser enemies'.

The Health Gauges for rideable vehicles are displayed in the Item Window in the lower right corner of the screen while riding a vehicle. It looks similar to the enemies' Health Gauge, but smaller in width. Other than that, they function like a playable character's Health Gauge.

Sonic Rush
In Sonic Rush, only bosses are given Health Gauges. In this game, each gauge appears on the Nintendo DS's Touch Screen and is displayed as a horizontal row of yellow segments representing the number of hits the player has to land. For each hit landed, a segment will turn grey. On Easy mode, the number of segments are six, and on Normal Mode, the number of segments are eight.

Sonic Rush Adventure
In Sonic Rush Adventure, like in Sonic Rush, the Health Gauge is reserved for bosses only, and is thus referred to as the Boss Gauge. In this game, they are presented as black gauges with a red energy bar on the bottom of the screen (which screen depends on the gameplay). Also, on their left end is the word "BOSS" and a skull.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), the Boss Gauge is like in Shadow the Hedgehog, depicted as a red meter that appears for some lesser enemies that require multiple hits to defeat and bosses, although it appears while hitting an enemy, but always appear at the upper right for bosses. As mentioned above, the more the attack dealt to the opponent is powerful, the more the Health Gauge meter is depleted, although in some of the game's bosses, it does not matter how potent is the attack.

As in Iblis's second phase, the player cannot decrease the amount of required hits to the boss by the type of his/her attack, though this is reversed in Egg-Genesis's battle. In Town Missions, if the mission is to destroy a group of enemies and protect the residents, every resident will have a Health Gauge that depletes for every attack they get. If the Health Gauge for anyone of them is completely drained, then the town mission has been failed.

Sonic Unleashed
In the Night-time Stages in Sonic Unleashed, Sonic becomes Sonic the Werehog. In this state he is slow, yet powerful and has much more high endurance depicted as a Life Gauge (Called Vitality in the Wii version). Instead of losing rings, being harmed cause Sonic to loose a portion of health, but collecting rings restores a small portion of his health.

During Night-time stages, unique power-ups resembling golden rings, but with a green eight-pointed star in their centers, can refill the Health Gauge. They can be found in barrels, crates and other various breakable containers.