Panic Puppet Zone

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Sonic 3D Blast Panic Puppet Zone

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Panic Puppet Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog in the Panic Puppet Zone.
Overview
First appearance	Sonic 3D Blast (only appearance)
Location	Flicky Island
Stage theme(s)	Industrial theme
Statistics
Level number	7
Number of acts	3
Enemies	Walker Whirl
Boss(es)	Panic Puppet Zone boss
Level order
Previous level	Gene Gadget
Next level	The Final Fight

Looks like Robotnik hasn't even had time to place the Flickies into robots here. Sonic must be catching up to that evil genius! Bounce on the containers to free the Flickies inside, and make sure to avoid the bubble guns infesting the area.

— Description, Sonic 3D Blast manual

Panic Puppet Zone is the seventh Zone of Sonic 3D Blast for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Saturn.

Description

This Zone is the core of the Doctor's operation on Flicky Island; a massive military/industrial complex bristling with conveyor belts, turrets, and trapdoors. At the very center of the Zone lies a gigantic, Robotnik-shaped tower, reminiscent of the one constructed in Stardust Speedway's Bad Future in Sonic the Hedgehog CD.

Gameplay

Panic Puppet Zone has a different Act structure to the preceding Zones; the first Act has Sonic rescuing Flickies that haven't been turned into Badniks yet, and are simply held captive in containers instead of Badniks (Robotnik had no time to turn them into Badniks). In the second Act, there are no birds to free, and all the player must do is reach the end of the Zone. Robotnik has deployed an army of robots to stop Sonic in his tracks, and there are only a few Rings to be found in the Zone.

In terms of gameplay, it is essentially a palette swap of Gene Gadget Zone but with different Badniks and a few new features.

Overview

Act 1

Sonic has to rescue five Flickies total to proceed towards the goal. This time, the Flickies will be stationed inside glass containers scattered all around the stage. Gimmicks include levers to change the direction of conveyor belts, and elevators to transport Sonic to different portions of the base (one of which is a one-way direction). A secret, breakable wall can be found which contains a hidden room that houses a few Rings and an Extra life monitor.

Act 2

This act does not have any Flickies to rescue, so Sonic simply has to make his way to the top of Robotnik's Tower while avoiding numerous traps and enemies from the previous act. The only new trap appears to be a wall laser that periodically shoots lightning (its light at the top may hint at its activation). An Extra life monitor is hidden near the "stomach" portion of the tower. Near the end, a square shaped floor will open up once Sonic passes through it. However, this is not a pitfall trap of any kind. This is merely to prevent Sonic from returning back to the previous area(s). There are two sets of these he will pass through to signify the end of the act (the second set is actually two separate floor panels on different paths. Even though they are separate paths, these two floor panels will be activated at the same time).

Act 3

Sonic drops down from the ceiling and prepares to fight Robotnik. (see Boss Fight below)

Boss

The third Act is the boss inside the Robotnik statue itself. It consists of three parts; the first part has the arms of the robot designed as spiked maces. Sonic must get near one to lure Robotnik into dropping it, then hit the flashing siren on the arm's shoulder to damage it.

The second part uses flamethrowers; the same fire that the Doctor weaponized for use in Volcano Valley. When Robotnik's machine blows flames, Sonic must hit the flashing shoulder-pad again.

In the last part, Robotnik uses an ice cannon. The cannon can shoot multiple frozen bullets that bounce around on the floor and spread out. Sonic must stay in the corner of the cannon that's firing, as the pellets don't tend to ricochet in that direction.

Each flashing shoulder-pad must be hit a total of three times each in every part. After the player beats Dr. Robotnik, the normal ending of the game begins. However, if the player has collected all of the Chaos Emeralds, the text that accompanies the final boss's appearance is different, and Sonic will be transported to the The Final Fight.

Trivia

• The music for Act 1 in the Sega Mega Drive version was used in the opening sequence of Sonic 3D Blast and would later be remixed as one of the tunes for Twinkle Park in Sonic Adventure. The music that plays in Act 2 is a remix of the boss theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.
• There was a different theme for Panic Puppet Zone in the Sega Saturn version, which has also been reused - it was remixed heavily for Lost Impact in Shadow the Hedgehog, and was lightly remixed for Metropolis in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and one of the boss battle music tracks.
• The title music for Sonic Mania has the exact same notes as the main melody of the music from Panic Puppet Zone Act 1 from the Sega Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D Blast.
• Much like Gene Gadget Zone, Tails and Knuckles are not present in this Zone.

Gallery

Gallery
Crushing arms in Part 1 of the boss battle. Flamethrower arms in Part 2 of the boss battle. Shooting arms in Part 3 of the boss battle.

Music

Name	Artist(s)	Length	Music Track
N/A (Genesis; Act 1)	N/A	3:12
N/A (Genesis; Act 2)	N/A	2:47
N/A (Saturn; Act 1)	N/A	2:54
N/A (Saturn; Act 2)	N/A	2:49

External links

• Sonic 3D page at The GHZ has detailed information on all the Sonic 3D Blast Zones.

Sonic 3D Blast

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