Sonic Lost World - Wii U - Desert Ruins Zone 2

(also known as Honeycomb Highway)
S-Rank Time: 3 minutes 20 seconds

This is a stage often used in demos, from what I've seen. It, along with Windy Hill Zone 1, were the two stages showcased at Comic-Con as well. It's an interesting choice too, as this is one of the fastest-moving stages in the game. Some people say it's the Mach Speed segments in Sonic 2006 done right. I've also seen comparisons to Knuckles' Chaotix's Special Stages, though those were much harder. Of course, Sonic 2006 is way too serious to have a gigantic beehive stage. Come to think of it, is this the first time the Sonic series has approached this theme?

You see, Sonic begins this stage running at full speed and never stops running at full speed. During this time, Sonic can move left and right to stay on solid ground (of which there's surprisingly little of), jump, and Homing Attack. Occasionally, Sonic will reach the end of a path and go into freefall--in the same direction he's running. He'll land eventually, of course. Along the way are honeybee robots, aligned in such a way that Homing Attacking the chain will lead Sonic onto the proper direction to keep running. There will also be robots that keep ahead of Sonic and squirt paint onto the screen to obscure your visibility. You may notice that I can Homing Attack some flower buds too. Those serve as springs. They don't really save much time.

The biggest danger here is the bottomless pit...or whatever you'd call it. The game is constantly trying to make you fall into one, or maybe splat against a honeycomb cell. Sonic is a true one-hit platforming character in this stage, as the only things that would really make him lose Rings and not kill him outright are the Balkyries and Butterdroids in the freefall segments.

You'll also see me collect all five of those numbered green circles you may have seen prior in Lava Mountain Zone 2 and collect the 1-Up. As Time Attack gives you infinite chances, the 1-Up doesn't really mean anything.

The boss of this stage is Zomom, the big yellow guy among the Deadly Six. He commands the Face Mech (which is indeed a former Eggman robot), which...hovers and shoots spiked balls, sometimes disintegrating into smaller versions of itself. Zomom uses it by slamming into it, causing it to fall faster than Sonic and spit those spiked balls. When Sonic catches up to Zomom again, he'll make another bounce, this time to the side to cause the Face Mech to rotate to another side. Zomom will fall down harmlessly, allowing you to hit him. Once you do, he'll reduce the size of the Face Mech and keep going. This is a pretty easy boss battle, the easiest in the game if you ask me. (Well, Zeena in Frozen Factory Zone 2 cannot harm Sonic, but it gets frustrating.) Zomom takes 4 hits. You'll only see two, however, as each Homing Attack I did inflicted two hits.

Because of Sonic's constant speed throughout, Desert Ruins Zone 2 is the easiest stage to get an S-Rank in. Your time comes down completely to how quickly you can defeat Zomom at the end. Well, that and your ability to not lose a life.

Zomom is voiced by Patrick Seitz. He is the voice of Ragna the Bloodedge in BlazBlue, Agil in Sword Art Online, and Franky in One Piece. He also replaced David Lodge as the voice of Kenpachi Zaraki in Bleach. (David Lodge felt he wasn't getting paid enough and quit from his work on Bleach. He continues to play Jiraiya in Naruto though.)

Requested by FerociousLinoone