History ThatOneBoss / SonicTheHedgehog

** The Final Horizon DLC adds a different TrueFinalBoss in which The End links itself to the fourth and last Titan, Supreme. The good news is, there's no UnexpectedGameplayChange this time. The bad news is, this fight is just as tough, if not more so. The boss has ''three'' phases (''four'' if you count the main Supreme battle as Phase 1), with its main attack homing in on Sonic and depleting 30 rings; said attack can only be avoided with a Perfect Parry as Cyber Super Sonic, which requires ''spot-on'' timing to execute. In the last two phases, it becomes a HopelessBossFight in which The End regenerates its health unless Sonic unlinks it from its true form (a giant purple moon).

* The Wyvern, the main boss of the second island. First off, actually getting to the Super Sonic portion of the fight takes quite a bit of time, as not only do you have to scale the tower in the area, but then you have to race towards it on a ribbon not unlike the Squid fights on the first island, and there's a few gaps that require homing dash to get across. As for the actual fight once you grab the emerald and go Super? Unlike Giganto before it, you ''have'' to parry the Wyvern's main attack in order to get a chance to actually attack it, and there's no way to quickly reference how to actually do it if you haven't learnt how to do it, outside of a loading screen. The second phase forces you to parry this attack twice in a row, and it won't work if you continuously hold down the relevant buttons after parring the first. The worst part however comes towards the end of the very lengthy fight; the Wyvern unleashes a [[MacrossMissileMassacre massive salvo of missiles]] which you have to deflect [[PressXToNotDie via a quick-time event]], which isn't exactly intuitive to pull off. Fail the quick-time event, and the salvo will OneHitKill Sonic (bearing in mind that he's in SuperForm here). And the checkpoint [[CheckpointStarvation is all the way back on the ground]], meaning you have to climb the tower, race along its ribbon, grab the emerald, and redo the fight all over again.

* If there's one thing the final boss of Trip's Story wants to make clear, it's that Fang has [[ScrewTheMoneyThisIsPersonal foregone his usual payment requirement]] and is out for Trip's ''blood''. The Magnificent Queen's laser columns and bolos, along with rockets and laser batteries, are standard fare, but then there's the times he shoves parts of the arena down into molten metal.[[note]]Trip can't fly unless she's gone Super, but surviving with enough rings to use that form is easier said than done; if you die during the fight, you'll never get enough rings to transform.[[/note]] It's bad enough, but not quite as bad as the Main Story's final boss... but then he goes into his battle mech (repainted in his colors, of course) and the fight goes directly to hell. Mook barrages, floor-lowering headbangs, missile showers, all of which ratchet up in intensity as the fight goes on, but then there's the electrowebs and piston guns - the former ensnare Trip and force her to wiggle her way out while Fang readies the latter, and one hit from those [[OneHitKill sends her directly into the screen]]. Oh, and if you die during any point of this slobberknocker, [[CheckpointStarvation you have to take it all from the top]]. Have fun!

** When playing solo as Tails, the Egg Drillster Mk. II (Marble Garden Act 2) is surprisingly tough: Unlike Sonic's version, where Tails is carrying Sonic through the air while you hurl Sonic at Egg Drillster Mk. II, Sonic himself is a no-show, meaning the only way for Tails to damage the boss is to ram at it from underneath with his propeller tails. 50% of Robotnik's movement patterns make this a tall order to say the least. The safe approach is to simply dodge around him until he flies across the screen horizontally, which alleviates the frustration but turns it into a MarathonBoss. Have fun doing it with Tails on the ''[=Sonic Origins=]'' BossRush, as you're given no rings for leeway.

* The robotic pterodactyl encountered at the end of Frozen Baze Zone Act 1. The area it’s fought in is filled with conveyor belts (which can be blue, red, or frozen and non-functioning) and the fight itself is an autoscroller. In the first two parts of the battle, it attacks with bombs that can destroy the conveyor belts and limit your platforming. In the third part, it gains a new attack where it fires three electrical balls that expand, which are almost hard to dodge given how close they are to each other. Each time it becomes open to attack, it sends miniature robotic pterodactyls, then descends to where it can be hit. Given the randomly generated conveyor belt positions (alongside red ones becoming more common later in the fight) and the autoscrolling, it can become really difficult to damage the pterodactyl when you can damage it, and it also becomes difficult to dodge the bombs along with staying on the ground, as there’s a good chance you’ll fall into the pit below.
** In Trip’s Story, this fight becomes even worse, as ''all'' of the functioning conveyor belts are red, making it harder to both catch up with the boss and dodge the attacks.

* If there's one thing the final boss of Trip's Story wants to make clear, it's that Fang has [[ScrewTheMoneyThisIsPersonal foregone his usual payment requirement]] and is out for Trip's ''blood''. The Magnificent Queen's laser columns and bolos, along with rockets and laser batteries, are standard fare, but then there's the times he shoves parts of the arena down into molten metal.[[note]]Trip can't fly unless she's gone Super, but surviving with enough rings to use that form is easier said than done; if you die during the fight, you'll never get enough rings to transform.[[/note]] It's bad enough, but not quite as bad as the Main Story's final boss... but then he goes into his battle mech (repainted in his colors, of course) and the fight goes directly to hell. Mook barrages, floor-lowering headbangs, missile showers, all of which ratchet up in intensity as the fight goes on, but then there's the electrowebs and piston guns - the former ensnare Trip and force her to wiggle her way out while Fang readies the latter, and one hit from those [[OneHitKill sends her directly into the screen]]. Oh, and if you die during any point of this slobberknocker, [[CheckpointStarvation you have to take it all from the top]]. Have fun!!

* The final boss of the main Story Mode.

* Thought the Wyvern was bad enough on its own? The surprise last trial in The Final Horizon DLC is a BossRush against the first three Titans (Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight), including the ColossusClimb phases. Sounds easy enough, right? '''Wrong.''' Sonic is limited to 400 rings for the ''entire trial'', meaning you are on an even stricter time limit, and, even as Super Sonic, is ''severely'' {{nerf}}ed compared to the base game. You can also only use Perfect Parries, which have difficult timing and yet are practically mandatory in order to stun the Titan and Cycloop-lock it so you can get enough hits in to speed up the fights. To top it off, dying at any point [[ContinuingIsPainful makes you redo the whole thing over from scratch]].

* The surprise last trial in The Final Horizon DLC is a BossRush against the first three Titans (Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight), including the ColossusClimb phases. Sounds easy enough, right? '''Wrong.''' Sonic is limited to 400 rings for the ''entire trial'' and, even as Super Sonic, is ''severely'' {{nerf}}ed compared to the base game. To top it off, dying at any point [[ContinuingIsPainful makes you redo the whole thing over from scratch]].

* One trial in The Final Horizon DLC is a BossRush against the first three Titans (Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight), including the ColossusClimb phases. Sounds easy enough, right? '''Wrong.''' Sonic is limited to 400 rings for the ''entire trial'' and, even as Super Sonic, is ''severely'' {{nerf}}ed compared to the base game. To top it off, dying at any point [[ContinuingIsPainful makes you redo the whole thing over from scratch]].
* [[BigBad The End]], on top of being NightmareFuel incarnated, is quite the challenge for many players due to the UnexpectedGameplayChange into a full-blown BulletHell shoot 'em up level. On top of virtually ''coating'' the screen in bullets and lasers, it has an [[DamageSpongeBoss astronomical amount of health]] whilst being able to kill you in merely three hits. Thankfully, the fight is [[HardModePerks exclusive to the base game's Hard Mode]].

** One trial in The Final Horizon DLC is a BossRush against the first three Titans (Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight), including the ColossusClimb phases. Sounds easy enough, right? '''Wrong.''' Sonic is limited to 400 rings for the ''entire trial'' and, even as Super Sonic, is ''severely'' {{nerf}}ed compare to the base game. To top it off, dying at any point [[ContinuingIsPainful makes you redo the whole trial from scratch]].
** The Final Horizon DLC also adds a different TrueFinalBoss in which The End links itself to the fourth and last Titan, Supreme. The good news is, there's no UnexpectedGameplayChange this time. The bad news is, this fight is no easier compared the one in the base game's Hard Mode. The boss has ''three'' phases (''four'' if you count the main Supreme boss battle as phase one) and its main attack homes in on Sonic and depletes 30 rings; said attack can only be avoided with the Perfect Parry (which requires ''spot-on'' timing to execute) as Cyber Super Sonic. In the last two phase, it becomes a HopelessBossFight in which The End regenerates its health unless Sonic unlinks it from its true form in the base game (a giant purple moon).

* The Dead Line zone boss in ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' is the DuelBoss fight we've been waiting for all game: Sonic vs. Blaze. However, once you get your opponent (whoever they are) down to their last hit point, you have to try and push them off the other end of the platform to finish them. You do this by tapping the X and Y buttons together (not a comfortable setup, for those without a DS) at an '''insanely''' high speed to stop the [[ComputersAreFast incredibly strong A.I. from just slamming you off your end, forcing you to start over]], and you have to keep it up for however long it takes to knock them off. Depending on how much the balance swings, this can be as long as five minutes of intense button-mashing quite probably far above the abilities of the target audience.

* Lancelot Returns from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight. The original showdown with Lancelot is challenging, but fair due to the fact that there are multiple methods to have the Soul Gauge filled and break past his defenses. In Lancelot Returns, the only way to fill the Soul Gauge is to block Lancelot's Chaos Spear, which not only takes a long time to fill up via this method, but also leaves Sonic a sitting duck to be swung at by Lancelot following a Chaos Control. Dodging Lancelot's attacks requires nearly frame-perfect inputs, which is easier said than done when dealing with {{waggle}}. What's worse is, while the mission is framed as optional, Lancelot Returns needs to be cleared in order to unlock Galahad for multiplayer mode.

[[folder:Sonic 1-3, CD, and Knuckles]]

[[folder:Game Gear Games]]

[[folder:Sonic Adventure 1 and 2]]

[[folder:Sonic Advance series]]

[[folder:Sonic Heroes]]

[[folder:Sonic Rush series]]

[[folder:Shadow the Hedgehog]]

[[folder:Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]

[[folder:Sonic Unleashed]]

[[folder:Sonic the Hedgehog 4]]

[[folder:Sonic Generations]]

[[folder:Sonic Lost World]]

[[folder:Sonic Mania]]

[[folder:Sonic Frontiers]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SonicCD https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thatoneboss.png]]]]

* The Egg Mobile in the Labyrinth Zone of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1''. Unlike the other bosses, the player must chase Dr. Robotnik through a dangerous, vertical passageway filled with moving spears and fire statues. If the player becomes submerged, there are no air bubbles on the route. Failing to reach the top of the passage, and you're as good as dead -- and [[ContinuingIsPainful God help you if you've hit the lamp post before the boss and you die here,]] because between the lamp post and the boss, there are no rings, just a shield; and you can't backtrack at all past that point. Good luck. It's rather telling that you don't need to damage Robotnik at all to win, and it's ''still'' one of the hardest bosses in the game.

* While ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'' has pathetically easy bosses, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Metal Sonic]]'s race falls under this category. Sonic must race with his robotic clone from start to finish, with several spikes throughout the path, and sections that hamper your speed if stumbled into. Metal Sonic can just plow through the spikes like nobody's business, and if you're ahead of him, he'll create a barrier around himself, and rush forward with breakneck speed, running through you and causing you to lose all your momentum and rings if you aren't paying attention. If ''he's'' ahead of ''you'', then his movements slow to a crawl, but he also generates lightning around himself, which will also hurt you. Meanwhile, Robotnik is trailing behind you firing a laser from his craft; if you fall too far behind and touch the laser, [[OneHitKill you die on the spot, rings or no rings]]. He also accelerates for the duration of the race; if you stop suddenly near the end of the course, there's a very high chance that you'll get zapped by him before you can regain your speed. No pressure or anything!

*** The Big Icedus (Ice Cap Act 1) isn't much easier, as you need pixel-perfect timing to be able to hit the boss without being damaged by its shield. If you try to wait and only hit the boss while its shield is down, you'll probably run out of time and die.
** Outside of the character-specific irritating bosses, the mid-boss of Sandopolis Zone, [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere the Guardian]], is a very menacing PuzzleBoss that probably threw many a young player for a loop. What looks like the obvious way to damage it doesn't inflict damage at all, [[BrokenRecord it only attacks by slowly jumping at you]], and this is at the end of a fairly long level with the specter of the [[TimedMission 10 minute time limit]] looming. The trick is [[spoiler:simply to lure or push it into the quicksand pit to the left, which destroys it instantly]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' has the Death Egg's back-to-back boss fights: First you have to beat Sonic's doppelganger, Mecha Sonic, [[OneHitPointWonder without any rings to spare]]. Mecha Sonic requires a hell of a lot of memorization in order to dodge his attacks, because unless you know his pattern, you're going to die. The [[FinalBoss Death Egg Robot]] follows right after, and defeating the robot requires very good timing (which is even harder when playing as Knuckles due to his poor jump height), dodging very fast attacks, and if you get stuck behind him, consider yourself stumped as you likely will have no room to avoid the subsequent shower of explosives. One single hit will send the player right back to Mecha Sonic, which only adds to the aggravation.

* The Egg Mobile in the Labyrinth Zone of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1''. Unlike the other bosses, the player must chase Dr. Robotnik through a dangerous, vertical passageway filled with moving spears and fire statues. If the player becomes submerged, there are no air bubbles on the route. Failing to reach the top of the passage, and you're as good as dead -- and [[ContinuingIsPainful God help you if you've hit the lamp post before the boss and you die here,]] because between the lamp post and the boss, there are no rings, just a shield; and you can't backtrack at all past that point. Good luck.

** For both Tails (or Knuckles if you intentionally climb up to encounter it), the Egg Gravitron (Carnival Night Act 2) can become this; Robotnik (or Eggrobo) drops a large dark green orb, performs an electricity wall attack that sucks in the player, then comes down to pick up the orb -- the only window of opportunity to hit him before waiting all over again. It has tendency to take a long time to defeat, right after what's also one of [[MarathonLevel the longest Acts in the game]], leading to a lot of deaths when players ran out of time. The worst part is that you really need to be careful where you let Robotnik drop the ball, because if you're careless, there's a chance you might off-screen him, wasting even more time.

** When playing solo as Tails, the Egg Drillster Mk. II (Marble Garden Act 2) is surprisingly tough: Unlike Sonic's version, where Tails is carrying Sonic through the air while you hurl Sonic at Egg Drillster Mk. II, Sonic himself is a no-show, meaning the only way for Tails to damage the boss is to ram at it from underneath with his propeller tails. 50% of Robotnik's movement patterns make this a tall order to say the least. The safe approach is to simply dodge around him until he flies across the screen horizontally, which alleviates the frustration but turns it into a MarathonBoss. Have fun doing it with Tails on the [=Sonic Origins=] BossRush, as you're given no rings for leeway.

** When playing solo as Tails, the Egg Drillster Mk II (Marble Garden Act 2) is surprisingly tough: Unlike Sonic's version, where Tails is carrying Sonic through the air while you hurl Sonic at Egg Drillster Mk. II, Sonic himself is a no-show, meaning the only way for Tails to damage the boss is to ram at it from underneath with his propeller tails. 50% of Robotnik's movement patterns make this a tall order to say the least. The safe approach is to simply dodge around him until he flies across the screen horizontally, which alleviates the frustration but turns it into a MarathonBoss.

* If you're playing ''Sonic 2'' with Knuckles (through the use of ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'' or in the [=iOS=] remaster), the already challenging Egg Bouncer in Metropolis Zone becomes this. Due to Knuckles's poor jumping skills, there is no way you can avoid taking damage unless you're Super Knuckles.

** For both Tails and Knuckles, the Egg Gravitron (Carnival Night Act 2) can become this; Robotnik drops a large dark green orb, performs an electricity wall attack that sucks in the player, then comes down to pick up the orb -- the only window of opportunity to hit him before waiting all over again. It has tendency to take a long time to defeat, right after what's also one of [[MarathonLevel the longest Acts in the game]], leading to a lot of deaths when players ran out of time. The worst part is that you really need to be careful where you let Robotnik drop the ball, because if you're careless, there's a chance you might off-screen him, wasting even more time.

** For Knuckles, the already challenging Egg Froster (Ice Cap Act 2) becomes harder than for Sonic or Tails: As it is, the machine sprays freezing gas all over itself, and it's really hard to predict its patterns. The worst part is when the machine will retract the platform just after firing the freezing gas to the sides, making the jumps very hard to execute, meaning the attack timing must be dead on or the player will be hit. And during its [[TurnsRed kamikaze run]], Knuckles can't jump over it, so you'll have to land the two last blows fast enough or be killed.

* The final [[DuelBoss Tails vs. Eggman fight]] in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. Regardless of which one you're playing as, your opponent at various stages of their health will attack with their super attacks from the game's Vs. Mode [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard that you can't use regardless of who you're playing as]], including the dreaded [[WaveMotionGun Power Laser]], which is RIDICULOUSLY hard to dodge as your opponent is constantly turning in your direction while firing it, and it lasts long enough that getting hit once will likely wear out your MercyInvulnerability and cost another chunk of health. To top it all off, it's extremely hard to hit them with your blasts and you're much better off just using your standard pea shooter to get in hits; but since your pea shooter and homing missiles are tied to the same button, there's a chance you'll hit the respawning [[MadeOfExplodium floating green canister]] in the middle of the arena, which will likely do a ton of damage to you due to being in close proximity of it thanks to chasing your opponent everywhere. To make it matter worse, there are no rings during the battle, and there's no way to refill heath. Win or lose, the outcome of this battle ''will'' be decided in seconds.

* The final [[DuelBoss Tails vs. Eggman fight]] in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. Regardless of which one you're playing as, your opponent at various stages of their health will attack with their super attacks from the game's Vs. Mode [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard that you can't use regardless of who you're playing as]], including the dreaded [[WaveMotionGun Power Laser]], which is RIDICULOUSLY hard to dodge as your opponent is constantly turning in your direction while firing it. To top it all off, it's extremely hard to hit them with your blasts and you're much better off just using your standard pea shooter to get in hits; but since your pea shooter and homing missiles are tied to the same button, there's a chance you'll hit the respawning [[MadeOfExplodium floating green canister]] in the middle of the arena, which will likely do a ton of damage to you due to being in close proximity of it thanks to chasing your opponent everywhere. To make it matter worse, there are no rings during the battle, and there's no way to refill heath. Win or lose, the outcome of this battle ''will'' be decided in seconds.

* The Labyrinth Zone boss in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1''. Unlike the other bosses, the player must chase Dr. Robotnik through a dangerous, vertical passageway filled with moving spears and fire statues. If the player becomes submerged, there are no air bubbles on the route. Failing to reach the top of the passage, and you're as good as dead -- and [[ContinuingIsPainful God help you if you've hit the lamp post before the boss and you die here,]] because between the lamp post and the boss, there are no rings, just a shield; and you can't backtrack at all past that point. Good luck.

* Barrier Eggman in Wing Fortress Zone is very tricky to defeat. It's a laser gun in the ceiling, too high to hit without using the spiked platforms that move around, fast, in unpredictable paths. The gun is only vulnerable when it opens up. So you have to keep your eyes on the gun ''and'' the platforms, or you'll get hit by one or the other. The small arena means it usually only takes a couple of hits before all your rings fall outside the lasers and you can't retrieve them, and you can be also crushed by the platforms if you're underneath them.
* If you're playing ''Sonic 2'' with Knuckles (through the use of ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'' or in the [=iOS=] remaster), the already challenging Flying Eggman in Metropolis Zone becomes this. Due to Knuckles's poor jumping skills, there is no way you can avoid taking damage unless you're Super Knuckles.

** When playing solo as Tails, the Egg Drillster Mk II (Marble Garden Act 2) is surprisingly tough: Unlike Sonic's version, where Tails is carrying Sonic through the air while you hurl Sonic at Egg Drillster Mk II, Sonic himself is a no-show, meaning the only way for Tails to damage the boss is to ram at it from underneath with his propeller tails. 50% of Robotnik's movement patterns make this a tall order to say the least. The safe approach is to simply dodge around him until he flies across the screen horizontally, which alleviates the frustration but turns it into a MarathonBoss.

* The Antlion Mecha of Underground Zone from the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog28Bit 8-bit version of]] ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog28Bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' is almost more infamous than the game itself; You can't damage it on your own, you can only win by dodging the barrage of boulders that come bouncing downhill from the other side of the screen to make it hit the boss. And since you don't get any rings, failing to dodge even one hit kills you.