Sonic Mania - Part 4 - Chemical Plant Zone Act 2
10Act 1 of Chemical Plant plays almost entirely to the landscape, background, and gimmicks found in the 16-bit version of Sonic 2, where this location debuted. Act 2, following the pattern, introduces a bunch of new elements, some new but most taken from other Sonic games. But where there were a bunch of them for Green Hill, Chemical Plant takes it a step further and turns into a cornucopia of Sonic references, though without losing what makes Chemical Plant what it is.
There are two central new gimmicks to Act 2: The pipes now have junctions fo you to pick (I'll pick the ones that lead you to Giant Gold Rings, not necessarily the fastest routes), and there are pools of either a boiling blue liquid (the same kind the Amoeba Droid used to fight Sonic with in Act 1), a turquoise gel that bounces Sonic a small amount, and a green gel that bounces Sonic a very high distance, with giant syringes that upgrade the pools to the next level of beneficial-ness. Together, this turns Chemical Plant Act 2 into a geographically nonlinear stage, with no clear left-to-right or bottom-to-top progression you'd normally find in 2-D platformer games. As a result, Sonic will be running to the left a lot here. There is also the gimmick of purple bubbles that become double helix shapes that takes Sonic up and through platforms to a later destination and wall-mounted adhesives, though they doesn't contribute quite as much to this place's unusual topography as the other gimmicks.
This stage also brings in a new enemy, the Catakiller, Jr. More on that below. But now, here are this stage's stats, to my knowledge:
Giant Gold Ring Count:
Total: 3
Available in one go: 3
Badniks Returning from Act 1:
Spiny
Chopper
New Badniks:
Catakiller, Jr. - This is a hovering blue worm-like Badnik that moves slowly back and forth and creates electric pulses that travel down its body. Only its head is vulnerable.
Other references:
Sonic CD - Some of the tubes begin with a dense helix shape, like the ones in Quartz Quadrant.
Sonic CD - Bouncing off the green (strong) chemical gel creates the same sound as hitting the bouncy floor in Wacky Workbench.
Sonic CD - The way the tubes split into 4 directions is taken from Metallic Madness.
Sonic CD - The end of the loop in this stage's music contains a snippet of the Japanese theme of Metallic Madness.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - The boss of this stage is lifted right from that game.
Sonic 3 - Catakiller, Jr. was first seen in Angel Island Zone.
Sonic & Knuckles - Bouncing off the turquoise (weak) chemical gel creates the same sound as bouncing off a mushroom in Mushroom Hill Zone.
Eggman competes against Sonic in the Mean Bean Machine at the end of this stage. I had a lto of trouble with Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine when it was available for the Wii's Virtual Console, but ever since I played Puyo Puyo Tetris, I've gotten a lot better at it, not that it's obvious here. In the meantime, I forgot to have a Puyo Puyo Tetris video ready to put right after this, and I don't know how easily I could find an opponent on a weekday in that game. Heck, I don't think most people who played Sonic Mania, or watched it (or are watching this video) even know there's a Puyo Puyo game released in the west earlier this year.
The full rules for Puyo Puyo are incredibly complex and geared towards competitive play, but in a nutshell, sets of two Puyos (Beans in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) will fall down in randomized colors. If 4 or more Puyos are connected vertically or horizontally (but not diagonally), they're cleared. Clearing Puyos causes the Puyos on top to fall, and if that causes more Puyos to clear, that's a combo. In head-to-head play, the purpose of clearing Puyos is to drop Nuisance Puyos on your opponents' playfield, which are clear and can only be cleared by clearing a normal-colored Puyo vertically or horizontally adjacent to it, but not diagonally. The quantity of Nuisance Puyo increases exponentially the longer your combo. Each player's playfield is 6 columns wide and 12 rows tall. You lose, and the other player wins, if a Puyo occupies the top slot of the third column from the left and isn't falling. Hence, the goal here is to outdo Dr. Eggman, who isn't very good at it, to be honest. But he shouldn't be because this game will have plenty of people who have never played Puyo Puyo before.
I have many videos of Puyo Puyo Tetris, both single-player and multiplayer. Here is their playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp6SP7xkG_LFpwR5eeputto9pBmI2wevt
With Eggman dunking himself into the pit below, Sonic busts open the animal capsule, clears Chemical Plant Zone, and hops into a tube that takes him to his next destination, a new set of stages called Studiopolis Zone.
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