End of the World (Sonic the Hedgehog 2006)

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File:9B6473F6-9B03-4A81-9B9F-1502066D615C.png
Combine the cheap hazards of Metropolis Zone and the multiple playable characters of Eggmanland. Sure is the End of the World alright!

The End of the World is a level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, in is the main level on the Final Story segment, and it is overall the tenth and final level of the entire game.

Along with the Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog and Iblis (2nd form) boss battles and the former two as playable Characters, this level has been disliked and considered infamous for its qualities. Not for its tediousness, but rather its fake and high difficulty.

Why It's No Use

  1. This level can be rather difficult because not only are you forced to play as the bad playable Sonic characters, but you also have to travel through almost ALL of the levels (except for Radical Train and Aquatic Base) that you’ve beaten in Sonic, Shadow, and Silver’s stories in order to find the chaos emeralds. All which is tedious, frustrating, and boring.
  2. Before the level even starts, you’re greeted with the infamous cut-scene where Mephiles actually kills Sonic in a very super cheap and anticlimactic way, and Elise cries releasing Iblis, and the world gets destroyed.
    • Granted, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 is meant to be one of the darker entries in the series, but even then that's still very dark!
    • Sonic is supposed to be the freaking titular character of the game. Not only was he stuck with the least important part of the plot and doesn't even get an interaction with the main villain while Shadow and Silver get to learn about the more important parts and actually meet the main villain. But when the game finally decides to have Sonic and Mephiles meet Mephiles just kills him (which raises the question of why didn't he just do that from the start instead of making Silver kill him) without having any sort dialogue between them, so we can't even play as the titular character of the final real level of a Sonic game? WHAT? Not to mention Sonic getting killed adds nothing to the overall story and was just done for the sake of shock value and a dumb argument to not have him playable in the final main level. Considering that if Elise dies that also unleashes Iblis why didn't Mephiles just kill Elise instead? Sure we'd still get the same as mentioned below kiss scene in reverse but at least it's better than pointlessly temporarily killing the titular main character and not allowing him to be playable in the main final level before the true final boss.
  3. Pretty much all of the characters you’re forced to play as are terrible, mainly because of their move sets and controls:
    • Miles Tails Prower: He moves VERY SLOW, not to mention his dummy ring bomb attack can cause the game to lag some and it might drop to single digits even more if you use it.
    • E123-Omega: His attacks are like slapping somebody with a wet tissue paper, at least made up with being able to exploit his hover module by mashing the jump button.
    • Knuckles the Echidna: His ground speed is more horrendous than Tail's, and his combat makes the gunplay in Shadow The Hedgehog look like God of War. It's impossible to get a good attack combo going due to the game's poor hit detection.
    • Silver the Hedgehog: Despite moving a little faster than Tails and Knuckles, his psychokinesis can be unreliable, and levitating drains his energy fast.
    • Rouge the Bat: While her flying abilities are better than Knuckles, she can get stuck on walls (go figure considering the game we're speaking of...) and the fact that she has similar bombs like Tails instead of her usual kicks.
    • Amy Rose: She is the WORST out of the bunch because, just like Tails, she also moves very slow. Her Piko Hammer attack requires her to be in point blank range of her target and her double jump kills all of her horizontal momentum.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog: Because of the games sensitive controls, Shadow’s movements are a bit loose and can make you fall off the level by accident. Not helping is his Homing Attack having a longer range than Sonic's.
  4. Just like Crisis City, the overall design of the level and atmosphere is out-of-place for a Sonic game, just like Devil Doom from the previous Sonic game. This could be due to the fact that the game itself was meant to be one of the more darker entries in the Sonic series (which just like Shadow the Hedgehog, but unlike Sonic 06 which manages to balance it out with it's usual charm, Shadow tries way too hard at the edgy nature.)
  5. The level as a whole is just a copy-paste of the seven out of nine previous levels combined to form one tediously big level.
  6. The “Eyes of Solaris.” not only are they a pain to avoid, but they're also an INSTANT KILL attack!
    • Granted it is the final world, but even that's overkill.
    • And before you ask, no invincibility frames from previous damage will save you from these... things!
    • On top of this, there are two types of Eyes of Solaris, the Blue ones, which will annoyingly try to suck you in, and the Red ones, which only launch crates at break-neck speed. Just pray that they're blue and decide to not shoot any explosive crates at you!
  7. After you’ve completed this level you face Solaris, who may be considered the hardest boss in the game for some players.
  8. As you transition between sections, you have to sit through the game's 20-25 second loading screens every time! This artificially extends the level by an unnecessary 2 minutes.
  9. Trying to find some of the Chaos Emeralds can be tedious as you are in a more open world.
  10. Of course due to the game's rushed development you may experience some glitches along the way.
  11. If you lose all of your lives at any point in the level, yes even in the later sections with Shadow, you have to start the entire level all over again.
  12. After all you went though, what do you get? The very infamous cut-scene of Elise kissing Sonic in the lips. Because geez, A female human kissing an anthropomorphic hedgehog's corpse smack dab on the lips sure is for kids, huh SEGA?
  13. Extremely wasted potential. The idea of a level that reused aspects from the previous levels was kind of clever, so you would think that you will go through an awesome level. But alas, just like most- actually, the entire game, that's not the case.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. The level's design and atmosphere, while out-of-place, is very awesome.
  2. It's a great callback to Cannon's Core, the final level of Sonic Adventure 2.
  3. Thankfully Sonic gets revived after you beat this level.
  4. The music that plays during the level is awesome, and it gets better each time you play as a new character since the arrangement of each character reflects their mental state.
  5. After you complete the final level, you (As the three main Hedgehogs) go up against Solaris, who is a VERY awesome antagonist with arguably the game's best boss battle.

Tips

  1. Be sure to keep track of your rings. Open rings capsules you come across, as well as 1-up containers.
  2. Touching green rocks will clear the Eyes of Solaris away for a short while.
  3. Take advantage of Tail's flying capabilities, as you can avoid a lot of the hazards this way.
  4. Move as fast as you can when you get close to an eye of Solaris.
  5. In Rouge's section, you can climb to the top of the stone pillars to complete it quickly without trouble.
  6. If you're going for the S rank, don't waste time trying to kill everything in sight; you can get away with leaving some enemies alive as long you're still carrying lots of rings,and you're moving through the level fast. Taking shortcuts where possible also helps.