The bosses in this game actually kinda suck

[Voodin im back]

SA2 was one of my favorite games as a kid, but the bosses really highlight how clunky some of the mechanics of the game are. And they basically fall into 4 categories: VS Boss, Gun Boss, Run-around-in-a-circle Boss and final.

The VS bosses vary based on which character you are, the speed and treasure character one's arent that bad, its basically just rng as to whether they'll just attack AS SOON AS you do and you just bounce off of each other, or you'll actually be able to land a hit.
The main issue with these bosses is they have a health bar while you don't which would be fine if they had a pattern to their attacks but they dont. they just read inputs.

The machine bosses are the worst because they have infinite special and just spam the hell out of it. You literally cannot dodge the beam attack in the second machine vs boss because the room is just a circle with a bomb in the middle. These are just DPS races essentially.

Gun bosses are so easy they are boring.

But the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ run-around-a-circle bosses are awful. I'm talking King Boom Boo, Golem, and Biolizard. All of these require you to run at *just the right speed* away from the boss as they follow you, lest they bite or slam you. And you just wait around for it to stop attacking....in a sonic game....you sit around and wait for it to stop so you can attack it.
The biolizard is special ranking amongst this category, NOT ONLY do you have to run around and wait, there's a current that if you touch it instakills you. Yes, you touch it, and immediately get dragged off the stage and die, you cant jump out of it. There is another current on the opposite side of the circle that DOESNT do this so keep situational awareness at a premium here. even worse, the method of damaging the boss is broken. You ride a rail up to its back, but you just kinda stand still at the end of the rail, then you hop off and pray to god the homing attack works and you hit the big red button. Otherwise you take damage, and its near impossible to get your rings back on this stage.

Who the hell designed these bosses? Why wasn't the classic style of sonic boss used instead, 3 hits and done?

[Sixtyfivekills]

Yeah, sounds like you're just bad at the game to me.

1. Not having a health bar is much better for you because you can always recollect rings and not worry about recovering health.


2. Ever thought of jumping next to the enemy mech in order to avoid the laser? Works like a charm.


3. You can indeed get off the water in Biolizard fight and it's easy to tell when the gap is coming because of the extra wide brown texture on the floor. Getting rings is not a problem whatsoever since he'll stop attacking you if you get hit, which gives you more than enough time to recover rings. Homing attack also isn't RNG, just learn to time it properly. Or heck, you can hit him while airborne after jumping, you don't even have to do a homing attack to damage him.

[Sister Iris]

I'm pretty sure you can jump out of the biolizard's current if you're fast enough, but yeah, as much as I love this game, the run-around-in-a-circle bosses are pretty decidedly meh at best.

As for the second Tails/Eggman fight, it is possible to dodge the beam, but some of it is RNG-based I think - when I was doing the boss fights the most recent time if I managed to not get hit by a different attack right before they fired the beam I could run to the side and around them and attack from behind.

At least the Finalhazard, even if not the world's most difficult boss, has a good atmosphere with live and learn playing in the background and the double super hedgehog.

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Yeah, sounds like you're just bad at the game to me.

very constructive

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Getting rings is not a problem whatsoever since he'll stop attacking you if you get hit

not referring to that part of the fight, if you take damage after a missed homing attack on the button the rings fall into his body

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Yeah, sounds like you're just bad at the game to me.

very constructive

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Getting rings is not a problem whatsoever since he'll stop attacking you if you get hit

not referring to that part of the fight, if you take damage after a missed homing attack on the button the rings fall into his body

Then get other rings from the stage and try not to get hit next time?

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Sister Iris:

I'm pretty sure you can jump out of the biolizard's current if you're fast enough

There's one current thats fairly easy to jump out of, but that one doesnt even kill you. The one that does kill you I've never managed to jump out of, regardless of how fast i push the button. That's not the biggest issue though, I keep running out of rings because they fall inside of biolizard during either the vulnerable phase or the egg(?) phase

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Then get other rings from the stage and try not to get hit next time?

That's the plan but the stage rings dont respawn. So if im out, im out for like 3-4 minutes

[NBOX21]

Oh, boy. Time to put on my SA2 defence shield for this one, this is gonna be good...

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

The VS bosses vary based on which character you are, the speed and treasure character one's arent that bad, its basically just rng as to whether they'll just attack AS SOON AS you do and you just bounce off of each other, or you'll actually be able to land a hit.

They actually do have a pattern to follow. It's not clear at first, but it is recognisable and is pure genius as to how it works. Let them attack you, but make sure you avoid their attacks and as they stand still, you have a quick opening to get a hit on them. In the final Sonic vs Shadow battle at the end, one trick I love doing is letting them use their special by getting some distance between your rival, dodging their special by moving as fast as possible and striking them while they're still in the middle of using their special. Doing so will allow you to finish it much faster.

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

The main issue with these bosses is they have a health bar while you don't which would be fine if they had a pattern to their attacks but they dont. they just read inputs.

You're seriously complaining about the lack of a health bar for the main playable character in a Sonic game?!?! This is absolutely unheard of in my entire life up until now! Your "health" is exactly the same in bosses as the rest of the game - so long as you're holding one ring, you're okay. If anything, you have the advantage in this case.

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

The machine bosses are the worst because they have infinite special and just spam the hell out of it. You literally cannot dodge the beam attack in the second machine vs boss because the room is just a circle with a bomb in the middle. These are just DPS races essentially.

That's because unlike SA1 where you could just stand there and mash the shoot button thus removing anything resembling a challenge, SA2's mech battles actually require a bit of strategy to beat. You can dodge the beam attack, you just gotta act fast (it's a Sonic game after all). Don't try to attack while they're using their beam special. In fact, you can tell when they're about to use it before they do. Use that brief period of time to start moving quickly.

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

Gun bosses are so easy they are boring.

Good thing they don't last that long then. Except I don't find them boring, I at least find them mechanically interesting despite the low difficulty.

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

The biolizard is special ranking amongst this category, NOT ONLY do you have to run around and wait, there's a current that if you touch it instakills you. Yes, you touch it, and immediately get dragged off the stage and die, you cant jump out of it. There is another current on the opposite side of the circle that DOESNT do this so keep situational awareness at a premium here. even worse, the method of damaging the boss is broken. You ride a rail up to its back, but you just kinda stand still at the end of the rail, then you hop off and pray to god the homing attack works and you hit the big red button. Otherwise you take damage, and its near impossible to get your rings back on this stage.

Well, actually, both currents do result in instant death if you get swept away, but again, like most other things, it is possible to avoid if you're quick enough. You can jump out of it if you're really quick about it. And I've never had issues with the homing attack not working on the boss, so most likely you're doing something wrong here. Also, "stand still at the end of the rail" you say? You're supposed to jump off before the end of the rail, not let it launch you off it.

Also, about the rings on this particular boss - one trick I like doing for most bosses is to not pick them all up right away - pick up about two or three rings, then focus on the attack side of things. That way, if you need more rings later, there's still some left for you to grab since you didn't grab them all at the start.

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

Who the hell designed these bosses? Why wasn't the classic style of sonic boss used instead, 3 hits and done?

Most of them actually are. The first Sonic vs Shadow and Tails vs Eggman battles do use the 3 hits format. Also, the classic Sonic games (and most 2D games for that matter) actually take 8 hits to beat most bosses instead of 3, so almost all the bosses take less hits to beat as it is anyway. You're probably thinking of Mario when it comes to 3 hit bosses.

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

In fact, you can tell when they're about to use it before they do. Use that brief period of time to start moving quickly.

What would that be? If you're referring to the super animation, well yeah, obviously. but where would you suggest moving after a combination rocket and beam attack? toward the enemy? away? left or right?

Also I just replayed some Sonic/Shadow bosses, they wouldnt attack until I did, even after waiting a full 30 seconds

[Underdog]

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Yeah, sounds like you're just bad at the game to me.

very constructive

I'm not gonna pile into this forum war too much, but just wanted to point out how hilarious it is that you cropped out the entire constructive part of the post, and just highlighted the first few words that were a pretty mild insult instead. Sums up most people's mentalities nowadays pretty good

Anyway, think about it

[Voodin im back]

Originally posted by Underdog:

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

very constructive

I'm not gonna pile into this forum war too much, but just wanted to point out how hilarious it is that you cropped out the entire constructive part of the post, and just highlighted the first few words that were a pretty mild insult instead. Sums up most people's mentalities nowadays pretty good

Anyway, think about it

you too, just cropped out me responding to part of his advice.

[AmethystViper]

Originally posted by Voodinroad2annie:

you too, just cropped out me responding to part of his advice.

Get good or stop sucking, scrub.

[Ikagura]

I kinda agree about most of them. SA2 doesn't really shine with their bosses

The Gun mechas are just variations of the same battle (the Hot Shot takes ages to shoot its laser). At least Flying Dog is probably the only proper Treasure Hunter Boss fight. This is basically the Chaos 4 of SA2 in a way.

The two Pyramid bosses aren't that interesting (the Egg Golem is slow and the King Boom Boo isn't that interesting aside from the digging gimmick).
At least Robotnik's version of the Golem was interesting as a proper Mech Shooting boss.

The "rival fight" on the other hand are either easy or just too hard (especially Tails/Robotnik's 2nd one), those are really unbalanced and you hope that the dumb AI and RNG are on your side.

The Final Boss' first fight has some RNG during his red orb phase (at least his dark spheres are easy to manage).

I'm kinda glad they stopped the "use the chaos emeralds for the Monster of the Week" trope for a while (even if I dislike how Forces reuses the Nega Wisp armor)

[GenericGamer]

It's true, Adventure 2 aged HORRIBLY, Sonic fans will pretend that it didn't tho :p