17 Secret Video Game Bosses You Need To Beat Before You Die

16. Sonic 3 & Knuckles - The Egg Bomber

How you get there: Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the pinnacle of Sonic games - the last good one before everything went to hell with swords, secret rings and, uh, Werehogs.

It also features the Doomsday Zone, the hidden final zone that's only accessible if you've collected every single Chaos or, by extension, Super Emerald. It sounds incredibly simple, but this is a Sonic game, and that means obtaining the emeralds in incredibly frustrating special stages that won't afford you a retry option if you fail them. If you make it to the end of the game without gathering all seven though, tough luck.

Why you need to beat them: Well for starters, the whole world is pretty screwed if you don't. Eggman, in true cowardly fashion, will disappear off into space after you thwart his billionth attempt to dominate Earth with the Death Egg. However, with all the emeralds in your possession you can become Super Sonic and follow him with your (apparently) newfound power to breathe in a vacuum.

Anyway, fighting the Egg Bomber above Earth's atmosphere is a defining moment in Sonic game history, and no other fight before or after it plays quite like it. It's just you, a truck-load of asteroids, and the "hardboiled nutcase" himself, Eggman.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.