Neo Metal Sonic impersonating Doctor Eggman, Sonic HeroesReady all cannons! Open fire!
The Egg Albatross (エッグアルバトロス, Eggu Arubatorosu?) is a vehicle that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a large and blimp-like battleship. It is controlled by Neo Metal Sonic, who is impersonating Doctor Eggman.
Description
Appearance
The Egg Albatross has three main sections: a lower platform containing Egg Pawns, cannons and a Iron ball launcher; a gold and red blimp with several of the aforementioned Iron ball launchers on either side and two propellers, one on the front and back, respectively; and lastly, the Egg Hawk sitting on top.
History
Sonic Heroes
In Sonic Heroes, Neo Metal Sonic, while impersonating Doctor Eggman, used an Egg Albatross for each of his separate confrontations with Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Dark and Team Chaotix near Bullet Station. In each encounter with the teams however, the main airship and its weapons were brought down by the heroes, forcing Neo Metal Sonic to fend off the heroes desperately with the Egg Hawk attached to the airship. Finally, the Egg Hawk was swiftly destroyed by the heroes, causing Neo Metal Sonic to swear revenge before retreating from Bullet Station in the Egg Mobile.
Battle
The Egg Albatross is the fourth boss of Sonic Heroes, with the battle being the same for each team. In Story Mode, the boss is fought after completing Bullet Station.
Boss guide
The stage that the Egg Albatross takes place is a looped circuit consisting of a large straight grounded section with enemies (which differs depending on the player's chosen team). Eventually, the player will come across a set of three Grind Rails connecting to the next section where it is split up into two straightforward paths. For Team Sonic, Team Dark and Team Rose, the player can either grind on the default (blue) rails to reach the left path, or touch the track switch just before the rightmost rail to change the lighted rails to connect to the path on the right. For Team Chaotix, no track switch is present; to access the path on the right, the player must use Espio's Homing Attack across a series of red Flappers (which each of them will be destroyed in one hit regardless of Espio's Power Core Level). The route also contains a Blue Power Core and an Invincible Item Box.
Each of the two straightforward paths have different arrangements of Item Boxes (Rings or Power Cores), enemies, gimmicks (such as Dash Panels) or obstacles (namely the laser field). Given the gap between the paths is not large, it is usually safe to travel between both paths if desired. The two paths then end with a set of three rails which all connect to another large straight path. In Team Sonic's version of the stage, the player must be vary of a few Rhinoliners present on some rails that attempt to ram into the player as they approach the rails. The straight path connects into another two-path section identical to the previous one.
After the two paths merge together into one large path once more via Grind Rails, the player traverses a long path that eventually steers towards the left, encountering trails of Rings and three Grind Rails which eventually brings the stage back to the beginning once more.
This boss has three phases: the first phase deals with the undercarriage of the ship, which contains Egg Pawn gunners, a front cannon which shoots the same metal cannonballs as Rhinoliners, and four blasters that emit projectiles like those of Cameron's and their gold counterparts. These weapons and the Egg Pawn gunners can be optionally destroyed to make the fight easier. The Fly formation's Thunder Shoot can also shock the weapons for a short while, preventing their projectiles from being fired.[1] The metal cannonballs' cannons can usually only be destroyed by Power formation attacks.[2]
After reducing one of the wings of the undercarriage from 40 HP to 0 HP, the undercarriage falls off into the canyon floor. The ship then becomes a blimp, just barely floating above the ground, with many metal cannonball cannons on each side and 50HP. These cannons can be optionally destroyed. Attacking the front rotor with Speed Formation's Homing Attack repeatedly is the most reliable method to damage this form.
Once the rotor has been destroyed, Eggman breaks off the Egg Hawk from the blimp and will begin to flee. The Egg Hawk in this fight is much weaker than in its first appearance (having only 15 HP as opposed to the first having 99 HP), so defeating it is not too difficult as it can be done with as few as two mid-air Power Formation attacks.
As with the earlier Egg Hawk battle, if the player is too far from the first two phases of the Egg Albatross (or the Egg Hawk in this battle), the Egg Albatross/Hawk will speed towards the player before giving itself distance by moving forward along the stage. Each time the player defeats one of the phases, they will always be displaced onto solid ground (even while above the bottomless pits) to prevent them from falling off of the stage.
Ranking
After defeating the Egg Albatross, the player will receive a Rank based on the time taken to defeat it. The time thresholds for each Rank are the same for all four teams:[3]
| Rank | Time |
|---|---|
|
<2:00 |
|
2:00-3:00 |
|
3:00-4:00 |
|
4:00-5:00 |
|
>5:00 |
Music
| Name | Artist(s) | Length | Music track |
|---|---|---|---|
| "BOSS : EGG ALBATROSS" | Jun Senoue | 1:39 |
Videos
In other media
Books and comics
Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spinoffs published by Archie Comics, the Egg Albatross appeared and, at some point, was sold to Breezie the Hedgehog, who had it hung from a ceiling in Casino Park for display purposes.
Trivia
- The Egg Albatross resembles the Escape Blimp in Bonanza Bros., only here it is gold, and features has spikes and other additions.
- The music for this battle reappears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, where it plays during Eggman's All-Star Move, "Missile Madness".
Gallery
Artwork
Sprites
Stage map
References
- ↑ Sonic Team USA (30 December 2003). Sonic Heroes. Xbox. Sega. Area/level: Egg Albatross (Team Dark). "Rouge: Those cannons are in our way and there's so many of them. I'll stop them from moving."
- ↑ Sonic Team USA (30 December 2003). Sonic Heroes. Xbox. Sega. Area/level: Egg Albatross (Team Sonic). "Knuckles: The cannons that shoot those metal cannonballs are pretty strong. Let me handle this one"
- ↑ Guess, Gerald (January 6, 2004). Sonic Heroes: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima Games. p. 159. ISBN 0761544496.