Hey guys! Welcome to the (insert number here)nd Funky Friday of March! We hope you're getting into the Halloween spirit, because we in Perplexing Red Plumber Opponents sure are! One of us has even joined the spirit realm to commemorate the "Ghost" character. Goodbye!
But today's funny enemy isn't spooky at all! It's actually...
...a rock?
Name: Sandopolis rock (from Sandopolis Zone)
Debut: Sonic & Knuckles
Har-dee-har. It's 239 days until Halloween, so I get a rock for a laugh. I see how it is!
Sigh. There's not much to say about the infamous Sandopolis Rock, as pretty as it is. It is a rock from Sandopolis, to be certain! Unlike the rocks in Angel Island Zone, it cannot be pushed or Spin Dashed into; you break it apart by jumping on it, as I will demonstrate...
…say, no matter how much I jump on this rock, it doesn't break! That means...i-it's not a rock at all! YIPE!
Name: Rock'n
Debut: Sonic & Knuckles
AHHHHHH!
Looks like we were in for a Spooky Shock, after all! Rock'n is a Badnik that mimics the rocks spread throughout Sandopolis Zone, making it perhaps one of Eggman's most devilishly igneous inventions yet. But while the real rocks (and even most other Badniks) are perfectly content to going to ruins once struck from above, Rock'n doesn't share that same sediment, it prefers to roll its own way. When Sonic jumps on it, the rock metamorphoses into its true form: a funny looking guy with googly eyes and two legs.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles loves its funny-eyed Badniks. So many of them have eyes like this. Mod Hooligon compared these eyes to that of Noo-Noo, which I can definitely get behind.
(Could Noo-Noo have been created by Dr. Eggman, the hidden tale of a redeemed Badnik?)
Far from stone-cold, Rock'n can't actually hurt Sonic in any way; once it awakens, it just walks back and forth, satisfied with its trickery, and walking into it again just pushes Sonic around, while jumping on its top lets you casually ride atop it. That may make you wonder why destroy it at all if it is so harmless, but sadly, the wily Eggman unethically powers ALL of his autonomous robots in the game with Animals, making destroying Rock'n–which can be done by rolling into it–the only ethical choice.
Strangely, unlike the other Badniks in Sandopolis Zone and even unlike the rocks it mimics, Rock'n only appears in Act 1–even using Debug Mode in the Sonic Origins port of S3&K will offer you nothing but disappointment on the Rock'n front. Perhaps it ended up not synergizing well with the level, or perhaps they didn't want it quite so adjacent to the similar enemy in the next stage...
