Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
While this looks an awful lot like the final boss, at this point this stage was intended to be a Mystic Jungle fight against Infinite alone, taking place after Jungle Inferno. When the mod was changed to a single episode, we kept this layout but redid the visuals and story context to turn it into the space-warping final boss against Infinite and Neo Metal Sonic. Layout-wise, this version is pretty similar to what would become the final layout, but almost none of the actual boss mechanics, cinematics, or obstacles exist yet. There were also quite a few small tweaks and changes made to increase the degree of player interaction in the final level, such as more alternate pathways and even a short 3D platforming section in Phase 3. The Double Boost section was also connected directly to the end of Phase 4, whilst the final separated it into its own area.
If you saw the scrapped Eclipse Forest design, you might also notice that Phase 2’s layout looks rather familiar, and that’s because we actually recycled the beginning section of that version for the boss, though it would end up being redesigned more from there.
While this looks an awful lot like the final boss, at this point this stage was intended to be a Mystic Jungle fight against Infinite alone, taking place after Jungle Inferno. When the mod was changed to a single episode, we kept this layout but redid the visuals and story context to turn it into the space-warping final boss against Infinite and Neo Metal Sonic. Layout-wise, this version is pretty similar to what would become the final layout, but almost none of the actual boss mechanics, cinematics, or obstacles exist yet. There were also quite a few small tweaks and changes made to increase the degree of player interaction in the final level, such as more alternate pathways and even a short 3D platforming section in Phase 3. The Double Boost section was also connected directly to the end of Phase 4, whilst the final separated it into its own area.
If you saw the scrapped Eclipse Forest design, you might also notice that Phase 2’s layout looks rather familiar, and that’s because we actually recycled the beginning section of that version for the boss, though it would end up being redesigned more from there.
