You'll start this level in the same place you finished the last one; on the wings of the Tornado plane, with Tails (Or Sonic, if you're playing as Tails) manning the controls. Before you know it, you're being fired at by rather large and frightening lasers and after a few shots, they hit the Tornado, which starts to smoke and plummet downward. Bummer. Fortunately, there's a ledge right there waiting for you to jump onto it to safety, but your partner will stay in the cockpit and go down with his ship. If you're playing as Sonic and Tails, then this is the end of their collaborative effort for this game and Sonic will have to take on this final level alone. If you stay on the wings, you'll get knocked off.

After a bit of running, you'll find yourself in an area filled with red and grey constructional platforms and whatnot. Here, you need to head down to the ledge that's just above the bottom of this area, shown in the screenshot, and walk toward the wall on the left. It's open inside, and you can walk right through, where you'll be blown out of an external door on the side of the ship, just above one of the wings. Your character will automatically grab on to a series of four panels as he is thrown to the left. The panels will give way in a second or two, sending you falling back to the next set, but you can also release them yourself, simply by tapping a jump button. You can move up and down while you're grabbing on, but there's really no need, because after you've released all the panels, you'll just end up safely back on another ledge to the far left. If you go too far down while hanging onto them, you may miss the platform and fall to another death, so it's best to just stay where you are.

Immediately after being thrown from panel to panel, you'll find three vertical conveyor belts with platforms that lead downwards. Take the first one until you're able to leap over to the next on the right, which is followed by another on the right of that, and on this third conveyor belt, keep jumping up to the platform above you when you're at the bottom of it, to avoid falling off. On the right of that, you'll either see a grey gunner poking out of a flap on the side of the ship, or the closed flap itself. This is the first of seven, and they open and close continuously, but you can use them as platforms when they're open. For the sake of safety, stay on the conveyor belt platforms until you see the gunner actually come out (perhaps best not to just jump on it as soon as you approach the area, seeing that the gunner is already out - it might go back in again!). When you're sure that it's freshly emerged, allowing the longest possible time for you to stand on it, leap off onto this gunner platform. You'll find a series of them to the right of it, which you should use to make your way to the far right ledge. They'll always open and close one by one, from left to right, so the key thing is to be quick. Don't worry about one of them closing from under you, just keep jumping across them, without stopping. If you fall, then, yes you guessed it, there's nothing to catch you below.

The latter challenges of the game are very tough, so it might be worth your while picking up every extra life you can. This one seems somewhat risky, but it's actually quite safe. Just after the last point, head upwards by four platforms and crane hooks etc. You'll come to a speed launcher that will throw you through the wall to another crane area on the other side. You'll land right in front of another launcher, but don't touch it, instead jump over it to the left. Drop down to the lower level and at the end you'll see a crane hook above a gap in the floor. Take it. It'll lower you down to the bottom of the wall and there's a hidden corridor inside, marked by a circular window, so carefully hop inside it. You can't see it, but the extra life is in the middle of this corridor. Now, how the hell do you get out of here? Quite simple, just drop out of the corridor from either the left or right side. An invisible current of air will safely carry you across to the left, to another alcove that you'll fall into, and which has a platform moving up and down next to it. Take the platform up to another crane hook where you'll be taken back to where you started. That current seems to protect you from falling no matter where you drop in this area.

This boss is what I consider to be one of the hardest, but before you reach it, you'll find a little black explosive contraption in your path. Jump on it, and it'll open up the floor for you so that you fall into an inner section of Wing Fortress. Walk forward and down the steps and you'll find yourself caught between two long, thin yellow rays that trap you in. Eggman is standing on the far side, safe behind the ray, chuckling at your inevitable demise as a round thing attached to the ceiling starts moving across it. What's worse is that a hatch in the middle is releasing three small floating platforms armed with rotating spikeballs underneath. They move around the arena randomly, bouncing off the side rays. Jump on top of them and they'll carry you with them, but don't get hit by the spikes underneath, obviously. Back to that round thing. When it stops to open up and starts flashing, that means it's charging up a mighty laser blast, but is also vulnerable to your attack. Use one of the platforms to reach it and hit the big flashing orange part. For once, you don't hit Eggman at all in this, he just stands there giggling like a mental patient all the way through. It'll charge up for about five seconds, so you should be able to get more than just one hit in at a time. After that, it'll emit a large blue laser that goes all the way down to the floor and it'll start moving towards you for about 3 seconds before closing itself up and repeating the sequence, so you should be able to avoid that fairly easily. It's the spiked platforms that are normally the biggest bother. Eight hits to destroy this infernal contraption.

After that, the Eggman will retreat downwards via the platform he's standing on. The rays will disappear after a moment so hop over there (there's a 1-up hidden over to the far right, past the flashing stuff and behind a wall, by the way) and fall down the gap. You'll land on a long platform and Sonic will go into autopilot as he runs along it, catching Eggman escaping in a small rocket. He'll stand on the edge, looking stumped for a moment as the rocket departs from the launching bay, before Tails returns in the Tornado! He's cleverly fitted a spare rocket he had handy (or nicked from Wing Fortress) to the bottom, allowing the plane to function as good as new! Sonic hops on the wings and they give chase to Eggman's rocket as it climbs higher and higher into the atmosphere. Eventually, Sonic leaps and grabs hold of it tightly and Tails, unable to force the humble Tornado into orbit, returns back down. Finally, the rocket reaches space and docks into the Death Egg, Eggman's massive satellite of destruction, with Sonic clinging on for dear life. Let the final showdown commence!.. See the Story and Stages page for a guide to the final bosses.