Like most Orbinauts, the Zombie Orbinauts are spherical Badniks that orbit three spiked objects around themselves to protect their bodies. However, the Zombie Orbinauts are made up of the broken remains of Badniks found in the trash heaps of Flying Battery Zone, with their main body consisting of a Tubinaut with an empty eye socket, while the spiked objects they orbit being the segments of a Rattlekiller.
Overview
In Sonic Mania and its expansion Sonic Mania Plus, the Zombie Orbinauts are enemies that appear exclusively in the Big Squeeze boss fight in Flying Battery Zone Act 1, where they are reanimated by the boss in order to attack the player. Once being created, the Zombie Orbinauts will follow the player and try to damage them with their rotating Rattlekiller segments, which can be made more tricky to avoid if the entire screen is filled with these Badniks. Despite this, the Zombie Orbinauts can be easily defeated with a Spin Jump (despite being protected by their Rattlekiller segments), which can allow the player to get enough height to land hits on the Big Squeeze itself. However, each Zombie Orbinaut destroyed makes the compactors on both sides get closer to each other, giving the player less room to deal damage to the boss and avoiding the other Zombie Orbinauts as well. Once the player defeats the Big Squeeze, any remaining Zombie Orbinauts will also subsequently collapse back into the trash heap.
Upon their destruction, Zombie Orbinauts will award the player 100 points, though unlike most Badniks, they do not release any Animals when being destroyed. Additionally, any of the remaining Zombie Orbinauts onscreen after Big Squeeze is defeated do not award the player any points when they fall apart.
Powers and abilities
Like most Orbinauts, the Zombie Orbinaut has the ability to levitate and use Rattlekiller segments as a means of both defense and offense, having the segments levitate around their bodies in a clockwise formation.
Trivia
It is possible to defeat the Big Squeeze without destroying any of the Zombie Orbinauts it summons by either using the Thunder Shield's double jump as Sonic, Tails' flight, or most of the characters Super forms.
