>Mecha Sonic is literally right before the final boss.
yeah that's what made losing to it feel so bad (;´Д`)
>The attack pattern is always the same, so if you get there with a fair bunch of lives you can get it down pretty quick
sounds about right. The last time i got there was when i was playing with an actual mega drive when i was around 13... so i could probably beat it now with an emulator