The Badniks in Sonic 3 Are Less Distinct, Less Iconic

There's a lot of Badniks in Sonic 1 and 2 that I find just annoying to deal with. Caterkiller is, I think, a great idea that just sometimes doesn't work for me. Motobug is really iconic but Rhino bot is just a bit eh. But mechanically they are a very nice balance between being fun to engage with as well as challenging. Any enemy in this game that can hurt you will never be in that state when you first encounter it unless you're very, very unlucky.