Sonic Labyrinth

[Komodin]

Sonic Labyrinth... Oh, what to say about this game...

Well, for starters, let's get everyone up to speed with a little summary, made by yours truly:

Released in November 1995, Sonic Labyrinth is the eleventh title in the Sonic series released on the Sega Game Gear.

One day, Dr. Eggman had an epiphany: if Sonic's speed was removed from him, taking over the world would be taking candy from a baby. So, later that night, Eggman snuck into Sonic's house and, rather just kill him in his moment of weakness, replaced Sonic's sneakers with a pair of supposedly-identical-looking Speed Down Boots. Next morning, Sonic woke up, slipped on the shoes and found out that he couldn't run or even jump. Eggman made himself known and gloated that the Boots can only be removed by Chaos Emerald energy. He also claimed that the miracle gems are all hidden in the Great Labyrinth, his latest base. So, in a nutshell: Eggman took Sonic's speed; Sonic must go through a dungeon to get it back.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the best way to describe it is: Marble Madness with Sonic as the playable character. Sonic can't run or jump, only walk and your only means of fast locomotion and offense is the Spin Dash. There are four "worlds" in the Great Labyrinth: Labyrinth in the Sky, Sea, Factory and Castle, and they each have three acts and a boss battle. The main objective in each main act is to collect three keys and make it to the goal in three minutes. Get hit, and you lose time and the keys fly out of you; don't grab the keys in time and they'll pop right back in their original spots. Fall down a pit or right out of time, you die. With boss battles, rather than collecting keys, you must first go down a chute and collect rings on the way down. Once you reach the end, you'll actually fight the boss. Get hit once, and you lose all of your rings - even if you manage to get 99 rings in the tube - get hit again, you lose a life. If you lose all of your lives, you must start from the beginning of the game.

Now that that's taken care of, let's get to the topic, shall we?

Sonic Labyrinth has quite a negative reputation for itself, with more than a few people stating that it's even worse than Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). I've always found this comparison rather iffy since at least this game is competent in the sense that it's relatively glitch-free; to say that Sonic '06 is broken is a bit of an understatement. Heck, the way I see it, at worst, Sonic Labyrinth is a tad mediocre with gameplay that, while not bad per se. isn't really all that exciting, either. But, again, that's just my personal opinion on the game; your mileage will vary.

So, hey, anyone wish to share their thoughts on this... interesting game? Let's try to keep it civil; I'd hate it to see this thread go to the wayside due to flame wars.

[Phantomime]

Eh, I don't hate it. I just don't really touch it either.

I did try it out on I believe Mega Collection+, but it just didn't appeal to me. I wasn't outraged that Sonic was slow, but it did really bog down anything that this had going for it.

It was always between slowly and tediously walking if you missed something while spindashing, which was very likely, as spindash made you rocket by everything, or the clumsy feeling isometric spindash. Plus, since it was on an isometric viewpoint, and the goal was to collect keys that were a bit too exact when it came to trying to grab one, it was a bit frustrating in that regard as well. It wasn't engaging, and I rather quickly grew bored and went back to playing S3&K.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Phantomime

[Vertekins]

Any charm Labyrinth has to me is confined to it's music and it's funny, funny story. Not to mention the illustrations in the Japanese manual, this one especially;

"Nya nya nya. I'm running about, ruining your plans, pissing you off "

I mean, seriously. What was Eggman smoking when he decided to enter Sonic's house instead of, you know, drop a firebomb on it and upon seeing the defenseless blue Hedgehog snoozing away, swap his shoes for a pair that merely slow him down? And then boast about the Emeralds being in his "Great Labyrinth"?

And people say his villain decay only really started in Sonic Heroes? Pah.

But anyways, the music. Very monotonous and there's not a lot of music variation but I actually think it was enchanting. Specifically the 1st level of an area's theme and the credits theme.

[Nepenthe]

I've stayed away from this game because everyone told me to, but then I remember how much fun I had with 3D Blast in later years despite its less-than-stellar reputation. The similarities between the games with the isometric view prompted me to look up some footage of Labyrinth in motion, and it didn't look too terrible at all; perhaps a bit monotonous, but I think a lot of the bad word of mouth may be a bit undeserved. It appears way too inconsequential and innocuous to drum up such ire. Once I get off my ass and plug up my Wii again, I'll finally try it out for myself, but I have hopes it's not going to be Satan spunk.

[Soniman]

A mediocre game that gets way to much shit. Comparing it to Sonic 06 is laughable, it set out what it planned to do and is a classic case of being exactly what it says on the tin.

[Tori Himemiya]

Honestly while I believe Labyrinth is one of the more weaker Sonic games I will give it some credit for trying to pull off something original.

It took Sonic's speed turning him into a snail. This would had been a good struggle between conquering weakness and coping with personal fears but nope we got a bad game.

But give Eggman credit too for switching his shoes since no one has really slowed him down.

[JezMM]

It was okay. I enjoyed it up to about the third zone, where the levels started to get pretty big and therefore tedious. It was a simple concept for a puzzley action game, but unfortunately it didn't really have any depth to it. The levels just sort of... got longer and more confusing rather than more interesting.

[mikeblastdude]

I don't think Sonic Labyrinth is horrible for what it is; it's not really meant to be like a traditional Sonic game at all. The reason that Sonic walks so slowly is because the whole point is to shoot yourself in different directions while bouncing off the walls and strategizing where you're going to go. Kind of like billiards but on a much grander scale (and also, looking for keys instead of going into holes). Definitely not my kind of game though. I think I've only ever made it past the first boss before completely being done with it out of sheer boredom. I can't really remember any of the music, but I don't remember it being really bad or anything (I usually tend to really like the 8-bit Sonic soundtracks, even Sonic Blast...).

But yeah, the plot is hilariously awful. XD

[Chaos Warp]

It's not a horrible game in general, but as a Sonic game it is terrible.

[Tylky]

I haven't really played the game in a long while. I think I tried it once on Mega Collection +, but I don't think I enjoyed it very much. It was very tedious and boring. Before long I was back on Sonic 2.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Tylky

[krazystitch]

I think this game was alright, really. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anything amazing. It just strayed away from the classic Sonic formula, but I really don't think that makes it some kind of an abomination that a lot of people out it out to be. As stated before me, the game just ended up being the same thing over and over, just with bigger levels, so it did get pretty tedious.

Had it not been for that...well, people probably still would have hated it, but..

[Old dead account]

I think that while this game tried to do something original, it proves that originality does not always equal good. It wasn't promising to be the grand entrance to next gen like a certain other title did and failed, therefore we got a shitty title nobody really cared about. I see it as Sonic 3D Blast with a downgrade in every way imaginable, even though it did come out one year earlier, so more like an alpha test with controls that give you a nightmare regardless. I would honestly rather play Sonic 06.

[KHCast]

It's a mediocre game. Some people seem to blow it up to be the devil waaay to often. It IS NOT worse than 06. You could fined some fun in it. Just not a lot for me personally. BTW Eggman should have worn those shoes. that would have been hilarious!

[Aero]

What I don't understand is why Sonic didn't just take the shoes off in the first place. Then this game would probably have never happened. Unless they had glue in them or something.

[Komodin]

What I don't understand is why Sonic didn't just take the shoes off in the first place. Then this game would probably have never happened. Unless they had glue in them or something.

Well, according to the manual, the shoes were locked on him so that they could only be removed by the Chaos Emeralds. It all amounts to an excuse plot, but eh, it's something.

[Tails spin]

Sonic Labyrinth... Oh, what to say about this game...

I read up to this point and instantly in my head I said: " Nothing can be said about this game". yup

[LoseR]

*Dies laughing*

No seriously though. I wouldn't call it a BAD game. I'd just call it uninteresting and slow, but it's not BAD.

[Badnik Zero]

No you guys. This game is bad. I had it for the Game Gear. I got it instead of Tails Adventure. It's different when it's an unlockable in a Sonic compilation. You don't have to wonder why you own it. I'm happy I own it now because it's such a mess of legendary proportions. But it's so bad. Make yourself play it to the final levels. It's Sonic 3D Blast without the polish, and with 10x less control. Flickies? Keys. You can't control where you're going. The levels are long, and timed.

Edited May 3, 2012 by Badnikz

[Rusty Spy]

Labyrinth isn't just a bad Sonic game, its a bad game in GENERAL.

The levels are just mazes where you have to wander around until you stumble upon a key without any sense of gratification. The controls are shit, your only method of getting around inside an hour is spindashing which has you bouncing off walls uncontrollably.

The first couple levels are harmless enough that you can beat with little trouble, but once you start dealing with doors and teleporters is when the game takes a nose dive into absolute tedium. Now its a game of memorization and an exercise in frustration.

And the levels are timed.

Fuck this game it IS worse than Sonic 06. There is NO redeeming quality about this game.

[Kuzu]

I never really cared about this game, but is it really that bad?

[Rusty Spy]

never really cared about this game, but is it really that bad?

As a game it isn't broken bad, or even conceptual bad, its not even that hard. It's just boring, tedious and unsatisfying, which is probably the worst thing a game can be.

[Lamor]

Played it once... for 5 seconds....

[SilentDoom]

Part of me almost doesn't think it's fair to compare 06 and Labyrinth to decide which is worse. A lot of what makes 06 so bad is the fact that it was extremely disappointing. I mean, the game had so much hype to live up to, so much it promised and it failed to deliver in almost every respect. Labyrinth is just a random spin off that a lot of people don't even have much awareness for and even fewer really give a damn about. It's a boring, pointless game that's just there and it didn't really do all that much harm to the series at all. Whereas 06 almost killed it.