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Name:
Sonic Labyrinth - All countries
Other Names (Nicknames): N/A
Release Dates:
November, 1995- North America
October, 1995 - Europe
November 17, 1995 - Japan
Quality: 8-Bit, Isometric 3D Puzzle
Game System(s): Sega Game
Gear
Also released on:
(1). Nintendo GameCube - Sonic Adventure DX
(2). PC - Sonic Adventure DX
(3). Playstation 2/X-Box - Sonic Mega Collection PLUS
Developer(s): Sega of
Japan
Character Introductions: N/A
(unless you count those strange glue spitting creatures, but I don't
think they really count)
Region Game Takes Place On: The
Great Labyrinth.
Concept Introductions: Sonic
Labyrinth is another one of those stand-alone Sonic games. There has
never been a game before it and there will probably never be another
game like it. Interestingly enough, while most Sonic games pride themselves
on their fast action, the point of Sonic Labyrinth (in the storyline
perspective at least) is that you can't run at all - Eggman has dropped
you with some really heavy shoes. The game is basically involves finding
keys which exist either within enemies (you can beat enemies with your
spin dash) or in corners of the world and finding them in order to move
onto the next stage. That, plus a couple of bosses and an interesting
idea of rotating power-ups (by this, I mean that the type of power up
you recieve circles a certain set of power ups in a specific path) makes
up the core of the game.
Concept Deductions: See above.
Storyline(s):
Dr. Robotnik
has finally done it! He has figured out why Sonic kept beating him over
and over again. It is his speed (took him long enough, right? And he
is supposed to be a genius)! Now, what way is there to reduce the speed
of his azure arch-adversary? Well, since he is a genius, he could slow
down Sonic's molecules to a crawl or something. No, instead Dr. Robotnik,
sneaking into Sonic's room in the middle the night, glancing at the
innocent and totally unprotected blue hedgehog with his nefarious eyes
and malicious intent firmly planted in his mind....and he replaced his
sneakers with some heavy ones. BRILLIANT! (I am imagining the guy from
the Guiness commercrial. Try to. It makes it funnier).
That morning
Tails happened off on some sort of adventure thing (perhaps a Tails
Adventure if it is the US version), our blue hero awoke with a big old
yawn and reaching under his bed he pulled out his sneakers and threw
them on his feet. Somehow when he was putting them on he did not notice
their weight, because now they were so heavy he could barely even run.
Dr. Eggman laughed because Sonic had thrown on his patented Speed Down
Boots, and the only way to get them off are with the Chaos Emeralds.
However, Sonic had the last laugh because he found out somehow (whether
he tried or just fell down the stairs) he could still Spin Dash. So
off our hero went with that knowledge in mind, to the Great Labyrinth
in order to gain these magical jewels so that he can run again.
Personal Criticism/Opinion:
This is one of the weirder installments into the Sonic the Hedgehog
library. The basic premise is the labyrinth and key collection explained
in Concept Introduction. Personally, I found the game rather slow and
the controls a little bit hard, but only because it seemed like they
didn't fine tune the physics completely and utterly. The game isn't
that long, however. Basically only four zones (the four labyrinths,
as it were) with only three keys to a labyrinth. And the keys don't
move, making beating this game once you have beaten it once very simple.
Personally, I would say let Sonic go find those Chaos Emeralds by himself
and instead jump over to help Tails in his US-timed adventure of saving
his island from ducks. But if you have read the Tails' Adventure review,
you'll know I am obsessed with that game, to a point.
Let's see some GAMER'S PERSPECTIVE:
Replay value? C-. There is a problem with puzzle games that
never change their puzzles for every time you play them. It's like any
hand drawn maze. Once you've gotten your pencil transversed (www.dictionary.com
- if you don't understand that. But you should be able to get that one
by reference) along the maze, the second time isn't all that difficult.
Plus, Sonic moves slowly.
Graphics and Layout? I am not an artist by any means. The graphics,
however, leave much to be desired. The checkerboard style could have
been replaced with maybe some ground? And they could have probably done
better than take the graphics from Sonic Chaos, dressed them up a little
bit and thrown them on an Isometric 3D Map. I mean, they were able to
do better for Sonic 3D Blast, and I know that the Genesis is a 16-bit
system, but come on Sega!
Music & Sound Effects? Four boards, slightly different
music for the boards, there really wasn't anything special about the
music in this game.
Storyline? If you think of it in its actual way, the storyline
is like....well, it leaves much to be desired. But just like some other
games of its calibur, the storyline becomes HILARIOUS with a bit of
self-created, light-hearted humor.
OVERALL RATING? I rate Sonic Labyrinth a 4/10
