Sonic Labyrinth
From Sonic Retro
- "Labyrinth" redirects here. For the Sonic 1 Zone, see Labyrinth Zone.
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| System(s): Sega Game Gear, Virtual Console | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Genre: Action[2][3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sonic Labyrinth (ソニックラビリンス) is an isometric puzzle/action game for the Sega Game Gear. Sonic the Hedgehog must move around a pinball-like arena, using his power to roll into a ball to defeat Badniks and pick up keys in order to exit through the Goal door and clear the stage. The only move Sonic can use in the game is the Spin Dash, because Dr. Eggman secretly replaced his famous red shoes with a pair of Speed Down Boots that took away his ability to run fast or jump.
Contents
Story
In his frustrations over Sonic the Hedgehog foiling his schemes, Dr. Eggman came to the realisation that if Sonic's speed was taken away, he would not be able to outrun his traps and stop him from taking over the world. As such, Eggman invents a pair of Speed Down Boots and switches Sonic's red sneakers with them while the hedgehog sleeps. Upon waking up, Sonic puts on the boots, and suddenly finds himself unable to run or jump.
With Sonic stripped of his speed, Eggman accidentally announces in an act of triumph that in order for Sonic to remove the boots, he must use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to deactivate the boots. Having been given clues on how to take them off, Sonic follows Eggman into his latest fortress on South Island, the Super Labyrinth, in order to locate the Chaos Emeralds using only his Spin Dash.
Gameplay
The game uses a 3D isometric overhead view similar to that of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island. However, gameplay is restricted to a single button which is the Spin Dash. To use the Spin Dash, the player must press and hold either 
or 
to charge the move with the overhead arrows determining the strength of the charge, with four arrows being the strongest charge and no arrows being the weakest, then release the button to dash away in the direction Sonic is facing. While Sonic is rolling about, pressing or will make him skid to a halt. There is no jump button whatsoever and the only way to make Sonic airborne is through the use of obstacles.
The Super Labyrinth spans four Zones, each with four Acts. In the first three Acts, the objective is to collect 3 keys in order to be able to exit through the door which leads to the next Act. In these Acts, Rings do not appear to serve as Sonic's health. Instead, health is determined by the amount of time available and each hit from an enemy or hazard will shave 10 seconds off the clock. When time runs out, Sonic will lose a life. Fortunately, seconds can be added to the clock by collecting keys or by destroying enemies.
The fourth Acts are different as they begin with Sonic speeding downhill in a Scroll Zone (スクロールゾーン[12]). In these sections, Sonic can be moved with 
and 
to collect Rings and avoid spikes, while repeatedly pressing or will make Sonic brake in order to slow his descent. Sonic can use the Rings collected in the Scroll Zone as protection from hits in the upcoming boss fight, as in most Sonic games, but Rings lost cannot be collected again. The Scroll Zones and bosses lack a timer and so can be tackled at the player's leisure. After defeating the Boss, a Chaos Emerald is awarded, meaning there are a total of 5 Emeralds which can be earned without any extra effort. To attain the good ending of the game, the player is also required to find the hidden Bonus Stage in Act 3 of the Labyrinth of the Sea.
Items
The power-ups in Sonic Labyrinth are not contained in monitors but are found inside coloured triangles instead and are collected simply by touching them. Their formation, which constantly shifts to another formation, determines which power-up is given. Interestingly, these triangles cannot be found in the third Act of Labyrinth of the Sea, but there are oil slick-spitting octopus robots that have two colored diamonds that cycle through the colours of the triangles.
| ? Item[13] / Question (クエスチョン[14]) | |
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| Destroys all on-screen Badniks. | |
| 1UP[13][14] | |
| Awards an extra life. | |
| Invincible[13] / Twinkle (トゥインクル[15]) | |
| Makes Sonic invincible for a short time. | |
| Sneakers[13] / Speed Boots (スピードブーツ[15]) | |
| Increases Sonic's walking speed for a short time. | |
| Hourglass[13] / Magic Clock (マジッククロック[15]) | |
| Adds 30 seconds to the timer. |
Time Attack
The Time Attack mode allows players to race to achieve best times in an alternate version of Labyrinth of the Sky Act 2 with no enemies or items. When completed, a best time and score are given along with a star-based rating, and the record will be lost when the Game Gear is turned off. In addition to that, there is a 5-digit password which has no actual use in the game. The password was for use in a contest held in Japan where one hundred players with the best times would be awarded prizes[16]. The contest was only held from November 17 to December 31, 1995[17], and the password has no use today, nor did it ever have any use outside Japan.
History
Development
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Main article: Sonic Labyrinth/Development |
Versions
Also released on
- Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and PC (2003-2004)
- Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC (2004-2005)
- Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the Xbox (2005)
- Playpal Plug and Play for the Coleco Plug and play console (2006)
- Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Shadow the Hedgehog for the PlayStation 2 (2009)
- Sonic PC Collection for the PC (2009)
- Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS (2013)
- Sonic Origins Plus for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Epic Games Store (2023)
Production credits
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Main article: sega:Sonic Labyrinth/Production credits |
Manuals
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Main article: Sonic Labyrinth/Manuals |
Magazine articles
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Main article: sega:Sonic Labyrinth/Magazine articles |
Artwork
JP logo
US logo
EU logo
JP/US cover art with JP logo
JP/US cover art
EU cover art
JP story illustration 1
JP story illustration 2
JP story illustration 3
JP story illustration 4
Sonic
27th anniversary artwork from Sonic Channel
Physical scans
 Reception »
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  Cover
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 Cart |
| Game Gear, US |
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   Cover
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 Cart |
| Game Gear, EU |
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   Cover
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 Cart |
| Game Gear, FR (Blister) |
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| Game Gear, PT |
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Technical information
ROM dump status
| System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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512kB | Cartridge | |||||||||||
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512kB | 3DS Virtual Console (US/EU) | 
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512kB | 1995-05-25 | EPROM cartridge | Page |
External links
- Sega of America webpage: Game Gear
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console page
- Nintendo catalogue pages: JP, US, UK, AU
References
- ↑ https://www.mtwo.co.jp/development/retrogame-2/#tab-4 (Wayback Machine: 2014-04-03 00:26)
- ↑ File:Labyrinth-box-eu-back.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/gamegear/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-12-07 04:57)
- ↑ [egm, issue 77, page 182 egm, issue 77, page 182]
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 [mms, issue 37, page 88 mms, issue 37, page 88]
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://vc.sega.jp:80/3ds/labyrinth/ (Wayback Machine: 2012-10-28 11:50)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.nintendo.com:80/games/detail/eKX2obOabUS4BkI1h_IIeW8mmBdgVxCk (Wayback Machine: 2013-06-30 14:26)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.fr/Jeux/Console-virtuelle-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Labyrinth--275858.html (archive.today)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 http://www.nintendolife.com:80/games/gamegear/sonic_labyrinth (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-09 22:43)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Virtual-Console-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Labyrinth--275858.html (archive.today)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Virtual-Console-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Labyrinth--275858.html (archive.today)
- ↑ File:SonicLabyrinth GG JP manual.pdf, page 15
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 File:SonicLabyrinth GG US manual.pdf, page 10
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 File:SonicLabyrinth GG JP manual.pdf, page 26
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 File:SonicLabyrinth GG JP manual.pdf, page 27
- ↑ File:SonicLabyrinth GG JP manual.pdf, page 32
- ↑ File:SonicLabyrinth GG JP manual.pdf, page 33
| Sonic Labyrinth | |
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Manuals |
show;hide
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| Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems | |
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1991 Sonic the Hedgehog 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1993 Sonic Chaos | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine 1994 Sonic Drift | Sonic Spinball | Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble 1995 Sonic Drift 2 | Tails' Skypatrol | Tails Adventures | Sonic Labyrinth | Sonic 2 in 1 1996 Sonic Blast Prototypes Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear prototype) | Sonic Chaos prereleases | Sonic Spinball (8-bit) prereleases | Sonic Triple Trouble prereleases | Sonic Blast prereleases Unreleased Sonic's Edusoft
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