Worst Sonic game
underrated as hell by people who don't know how to play it. there are MUCH worse sonic games out there. if you go in with an open mind and want to challenge yourself instead of just checking it off your backlog, you'll have a fun enough time. lots of sonic spinoffs feel very unnatural, but a concept like this really serves the series well and makes me wish there were more like it.
Nope
Over-hyping something has proven, time and time again, to be an incredibly risky practice. Taking a product that is either coming out very soon, or having already come out, and praising it all the way to the high heavens along with everyone else would set up false expectations for those who have never experienced said product before, and when they eventually get to this product, they will find that it really was not as good as everyone else had claimed it to be. What many don’t consider though is that this exact same mentality can also be applied to the opposite side of this attitude. You could have something that people will say is GARBAGE, literal bottom of the barrel scum, something that nobody on the face of the Earth should ever even consider giving a proper chance, which has the exact same effect as does over-hyping something, to where whenever people take a shot in the dark for this over-hated product, they may end up liking it at the end of the day. This pretty much summarizes what happened with me and Sonic Labyrinth.
Before playing this game, I had heard horror stories about it, with many considering it to be one of the worst Sonic games of all time, even if it isn’t as discussed as frequently as some of the others, and even though I never played it until this point, I had always wondered about it. I mean, could it REALLY be THAT bad, as bad as Sonic ‘06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, or Sonic and the Secret Rings? Well, I was never really gonna figure that out for myself until I sat down and gave it a shot, so I did just that, and based on what I have played…….. it’s fine? It definitely does not reach the same quality as many of the best titles in the series, or even as some of the other Master System/Game Gear Sonic titles, but on its own, it was a perfectly fine game that managed to be reasonable and short enough to where I couldn’t possibly get that angry at it.
The story is… pretty fucking stupid, where in one of Dr. Robotnik’s most “cunning” and “brilliant” plans to take out Sonic yet, he tricks him into wearing a special pair of shoes that completely eliminates his speed, while also trapping him inside of a Super Labyrinth, so it is up to Sonic to traverse through this labyrinth, get the Chaos Emeralds, and stop Dr. Robotnik once again, which is about as dumb as you could expect from this kind of game, but I will give Robotnik props for actually being smart for once with his plans……… and then never again. The graphics are ok, pretty much looking like every other Game Gear Sonic title, which doesn’t look all that bad, but it is definitely doesn’t compare to other games from around that era, the music is also ok, once again also sounding like every other Sonic Game Gear title ever made, not having any real noteworthy songs to listen to at all, and the gameplay/control is, for lack of a better term, pretty mid, giving you a style of gameplay that you wouldn’t want to play over any other Sonic game, but at the same time, it isn’t that annoying or bad to where you would wanna keel over and die by the end of it.
The game is an isometric maze game, where you take control of Sonic the Slowpoke, go through a set of four different zones, each with their own set of levels to take on, defeat many enemies while zooming around to get the upper hand and to increase your time limit, gather plenty of rings and keys to protect yourself and help you proceed through the level, and take on several bosses that can either be extremely easy to take down, or be a huge pain in the ass due to not the bosses themselves, but the arena that you are placed in. When you really get into it, you will realize quickly how simple this game is in its execution, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is necessarily all that fun, it definitely was not as bad as I was thinking it was gonna be, as I never had any point throughout the game where I was actively angry.
From what I have heard, one of the biggest factors as to why many people don’t like this game would be with the control, or more specifically, Sonic’s speed. For the entire game, Sonic only has two default speeds, those being really fucking slow and really fucking fast, with you of course starting out really slow, but whenever you rev up into a ball, you will go flying across the screen, bouncing off of any wall you come across, and you won’t come to a stop unless you do so yourself, or you hit a specific obstacle. As a whole, this is a pretty terrible way to handle Sonic’s speed, giving you very little consistent and satisfying control over yourself, and making it so that you will have the most sluggish, while simultaneously uncontrollable experience with this game……. or at least, that’s what you’d think.
For me, as a whole, Sonic’s speed and control didn’t really bother me all that much. Yeah, it definitely is NOT how Sonic should control in any game ever, and it can be frustrating here or there, but really, the game was built with your set speed in mind, meaning that there aren’t too many instances where you will get fucked over by your lack of or too much speed, aside from one or two pits you could fall into here or there. I would say that the only real trouble I had when it came to controlling Sonic was when I was either entering a door or grabbing an item, where you definitely can’t approach it while blazing at Sonic speeds (normally, anyway), otherwise you will just bounce all over the place, and instead, you have to just slowly walk up and get the things. It can be a little frustrating to do this, especially when there is a really specific door you need to enter, but I never got too angry by this to the point of me wanting to rage.
As for the main gameplay itself though, it is also pretty basic, and when I say that, I mean it is VERY basic. You just run around these many labyrinths, grab these keys, and find the exits. That’s it. You don’t gotta worry about grabbing too many rings, beating any enemies, or that many real platforming challenges, it is just all about collecting these keys. The only other real thing you need to worry about is making sure you don’t run out of time, but really, if you are playing through the game normally, you will easily manage to get enough time to where you will easily be able to get all of the keys and find your way out of there, if you know what you’re doing (more on that later). This gameplay style isn’t changed up or further expanded upon the further you go in the game, meaning that it remains fairly simple to tackle throughout the whole game, making for a relatively easy experience. Hell, you don’t even need to get the Chaos Emeralds through special stages, with the exception of just one, and even then, you don’t even need to do anything in the special stage itself, as you automatically get the Chaos Emerald in there just by going into it.
In a lot of ways, this game kinda feels like an early prototype for what we would eventually get in Sonic 3D Blast, being a game where you have to maneuver around these isometric areas, gather these specific objects, and make it to the end without losing all of them. However, in my opinion, I think this game manages to execute this concept BETTER than Sonic 3D Blast ever could. I will go more into it whenever I eventually review the game, but 3D Blast manages to butcher this concept by having many instances of very precise platforming and bullshit hazards sprinkled all throughout, making for a very frustrating game to run through, whereas with Labyrinth, the hazards are kept to a minimum, with the game more focused on building these mazes for you to navigate rather then having you get through obstacles, which was definitely the right call, making the game much less frustrating than I thought it was going to be.
With all that being said though, just because I am giving this game a free pass does not mean I didn’t think it was flawless, because it certainly has its flaws, ones that managed to irk me more than anything else. First and foremost, since the game is called Sonic LABYRINTH, you will need to navigate through plenty of labyrinths in order to find the keys you need in order to get to the next stage, and that in itself is much easier said then done. While I wouldn’t say these labyrinths are impossible to traverse, you can definitely spend a lot of time trying to figure your way around or finding out where everything is, whether it be the keys or the exit to the level itself. It also doesn’t help that you are on a time limit the entire time, meaning that you could potentially encounter some unwarranted deaths primarily just because you ran out of time trying to figure out where you need to go.
To me though, that is more mildly annoying when compared to the actual REAL problem that I have with this game, with that being the bosses. Half of the bosses in this game are easy as hell, with you just being able to easily spin-dash through them and call it a day, but then you have the other two bosses, who have very annoying patterns and really precise openings that you need to take advantage of in order to beat them, and this is much easier said then done. Not to mention, the level design of the boss arenas that you are put in are definitely meant to inconvenience you, making it so that you aren’t able to get a proper shot at these guys without putting yourself directly into harm’s way, which will more often or not lead to your death, and the very little amount of rings you are given for the boss fights themselves don’t help that much either. So yeah, half the bosses are completely fine, while the other half are complete shit.
Overall, despite the rough controls, dickish bosses, and some mildly annoying levels here or there, Sonic Labyrinth managed to surprise me in how competent it really was, not being great or all that good in any sense of the word, but managing to hold up just well enough to where I wouldn’t even say for a second that this is as bad as many people paint it out to be. I would recommend it for those who are huge Sonic fans, as well as those who don’t mind a little change in their typical gameplay style for one of these games, but for everyone else, there isn’t much here that you would get out of trying it for yourself, despite how I managed to somewhat tolerate it by the end of the day. But hey, at least I can say now that I have beaten the game, and I can move on and never have to touch it ever again…………. which is more then I can say for some of the other titles in this series that I am not looking forward to. Looking at you, Tails Adventure.
Game #601
Before playing this game, I had heard horror stories about it, with many considering it to be one of the worst Sonic games of all time, even if it isn’t as discussed as frequently as some of the others, and even though I never played it until this point, I had always wondered about it. I mean, could it REALLY be THAT bad, as bad as Sonic ‘06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, or Sonic and the Secret Rings? Well, I was never really gonna figure that out for myself until I sat down and gave it a shot, so I did just that, and based on what I have played…….. it’s fine? It definitely does not reach the same quality as many of the best titles in the series, or even as some of the other Master System/Game Gear Sonic titles, but on its own, it was a perfectly fine game that managed to be reasonable and short enough to where I couldn’t possibly get that angry at it.
The story is… pretty fucking stupid, where in one of Dr. Robotnik’s most “cunning” and “brilliant” plans to take out Sonic yet, he tricks him into wearing a special pair of shoes that completely eliminates his speed, while also trapping him inside of a Super Labyrinth, so it is up to Sonic to traverse through this labyrinth, get the Chaos Emeralds, and stop Dr. Robotnik once again, which is about as dumb as you could expect from this kind of game, but I will give Robotnik props for actually being smart for once with his plans……… and then never again. The graphics are ok, pretty much looking like every other Game Gear Sonic title, which doesn’t look all that bad, but it is definitely doesn’t compare to other games from around that era, the music is also ok, once again also sounding like every other Sonic Game Gear title ever made, not having any real noteworthy songs to listen to at all, and the gameplay/control is, for lack of a better term, pretty mid, giving you a style of gameplay that you wouldn’t want to play over any other Sonic game, but at the same time, it isn’t that annoying or bad to where you would wanna keel over and die by the end of it.
The game is an isometric maze game, where you take control of Sonic the Slowpoke, go through a set of four different zones, each with their own set of levels to take on, defeat many enemies while zooming around to get the upper hand and to increase your time limit, gather plenty of rings and keys to protect yourself and help you proceed through the level, and take on several bosses that can either be extremely easy to take down, or be a huge pain in the ass due to not the bosses themselves, but the arena that you are placed in. When you really get into it, you will realize quickly how simple this game is in its execution, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is necessarily all that fun, it definitely was not as bad as I was thinking it was gonna be, as I never had any point throughout the game where I was actively angry.
From what I have heard, one of the biggest factors as to why many people don’t like this game would be with the control, or more specifically, Sonic’s speed. For the entire game, Sonic only has two default speeds, those being really fucking slow and really fucking fast, with you of course starting out really slow, but whenever you rev up into a ball, you will go flying across the screen, bouncing off of any wall you come across, and you won’t come to a stop unless you do so yourself, or you hit a specific obstacle. As a whole, this is a pretty terrible way to handle Sonic’s speed, giving you very little consistent and satisfying control over yourself, and making it so that you will have the most sluggish, while simultaneously uncontrollable experience with this game……. or at least, that’s what you’d think.
For me, as a whole, Sonic’s speed and control didn’t really bother me all that much. Yeah, it definitely is NOT how Sonic should control in any game ever, and it can be frustrating here or there, but really, the game was built with your set speed in mind, meaning that there aren’t too many instances where you will get fucked over by your lack of or too much speed, aside from one or two pits you could fall into here or there. I would say that the only real trouble I had when it came to controlling Sonic was when I was either entering a door or grabbing an item, where you definitely can’t approach it while blazing at Sonic speeds (normally, anyway), otherwise you will just bounce all over the place, and instead, you have to just slowly walk up and get the things. It can be a little frustrating to do this, especially when there is a really specific door you need to enter, but I never got too angry by this to the point of me wanting to rage.
As for the main gameplay itself though, it is also pretty basic, and when I say that, I mean it is VERY basic. You just run around these many labyrinths, grab these keys, and find the exits. That’s it. You don’t gotta worry about grabbing too many rings, beating any enemies, or that many real platforming challenges, it is just all about collecting these keys. The only other real thing you need to worry about is making sure you don’t run out of time, but really, if you are playing through the game normally, you will easily manage to get enough time to where you will easily be able to get all of the keys and find your way out of there, if you know what you’re doing (more on that later). This gameplay style isn’t changed up or further expanded upon the further you go in the game, meaning that it remains fairly simple to tackle throughout the whole game, making for a relatively easy experience. Hell, you don’t even need to get the Chaos Emeralds through special stages, with the exception of just one, and even then, you don’t even need to do anything in the special stage itself, as you automatically get the Chaos Emerald in there just by going into it.
In a lot of ways, this game kinda feels like an early prototype for what we would eventually get in Sonic 3D Blast, being a game where you have to maneuver around these isometric areas, gather these specific objects, and make it to the end without losing all of them. However, in my opinion, I think this game manages to execute this concept BETTER than Sonic 3D Blast ever could. I will go more into it whenever I eventually review the game, but 3D Blast manages to butcher this concept by having many instances of very precise platforming and bullshit hazards sprinkled all throughout, making for a very frustrating game to run through, whereas with Labyrinth, the hazards are kept to a minimum, with the game more focused on building these mazes for you to navigate rather then having you get through obstacles, which was definitely the right call, making the game much less frustrating than I thought it was going to be.
With all that being said though, just because I am giving this game a free pass does not mean I didn’t think it was flawless, because it certainly has its flaws, ones that managed to irk me more than anything else. First and foremost, since the game is called Sonic LABYRINTH, you will need to navigate through plenty of labyrinths in order to find the keys you need in order to get to the next stage, and that in itself is much easier said then done. While I wouldn’t say these labyrinths are impossible to traverse, you can definitely spend a lot of time trying to figure your way around or finding out where everything is, whether it be the keys or the exit to the level itself. It also doesn’t help that you are on a time limit the entire time, meaning that you could potentially encounter some unwarranted deaths primarily just because you ran out of time trying to figure out where you need to go.
To me though, that is more mildly annoying when compared to the actual REAL problem that I have with this game, with that being the bosses. Half of the bosses in this game are easy as hell, with you just being able to easily spin-dash through them and call it a day, but then you have the other two bosses, who have very annoying patterns and really precise openings that you need to take advantage of in order to beat them, and this is much easier said then done. Not to mention, the level design of the boss arenas that you are put in are definitely meant to inconvenience you, making it so that you aren’t able to get a proper shot at these guys without putting yourself directly into harm’s way, which will more often or not lead to your death, and the very little amount of rings you are given for the boss fights themselves don’t help that much either. So yeah, half the bosses are completely fine, while the other half are complete shit.
Overall, despite the rough controls, dickish bosses, and some mildly annoying levels here or there, Sonic Labyrinth managed to surprise me in how competent it really was, not being great or all that good in any sense of the word, but managing to hold up just well enough to where I wouldn’t even say for a second that this is as bad as many people paint it out to be. I would recommend it for those who are huge Sonic fans, as well as those who don’t mind a little change in their typical gameplay style for one of these games, but for everyone else, there isn’t much here that you would get out of trying it for yourself, despite how I managed to somewhat tolerate it by the end of the day. But hey, at least I can say now that I have beaten the game, and I can move on and never have to touch it ever again…………. which is more then I can say for some of the other titles in this series that I am not looking forward to. Looking at you, Tails Adventure.
Game #601
Okey, Labyrinth.
The big butt of jokes constantly perpetuated by primarily Nintendo focused video game reviewers of the early/mid 2010s and beyond.
"Why would you make a Sonic game where Sonic is slow? Why would you name it after the worst zone in Sonic 1? Why is this game so bad lol!"
To which I must ask the question, did you even play the fucking game?
This game is fast, REALLY FAST, it's as fast as your skill level allows it to be!
"But Sonic's running speed is sooooooo slow!" You say, but.
His spindash isn't, his spindash is extremely fast, and much like Sonic Adventure, you can uncurl out of a spindash to kill your speed and come to a halt, so.
It becomes a game of spindashing everywhere at great speeds, properly timing your uncurls, taking the most efficient routes possible through stages, and beating them in less than a quarter of the time given you.
The level design compliments Sonic's controls greatly, the level design is genuinely incredibly fun, with a ton of different routes and paths you can take through levels on repeat playthroughs for you to form an optimized route, and to execute it to perfection... much like every other Sonic game!
So basically, to those who say the game is slow, give it a genuine try, play it with an open mind, don't just fucking walk everywhere, use your damn spindash.
And to those who have played it and still call it slow, skill issue in my humble opinion.
The bosses are utterly atrocious though, that's one part of this game I won't defend.
The big butt of jokes constantly perpetuated by primarily Nintendo focused video game reviewers of the early/mid 2010s and beyond.
"Why would you make a Sonic game where Sonic is slow? Why would you name it after the worst zone in Sonic 1? Why is this game so bad lol!"
To which I must ask the question, did you even play the fucking game?
This game is fast, REALLY FAST, it's as fast as your skill level allows it to be!
"But Sonic's running speed is sooooooo slow!" You say, but.
His spindash isn't, his spindash is extremely fast, and much like Sonic Adventure, you can uncurl out of a spindash to kill your speed and come to a halt, so.
It becomes a game of spindashing everywhere at great speeds, properly timing your uncurls, taking the most efficient routes possible through stages, and beating them in less than a quarter of the time given you.
The level design compliments Sonic's controls greatly, the level design is genuinely incredibly fun, with a ton of different routes and paths you can take through levels on repeat playthroughs for you to form an optimized route, and to execute it to perfection... much like every other Sonic game!
So basically, to those who say the game is slow, give it a genuine try, play it with an open mind, don't just fucking walk everywhere, use your damn spindash.
And to those who have played it and still call it slow, skill issue in my humble opinion.
The bosses are utterly atrocious though, that's one part of this game I won't defend.
Labyrinth, come in.
You beat the allegations, my boy. The worst Sonic game allegations, that is. I’m not sure how I should feel about the fact that I had a somewhat decent time playing this game. I played it as a kid and must have never made it past the 2nd stage and all I remember is it feeling SLOW and AWFUL and I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Which seemed to be the general consensus among players.
Believe it or not, a big motivation to make me finally throw away the money for Sonic Origins Plus was to have another go at these Game Gear games that haunted me on Mega Collection Plus as a kid, as well as the ones that weren’t included there. When I opened up the menu for them, the first thing that caught my eye was the critically acclaimed masterpiece in question, and you know what? It was alright!!! ?? Bit of a stretch maybe. It certainly was not <good> but it was by no means awful neither.
Laughable story premise aside, Sonic is actually kinda fun to control here? I’m not fucking joking. Slow as shit means spin dash encouraged, and you can go real zoomy zoomy, it’s a satisfying challenge to cancel it at the right time. As a speedrun this could be fun as heck I’m tellin’ ya, the most fun I had here were the couple times where I had just grabbed all the keys and had a small amount of time to bolt it towards the goal. I think if the game was built fully around this concept it could have found a real decent identity.
But this is Sonic LABYRINTH, and hence the levels are LABYRINTHs, with doors taking you to all sorts of places, you gotta keep track of where you’re going, kinda fun right? Like a puzzle or a maze?? NO. This actually describes the level design for about 3 of the 12 regular stages, the rest is just random pointless BS. In general it just feels aimless; questionable teleporters, pointless powerups with straight up bad placement, strange enemies that do not look like they should be in a sonic game (truthfully they do kind of fit I just think this one is really funny), and bosses that really could have been much better had someone but a just a little bit more thought into them.
That said it is mostly just aimless, and not frustrating. The only exceptions being one fuck off hidden platform in 3-3, and the general map in 4-3. I mean f*cking look at this. I understand the vision with this final level to be honest, you gave us our Sonic Labyrinth but it’s just jarring without some semblance of a difficulty curve to precede it. You went from somewhat maze-like levels, to aimless bs, to the world’s most complicated stage that feels like a puzzle in itself trying to figure out where to go even when it’s right in front of you. My mate said we should do a drinking game where we play that level without looking at the map and take a drink everytime you go through a door and I admit that sounds like the best worst time and ohohohohhh I am tempted!!
There is the matter of the true ending being a little obtuse but I forgive that because it added a slight layer of replayability with the hint given at the end. That said, it's still hilariously shallow.
The take home today is that I think the game actually has a solid foundation and controls well, it's just mostly ruined by a number of horrible design decisions that scream like the developers did not give any shits whatsoever. Therefore since it's a Sonic game with “good ideas”, it's actually 5 stars and the most underrated game ever and you guys just don't get it you don't see the vision open your mind for once…
Except it doesn’t have many good ideas, it’s just a worse Sonic 3D Blast.
(Maybe more like a prototype, since this came out first, hm!)
You beat the allegations, my boy. The worst Sonic game allegations, that is. I’m not sure how I should feel about the fact that I had a somewhat decent time playing this game. I played it as a kid and must have never made it past the 2nd stage and all I remember is it feeling SLOW and AWFUL and I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Which seemed to be the general consensus among players.
Believe it or not, a big motivation to make me finally throw away the money for Sonic Origins Plus was to have another go at these Game Gear games that haunted me on Mega Collection Plus as a kid, as well as the ones that weren’t included there. When I opened up the menu for them, the first thing that caught my eye was the critically acclaimed masterpiece in question, and you know what? It was alright!!! ?? Bit of a stretch maybe. It certainly was not <good> but it was by no means awful neither.
Laughable story premise aside, Sonic is actually kinda fun to control here? I’m not fucking joking. Slow as shit means spin dash encouraged, and you can go real zoomy zoomy, it’s a satisfying challenge to cancel it at the right time. As a speedrun this could be fun as heck I’m tellin’ ya, the most fun I had here were the couple times where I had just grabbed all the keys and had a small amount of time to bolt it towards the goal. I think if the game was built fully around this concept it could have found a real decent identity.
But this is Sonic LABYRINTH, and hence the levels are LABYRINTHs, with doors taking you to all sorts of places, you gotta keep track of where you’re going, kinda fun right? Like a puzzle or a maze?? NO. This actually describes the level design for about 3 of the 12 regular stages, the rest is just random pointless BS. In general it just feels aimless; questionable teleporters, pointless powerups with straight up bad placement, strange enemies that do not look like they should be in a sonic game (truthfully they do kind of fit I just think this one is really funny), and bosses that really could have been much better had someone but a just a little bit more thought into them.
That said it is mostly just aimless, and not frustrating. The only exceptions being one fuck off hidden platform in 3-3, and the general map in 4-3. I mean f*cking look at this. I understand the vision with this final level to be honest, you gave us our Sonic Labyrinth but it’s just jarring without some semblance of a difficulty curve to precede it. You went from somewhat maze-like levels, to aimless bs, to the world’s most complicated stage that feels like a puzzle in itself trying to figure out where to go even when it’s right in front of you. My mate said we should do a drinking game where we play that level without looking at the map and take a drink everytime you go through a door and I admit that sounds like the best worst time and ohohohohhh I am tempted!!
There is the matter of the true ending being a little obtuse but I forgive that because it added a slight layer of replayability with the hint given at the end. That said, it's still hilariously shallow.
The take home today is that I think the game actually has a solid foundation and controls well, it's just mostly ruined by a number of horrible design decisions that scream like the developers did not give any shits whatsoever. Therefore since it's a Sonic game with “good ideas”, it's actually 5 stars and the most underrated game ever and you guys just don't get it you don't see the vision open your mind for once…
Except it doesn’t have many good ideas, it’s just a worse Sonic 3D Blast.
(Maybe more like a prototype, since this came out first, hm!)