Or just get out of the water, if you're near the surface. They regularly produce big air bubbles, which will top you up with another 30 seconds worth of air when you touch them (and produce the single greatest sound effect ever, by the way). To prevent this, look out for bubble clusters that sit on the ground. After the final 10 seconds, Sonic drowns and you'll head back to the last checkpoint with one less life. Well, I always found it pretty scary at least. You also have to watch out for your air supply while under, because you have only 20 seconds before you begin to run out, and unless Sonic can get some air, or evolves gills in that short space of time, a final 10 second countdown will begin, as will the scary music. When Sonic lands in water, he'll sink to the bottom and you can walk along the pathways and platforms down there, but all of your actions will be much slower, and Sonic becomes a bit harder to control. Therefore, ploughing your way through will probably be your toughest challenge in this zone, so be aware of what you're getting yourself into.
This is the first time Sonic ever encounters it, and realises that rather than being able to swim gracefully, he simply sinks like a stone. The main feature of Labyrinth Zone though is its supply of water, which occupies most of the level maps, so you'll probably be spending the majority of your time in it, navigating through long, submerged tunnels. Other than that, there is little else to explore beyond the main path. There's a big shortcut in Act 1 that is extremely well hidden (see point #1), and Act 3 contains a much shorter alternate route which takes you straight to the last checkpoint. Your best bet to find these are in the larger rooms, where things can be hidden away more easily. Most of the paths are straightforward, offering one route with very little deviations, even for hidden power-ups. There's no one set direction throughout the acts, so like the Marble Zone, this level more resembles a maze, plentiful in puzzles to solve, and is definitely not a smooth, speedy one. The ground is mostly connected though, so there are fewer platforms to jump around on.
#SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1 ZONES FULL#
The surfaces to walk on are notoriously rocky and uneven, full of bumps and steps in the path, and directions take you left and right through the winding tunnels, using these steps to guide you up steep vertical passages aswell. Some corridors are very cramped while others are a bit bigger, and you can also get much larger rooms every now and then, which are often above the water and contain a collection of objects that form a small puzzle to complete. Needless to say, this makes for a highly enclosed structure, typical of this level type, and everything has a ceiling above it. Labyrinth's layout is essentially a mass of solid rock occupying the whole maps, with a network of winding passages and rooms cut into it to make up the pathways.
Nonetheless, it has an adequately lively atmosphere, thanks in part to its catchy music, and yellowish and brown colours. It's basically an old, underground passageway left by an ancient civilisation, now half-flooded. That aside, there really isn't a whole hell of a lot else to see in this zone. Water is plentiful of course, and it's dropped down from the mouths of stone gargoyle heads into pools that consume large chunks of the rocky terrain.
Carved on some of the stones are various ancient symbols, seemingly depicting weird faces, and nearby accessories include thin vines that hang from the ceiling, coloured crystals and poles reaching up from the ground.
#SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1 ZONES SERIES#
This goes for both the detailed and varied ground Sonic stands on and the background, which is little more than a series of huge, duller coloured square stones. This enclosed, water-filled cavern level is constructed entirely of yellow/orange stone blocks, including a mixture of carved squares and naturally-shaped rocks, in varied sizes.