Sonic Labyrinth: Zone 1: Labyrinth of the Sky

One of the last Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Game Gear... ended up being probably the oddest and most counterintuitive Sonic game for this system. It dared asked a question: "What if we made Sonic slow?" Apparently, this was also while Tails was busy with his Skypartol business. The plot of this game is that Sonic was busy with a nap, and not just any nap, but one where he actually took off his shoes! Knowing this, the evil Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik snuck in and replaced his rad red shoes with the Slow Down Boots. When Sonic woke up and put them on, he now couldn't take them back off! He couldn't run fast anymore! He couldn't even jump! Those Slow Down Boots were infused with energy from the Chaos Emeralds that Eggman had found. Luckily, he accidentally announced that to fix this problem, Sonic would need to venture through his very first addition of Eggmanland, the Super Labyrinth! Sonic takes on the challenge to go through this massive maze, reclaim those Emerald, hunt down Eggman, and regain his ability to run fast! ---------- This game can pretty frustrating at times. Again, Sonic can't run fast nor can he jump. All he has is a Spin Dash to still go fast, with, but it's not too controllable besides braking. Sometimes this helps with positioning. Other times you may accidentally ricochet yourself everywhere. This is a short game with 4 Zones, each with 4 Acts. In the first 3 Acts, you have to find and collect 3 Keys within the time limit and bring them to the Goal in order to go to the next Act. In the Zone's Act 4, you will roll down a very long slope full of Rings to collect to try and get 1-UPs with before you have an encounter against the Zone's boss. Beat that boss to get a Chaos Emerald, and then proceed to the next Zone until the end. Most Keys will just be found lying around, but some may be held by enemies. You can also find powerups that vary depending on the color its triangles are, which will shuffle around randomly, like making Sonic move a bit faster (yay...), giving you more time, or making you invincible. However, these powerups also can also make the screen flash violently for a few seconds, so brace for this at 3:03 - 3:22 if it's gonna bother your eyes. This game also has two endings, and which one you get is based on extra things you have to do in very specific Acts within this game. More on that later... ---------- The first of the four Labyrinths is the Labyrinth of the Sky. 1-1 (0:52 - 2:19) A pretty straightforward level. The only way you can actually "jump" is to use Springs, but those are just to make you jump to a different segment of the Act. Rings don't matter in ordinary levels, and you can't die in them, either. You will, however, still drop your collected Key and will have to pick them up before the vanish back to the original spots. ---- 1-2 (2:20 - 4:03) This Act has more slopes. Also watch out for more Bumpers and Flippers. And again, be careful of the flashing from the powerup I get at 3:03 - 3:22. ---- 1-3 (4:04 - 5:14) It looks like the Green Random powerup will sometimes spawn a Key right at me. ---- 1-4 (5:15 - 6:41) The first Boss Act. This is where Rings matter, again. Get 100 of them for a 1UP. Meanwhile, you can lose enough of them to die in the following boss fight. For said boss, you first deal with an onslaught of minions until their leader shows up: The Mecha Gorilla. Just bash him with a Spin Dash again and again to win and move on.