Fatal Labyrinth

Fatal Labyrinth
a game by Sega
Genre: Adventure/RPG
Platform: Sega GenesisGenesis
Editor Rating: 5.9/10, based on 6 reviews, 7 reviews are shown
User Rating: 8.0/10 - 3 votes
Rate this game:
See also: RPGs
Fatal Labyrinth
Fatal Labyrinth
Fatal Labyrinth
Fatal Labyrinth

Dragonia, the castle of doom, has returned to life, and the Holy Goblet, source of all that's good, has vanished. Sounds suspicious, but someone must check out the castle and retrieve the Goblet or the world will be trapped in darkness forever. Any volunteers?

Land O' Labyrinths

If there's one thing for the Genesis that's missing, it's a good maze game. Now it has one -- Fatal Labyrinth. In this combination role-play game and action/adventure game, you play the warrior, Trykaar, as you tackle the 30 danger-filled mazes that make up Castle Dragonia.

Fatal Labyrinth sports a unique random replay feature: each time you start up the game, the levels appear in a different order. Unfortunately, almost all of the mazes look the same, so sometimes the changing levels are barely noticeable.

ProTip: Watch out for the Red Squares! When you step on them, they set off an alarm, drawing all the creatures on the level to your location.

It Slices, It Dices

No maze adventure game is complete without a hefty selection of weapons and magic, and Fatal Labyrinth's arsenal is impressive. The awesome weaponry includes Spears, Lances, Shurikens, Battle Axes, and Elf Bows!

For video wizards, there are Spell-casting Canes, Magic Scrolls, Rings, and Potions. As with the levels, the powers of the magic items change each time you play. For example, the first time around a Black Potion may blind you; the next time it may increase your strength! A word to the wise: test magic before you use it in combat.

Use the Chaos Scroll to nullify Red Squares after they've been activated.

With such awesome power at your command, you want to fight a formidable array of bloodthirsty monsters. Fatal Labyrinth has plenty, from the chilling Ice Bars to the sneaky Shinobi. Each monster has a unique style of attack. Some will even melt your armor or steal your food. Watch out!

On the later levels, creatures called Mimics disguise themselves as weapons and money. Be careful!

Lost in a Maze

The weapons are great and the beasts are fierce, but at some points Fatal Labyrinth gets a little weak.

Actual combat is so laid back, it chills the thrills. You equip your weapon, run up to a creature, and just keep pushing into it until one of you bites the dust.

To avoid the Magicians' magic, keep your distance. They rarely hit you unless you're close to them.

Although this game has many features found in "true" role playing games, such as character traits which improve with experience, it's missing a password system. You can continue after every five levels, but you're still into this game for the long haul.

Fatal Labyrinth's graphics and sounds are just average, fairly lackluster at some points. The theme music is dull and repetitious. At least the sound effects are somewhat realistic.

Fatall's Attraction

Fatal Labyrinth isn't the most complex, intense adventure game ever made, but despite some shortcomings it's a nice diversion for a Saturday afternoon.

The far out beasts and the variety of weapons will definitely hold your interest. At least, the game fills the maze-adventure hole in the Genesis library. If you're looking for hack 'n slash fun that won't give you a migraine, Fatal Labyrinth might be your cure for sword and sorcery fever.

Download Fatal Labyrinth

Genesis

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • Game modes: Single game mode

Player controls:

  • Up, Down, Left, Right - Arrow keys
  • Start - Enter (Pause, Menu select, Skip intro, Inventory)
  • "A" Gamepad button - Ctrl (usually Jump or Change weapon)
  • "B" button - Space (Jump, Fire, Menu select)
  • "C" button - Left Shift (Item select)

Use the F12 key to toggle mouse capture / release when using the mouse as a controller.

Game Reviews

  • Machine: Sega Genesis

Fatal Labyrinth is fresh. Because you create the journey. And no two journeys are the same. Travel through 30 levels of ever-changing mazes, with new rooms and hallways revealing themselves at every turn. No hundred-page hint-books here. You're on your own.

Marauding ghouls have raided the nearby village and stolen the Holy Goblet, delivering it to the High Tower where the Dragon rules. With the goblet in his vile talons, soon darkness will consume the world.

As Trykaar, you will bravely enter Dragonia Castle and employ a vast array of powerful weapons and mysterious magic items, discovering their functions and uses as you journey headlong into the clutches of the Dragon's minions.

Whether you're new to dungeon travel or a hardened veteran, Fatal Labyrinth will hold surprises and high adventure unlike any other fantasy game. Every time you play, it's like a new, different game. And with Phantasy Star II, Sword of Vermilion, and Phantasy Star III coming soon, we've got the RPG category covered. Which is why we say, Genesis does.

  • Levels: 30
  • Theme: RPG
  • Players: 1
  • Difficulty: Average

Scout around a 30 level castle picking up weapons and energy in order to survive the attacks from the evil monsters inhabiting the uncharted rooms! Each game is different.

  • Type: Adv.
  • Available: April 1991
  • Difficulty:Avg.

An evil dragon has taken over a peaceful land and now rests in the Fatal Labyrinth. Only you can defeat the forces of evil that lurk within and find the exit of the ever changing maze-ways. Power up your abilities through experience, potions, rings, and magical canes until you are strong enough to face the Dragon himself in his formidable lair! Only you have the bravery, speed, ability, and brains to succeed.

People say:

5

Even though the mazes change constantly, the gameplay itself never changes, let alone the music! How irritating! The price is right, however, for the Gauntlet fan who hates playing the same levels over and over. Since no passwords exist, you can only finish in one sitting. Yikes!

6

There are two good points to this game. One, things change from one game to the next and two, the price. At least Sega is starting to realize that not everybody can afford a big 8 meg game and since everything changes the game will have a longer life span.

4

I'm not into RPGs and this game isn't very impressive.The graphics and sound are OK, but the game is just boring. The only thing that keeps this game from being fatal is every-time you play the mazes change. You never play the same game twice. Nothing get excited about.

5

Fatal Labyrinth is a good game, but not a great game. It lacks the excitement of an action and the challenge of an adventure game. The best feature in Fatal Labyrinth is that the item functions and maze layouts change each time you play. The music is too repetitious as well.

Dragonia, better known as the castle of doom, has been resurrected, and the ghouls from the castle have stolen the source of light, the Holy Goblet.

In Fatal Labyrinth, you portray Trykaar, a brave young fellow who volunteers to retrieve the goblet. After journeying through a treacherous forest, you will arrive at the gate of the 30-floor castle. Once inside the labyrinthine castle of doom, you must search out paths to other rooms, avoid obstacles, battle creatures, and find weapons, armor, magic spells and other items. Weapons consist of knives, rings, spears, shurikens, axes, a sword, bow, helmet and shield, while magical spells include fire, ice, thunder, light, wind and other effects. Some enemies cast spells while others won't attack unless you touch them.

You should collect as many items as you can while exploring the castle. However, some items may be cursed. Food items will help keep you energized and certain potions will recover your hit points. Try not to stuff yourself, and be careful of harmful potions. If you can't find your way out of an area, try stepping up your search for the hidden pathways by breaking down walls. If you die, do not be discouraged, for the game has unlimited continues.

Fatal Labyrinth features:

  • Enter the a Castle where the layout mysteriously changes
  • Hordes of evil creatures inside the castle
  • Use a mixture of weapons and magic to defeat your enemies
  • Action for one player

Fatal Labyrinth is Sega's first attempt at a low cost 2 meg quest game. In this there are 30 levels and a final confrontation with the evil boss dragon. While not exceptionally difficult, what makes this soft unique and worth considering though, is the fact that EVERYTHING changes each time you play the game. The mazes are arrayed randomly from a master list. The weapons and spells also have a bit of randomness built in, for, in one game, a red cane will be good, and the next time you play it the red cane will be useless. Some things are consistent. Scrolls and canes found in a room with enemies indicates that they can be safely used against monsters in that room. The rest is up to you in this bizarre, ever changing quest game!

THE MAGIC AND POWER AT YOUR DISPOSAL!

The folks at SEGA have come up with an intriguing adventure/quest game in Fatal Labarynth.Sega has designed this game to change every time you play. Each time you plug this game in, it is different. The layout to every level changes. So ,to, do all the power-up items.For example, a blue cane could be a powerful weapon the first time you play, but the next time it could be cursed. The red ring you find the first time out could strengthen arrmor in this me, but in playing on another day, it could throw you into darkness. We know that canes and scrolls are attack tools that have the potential to render powerful monsters helpless or annihilate them completely. Rings and potions help your character in many ways. They could just boost your power a little bit, or they could replenish your hit points totally. However,these items could also be cursed, causing you to lose all of your food or make you move around uncontrollably. They could still darken entire levels on other occasions.

Sega's Genesis has garnered a reputation as being the machine to own if you're hot on adventure games. Role-playing contests like Phantasy Star II have attracted critical praise from reviewers and gamers alike, while Genesis' major competition, the Turbo-Grafx-16, continues to be weak in the adventure category. Sega's new role-playing game, however, isn't going to do much to help Sega hold their reputation.

In fact, Fatal Labyrinth barely qualifies as an RPG. Yes, your character battles enemies, gathers experience points, picks up treasures and dies when his hit points are used up, but all that's only the trappings of an RPG. What Fatal Labyrinth lacks is a gripping storyline, something a successful adventure game cannot do without. In addition, the scope of the game is limited. The play area is confined mostly to the labyrinthine castle after which the game is named.

When the game begins, you're in a small town. There are a few people in the streets to whom you can talk in order to gain background information, but none of the buildings can be entered. There are no shops in which to buy equipment. No cellars to search for neat surprises. Instead, you just walk out of town and enter the castle in which the game is actually played.

Inside the castle, you must explore the maze of rooms in order to find much-needed equipment. At first, only the room in which you're standing is visible. As you explore, you reveal more and more of the castle. Each maze ends with a staircase that takes you up to the next level.

As you roam the castle hallways and rooms, you'll discover many useful objects, including swords, armor, shields, scrolls, magic canes, gold and medicine. As with most RPGs, at first you'll find only weak weapons. The further you get into the game, the more powerful the weapons become. (Of course, the enemies get stronger too.)

Fatal Labyrinth didn't get its name because the castle is safe. Each new room is stocked with plenty of monsters. You can expect to face such exotic creatures as snails, bats, magicians, robots, ninjas, killer flies and others. In addition, rooms may have pit traps in their floors and secret doors in their walls.

Regardless of its adventurelike scenario, Fatal Labyrinth is more like Gauntlet than the super hit Phantasy Star II. Lovers of RPGs will find this title lacking depth and devoid of excitement. There's no story to draw you in; any fun to be had is derived solely from exploring the mysterious labyrinth, defeating its occupants and picking up the treasures.

As an arcade game, Fatal Labyrinth is okay, although I think most gamers will find that it has very little repeat-play power. If you're looking for another top-notch RPG, you'll just have to wait for Phantasy Star III.

Snapshots and Media

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Screenshots

See Also

Viewing games 1 to 2
Obitus
Obitus is essentially a computer role-playing game (with some arcade-style action as well), which combines several graphics styles and perspectives.
Soul Blazer
Similar to the company's previous game ActRaiser, the player takes the role of a divine angel, deity or lesser-deity, or avatar, sent by a divinity, called The Master (Gaia), to destroy monsters and release the captured souls of a world's inhabitants.