Sonic jumping over a bottomless pit in Sonic Generations.
A bottomless pit, also called the bottomless abyss[1] or simply pit, is a hole that causes a loss of a life for the playable character if they fall through it. Bottomless pits are common in platforming games, such as the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Bottomless pits are often found as holes in the lower sections of a level. That is, a player character dies when they reach the bottom of the playable area. The player has to avoid these pits by jumping, using gimmicks, or other abilities.
Overview
The example of falling into a bottomless pit in the original 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Bottomless pits can be found in almost every platforming title in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, positioned at the very bottom of levels, action stages, adventure fields, boss stages or Special Stages. Bottomless pits are generally scarce during early levels, but become more frequent as the game progresses; some levels are almost entirely suspended above bottomless pits, with falling off the level a constant threat. Falling into a bottomless pit will cause the player to lose a life regardless of Rings, potentially resulting in a Game Over if the player has no lives remaining.
Some levels feature variations of this obstacle. In most levels that feature anti-gravity as a gimmick, such as Crazy Gadget, it is possible for the player to fall off the top of the screen as well as the bottom. Some pits, rather than being truly bottomless, have a floor of spikes (such as in Green Hill Zone) or lava (such as in Hill Top Zone), giving the player the opportunity to escape if they are fast enough, but at the cost of losing their Rings. In addition, some levels in the Adventure games, blocks the player from falling into a bottomless pit by releasing a jet stream that makes the player floats above it for the first time.
The warning sign in Sonic Generations.
Bottomless pits in 3D games have become even more common, as the player can mostly fall into a dark hole, ocean/lake or quicksand sections of the level and thus lose a life. In recent games, the players have been warned before entering section with bottomless pits with signs of an exclamation mark, as it is first seen in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors. Since Sonic Generations, there can be seen dark orange and black colored, floating warning signs, featuring render of Sonic's death pose from earlier games. They also exist with the same design as Sonic Generations in Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II. However in Sonic Lost World, these warning signs were not used.
Trivia
- Bottomless pits first appeared in Green Hill Zone, the very first level of the very first Sonic game.
- Sonic CD only has a single bottomless pit, located in Metallic Madness Zone 3.
Gallery
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 A simple bottomless pit, as seen in Sonic the Hedgehog's Star Light Zone.  An underwater bottomless pit in Sonic the Hedgehog 3's IceCap Zone.  In some levels, such as Sandopolis Zone in Sonic & Knuckles, quicksand can act like a bottomless pit.  Bottomless pit below Red Mountain in Sonic Adventure.  The bottomless pit seen in Mystic Mansion's corridor in Sonic Heroes. Team Sonic crossing the bottomless pit in the straight corridor of Mystic Mansion in Super Hard Mode on Sonic Heroes.   The swamp with floating Egg Flyers in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).  Bottomless pit as seen in Night stage of Apotos in Sonic Unleashed. .jpg "Sonic Colors Asteroid Coaster (10).jpg (233 KB)") Bottomless pit warning at Asteroid Coaster in Sonic Colors.  Bottomless pit below Classic Sonic in Sonic Generations. Notice the floating warning signs below.  Sonic coming to the grind rail section above the lake of bottomless pit in Planet Wisp of Sonic Generations.  Sonic and Tails crossing wild area of bottomless pit in Oil Desert Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 4. |
See also
References
- ↑ Sonic Colours (Nintendo DS) European instruction booklet, pg. 8.