Counting was never so horrifying. to get a better breakdown, watch this! • Sonic 1 - Drowning - O... for you Sonic.exe fans, • Sonic.exe (Original Game) 2:55
Honestly, for only 4 beats repeating faster and faster each turn, it is truly the most terrifying experience. SEGA definitely knew how to put their players under high pressure (unlike Mario who can stay under water literally forever)
Not for me for some reason… Don't ask why idk why it doesn't scare me Maybe cuz I already saw Sonic.exe and knew what it meant… I knew that I'll be able to freely destroy the Sonic.exe disc
It’s the edition of the countdown that always gets me in games. I am a very slow thinker but what always gets me moving is a time limit. Seeing the countdown paired with this completely new theme really messed me up and made me drown way more often. I think this is how I got thalassophobia lol
I remember hearing this for the first time when I was seven... I was just casually trying to get myself out of my watery predicament when I heard the first couple of notes suddenly roll in and... let me tell ya... by that time... I had never felt so anxious playing an old school game in my life. . . ...but despite the pressure I was under, and the fumbles of my thumb on the Xbox 360 analog stick, I thankfully survived to describe to you the relief I felt and how I actually had to pause the game just to depressurize before I continued playing... If I could describe the feeling... It is like crawling out of a hole to oblivion right before you lost your grip and rolling over on the grass and just bathing in the sun and relishing in your achievement...
Ok I have a weird story: I was at science class and everyone was walking back to our main classroom and I was trying to write something on a piece of paper. I knew I was getting overwhelmed and rushed but I swear to God the sonic drowning theme played in my head.
I like how a hedgehog that can move faster than a airplane or the fastest land animal can breath underwater for only 30 seconds but a plumber who only has ability’s from a flower/mushroom etc. can breath underwater for an indefinite amount of time until the later games
you see i wasn’t terrified by it until i played sonic.exe days after it came out. this now terrifies me. i just think about hearing this when your home alone
when my dad first introduced sonic to me by playing the first sonic game the Labrynth zone was filled with water and that drowning music was so scary that i have nightmares about it when sleeping me drowning with that music maybe even being chased by something with that music still scares me till this day
I can't believe this single 10 second piece of music can make me more tense then some other games' tension/suspense music, it's just the feeling that it's going down fast and the sound that increases in volume and speed makes me more an more anxious as i try to get out of the water as fast as posible, it makes me stressful :(
Theres a lot of freaky stuff in so many games even the modern ones. Kinda surprising how horror tends to be one of the first ideas in most video game development.
@@Sonic2017x xeno sonic part slaps that drowning drowning sinking sinking MhMhFjfaojehfj fbifufh vugguggyfdfnjdIfjinfkjnfnfnufnufuhfudhfihisfhiundfuivbiufhsuihvfui
This track has always ended up giving me this sort of hydrophobia(?) in Sonic games, either I dodge it completely, or just play safe and constantly grab air bubbles so I don't SINK into a scaling panic, nonetheless it's straightforward, yet forever etched into my mind as an instance of panic.
You know, in Sonic 2, in the versus mode, if one of the players gets left behind and the other finishes first, the other player will have a countdown. When it reaches about 20 seconds left, the drowning theme will play. The player then has to get to the finish before the timer runs out or they Time Out. But I don't think anyone plays. Sonic 2 versus mode anymore, do they...?
I remember playing this and I had a heart attack when this drowning music appeared out of nowhere in emerald hill zone. I thought it was glitch or smth at first
literally i never knew why people were so scared of the drowning music, for me i would listen to it and before it finished i would jump out of the water, like the music isn't scary its actually really good.
For Chemical Plant Zone, trying not to drown in the game is easy. On the Mobile version. So, to those kids, that suffered from that part in Chemical Plant. Here are the basic steps. Once you've entered the chemical water zone, you need to time perfectly as the platforms move. After that, you need to jump right after the platforms go right. As the platforms move, you need to time on to get the small platforms. Once you get on the small platforms, wait for the platforms to go up. Then jump as you get on the next platform, then jump on the last FEW platforms BEFORE you even drown, there you go, I guess.
@@masterluke1986 Honestly? You don't even need to do that, as there's a left wall nearby that you can go through to skip that part entirely. Of course, I tend to just use the incline just before it as a ramp to spindash and jump off of, also skipping that section.
It's effect is amplified in sonic.exe because there isn't even a timer, I don't think. So, you don't really know what you're running from until he shows up! I haven't played it, just watched some playthroughs. Disturbing and difficult, it looks to be.
Pretty nice video. I really liked the explanations given, I enjoyed the presentation, and it was nice to see you speak directly to the camera. Also, bonus points for acknowledging the name of "Mega Mack." Nice job.
I grew up with Sonic 2 before I ever played Sonic 1, the differences and difficulty of Sonic 1 were astonishing to me as a 7 year old. It's always neat to see how something compares to the original.
3:33 That ring monitor and speed shoes weren't in the original... not even in Sonic 2 & Knuckles lock-on. I'm guessing you can only get those as Knuckles.
I played Sonic 2 when i was younger, and now that I'm back into the series, I was wondering if the anxiety we felt hearing that music was the same way Sonic felt from panic.
I also have a weird scary story: I was in music class and we made a song that song that sounded like this and then I saw a scary movie that sink exe was in there
8-8-23 The fact that the Drowning theme has the same note movement as the Jaws theme makes it perfect for Sonic.exe's Chase Theme. A threat you can't escape from is preparing to attack you.
Man I wish I could feel at least once the true terror that crawls on my back when hearing the drowning the theme the first time. Unfortunately, I became a Sonic fan when I was 17….
when I hear this reached sound my heart immediately starts racing and I start getting anxiety and it takes me like 15 minutes to forget all of my childhood thoughts and decisions i don't know how else to explain this horrifying music
Imagine if every time you’re about to die this music plays and you cannot do anything. Imagine: you’re walking on the street and see a guy in the distance, when you approach the music starts playing and he pick up a gun
It's not, it was originally from Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 Sonic.exe appeared at least 15-20 years after that. Sonic.exe games used the drowning theme as it was considered pretty scary at the time
1:46 this audio just gives me PTSD. Sega knew what they were doing when they made that audio. The beat is good alone But when playing and hearing the music in-game is terrifying.
I heard it for the first time when I was only 5. I was enjoying it as a "adorable" fun game to collect rings and beat those useless robots... I didn't knew about countdown lol. when it begun my heart froze for a second, I had very good fantasy too and loved sonic so the first thing to imagine was him trying to take a gasp for air with struggling/in pain face. I begun clicking everything on the keyboard in huge panic. sonic still drowned and.... *I begun crying, knowing that I was the one who drowned my favourite character, that I was the one who killed such a cute baby boy* And now it still panics me so much and I get same picture of sonic over and over again After that I never had guts to play sonic ever again🔫
That's sweet. I felt similar to The Empire Strikes Back when Chewie howls as Han is frozen in carbonite. I eventually got over it and watched it again.
This is really scarry to hear in the og sonic games but comparing this to the more modern games where there's a harsh orchestra literally yelling get out the water isnt that bad
Sonic Colors is my 2nd favorite version. That's a good rendition. The adventure version is jarring at first, but it sounds like synthetic instruments and gets ridiculous as it speeds up. To my ears, it breaks the mood.
funny story: i remember i was at the public pool in my hometown with my mom a few years back. we were chilling at the 8 foot pool marker, and we were both somewhat decently good at staying afloat, so we had nothing to worry about at the time. my mom told me a joke about boats that made both of us laugh so hard our faces were completely red. the bad thing about the joke was that we were in the middle of the deep end of the pool, so there was nothing to keep us afloat. we were laughing so hard that we were physically exhausted and couldn’t keep ourselves above the water, and our feet couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool at all, so we were screwed. at that point my brain was just autoplaying the sonic drowning music as i tried to keep myself afloat while laughing myself to death underwater. i thought i was going to die at that point, but we eventually (somehow) frantically swam ourselves over to the pool railing and we were coughing up poolwater like crazy. to this day that music gives me major anxiety. sega somehow perfectly captured that “im running out of air, holy shit” feeling so well.
I have always felt like the three soft chimes that preceed the drowning theme don't get enough credit. Once you know about the drowning theme, the soft chimes can be just as anxienty inducing. They're the warning before the warning.
Chemical Plant Zone's music gives me anxiety because I know from experience it's all leading me to drowning. Aquatic Ruin always felt like a breath of fresh air, because although there still is the threat of water it's easier not to get stuck in it, and even the more complicated places you can find bubbles. In Chemical Plant, if you fall into the water, you are right back where you were, and you aren't given any bubbles because if you can do it right, you probably don't need them. But as a kid, it's hard to do it right, so you basically get trapped in this time loop of drowning, escaping, falling back in, drowning, escaping, falling back in. Also, it's earlier in the game, so usually, this is the place you fail. Once you get to Aquatic Ruin, you have probably gained the skills necessary to complete it by now, but Chemical Plant was the dead end of terror.
Second levels always seem like a big difficulty hike, don't they? I'll bet Carnival Night Zone gives people anxiety because of the Drum of Doom that some people never learned the trick to.
The drowning music chilled me to the core as a kid maybe you could do a video on the sonic game over screens next because the one thing that frightened me even more then the drowning theme was the sonic 3 game over tune.
This sound and the sonic CD boss music creeped me the heck out to the point where I muted the tv as a kid and I still hate it and the sound when your pokemon is also fainting also scared me.
My cousins loved torturing me with sonics drowning music, they KNEW that it would make me go into a panic It’s the way it gets faster knowing your time is almost up🙍
I actually caught myself holding my breath as the drowning countdown was playing. Seriously, this always terrified me and it's even worse cause I have a fear of the open water and drowning.
I always feel tense when Indiana Jones reaches for his hat in Temple of Doom. His hand is almost crushed and it's SUCH a close call that I can't help forcing myself to relax after it.
Imagine yourself scrambling for air as your breath shortens, the music intensifies as you run about trying to get that sweet sweet air bubble. And if you fail...you drown, as water fills your lungs, leaving you to be claimed by the depths of a labyrinth.
I'm literally the only person in existence that was never EVER terrified by the drowning music despite the fact that I grew up with the Sonic Colors version
This theme plays whenever I’m in the water for too long, especially if I’m fully submerged. But on a day where I almost drowned, it was playing in my ears, loud as hell, in all the worst ways. The beats were instead xylophone and trumpets (sounded pretty catchy but when I was drowning it sounded like it had to do with skeletons).
I grew up watching Sonic Media like Sonic SATam and X. My first encounter with the Drowning Music was watching Markiplier's gameplay of Sonic. EXE. It wasn't until I played Sonic Forces that I realized this song was actually a Sonic song and not original to Sonic.EXE. The terror that seized me was strong as I was not expecting to hear what I thought was a Sonic.EXE soundtrack in a normal Sonic game. A wonderful gaming music piece that does a fantastic job of evoking terror no matter how it's used.
carpathia808 did an oscilloscope deconstruction of the drowning music. The crescendo you're talking about is Channel 2 in that video, and it is absolutely TERRIFYING all on its own.
