Let's face it: dying sucks in video games. And yet it's one of those things we all have to deal with. There are many ways you can die in a game. Maybe you jumped too soon. Perhaps you jumped too late. Or maybe one of those annoying airborne enemy types knocked you backwards into a pit. Whatever the reason, a video game death is often very irritating. But of all the ways to meet your end in a game, drowning is by far the worst.
For a while I wasn't quite sure why I've always felt drowning was such a terrible way to die in gaming. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that drowning is a very realistic, common form of death. It's one of the cruelest things that can happen to a someone, even if they are a fictional character.
I actually don't mind water levels all that much. Some of them are my absolute favorites depending on the game. Drowning never even crossed my mind as a way to perish in a game until I played the original Sonic the Hedgehog. My first experience with Sonic was at my good friend Justin's house. He showed me the ropes and told me how each zone worked. When we reached the fourth zone, Labyrinth Zone, what I originally thought would just be your token underwater level, I was introduced to a new gameplay mechanic, one that would change my gaming life forever: limited oxygen. Unlike Mario, not only could Sonic not swim, while underwater, he only had enough oxygen to last him 30 seconds. You could replenish his air supply by grabbing air bubbles littered throughout the zone but many players, myself included got to the point where 25 seconds had passed while Sonic was underwater. See, you don't just drown in Sonic the Hedgehog. You know when you're about to die and the game makes a huge deal out of it. Whenever five seconds pass underwater, you'll hear a bell ding. Once 25 seconds elapse you'll hear the 5th bell chime and after that, there's a counter above Sonic's head starting at 5 that slowly ticks down to zero. This is accompanied by a panic-inducing, short-looped song that speeds up as the seconds dwindle, which makes getting another air bubble that much more stressful. When the countdown reaches zero, you won't see Sonic's usual death animation.
Sonic sinks to the bottom of the screen, his death cry downed out by bubbles because his lungs filled up with water.
Now I didn't originally see this at Justin's place. In fact, it wasn't until a few years later when I was playing by myself. There was no internet and I didn't have a strategy guide, so I didn't know what Sonic looked like when he drowned. I only knew he'd drown if you didn't get out of the water or get air bubbles in time. When I saw it, I could never unsee it. I can still clearly remember the look of horror on my face as Sonic drowned. I stared back at my TV in disbelief. Like someone took a gun and shot my childhood right before my eyes. It was one of the most horrific things I'd ever seen at the time. It made me determined to make sure I'd never have to see Sonic like that again. I did do a lot better in the Labyrinth Zone after that, but I'd still drown from time to time. I've actually heard stories of some gamers shutting the game off seconds before Sonic dies because they can't bear to see it happen.
When the Super Mario games went 3D, they got in on the drowning act. Mario's drowning animation in Super Mario 64 is just as disturbing as Sonic's 2D animation, if not more so. Mario's air supply underwater is his regular life bar. You can keep him alive by grabbing coins or air bubbles, but like Sonic, there was a time when I couldn't get oxygen. Mario stops swimming, the last breaths of air leave his body and he does the dead man's float.
THE DEAD MAN'S FLOAT. Oh and you get Bowser laughing at you. Shigeru Miyamoto, what were you thinking?!
On the opposite end of things, I really can't find it in myself to feel bad for Frogger, when he drowns. The second he touches water, he sinks like a brick. He's a frog. A frog! How can he not swim? In my book, Frogger fails at being a member of his own species.
With visual details in games becoming more and more realistic, drowning animations are becoming more frightening than ever. I do a pretty good job of keep my game heroes healthy underwater and I'd like to continue to keep doing so. The idea of seeing someone drown in a game still makes me cringe so just remember, try not to suck on those underwater levels, folks.
