So far, we’ve covered acts in Tropical Resort , Starlight Carnival, Sweet Mountain, and Planet Wisp.  This week, we’re moving on to Aquarium Park, Act 1. This is one of the more visually stunning levels in the game (to me, anyway) and has Sonic meeting something that has been a nemesis in the past — water. Fear not, as Sonic can swim here, and even use some of the color powers underwater! As with the other blogs, we’re following the Sonic Colors Strategy Guide. If you want more hints, tips, tricks, and walkthroughs of other acts, that’s the place to get them!

Level Details

You’ll start off with 685,000 points. To get a C rank on this level, you need a score of 700,000. To get a B rank, you need 1,100,000. For an A rank, you need 1,500,000 and to get the much-coveted S rank, you need 2,200,000 points. This is a long act, with time over at 8:09.

As with the other acts, if you play well you will get a no-miss bonus. If you have no lost tries, you’ll get 650,000 bonus points. For 1 lost try you get 487,500 points, for 2 lost tries you get 422,500 points, for 3 lost tries you get 130,000 and for 4 lost tries you get 65,000. If you have 5 or more lost tries, you don’t get any bonus points.

There are three Wisp powers available in this act. The White Wisp is your boost. You also have the Yellow Rocket in this act, available at all times. This act also has the Cyan Laser available at all times.

There are four enemy types in this act: Egg Pawns (1,000 points), Chopper (5,000 points), Crabmeat (1,500 points), and Jawz (5,000 points).

Level Map

See a full-size map here.

Walkthrough

Sonic starts out in a free fall, then launches into a downhill sprint to a building below. The building has two entrances; the one you enter depends on what you do on the way down.

Pick up the White Wisp capsules in the first few meters. After the ramp, launch into an air boost (double jump and hold the boost button) to hit the rainbow rings about halfway down. If you manage to hit them, they propel Sonic onto a grind rail. Grind step to the left to avoid the spinning spikes and ride the rail down. Jump as the rail ends to hit another set of rainbow rings that launch Sonic into the structure’s upper entrance.

Slide under the low wall and nail the Egg Pawns waiting on the other side. Then bounce through a series of springs and rainbow rings that propel Sonic through a special ring. Try to land on the Cyan Wisp capsule on the ledge directly below the special ring. Then drop down the narrow shaft behind the ledge to a courtyard walkway patrolled by four squads of sword-wielding Egg Pawns.

Stay on the road while sprinting downhill. Don’t miss the Cyan Wisp capsule in the rightmost lane on the way! Leap off the end of the road to land in the structure’s lower entrance. Fight your way to the bank of springs and bounce up onto the next ledge. Up ahead is the sparkling optical cable. Activate Cyan Laser and aim at the cable to zap quickly ahead to the springs. (If you didn’t collect Cyan Wisps earlier, just jump down and fight your way through the Egg Pawn platoon in the next corridor to the same springs.)

Bounce up the springs — note the special ring above, just out of reach — and land on the ledge to collect the Cyan Wisp capsule. Now here’s a little trick: walk Sonic toward the camera centered on the edge of the ledge and double jump forward toward the camera. There’s a good chance of hitting the rainbow ring that bounces Sonic right up into the special ring above!

If not, you can still fight through pawns (again, moving toward the camera) to the triple springs. These shoot Sonic up through another series of springs that leads to the rainbow rings and then to the special ring.

Now drop down the narrow shaft behind the high ledge to the courtyard walkway patrolled by Egg Pawn squads. Fight your way to the end and dash up the hill to the movable crate. Walk Sonic up against the crate to push it, and press the boost button simultaneously to kick it through the Egg Pawns on the other side. Then use the crate to jump up to the walkway and approach the first stretch of water, a fairly shallow pool.

Jump in and start running along the underwater walkway. Sonic can last about 30 seconds before he has to surface or find an underwater air bubble to replenish his air supply. Watch out for the red Chopper fish. They don’t aggressively attack, but collisions with these creatures cause damage at close range. Continue to the far wall to find the first air bubble source. Walk or swim right into any air bubble to fully restore Sonic’s oxygen for 30 seconds.

Exit the shallow pool and continue toward the much deeper lagoon beyond. Beautiful as it is underwater, we’re going to skip over this poll in the interest of speed. Start running and hold in the boost button before researching the water; Sonic skims across the surface to the far platform. (Press jump just before he arrives.) Slide under the low water, run through the loop, and rocket downward to the ground.

Kick the movable crate through the Egg Pawns. Ignore the optical cable — save your Cyan power for a better use later. Stomp on the white destructible box to drop down a narrow shaft. At the bottom, look for a Cyan Wisp capsule above and to the right. You’ll also see a special ring just around the wall to the left, but Sonic can’t reach it yet.

Instead, head right and kick the movable crate into the Crabmeat on the other side. Nail a second Crabmeat above on the ledge. You should have a Cyan power from the capsule you got earlier. If not, ride the moving platform up now to collect the Cyan Wisp capsule. Sprint up the small slope to the right, but don’t land on the Yellow Wisp capsule below! You need Cyan power, not Yellow. So at the top of the jump, hit air boost to zoom across to the walkway on the far side.

Boost to skim across the next pool and nail the Egg Pawns on the other side. Then make a running double jump off the right side of the short walkway to hit two sets of red dash rings. These propel Sonic over the next pool to the far shore, where he can bounce up to another short walkway.

Now comes the really fun sequence, especially if you’ve still got your Cyan power still saved up. Drop down onto the blue and gold bridge — it automatically starts descending slowly. Hop over to the right side of the movable crate on the bridge. Soon Egg Pawns start dropping onto the bridge from above to the left of the crate — lots of Egg Pawns. Kick the crate to decimate them, then hp over on the left side of the crate and just wait.

Note that the bridge drops through a number of Cyan prisms, which suggests that a nice Cyan Laser shot is upcoming. Eventually, the bridge reaches the bottom of the chasm and stops with a large number of Egg Pawns lined up to the right of the crate. Give the crate a couple of good kicks to wipe them all out! Then press the blue button on the wall to the left.

The button spawns some rings above, including a special ring. It also moves a platform and a row of boxes into line with the prism you can see above and to the right. Activate the Cyan Laser and aim it between the platform and boxes. The laser ricochets into the prism, which redirects it up the series of prisms in a spectacular shot. Sonic shoots through another Cyan Wisp capsule and the special ring, then ends up back down on the bridge.

The next step must be taken very carefully, or else you can get cut off from two more special rings. Push the movable crate off the right end of the bridge. It lands on a dash panel below, partially covering it… which is a good thing because you don’t want to land on that dash panel just yet. Take a tiny step off the bridge and push the stick to the left as Sonic drops so he lands on the crate. Now let’s go find those other special rings.

It can take too long to backtrack underwater to the special rings without the Yellow Drill form. Drop straight down to the ocean floor and run across the bottom to the left. Spin up and over the first wall, then swim to the Yellow Wisp capsule. (Another capsule is on the floor if you miss the first one.) Keep swimming left until you reach the vertical column of blocks blocking the passage heading left. Now activate the Yellow Drill and burrow through the blocks both on this side and ahead on the other end.

After Sonic smashes through the second column of blocks, stay on the floor to find another Yellow Wisp capsule and replenish the color gauge. Veer up the shaft, then left, then up again to the special ring on a small ledge. After collecting that, backtrack to the right and hit the pipe opening.

This pipe shoots Sonic into a completely enclosed cistern that features a huge lavender jellyfish. Careful here — there are three exit pipes on the right wall, but you want the topmost one. This sends Sonic through a tiny compartment with another special ring and another pipe opening.

This pipe leads back near where you started this swim. Veer up to the surface and pop up onto the walkway. Dash through the checkpoint and down the corridor to the right to the springs. Bounce up the ledge to find an optical cable ahead. If you’ve got Cyan power, activate the laser and aim at the cable to zap down the long tube. Otherwise, sprint down the tube, using quick step to get through openings. Sonic ends up in a hall with three squads of Egg Pawns, each lined up neatly behind a movable crate. Kick each crate to wipe out the enemy squads for a clever victory.

Ride the winch handle up to a high platform; this leads to a bridge that runs underneath a row of nasty looking ceiling spikes. The moment Sonic steps on this bridge, it rises slowly upward toward the spikes, so use boost to jet across quickly and avoid injury. Sonic shoots out into the lagoon beyond.

Swim down to the Yellow Wisp capsule near the lagoon floor. Activate Yellow Drill and veer up into the small shaft where the final special ring hovers near the top. The momentum propels Sonic right up into the ring.

In the same shaft, step to the left to change the camera view and watch Sonic step on a blue button that activates a lift. Step aboard and ride up for an easy 1-UP floating above, then dive back into the lagoon and swim to the goal ring on the rock ledge.

Upcoming Walkthroughs

As I mentioned last week, we’ll be posting a walkthrough from each act in the coming weeks. I try to pick acts that I think will have the most value for new players as well as people who have already finished the game. If you have a particular zone/act combo you’d like to see a walkthrough for, please leave it in the comments! I can’t promise that I’ll fulfill everyone’s wish (remember, we’re only doing one act per zone, and I don’t want to give the *whole* thing away!)  but if there’s a lot of people requesting one particular act/zone, then I’ll do my best!