Badnik Mechanic

Nah I'm good.

Yo wait, what version had the art cards?! I want those! DX

The PAL version had art cards instead of the crappy controller skins that the NTSC one had.

Damn it, Europe always gets the better stuff.

You guys literally have the SEGA Shop. We got a better (but still crappy) bonus in the first edition prints of a really bad game.

I mean with special editions. Low key have never really seen much out of the Sega Shop though imo.

Also, based off my trips to certain parts alone I'd swear that Sonic merch is a lot easier to come by there in public. Remember being in London and coming across Sonic key chains and wallets in just about every department store I visited. Though I'll be that's only based on the month and a half I've been there in total across my life.

the art cards are available in the US through a figure pack that TOMY made.

Guys... the Art Cards are a bit naff.

Japan got better ones.

Some of my personal favourite features.

Oh this is bound to be entertaining 

Oh this is bound to be entertaining 

This man has gone mad.

"I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but Sonic Team? No thank you!" 

Have fun

roasting the hell out of this game

And... Here... We.... Go!

*Starts angerily yelling and swearing over the fact we may never get all that cool stuff the Sega store has.*

Pffft. No one plays that collection anymore XD

Well, at least their faithful to how Sonic characters were animated in the SA1 - 06 era.

I think more likely is they'll have a cardboard standee to represent Sonic

...which could theoretically give us our first look at Sonic's design, but I'd wager they'd use a silhouette instead.

we aint gon know what the dude gon look like til they release a trailer one week before the movie come out

Cardboard the Hedgehog for ASRT DLC.

many questions asked, yet no answers given... not that an answer would take away the peculiarity

Hmm. I'll buy it at a hight price!

Why does he have Mario’s nose?

Sonic the weeping angel.

Nice. I think im gonna let it guard my master collard greens.

How did you know?

To be fair, Generations has a leg-up in both the ever-present modding scene and the fact that the retro appeal gathered in a bunch of curious casual players who don't normally care for Sonic.  I'm not at all surprised that it has more players than Forces despite being 7 years old now (god has it really been that long though)

@Parax

SHUT UP YOUNG UM!

I'M IN MY 30's!

I'D SELL MY GOOD EAR TO BE 19 AGAIN!

Mighty "The Saviour of Sonic" Armadillo.

Isn't he working at SoA now?

It was at least 7 seconds of gameplay.

And yeah I think he's based at SoA for the time being.

It's common knowledge that Iizuka is stationed at SoA these days. 

He had some errands in the area so he stopped by with the VHS of 10 seconds of Sonic Racing gameplay he always carries around.

Wait... was Whisper already known or not?

The name was, yes.

The name was dropped a while ago, but that "leak" got her species wrong: She's a wolf.

Whisper the Mouse, not Wolf. But it's close enough. It's sounding real.

Yeah, but the "leak" called her a mouse, not a wolf.

Big the Tails

I've been asking that for a number of years now.

Well after Sonic disappeared in Forces, Tails began to eat his frustration away. It got worse with the stress of rebuilding the world. So now we have obese Tails. True D'at.

That also means that the sequel to Forces is one of the best games in the franchise.

Let's see what the police has to say about this.

Get back here you little thief!

STOP THAT CHILD!

Bingo!

Hold it!

I knew it was you, I could smell ya getting off the elevator

*yakety sax plays in the distance during police chase*

THERE'S AN INSANE GUEST!

WITH A GUN!

No joke, this actually happened like 2 days ago at my store 

Yeah that's been a thing for a while.

I knew I wasn't the only one to draw that comparison.

Both Mighty & Ray are.

Both of them are great and very different. Ray is for fast and free play, whilst Mighty is better suited to playing with recklessly on ground level. I prefer Ray, but both are fine additions to the formula.

What did IGN say about the DLC?

Can you play as Mighty and Ray in Mania mode too?

Not tried yet, but I guess it's possible.

Yes, you can. They aren't exclusive to Encore Mode.

The biggest parts of the DLC are the two new playable characters and the team system of Encore Mode. The stages are only very slightly remixed (and often look unpleasant with the new colours), so the new mode in itself doesn't add tons to the game. For a fiver it's fair and good value, but it's not much of an expansion. I'd say a 7 or 7.5/10 for the DLC is about right. 

Yeah, sounds fair.

For the dlc alone 7/10 is  a fair score.

For the full packaged (physical release content, Mania mode & Encore mode etc) I'd give it at least 9/10.

Ok so I'm now up to lava reef...

I think 7/10 might even be too generous.

The problem is that Encore mode which as someone who went straight into because I'd already beaten Mania, Encore mode is just boring.

Other than the giant rings being in other locations, what's the difference?

Yeah 'that boss is great and the new level transitions are nice, and the fact you are effectively playing as all 5 characters makes it feel like a real adventure.

But the mode itself just lacks anything new or exciting, the original surprise moments that the original brought isn't here.

And a lot of the new level pallet colours just don't look nice.

Ray is an absolute joy to play as though, Mighty is... ehhhh 

Encore mode is basically... remember how in the mid 2000s everyone was making Rom hacks which were "I made the green hill blue" pallet swaps.

That's... what Encore mode feels like. It feels like it may have been a tiny bit over-hyped for what it is.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Encore Mode is that the bosses are completely unchanged. The new boss is actually part of the update and applies to Mania Mode, so it's not even part of Encore Mode.

The last they could have done was change the arenas to make the bosses require a different strategy, even if the boss AI didn't change.