Popular and unpopular Sonic opinions you agree and disagree with!

[Stephen Rodriguez]

1 hour ago, Jar Jar Analysis 1138 said:

In my personally opinion, Sonic Unleashed is one of the best, most innovative platformers in over a decade. Still have yet to witness a game of that kind of caliber and I don’t think we will for awhile...

 

I mean...You could count Generations but that shit is just a re-hash... 

 

Generations may have re-hashed levels, but it still creatively reimagined them (especially in the case of the Classic versions of the Dreamcast/Modern levels). I'd count it, imo.

[Skull Leader]

Two things that I never liked about Knuckles' climbing ability in 2-D games:

1.- it's painfully slow.

2.- it only works on perfectly vertical walls.

I think that Knuckles could learn a lot from how this ability is much better used in 2014's Strider Hiryu, where the character can climb on not only walls of different inclination angles, but also can latch to ceilings. 

 

Another unpopular thought: I think that sticking to a single button on the 2-D Genesis-style game is more the product of stubborness rather than being practical. Personally, I think that a two-button layout would not only allow to better map some of Sonic's abilities (especially for transformation) but would also expand the moveset of character's that actually need it, like Knuckles, as well as accomodating more complex ones like Amy and so on with others.

[A person, that exists]

I actually don't like Captain Whisker. Really, he's like a diet coke AOSTH Robotnik, except that instead of being impulsive and stupid, he's just... Well, stupid. Not to mention that the whole pirate thingy gets kind of annoying after a while. Honestly, I wouldn't hate Whisker too much if he was just an episodic boss guy, but no, he just had to be the main villain.

 

Also, I kinda dislike the Mario And Sonic games, or rather the fact that people bitch and moan about the Sega Superstars series (SASR, Tennis, etc) being a bland cash-in, yet they don't complain about the ACTUAL bland cash-in. 

Also, it's probably my personal delusions, but the Olympic games kinda disrespect Sonic in a way. Like, really, everyone form the Sonic cast is portrayed as an incompetent buffoon, while every Mario character (Besides Bowser, because, hur dur, villains be stupid) is shown as perfect. KInd of ironic, seeing how the games were made by Sega as a "Sign of peace" with Nintendo.

[Iko]

Not sure if popular or unpopular but... what's the point of Ray if you could just have improved Knuckles' glide instead?

What's the point of Mighty if he's a Sonic clone except for a different move that's performed by Modern Sonic in a lot of games anyway (and it's similar to the effect of the bubble shield that's already in the game).

I also agree about the 2 buttons layout as the most ideal one, people praise the simplicity and intuitiveness of the 1 button layout then they want Super Sonic mapped to another button; in this reguard, the Advance series was the natural evolution of the classic series, and IMO it has been a dull move to go back to full classic when time ago the formula already evolved from that (the fact that the advance games had content and level design issues is not related to the gameplay formula, that consisted in basically Classic Sonic + more attack and movement options).

Also, I think the best way of chosing playable characters is not by popularity or relevance, but by gameplay potential; the characters will eventually become popular and beloved if they play good and have a strong gameplay identity (AKA aren't reskins of Sonic or someone else).

If a character sucked in a game, doesn't mean the character has no potential; I think characters such as Big the Cat and Silver can offer interesting gameplay concepts if developed in the right way; also: gameplay and character design >>>>>>>>> personality and role; I don't care what are a character's origins and who's he/she connected with, how he/she interacts with other characters or anything (well I care but very little), gameplay and character design is what you as a player interact with when you play the game (you look at the character moving through the stage, you use him/her to interact with the game's world, his/her moveset are the actions you perform in order to interact with the game's world), everything else is just for annoying cutscenes and not everyone cares about story.

[Skull Leader]

I agree on how some characters can offer more gameplay potential if done well.

Take the example of Amy Rose, who in Sonic Adventure was so-so, with her biggest issue being her slow speed. However, when said gameplay concept is translated to a 2-D Genesis style game, it surprisingly works better than what one expect, given how she lacks the spindash and rolling that so many people seem unable to survive without... probably because they don't really get how to build momentum and speed without said moves.

Likewise, previous concepts like Chaotix's rubberband mechanics would work better if instead of controlling two characters at the same time, you were to simply use one who can throw a cord that latches to ANY surface. Big the cat would be perfect since once he latches to any structure, he could reel himself towards it... A quick watch of a playthrough of the Super Famicom game "Umihara Kawase" could give a better idea of what I'm trying to say.

Quite frankly, I think that to continue with characters who are simply Sonic + one or two moves (like Mighty and Ray seem to be in Mania) not only is a step backwards, but also risks bloating the cast with redundant and samey characters that offer little replay incentive, do not continue to develop new gameplay concepts that could inject some fresh life to the Genesis formula without altering the core fundamental rules (something no 3-D Sonic has ever pulled off right) and ultimately defeat the purpose of having additional playable characters.

[Multikaris]

On 5/9/2018 at 3:43 PM, Skull Leader said:

Something I find silly is the assumption that just because a character has lore/backstory, that is going to automatically make them important to a story.

When it comes to storytelling, that actually has more to do with what character the writer wants to focus on.

Tikal, for example? People really like her because she has a backstory. 

[Skull Leader]

I think a better example of what I'm getting at would be Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2.

Sonic Team probably decided to include the character as one of the protagonists mainly because of his lore/backstory. However, and despite how many of his fans insist that this was arguably his last good portrayal, I can say without fear of being mistaken that Knuckles was pretty much inconsequential to the story as he not only was disconected from the main plot that involved everyone else, but his whole quest of restoring the ME was, at the end, all for nothing.

Meanwhile Amy, who got involved pretty early along with Tails as they both rushed to rescue Sonic, had a bigger impact because of how not only she did most of the work (already had acquired the key card to Sonic's cell before Tails arrived, reached Sonic's cell while Tails's firepower provided a distraction) but also was the character that solved Shadow's inner conflict, something Sonic wouldn't be able to and which was a pivotal point of the story as Shadow needed to realize the truth in order for him to have the motivation to help everyone at the most critical moment.

My issue here is that, ST assuming that a character is important solely because of their lore can lead to this type of situation where the focus is misplaced, affecting characters that are actually important to a story and who as result, are basically stolen their rightful spotlight, while giving it to characters that don't really contribute and feel like being shoehorned to make the obligatory appearance.

[DabigRG]

9 hours ago, A person, that exists said:

I actually don't like Captain Whisker. Really, he's like a diet coke AOSTH Robotnik, except that instead of being impulsive and stupid, he's just... Well, stupid. Not to mention that the whole pirate thingy gets kind of annoying after a while. Honestly, I wouldn't hate Whisker too much if he was just an episodic boss guy, but no, he just had to be the main villain.

 

Admittedly, I've been thinking about him in the recent 4 weeks and I do think I like the idea of Whisker more than Whisker himself. 

I think it says something that Mr. Yardley! seemed to just portray him more like a legit pirate captain more than the absent-minded android with a pirate accent he's supposed to be.

 

..."To DAVay JONES WI-CHA!"

[BaronGrackle]

I really don't like the graphics in the Sonic Advance games. Personal opinion.

[DabigRG]

6 hours ago, Miragnarok said:

Tikal, for example? People really like her because she has a backstory. 

To be fair, Tikal was pretty much dead to begin with and her presence SA2 is purely for the 2player mode.

59 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

I think a better example of what I'm getting at would be Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2.

Sonic Team probably decided to include the character as one of the protagonists mainly because of his lore/backstory. However, and despite how many of his fans insist that this was arguably his last good portrayal, I can say without fear of being mistaken that Knuckles was pretty much inconsequential to the story as he not only was disconected from the main plot that involved everyone else, but his whole quest of restoring the ME was, at the end, all for nothing.

Meanwhile Amy, who got involved pretty early along with Tails as they both rushed to rescue Sonic, had a bigger impact because of how not only she did most of the work (already had acquired the key card to Sonic's cell before Tails arrived, reached Sonic's cell while Tails's firepower provided a distraction) but also was the character that solved Shadow's inner conflict, something Sonic wouldn't be able to and which was a pivotal point of the story as Shadow needed to realize the truth in order for him to have the motivation to help everyone at the most critical moment.

My issue here is that, ST assuming that a character is important solely because of their lore can lead to this type of situation where the focus is misplaced, affecting characters that are actually important to a story and who as result, are basically stolen their rightful spotlight, while giving it to characters that don't really contribute and feel like being shoehorned to make the obligatory appearance.

You do realize that Knuckles was in the game BECAUSE of his gameplay style rather than any overt (and likely not yet written) story relevance, right? Cause aside from running into Tails&Amy on their way out of the city and using Tikal's Prayer in the final story, they didn't bother giving him too much story presence.

You're kinda missing the point about what you're supposed to be arguing about.

[Skull Leader]

10 hours ago, DabigRG said:

To be fair, Tikal was pretty much dead to begin with and her presence SA2 is purely for the 2player mode.

You do realize that Knuckles was in the game BECAUSE of his gameplay style rather than any overt (and likely not yet written) story relevance, right? Cause aside from running into Tails&Amy on their way out of the city and using Tikal's Prayer in the final story, they didn't bother giving him too much story presence.

You're kinda missing the point about what you're supposed to be arguing about.

This doesn't exactly help Knuckles' case, as I would had vastly preferred to have Amy's gameplay for SA2 over Knuckles' tedious Treasure Hunting as it at least resembled Sonic's stage design of navigating a stage from the starting point to the goal, but more built to suit Amy's abilities that lean more towards platforming.

 

And while I'm on the "Amy vs Knuckles", I think that in Sonic Advance 1, Amy's gameplay displayed what a power type character should play like in that type of game, since not only where her attack abilities superior to Knuckles (especially with range), but other things like how she smashed springs to get some extra height over what the others could do, smashing the ground to throw herself into a much higher jump, or how this one particular character could chew up bosses in mere seconds made me think of what exactly does Knuckles even do to deserve the "power type" title, especially when his main ability is actually a form of flight.

[SBR2]

The plot of Sonic Adventure 2 is was too up its own butt. It tries way to hard to be serious that it loops around to being kind of hilarious in how poorly it meshes with the Sonic style. 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I often think people overstate how serious SA2’s plot is at times... especially when it’s style is hardly different than SA1 bar the darker lighting.

[StaticMania]

1 hour ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

I often think people overstate how serious SA2’s plot is at times... especially when it’s style is hardly different than SA2 bar the darker lighting.

SA2's plot isn't that different from SA2's plot...

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

This doesn't exactly help Knuckles' case, as I would had vastly preferred to have Amy's gameplay for SA2 over Knuckles' tedious Treasure Hunting as it at least resembled Sonic's stage design of navigating a stage from the starting point to the goal, but more built to suit Amy's abilities that lean more towards platforming.

 

Three different playstyles(and I think originally, stories) were the focus there, dude. Amy essentially being a (essentially relatively new)stealth character with the hammer didn't really synch with 3d Sonic's speed and exploration at the time.

Though I will at least say that they made the SA2 treasure hunts just a little too set/faux-linear for it's own good.

[Diogenes]

13 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Amy essentially being a (essentially relatively new)stealth character with the hammer didn't really synch with 3d Sonic's speed and exploration at the time.

It's not like the treasure hunting or mech gameplay did either, though.

But this has got me imagining an alternate universe SA2 where Amy is paired against Rouge with some kind of stealth/escape-focused gameplay. With Rouge being a spy it wouldn't even be that out of place for her.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

2 hours ago, StaticMania said:

SA2's plot isn't that different from SA2's plot...

Derp...

You know what I meant tho. 

[StaticMania]

55 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

It's not like the treasure hunting or mech gameplay did either, though.

But this has got me imagining an alternate universe SA2 where Amy is paired against Rouge with some kind of stealth/escape-focused gameplay. With Rouge being a spy it wouldn't even be that out of place for her.

Would've been better honestly and less pace breaking for a Sonic game...honestly.

[BaronGrackle]

4 hours ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

I often think people overstate how serious SA2’s plot is at times... especially when it’s style is hardly different than SA1 bar the darker lighting.

Maybe it's not so much about serious vs. not serious. Maybe it's more about... fantasy vs. sci-fi drama.

SA1 had a magical floating island, a ghost from a lost civilization, and a vengeful ancient deity. SA2 had San Francisco, a government conspiracy, and rogue science experiments.

SA1 is comparable to Narnia; SA2 is comparable to Captain America: Winter Soldier.

 

EDIT: Strange. When I think of it like that, it seems like SA2 would be the one more thematically faithful to the classics. Classic Sonic didn't really encounter spiritualism or fantasy monsters... just the Sandopolis golem and ghosts, yeah?

[Iko]

23 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

I agree on how some characters can offer more gameplay potential if done well.

Take the example of Amy Rose, who in Sonic Adventure was so-so, with her biggest issue being her slow speed. However, when said gameplay concept is translated to a 2-D Genesis style game, it surprisingly works better than what one expect, given how she lacks the spindash and rolling that so many people seem unable to survive without... probably because they don't really get how to build momentum and speed without said moves.

Likewise, previous concepts like Chaotix's rubberband mechanics would work better if instead of controlling two characters at the same time, you were to simply use one who can throw a cord that latches to ANY surface. Big the cat would be perfect since once he latches to any structure, he could reel himself towards it... A quick watch of a playthrough of the Super Famicom game "Umihara Kawase" could give a better idea of what I'm trying to say.

Quite frankly, I think that to continue with characters who are simply Sonic + one or two moves (like Mighty and Ray seem to be in Mania) not only is a step backwards, but also risks bloating the cast with redundant and samey characters that offer little replay incentive, do not continue to develop new gameplay concepts that could inject some fresh life to the Genesis formula without altering the core fundamental rules (something no 3-D Sonic has ever pulled off right) and ultimately defeat the purpose of having additional playable characters.

I'm ok with bringing back Mighty and Ray, I was one of those people who wanted the "forgotten characters" back actually, though, the way they are back is just boring. I think that Ray could have been more unique with a bit more of effort, and without the classic-only constraint. His animal species forces him to have a glide skill, ok... though, he also has a big fluffy tail, you can't just ignore that. While fighting with the tail is something that Tails already does, you may use the tail differently, maybe as a shield/baseball bat, or to carry stuff around, or to bounce and jump higher, I dunno... I really don't know but I'm sure that you could find something better for him... and if you just can't, then don't make him playable at all, make him an NPC instead... or make him playable in a game where the characters are supposed to be samey, for balancing purposes (a competitive multiplayer game maybe); I know that Mania has a competitive multiplayer but come on, I'm talking more about spin-offs or minigames; leave the main gameplay to characters who offer something new.

Mighty is even worse, he's an Armadillo, his special skill is just Sonic's, curling into a ball. The difference is that the armadillo uses curling as a defensive thing, while the hedgehog, also defensive, but those spikes can hurt so there is a reason for an hedgehog to attack by curling. This aside, in the Sonic series pretty much everyone curls up in a ball to attack, so what's Mighty's uniqueness? Is he the Shadow of the classic series? (the color scheme also fits).

When you have Team Hooligan as part of a boss, and the most uninteresting characters of the franchise as playable, and it would have made much more sense to have Fang playable instead, you question yourself how many missed opportunities and damages will the nostalgia make.

Compared to the Advance series cast, I think the Advance 5 were a much better selection of characters, not only for the gameplay potential of the characters (that wasn't really fully used IMO, there is still a lot of work to do for all of those characters, including Amy - to make her more accessible), but also for the gender balance; 3-2 is better than 5-0.

By the way I played Umihara Kawase and I love the concept, though it's incredibly hard to play and it's not really suited for casual players; Big the Cat could take some inspiration from that, but the gameplay should be way more simplified than that; returning on the topic that someone else mentioned time ago, Amy in Sonic Advance 1 has good gameplay, the problem is that's too hard to play as, only hardcore gamers can play as her and have fun, most other players will just get frustrated; this would be the case of Big the Cat if you make it like Umihara Kawase (or even Worms Armageddon, that's hard to control too for beginners). I like the idea of him with the rubberbanding mechanics, though it should be made so that it's easy to control.

Some gameplay ideas: he should be able to climb over the not-solid platforms above and reach the top; he should be able to hang around like a wrecking ball, and hook enemies (without defeating them, not directly); think about that Mushroom Hill Zone trap.

It would be fun, you hit an enemy with the rope (homing shot), you are now linked with that enemy. You can go closer to him (the rope becomes shorter), but if you go in the opposite direction, the rope will slow you down and block you like the Mushroom Hill gimmick (in case of a moving enemy, it will move you around). if you jump (uncurled because you hooked an enemy), while in air, you can press and hold the jump button again, Big starts spinning into a ball (miming a reel) and goes in the direction of the hooked enemy, gaining more speed the more you hold the button: if you release the button, the rope disappears and Big will go in that direction carrying the momentum gained during the process + a small jump; if you keep holding, Big will collide with the enemy, destroying it, and carrying all the momentum (harder to control); the ideal way to destroy an enemy would be to use the reel until you gain enough momentum, then release it and land on the enemy calculating your trajectory; doing a full charge of the reel would launch you away with no control. Maybe you can do the same to ceilings and walls to gain speed (you can launch the rope vertically up or horizontally left or right, unless there is a target - though only when you are on land, so that the worms trick can't be done for balancing purposes and for the sake of gameplay consistency - it's still Sonic after all).

In order to hang like a wreking ball, just target something above you, and instead of using the reel move, just jump once: if you are perfectly vertical to your target, the rope becomes shorter and you won't be able to land, so you will start hanging; while hanging you can still activate the reel move if you want, but it would detach you from the rope; if you press left and right instead, Big will start gaining momentum and he keeps the feet forward, damaging the enemies he hits with his mass; hitting an enemy or a wall while hanging would make him bounce back a little.

Would be cool to implement fishing in a way, like what they have done in Shovel Knight

This said, I can't stop saying I also want to see a Cream who is not based around flying like Tails but who's based around the special abilities of her Chao, and who references some Chao Garden elements in the main gameplay, such as copying animal traits (when you release them from badniks).

6 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

And while I'm on the "Amy vs Knuckles"...

I don't understand this honestly. Knuckles is a cool and iconic character with gameplay potential, why should they exclude him all of a sudden. The problem is only that they are stuck with the basic moves from his classic moveset for nostalgia's sake; Knuckles could be improved to have an unique moveset, based on both glide and punching stuff, it's just that the developers don't bother.

Look at Sonic Mania, they improved the glide skill with Ray (that's actually a Cape Mario clone but let's ignore this for a moment)... instead of giving the improved glide to knuckles, they gave it to a different character who's only unique trait compared to others is to have a different glide. As you said, you could improve his climbing ability as well, and there are countless other things you could do with him (master emerald energy, more punching-grabbing-throwing and digging).

There should never be an Amy vs Knuckles debate IMO, when you can have both and other characters as well; this makes as much sense as a Peach vs Luigi debate.

Besides, I think that Tikal shouldn't come back as playable, because she looks too similar to Knuckles, she's basically female Knuckles, and I think another clone is not needed. Story wise I don't really care much, though I'd like to see her interact with Cream about something about chao, only because it would make sense context-wise. Well I think that Cream should become the chao and chao garden mascotte and translate the chao garden's gameplay into the main Sonic gameplay, somehow; I prefer her to be more involved with the chao than just being the polite kid cliche, especially if chao gardens are coming back (that poll on Twitter...).

[Sonic Fan J]

On 5/10/2018 at 5:35 PM, Skull Leader said:

Another unpopular thought: I think that sticking to a single button on the 2-D Genesis-style game is more the product of stubborness rather than being practical. Personally, I think that a two-button layout would not only allow to better map some of Sonic's abilities (especially for transformation) but would also expand the moveset of character's that actually need it, like Knuckles, as well as accomodating more complex ones like Amy and so on with others.

Stubbornness may play a part but practicality is also involved. When the 2D Genesis style is based on the design concept of bumping into an enemy to defeat it so as not to slow down the action adding extra buttons complicates things unnecessarily. And for the record, I personally am one of those is happy with the traditional one button scheme even when it makes the super forms an inconvenience. Feel free to accuse me of nostalgia on that one because that point is pure nostalgia.

On 5/10/2018 at 10:52 PM, Skull Leader said:

I agree on how some characters can offer more gameplay potential if done well.

Take the example of Amy Rose, who in Sonic Adventure was so-so, with her biggest issue being her slow speed. However, when said gameplay concept is translated to a 2-D Genesis style game, it surprisingly works better than what one expect, given how she lacks the spindash and rolling that so many people seem unable to survive without... probably because they don't really get how to build momentum and speed without said moves.

Likewise, previous concepts like Chaotix's rubberband mechanics would work better if instead of controlling two characters at the same time, you were to simply use one who can throw a cord that latches to ANY surface. Big the cat would be perfect since once he latches to any structure, he could reel himself towards it... A quick watch of a playthrough of the Super Famicom game "Umihara Kawase" could give a better idea of what I'm trying to say.

Quite frankly, I think that to continue with characters who are simply Sonic + one or two moves (like Mighty and Ray seem to be in Mania) not only is a step backwards, but also risks bloating the cast with redundant and samey characters that offer little replay incentive, do not continue to develop new gameplay concepts that could inject some fresh life to the Genesis formula without altering the core fundamental rules (something no 3-D Sonic has ever pulled off right) and ultimately defeat the purpose of having additional playable characters.

The bolded points are of particular interest to me because this is where I personally disagree. I agree that cast bloat is definitely a problem, as well as Sonic not being unique enough movement wise compared to the others,  but I find gameplay concepts without altering the core fundamental rules may be harder to pull off than you give it credit for. When expanding beyond the Genesis formula sure, there are no problems beyond having too many gameplay types, but when sticking to the formula all sorts of problems show up. Most notably, the core design concept is bumping into enemies to defeat them and the core fundamental rules involve movement congruent with that notion. It is after all while rolling was decided upon and part of the reason why the main character was made a hedgehog to begin with.

I personally feel that in the case of Sonic's gameplay the problem isn't diversity in movesets or characters, but rather a need to be more inventive with the level design and gimmicks that you interact with. As you have pointed out before it's what makes the Spin Dash a bad move as it undermines properly learning the physics to explore, but then you ask to have rolling also removed which is part of what effects how the players interact with the physics and the core design that the formula is built around. Your argument is built around the importance of jumping (a key aspect of a platformer) and interactivity (the most important aspect of an interactive experience like a video game) but undermines the design concept of the Genesis games. While you provide a sound argument (even from the SEGA forums your way of presenting a point of debate and arguing for one side of it has always been a pleasure to read) you don't provide a sound example of how to have both. Now, it should be known by this point that I personally dislike Amy's hammer and don't think she even needs, but I understand her use of it for nearly twenty years now makes it pretty much indispensable without reinventing her character (one of the reasons I like the Modern/Classic split as it provides a chance to evolve her differently). Due to that acknowledgement and being, perhaps, an extreme defender of the original one-button , rolling system, I like to try to find compromises where everyone is happy. Obviously that never works out as you can't please everyone, but let me try in a different way by looking at how optional movement is usually the defining difference makers with the characters.

So taking the above commentary and the Main 4 without changing the rolling gameplay (press down while running to roll) and using Amy's hammer here are some additional actions for them to use when not just running with varying ranges of interactivity.

Sonic (Least interactivity with greatest ease of use and speed)

Alternate Movement 1 - Wall Jump: Self explanatory but as it usually appears, stick to a wall momentarily and press jump again to jump off with a slight gain of height.

Alternate Movement 2 - Climb Over: Automatically pulls himself onto ledges just above him while jumping with momentum in check if player is holding in direction of ledge.

Tails (Moderate interactivity with greatest ease of platforming)

Not really changing anything with Tails but just to cover everyone...

Alternate Movement 1 - Flight: Same as it's ever been but pressing down ends the flight until the next jump.

Alternate Movement 2 - Swim: Same as it always has been but with Sonic 4 speed and animation

Knuckles (High interactivity with greatest ease of exploration)

I would personally remove Knuckles' glide and focus solely on his climbing so I won't cover his glide here.

Alternate Movement 1 - Wall/Ceiling Traverse: Knuckles sticks to walls and ceilings that he jumps against if the player is pressing against them and can then freely travel along them using his spiked knuckles a la Stryder.

Alternate Movement 2 - Climbing Spin Dash: If Spin Dash is in the base moveset then Knuckles can activate on walls and ceilings but can not cling to wall or ceiling again without first jumping again.

Amy (Highest Interactivity with greatest ease of attacking)

Making use of Amy's hammer and keeping things simple while emphasizing that a hammer is a weapon (yes, even cute squeaky toys - just look at most Eggman Robots) these are more action changes than movement types.

Alternate Action 1 - Hammer Jump: When pressing Jump Amy does not perform a normal spin jump but smashes her hammer into the ground to launch herself giving her the greatest jumping height of any character and striking objects in front of her like springs (which would react accordingly), monitors, and enemies.

Alternate Action 2 - Hammer Attack: Tapping Jump while jumping will make Amy spin her hammer increasing her attack range and bounce height off of enemies and monitors with springs acting as above. 

Alternate Action 3 - Hammer Twirl: Holding Jump while jumping will make Amy spin her hammer like a top and float slowly down striking anything on either side of her with increased bounce back. 

Alternate Action 4 - Hammer Spin: If giving Sonic the Super Peel Out, hold up and tap jump to make Amy spin her hammer in a stationary attack. As long as D-pad is not released to neutral, additional taps will make Amy continue to perform Hammer Spin attacks even while moving though doing so will cause her to lose friction. turns into Hammer Twirl if travelling off of ledge. Hammer Spin attacks can not be executed without performing wind up if D-Pad is released to neutral. 

So, those are most of the ways that I would address the characters in a one button system without taking the core gameplay of rolling from the game. I also account for the high and low interactivity of the various characters and implement that into their movesets. Amy naturally being combat focused with the hammer has the most interactivity with Knuckles having the second most as he is exploration focused. Tails comes in third as he is more focused on moving through empty space with Sonic having the least interactivity as he is focused solely on speed and not stopping. Additionally, I made sure to address Amy's combat heavy actions in a way that allows her to move without stopping to attack (a key aspect of the original formula and decision for rolling).

Now all of this is particularly off topic, but as it demonstrates speed, empty space traversal, wall and ceiling interaction, and combat, it actually shows that Mighty and Ray don't bring anything new. Even my crazy suggestion of giving Amy a simple, hammerless moveset where she can grab onto enemies by pressing jump near them in the air and then jump off again turning them into a different type of moving platform at least adds enemy interaction to the list. But Mighty adds nothing new and Ray is another empty space traverser. So, after my long off topic rant in response to an on topic comment, I guess my unpopular opinion buried at the bottom of this post is that even though it's cool to see Mighty and Ray show up in Mania, I believe they are ultimately unnecessary. Kind of a shame to since they primarily stick to a simple control scheme which is a bonus in my opinion.

[Iko]

I think Amy should be able to roll as well, maybe remove the spindash instead... I mean, use that Super Peel-Out-like move she had in Advance 2/3 and let her stay uncurled after performing it. You can still curl by pressing down, but maybe you have a little lag, so you can't attack close enemies with that move.

The hammer-enhanced jump that in Advance 1 is activated by down+attack (if I remember well), should be activated automatically when you jump during a roll; Amy will spin (regularly, not in a ball form) with the hammer out kinda like Hammer Kirby, until she reaches the top of the jump arc, then she stops spinning and falls defenseless. In this status, you can still activate the hammer (multiple times) by  pressing jump again, similar to the insta-shield for Sonic, gaining additional height if you hit a spring in the process.

the hammer-insta-shield move can be performed after a regular spinjump too, but doing it would uncurl Amy, exposing her to a risk (useful to bounce on springs or attack bosses).

The bunny hop from Advance 1 is cool but not very useful if Amy can roll already; so I think it would be unnecessary and I would give it to the actual bunny character instead, redesigning it so that it's actually useful to gain speed (mix Amy's hop with Bunny Boost from Sonic Forces Speed Battle - perform several hops consecutively to gain speed and maybe ignore the floor angle until 30° or 45°, but you are vulnerable while doing it and you can't curl until the effect ends); This move is potentially cool but it really doesn't fit Amy that much.

EDIT: I like discussing movesets but maybe this should be moved into a new thread about character movesets maybe?

[DabigRG]

While I am glad they carried over Ray's comic shoe color into Mania Plus, I kinda wish they had also made Mighty have more orange-ish colors to help distinguish him more.

[Your Vest Friend]

Lends more credence to the idea that the Mania interpretations are based on Hesse's interpretation of their classic selves for Sonic 294's cover, because that doesn't have any orange tint to it either (the variant with the "modern" Mighty design does). 

[RedFox99]

I think SA1 is better game than SA2.