Sonic Mania (August 15th 2017, Christian Whitehead, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch) - The New Classic

[JezMM]

I think S3&K is the ideal length, unless we're getting a full-blown Sonic CD animated intro.

Otherwise it'll be fine if they do it Colours/Generations style where the beginning is straight into it, then the first cut-scene is at the END of Green Hill Zone rather than the start.

[Jango]

Yeah, the screenshots are freaking sweet, Louis.

 

Pretty much like GHZ, act 1 will be quite close to the original zone, but with a few new stuff here and there, nothing too game changing, while act 2 will have not only new gimmicks, but new ART as well. And this is great. I wonder how FBZ will look in act 2... Lights out? On fire? Crash into the ocean?

[JosepHenry]

FBZ with lights out sounds cool. With the power of the Saturn they can do some "3D rays of sunlight"

[StaticMania]

18 minutes ago, Gemster312 said:

That's true.

I just want to be able to jump into the game without a full length "movie" going on at the start. Even S3&K I feel almost had too lengthy of a beginning. I want to be able to start it up, and just GO (maybe a 5 second cutscene?) but also want to know the story. Maybe it can happen in the background?

It was just one of those charms of S1 and S2. You start the game up and BAM, you are going.

Sonic 3's intro scene was almost 12 seconds long, 5 seconds isn't really enough time to establish anything...even in a sprite based game. But Story happening in the background is fine, a mixture of background scenes and short cutscenes is nice. Like Lava Reef and Sky Sanctuary.

[Sonikko]

Looks good, I was afraid it was another case of "the whole layout is the same except this part at the end", while this feels like an Act 3 of sort. It's the best it can be at rehashing stages. 

 

[D.K.]

Oh hey, Flying Battery footage. At the exact same time I coloured another one of the frames from the animation i totally didn't start working on it as soon as the footage came out what are you talking about

Anyway, as @Sonikko said, Flying Battery feels more like an Act 3 than a reimagining. Which I'd totally be down for, if it weren't for the fact that the reimagined levels are supposed to be Sonic revisiting the levels and seeing their aftermath. I'm not really feeling the "revisiting" in this footage.

[CleverSonicUsername]

Still don't know how I feel about Flying Battery. Seems like it has a lot of narrow spaces. I know that's true of the original, but this seems even more compact in places.

[Tenko]

3 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Yeah, it is fairly recognisable as FBZ1, along with some of the other areas that we saw in the previous trailer. But I think that there's plenty there to strike the right balance between new and old. I can understand the complaints and why some people might be bothered or disappointed by it, but I personally quite like it. Still holding out on Act 2 being much more new though. The new zones though... they're always going to be what Mania gets remembered for.

That's the ironic thing, Sega requesting that being an anniversary game it have old zones in it like Green Hill, I imagine just as much for brand recognition sales as it being an anniversary title.

Yet like you say it's the NEW content that appears to have the fans, the media and your general public talking. Now I'm not totally against the reimagined zones, especially if we get essentially new acts or content that brings a lot of new elements to the table in said older zones, the idea is pretty exciting. But it kind of shows like with Forces that Sonic Team themselves tend to be making poor/stale decisions when it comes to Sonic titles.

Maybe it's just me still being a little disappointed that Sonic Team didn't let Tax/Stealth just go all out for their first game and are holding the reigns and saying "maybe if we let you have a sequel you can".

[Blue Blood]

In an interview, it was said that the concept behind Mania came about because Iizuka wanted to see the Classics on the next generation of consoles, but was worried that people would be feeling tired of them by now because they've seen them so many times before. It's not an issue of Tax and co not being trusted with to have free reigns with Sonic. Taxman has pretty much said that they've got free reigns to do what they want with the game. Mania was designed to be both a new game and an old game all in one. I'm honestly really looking forward to playing all the old stages just as much as the new ones, and if SEGA wasn't so bent on milking the nostalgia cow right now I wouldn't be able to fault the idea of having retro stages at all. It's just that the cow is pretty dried up now.

[G-Force]

Mania's version of Green Hill was a literal recreation of all three Acts of the original zone with the original level structures built around the recreations.  Flying Battery looks, to me, like they're taking iconic set pieces from the original and incorporating them into new layouts.  They're also playing around with the established gimmicks of the Zone in ways that the original never did.

I'm pretty psyched for it.

[Alienrun]

Can we all just take a step back and appreciate that we're going to be playing a remastered version of Flying F**king Battery in a couple months?!

That alone has me more hyped than I was originally! That zone is awesome for its music alone! (insert nostalgic rant for sonic 3 and K here)

All we need is for Tidal Tempest to be revealed and...and...forget it! I'd lose my freaking mind if that happened!

MAKE IT HAPPEN SEGA! GIVE US THE BEST ZONE IS SONIC HISTORY PLEASE!

[Zippo]

It. Looks. Soooooo. Good. E3 cannot come soon enough. 

2 hours ago, Depression Kong said:

Oh hey, Flying Battery footage. At the exact same time I coloured another one of the frames from the animation i totally didn't start working on it as soon as the footage came out what are you talking about

Anyway, as @Sonikko said, Flying Battery feels more like an Act 3 than a reimagining. Which I'd totally be down for, if it weren't for the fact that the reimagined levels are supposed to be Sonic revisiting the levels and seeing their aftermath. I'm not really feeling the "revisiting" in this footage.

Looks awesome, as always. 

I'm surprised you didn't go for Oshima's art instead, haha. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/860117342134468608/photo/1

[Mark1]

Yeah going to agree with many posters here. This looks like the most fun Sonic game in a long time, well before the Adventure days. It feels so good to see this sort of game being made again. The gameplay, level design, visuals, music, everything just works - regardless of it being an older level redone.

Yet it still baffles my mind that through all of Sega's many missteps, they've done what Nintendon't do with their fans in regards to fan games. And now we see a game made by fans surpassing most of Sonic Team's offerings. And this is one of my most hyped games of 2017.

They've even given this game a great artstyle true to the original classic trilogy, something nintendo have only recently done via Mario Maker.

Credit where it is due here Sega. Best decisions you've made for a Sonic game in a while, I pray for a Switch cartridge for that extra nostalgic feeling.

Keep it up Sega. You've impressed us here so far.

[mikeblastdude]

I'll chime in and say that I'm loving what I'm seeing here. Yeah, it is a bit "samey" in some ways, but the new twists and changes shown off so far look great. Like others have said, Act 2 is probably where things will really get switched up. I'm still completely stoked that Flying Battery Zone is coming back, as it's my favorite zone from Sonic & Knuckles.

Also, one thing I noticed in the video that I haven't seen brought up... correct me if I'm wrong, but, is this the first time that the finalized ESRB rating has been shown? I mean, yeah, obviously it's going to get an E rating, but I'm hoping that it's a sign that they're gearing up for a release sooner than later. Hell, the official Sonic Mania site still has this listed as RP "Rating Pending."

[Kintor]

9 minutes ago, mikeblastdude said:

Also, one thing I noticed in the video that I haven't seen brought up... correct me if I'm wrong, but, is this the first time that the finalized ESRB rating has been shown? I mean, yeah, obviously it's going to get an E rating, but I'm hoping that it's a sign that they're gearing up for a release sooner than later. Hell, the official Sonic Mania site still has this listed as RP "Rating Pending."

Good eye for catching that. Usually I just filter out rating labels when they appear on footage but you're right, this is the first time that Sonic Mania has been officially rated. With E3 coming up soon I guess that Sega might reveal the release date then. It's just a question of how Sega wants to go about that announcement. Do they make a separate press release about Sonic Mania before the major conferences? Or do they announce that release date live on Sony or Microsoft's stage amidst a segment focused on Sega games.

[Sonicfan287]

You beat me to it on the ESRB rating. That was something I noticed right away and wondered if that means they're finally getting more serious about releasing this game. I mean, if the initial release window was Spring, which would've been March - June and the delay was announced in mid March, that tells me that they were very close to releasing it in that window and for whatever reason they just needed a LITTLE more time, so I'm hoping this means the game is coming out in the early portion of the summer window. 

Also this is one of the later builds of the game since it shows the stars around the checkpoints when Knuckles goes through them, indicating a bonus stage. Earlier builds didn't have this. I'm hoping we get a release date before e3 because I feel like if they wait until e3 it'll be because the release date isn't until August or September. With e3 taking place in Mid-June, it would seem odd that they would announce the release date for say, early July and only give themselves 2 weeks of hype. The way they've drawn this out, I have a feeling they'll announce the release date and make us wait at least a month from that date to actually get the game. 

I hope I'm wrong though. 

[CleverSonicUsername]

2 hours ago, Kintor said:

Good eye for catching that. Usually I just filter out rating labels when they appear on footage but you're right, this is the first time that Sonic Mania has been officially rated. With E3 coming up soon I guess that Sega might reveal the release date then. It's just a question of how Sega wants to go about that announcement. Do they make a separate press release about Sonic Mania before the major conferences? Or do they announce that release date live on Sony or Microsoft's stage amidst a segment focused on Sega games.

Probably separate. Sonic isn't really something that gets stage presence anymore, and the value of a stage presentation is also not what it once was. Hell, Mania wasn't even announced at E3, they chose instead to wait about a month to do their own thing.

Edit: My best guess for release: August.

 

[Zippo]

I really, really hope someone is working on an audio rip of Flying Battery Zone. I need that in my life RIGHT NOW.

 

[Captain Fun]

I'm thinking they're leaning a little hard on the old levels. GHZ act 2 looked great, but this looks too samey. 

[CleverSonicUsername]

41 minutes ago, Captain Fun said:

I'm thinking they're leaning a little hard on the old levels. GHZ act 2 looked great, but this looks too samey. 

Green Hill's samey nature feels like it has purpose. It helps set the tone that this is like a classic Genesis Sonic game, slowly transitioning over the course of the zone's two acts into something more vibrant, dynamic, and fresh. Old becomes new, and the similarities and differences of the classic games and Mania are established. So copy/pasting sections of the old level layout makes sense.

Flying Battery seems to follow the same formula from what it seems, and all the talk that Green Hill was "the most tame" starts to feel a little hallow when you can't get more than a few seconds into footage of Flying Battery without seeing 1:1 rehashes of the original. Like, sure, it will very likely change significantly once you hit Act 2, but I was really hoping that their promise would hold true and that Green Hill Act 2 was indicative of what we'd be getting from every remixed zone from start to finish.

[molul]

It does look like they're revealing the release date at E3. Hopefully that would mean we'll have Sonic Mania on July, which is great.

I'd really like Sega to also confirm if Sonic Mania is coming to Android and iOS at E3.

[Kintor]

Android and IOS ports are a good idea. The Taxman ports of Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Sonic CD work great on Android; they are arguably the definitive versions of those games outside the original Mega Drive hardware. So porting Sonic Mania to mobile platforms is certainly something I can see Sega doing in the future, If not at launch with the console and PC versions then certainly as soon as possible afterwards.

[JezMM]

To be honest, I CAN see the value in having Act 1 be very similar to the original stages.  For people who haven't played those stages, it sets up the stage as being like one thing, so the radical changes in Act 2 and (I hope like Green Hill) the second half of Act 1 will have meaning even to players who have never played or barely remember the original stages.

Like, Green Hill Act 2 is all the more fancy for coming directly after Green Hill as you remember it, there, right in front of your eyes.  The same is going to be true for the other zones if they start off looking "as you remember them" for a DIRECT comparison.

Thing is, to a casual fan who hasn't played Sonic since they were a kid, if you put Green Hill Act 2 in front of them, they might tell you it's as they remembered it despite the radical changes.  Having every classic zone start out simplistic means all players get the full effect of the changes, both casual nostalgic players, new players and kids who haven't played the classics, and hardcore veterans like us.

Granted it's SLIGHTLY against the whole "for the mania" ethos of being by fans for fans but... it's selfish to demand that be adhered to in all categories.  And honestly as in GHZ I think it'll make the changes more powerful even for us.

[Jango]

7 hours ago, Zippo said:

I really, really hope someone is working on an audio rip of Flying Battery Zone. I need that in my life RIGHT NOW.

 

Is not thaaaaat different, tho', but I can work on it! I want that Green Hill Act 2 <3

 

Totally agree with @JezMM there. We've played the classic zones a billion times, and yet the Mania Team is still finding ways to introduce new gimmicks and fun layout. And I can only imagine how even MORE AWESOME it will be for people who never played the classics or the youngsters. And even AWESOMER to play Act 2 of each re-imagined classic. I have faith in these guys, much faith. I also still can't get over the fact that we are getting animated shorts, it's just SOO GOOOOOD YO~~

[Osmium]

I just wanna ask all you guys who says this looks too samey, what exactly were you expecting/what would you liked to have seen here that would be so radical? I'm not trying to be condescending or anything but I really want to know what you were expecting when you heard FBZ was coming back. 

I agree with JezMM that there is a value in having act 1 be similar to original then contrast it with act 2 being all exotic and different. I don't mind how this looks so far at all, in fact I find the changes very interesting such as the moving blocks with the climbable parts attached to them and the electric shield being attracted to activated surfaces.