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

[Indigo Rush]

Rise against the Heavy Six (?)

(higher quality)

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

Now watch as I kill your arousal

 

Jokes on you, that game was my first 3D Sonic experience. And yes, I do still legitimately like it.

[Tracker_TD]

4 minutes ago, Josh said:

Now watch as I kill your arousal

 

How very dare you

[Chris Knopps]

2 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Rise against the Heavy Six (?)

(higher quality)

Whitehead and co. making even the Deadly Six concept appealing?

The second coming everyone... IT'S THE SECOND COMING!!!

[Tracker_TD]

The fact this works without me doing any real cropping to the art makes me a very happy person

Based Mania Team

[Diogenes]

8 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Rise against the Heavy Six (?)

(higher quality)

Yeah that's definitely at least five guys, maybe six. Looks like a ninja, a guy in a tophat with a mustache(?), and I would guess a medieval guy with the flail. And I would guess the levels they show up in match their theming to some extent, so that gives us some idea of what the other new levels are like.

[StaticMania]

Well, if it's just gonna be Six bosses...they can't really mess it up.

[Zippo]

22 minutes ago, Josh said:

Now watch as I kill your arousal

 

Why

[Sonicfan287]

17 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Yeah that's definitely at least five guys, maybe six. Looks like a ninja, a guy in a tophat with a mustache(?), and I would guess a medieval guy with the flail. And I would guess the levels they show up in match their theming to some extent, so that gives us some idea of what the other new levels are like.

Interesting point. So does that mean we can expect a circus level, castle level and Japan themed level (ala aquarium park)?

im personally hoping for a pinball themed zone somewhere along the way. Whether they bring back Casino Night or create a new one. For some reason the name "Pinball Palace" keeps popping into my head as a new Zone name. 

[Jango]

Is one of those robots giving us the finger? :V

 

Also, there's a NINJA ONE, he's holding a shuriken. Could it be one zone be based on Japan, like the Sonic 1 prototype????? We know Tax loves unused stuff!

[Salamander]

52 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Rise against the Heavy Six (?)

(higher quality)

Great stuff.  Zooming in close, it looks like probably only four + Heavy Gunner; the ninja on the left, the second-from-left is probably a magician or something, the one on the far right has a flail and all that swirly stuff around the bottom appears to be a cape which is coming from his direction.  The middle one I can more or less conclusively identify as the Mirage Saloon portrait HBH; the shape of the "fins" at the top of his head, the antenna-like appendage coming from between them, and the shape of the shoulders all fit.

Five HBHs total, so probably five new full-length zones, minimum.  Maybe a sixth with a special miniboss, but that's the limit.  So we're probably looking at around a dozen zones total.  I wonder what this means for division of classic zones?  If there are more than five but fewer than ten, that means some of them will get more repeating zones than others.

Edit: I'm suddenly getting the strangest sensation of déjà vu...

[Chris Knopps]

11 minutes ago, Jango said:

Is one of those robots giving us the finger? :V

 

Also, there's a NINJA ONE, he's holding a shuriken. Could it be one zone be based on Japan, like the Sonic 1 prototype????? We know Tax loves unused stuff!

Well, ninja's ARE a thing in Sonic.

[BlueFlare]

Honestly, I didn't expect Flying Battery Zone. Personally, it's not a big favorite of mine but definitely not a bad choice either. After seeing Green Hill I was really looking forward to seeing more radical changes for the rest of re-imagined stages, but we haven't seen much of Flying Battery or other classic zones yet. I'm curious to see how well the new and re-imagined levels will be mixed up and tied together in the story.

[The Kid]

Ugh. I'd do anything for one of those SXSW Mania posters. :s

[FriendBot]

During the panel, Iizuka mentioned how the Hard-Boiled Heavies are going to be the bosses for the new levels.

So if we're getting atleast 5 of these guys, then there must be 5 new stages.

And since Mania is going to have 60/40 ratio of old/new stages, than we're going to get 6 classic stages I guess?

[Forte-Metallix]

28 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Well, ninja's ARE a thing in Sonic.

I'm shocked and appalled that you would think of these guys before Espio.

[TheOcelot]

2 hours ago, Soni said:

During the panel, Iizuka mentioned how the Hard-Boiled Heavies are going to be the bosses for the new levels.

So if we're getting atleast 5 of these guys, then there must be 5 new stages.

And since Mania is going to have 60/40 ratio of old/new stages, than we're going to get 6 classic stages I guess?

I'm sticking with my original prediction of 14 zones (8 re-imagined & 6 new). Yeah, looks like six hard boiled heavy members, so six new zones-one member in each makes sense. Good lord, the amount of content they're designing for Mania is impressive!

Regarding the games delay; yeah it sucks, but I'd much rather Team Mania be given the time they need to create the best product possible instead of rushing out an unfinished game like in the good old days. I always felt the release date of "Spring" was more a guesstimate than a definitive date. One could say it's a tad concerning they need more than the three months of the Spring release window to finish the game, but game development is obviously a very slow-complex process and you know what, as long as the end-product is fucking awesome (AND IT WILL BE) then they should delay Mania for as long as they need! I'm so glad for SEGA's new policy of delaying games instead of rushing them out!

The wait is gonna be pure agony. I do feel a little deflated in light of the delay being announced. Perhaps I should take a break from the classic games for a while and then come back refreshed. I'm certainly not expecting any more Mania news for a while. We've had enough over the last week to keep us busy.

I think Flying Battery is a good choice. It's one of S&K's most popular stages, has a good layout and a kick-ass piece of music. I would have preferred a Sonic 3 (half) stage to be revealed, but regardless it's good to see a zone from 3&K finally shown-off.

With everything we've seen of the game since July, I believe Mania is going to be something truly special. Still my most hyped game of 2017.

EDIT: 

Taxman confirmed that Tom from PagodaWest Games did the promo art.

 

[molul]

I wouldn't have a problem with Sega revealing a Sonic 2, 3 and CD stage before release. Specially Sonic 3.

By the way, is it confirmed that there's only one stage from each classic game? If they were two, that would make 10 reimagined zones. 

[Pawn]

6 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Yeah that's definitely at least five guys, maybe six. Looks like a ninja, a guy in a tophat with a mustache(?), and I would guess a medieval guy with the flail. And I would guess the levels they show up in match their theming to some extent, so that gives us some idea of what the other new levels are like.

Quote

 

It's probably five guys, as the silhouette behind Heavy Gunner is likely this guy's cape (/trenchcoat?). The one with the top hat might be a magician, since he looks to be floating in mid-air.

I think it's safe to say that there will be an original Eggman finale, which altogether would suggest six new zones.

[CleverSonicUsername]

I don't know how anybody is seeing more than 4 heavies in that picture.

Ninja - Mirage Saloon heavy (the outlines people are making I think mistake his giant gun arm and cape for separate enemies) - mace heavy - heavy gunner.

4 new stages, maybe 5 with an additional final zone that is unlocked like Doomsday.

[Indigo Rush]

8 minutes ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

I don't know how anybody is seeing more than 4 heavies in that picture.

Ninja - Mirage Saloon heavy (the outlines people are making I think mistake his giant gun arm and cape for separate enemies) - mace heavy - heavy gunner.

4 new stages, maybe 5 with an additional final zone that is unlocked like Doomsday.

There are definitely 5 Heavies.

 

[expansivelovestories]

1 hour ago, molul said:

I wouldn't have a problem with Sega revealing a Sonic 2, 3 and CD stage before release. Specially Sonic 3.

By the way, is it confirmed that there's only one stage from each classic game? If they were two, that would make 10 reimagined zones. 

You are correct, there has been no specific number information about the reimagined zones. 

The debris in Flying Battery does include additional badniks from Sonic 1**; which doesn't confirm anything, but it is good for some speculation!  It can be said, if that can be taken as a hint that there may indeed be two from each game, with Sonic CD possibly? not being included in the main game rather as one of the settings for 2P competition, but that is pure speculation, as is the following, that Sonic 3K may include more than two zones if it is being considered one big game and especially if Sonic CD is not in the main game giving it a bit more breathing room.

**( It's hard to tell what zone it represents but it could be Labyrinth. There is however also a green Caterkiller, and possibly a different Orbinaut,

Clever SonicUsername indicated to me yesterday that the yellow/gold badnik in there appears to be Orbinaut in the new design seen in Studiopolis, so I wonder whether it would also appear in this design in a reimagined Labyrinth. Again it may not be attached to the ground whatsoever, but there is a strange sprite next to some instances of it that may belong to it.  I would not mind for example a badnik with a starpost based design, that has an Orbinaut on top and blocks the way somehow, but is attached to the ground or underwater, rather than being mobile.

[Sonictrainer]

6 hours ago, Tracker_TD said:

The fact this works without me doing any real cropping to the art makes me a very happy person

Based Mania Team

 

Someone also made a US Version

(I think it was created by Joshua McGovern)

[CleverSonicUsername]

20 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

There are definitely 5 Heavies.

 

 

Pretty sure your boy in green is attached to red man, but ok whatever you say.

Edit: Actually I could see it maybe being attached to purple man too. Just doesn't look defined enough to be a fifth. I'd be happy if I'm wrong, but I'm going to keep my expectations as low as possible going forward.

[molul]

Now a Genesis version ^^