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

[Blue Blood]

29 minutes ago, Radiant Hero Ike said:

Oh, uh... Probably too late to ask this now, but is it possible to switch collector's edition versions? Like from PS4 to Switch? Or would I have to cancel and then pre-order the other version? I doubt they're still in stock, but I'm curious.

Depends entirely on where you ordered it from. Check with the store. If you ordered online, it should say whether or not it's still in stock. For example, on Amazon UK you can see that the PS4 version is sold out whilst the other two are still available. 

[Red Hot Jack]

12 minutes ago, Gemster312 said:

No one has confirmed a stage count. This sounds just like a guesstimate.

People like to hope (including me) that each game will get equal representation. 2 Zones per Game = 10 Returning Zones.

To make that nearly a 40/60 split, there should be 6 New Zones. The sillhouette LOOKS like 5 Hard Boiled Heavies but I could see how a 6th might be there (in the messy part). Even if it is just 5, there could be 5 New zones followed up by a 6th new zone that doesn't have a hard boiled heavy (the final zone).

10 Returning
5 New w/Heavy
1 New w/out Heavy (Final Zone)

It's all speculation, and I personally hope that's the way it turns out

I already did the math, it fits. There might be a 6th new zone, but I believe it's like a final boss thing. See the extended image of the siìlhouette, there's clearly 5 HBHs.

Also, Donnie on twitter is speculating that the unnamed new stage might be the building seen in the background of Stardust Speedway. Eh, it's possible.

 

[Gemster312]

1 minute ago, Chameleon94 said:

I already did the math, it fits. There might be a 6th new zone, but I believe it's like a final boss thing. See the extended image of the siìlhouette, there's clearly 5 HBHs.

Also, Donnie on twitter is speculating that the unnamed new stage might be the building seen in the background of Stardust Speedway. Eh, it's possible.

 

Yeah that's what I'm thinking.

As for the "building seen in the background", that existed in the original Sonic CD Past so I kind of doubt that it would be any form of hint towards a new level, but I don't know so anything could happen.

[JosepHenry]

Heard somewhere (Maybe Sonic Retro?) that CW himself confirmed that there would be a least two stages for every old game.

Maybe I'm just confused with some other topic?

[Blue Blood]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Mello said:

Heard somewhere (Maybe Sonic Retro?) that CW himself confirmed that there would be a least two stages for every old game.

Maybe I'm just confused with some other topic?

He's never confirmed any such thing. 

[Gemster312]

1 minute ago, Joseph Mello said:

Heard somewhere (Maybe Sonic Retro?) that CW himself confirmed that there would be a least two stages for every old game.

Maybe I'm just confused with some other topic?

I don't recall anywhere specifying that 2 stages per game is guaranteed, but I do remember him saying that a zone from each game will be represented (S1,S2,S3,SK,SCD).

Maybe there was another confirmation that I missed, but I believe that it was only confirmed that each game will get its own zone, not 2+ necessarily.

[JosepHenry]

Oh, my bad then.

But It's not something out of question, I guess.

[Indigo Rush]

It's probably a bad idea to assume a guaranteed rep count per game. Sonic 3 & Knuckles could be counted as one game, for instance. There's no rule they have to follow. 

I know I spent a lot of time trying to patch together a Zone count, but I'm not sure it was a good idea. I don't want to under or over estimate Mania's length. 

What we can absolutely have faith in is that no matter how many Zones, they'll be nice and meaty ala Sonic 3. 

I'll be happy with 10 2-act Zones.

[JosepHenry]

6 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

It's probably a bad idea to assume a guaranteed rep count per game. Sonic 3 & Knuckles could be counted as one game, for instance. There's no rule they have to follow. 

I know I spent a lot of time trying to patch together a Zone count, but I'm not sure it was a good idea. I don't want to under or over estimate Mania's length. 

What we can absolutely have faith in is that no matter how many Zones, they'll be nice and meaty ala Sonic 3. 

I'll be happy with 10 2-act Zones.

Nope, nope, nope.

Thanks for reminding me.

He confirmed that Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles will have separate stages.

I think it is right here in this thread. 

[HywelAtTheMoon]

I'd be happy with maybe one more reveal (zone or boss). After that, I'm going dark on this to avoid spoilers. I want to keep the rest of it a surprise. 

[Sonictrainer]

3 hours ago, FFWF said:

I'm looking at this again, especially in its own tab, and... there's something really weird going on with the upper-right HBH.  It's more obvious if you also compare the earlier silhouettes:

In the blue silhouette version, there's an awful lot of filled-in silhouette directly above Heavy Gunner, but it's hard to see what could actually be taking up that space.  The original black silhouette appears to depict a cape flowing in the background, but if you look at the angles from it, the cape can't all belong to the boss Heavy in the centre.  Some of it does, because the lines on the cape have retained the same orientation relative to the boss Heavy despite the other Heavies being moved around, but there's a gap beneath the boss Heavy's arm which clearly shows that there's also something large coming from the direction of the ball-and-chain Heavy.  But at the same time, the blue silhouette version also shows us that the sides of the ball-and-chain Heavy are unobstructed, and its spare arm and at least one of its legs must be pointing inwards to the centre of the image.  There's a huge, unexplained mass that's coming from the extreme lower-left of the ball-and-chain Heavy...

I'm kind of more bothered by the fact that I can't parse all these weird shapes than I am intrigued by what all the HBHs look like.  August 15th can't come soon enough.

Edit: Hold on, the JP site has yet another different orientation that reveals even more.  I'm working on it now.

Edit Again:

I now officially have no clue what the heck is going on at the bottom left of ball-and-chain Heavy's silhouette.

 

 

 

 

I'm guessing that the Morning Star HBH...

1. has a very unique body shape 
2. is riding on top of something (at first I was thinking a Magic Carpet but it looks like some kind of hovercraft with thrusters)
3. has Badniks or several Badniks helping it (like the Egg Robos in the Heavy Gunner Boss Fight)
4. is actually 2 or more smaller HBH working together, only the top one has a more visible and recognizable shape we can see so far

EDIT: ...in fact, what does it look like when you flip the image upside down? Could it be one of those siamese twin bosses?

Edited May 31, 2017 by Sonictrainer
Just had a crazy thought

[Sonikko]

57 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Depends entirely on where you ordered it from. Check with the store. If you ordered online, it should say whether or not it's still in stock. For example, on Amazon UK you can see that the PS4 version is sold out whilst the other two are still available. 

Thank you so much, I didn't notice the Switch edition was in stock. It wasn't the day before yesterday. I pre-ordered myself one, I had pre-ordered a PS4 edition previously, but I'm not likely to buy that console, I'll surely buy the Switch instead in the near future.

[HywelAtTheMoon]

He might not have legs (that we can see). Instead he moves like a spinning top, swinging the ball and chain as he goes.

[Sonicfan287]

33 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

It's probably a bad idea to assume a guaranteed rep count per game. Sonic 3 & Knuckles could be counted as one game, for instance. There's no rule they have to follow. 

I know I spent a lot of time trying to patch together a Zone count, but I'm not sure it was a good idea. I don't want to under or over estimate Mania's length. 

What we can absolutely have faith in is that no matter how many Zones, they'll be nice and meaty ala Sonic 3. 

I'll be happy with 10 2-act Zones.

If the game is anything less than 10 zones I'll be disappointed (unless they're really big zones and some have 3 acts) 

As for the zones they use from older games, I hope they don't get too caught up in giving each game equal representation. That's what kind of hurt Sonic Generations imo

i hope they use the best zones possible even if it means Sonic 3 has 2-3 while Sonic CD only has one. Also, no Labyrinth or Sandopolis please lol 

[Salamander]

16 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

I'm guessing that the Morning Star HBH...

1. has a very unique body shape 
2. is riding on top of something (at first I was thinking a Magic Carpet but it looks like some kind of hovercraft with thrusters)
3. has Badniks or several Badniks helping it (like the Egg Robos in the Heavy Gunner Boss Fight)
4. is actually 2 or more smaller HBH working together, only the top one has a more visible and recognizable shape we can see so far

EDIT: ...in fact, what does it look like when you flip the image upside down? Could it be one of those siamese twin bosses?

Your second suggestion nailed it!  That's what the weird shape at the bottom-right of ball-and-chain's silhouette is as seen here:

It's a rocket.  Ball-and-chain is on some kind of jet-propelled platform.

[Chris Knopps]

3 hours ago, Joseph Mello said:

Just guessing.

If one is a Ninja that means Japanese stage? It could be the cathedral-like stage, but I hope is something like Chun-Nan and Aquatic Park.

The ball and chain guy also could be from the cathedral-like stage, but maybe is from a more medieval stage.

And the one in the hat... I have no idea... Circus level?

 

So that means we have...

Sonic 1

1-Green Hill

2- ???

Sonic  2

3- ???

4- ???

Sonic 3

5- ???

6- ???

Sonic & Knuckles

7- Flying Battery

8- ???

Sonic CD

9- ???

10- Stardust Speedway

New Stages

11- Studiopolis

12- Mirage Saloon

13- Cathedral level ???

14- Medieval level ???

15- Circus level ???

16- Final Zone

 

16 stages.

Is bigger than 3&K.

STOP IT!!!!!!

I can't... I can't take that... I just can't... So much magic.

[TheOcelot]

Thought I do a gif for Sonic's Stardust Speedway footage:

This loop-de-loop is new.

Here's one for Knuckles:

The red plant-eating badnik thing in Knuckles footage is in a different location compared to Sonic's footage, so there must be several scattered throughout the stage. You can see Knux can stand on little leaf platforms which will make maneuvering around the badnik interesting. 

I've compared this to Sonic CD's footage (from one of my video's below) and I'm pretty sure it's act1. Although, it's hard to tell. If you look closely you can see the background in the new version looks more detailed.

The addition of the new-yellow color in the foreground looks interesting. Seems to mix well with the green color.

Stardust Speedway was already a complex zone in Sonic CD with so many different routes, so it's gonna be fascinating to see what else they come up with.

Can't wait to see what the cathedral looks like in act2 of Mania's version!

 

[Chris Knopps]

Just now, OcelotBot said:

Thought I do a gif for Sonic's Stardust Speedway footage:

This loop-de-loop is new.

 

Look at how nicely that flows... BUTTER isn't that smooth.

[Sonictrainer]

4 hours ago, Joseph Mello said:

If one is a Ninja that means Japanese stage? It could be the cathedral-like stage, but I hope is something like Chun-Nan and Aquatic Park.

 

That would be awesome!

Speaking of the HBH, the one with the hat in the top left could be the Heavy Duke of the catherdal Zone we see.

Going back to the Remixed Zone Wishlists, we've seen Green Hill filled with water in Act 2, Flying Battery seems to carrying more scrap metal somewhere, and Stardust Speedway's Past has become Stardust Garden/Botanical Speedway. If other Zones gets picked, what elements or themes do you think might be added or expanded upon in its Mania remix?

[PerfectChaos]

2 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

That would be awesome!

Speaking of the HBH, the one with the hat in the top left could be the Heavy Duke of the catherdal Zone we see.

Going back to the Remixed Zone Wishlists, we've seen Green Hill filled with water in Act 2, Flying Battery seems to carrying more scrap metal somewhere, and Stardust Speedway's Past has become Stardust Garden/Botanical Speedway. If other Zones gets picked, what elements or themes do you think might be added or expanded upon in its Mania remix?

A ruined Death Egg would be pretty cool. 

[HywelAtTheMoon]

6 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Look at how nicely that flows... BUTTER isn't that smooth.

There's a similar section in Marble Garden. Shame they only put one of those in. I liked that pillar. Yes, I'm weird. 

[PerfectChaos]

Just now, HywelAtTheMoon said:

There's a similar section in Marble Garden. Shame they only put one of those in. I liked that pillar. Yes, I'm weird. 

Are you sure there was only one? I remembered there being a couple. Maybe my memory's just off.

[Chris Knopps]

1 minute ago, PerfectChaos said:

Are you sure there was only one? I remembered there being a couple. Maybe my memory's just off.

I think there were... Three... If memory serves.

[HywelAtTheMoon]

I seem to remember only one. It's been a long time, and I may have been on the main path through that zone. I may be wrong, of course, and I accept that. 

[PerfectChaos]

6 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

I think there were... Three... If memory serves.

Just checked the maps and it looks like there's actually two in act 1, and five in act 2. 

http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic3/downloads/s3-mgz-act1map.png

http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic3/downloads/s3-mgz-act2map.png