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

[Ajavalo]

One thing I'd want in Sonic Mania is a better balance between the Flame, Thunder and Aqua sields, since in Sonic 3&K Thunder was almost always the best choice. However, I know that's very hard to pull off, since rings are everywhere but fire and water cannot be put everywhere.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

It's certainly possible the other shields could have new added benefits too, though I can't really imagine what they would be off-hand.

[ChikoLad]

The only shield I got when I played the demo was the Fire Shield and it didn't have any real difference other than the Fire Dash being a bit stronger (as in it sent you a bit farther).

[TheOcelot]

1 hour ago, ChikoLad said:

The only shield I got when I played the demo was the Fire Shield and it didn't have any real difference other than the Fire Dash being a bit stronger (as in it sent you a bit farther).

I managed to find each of the elemental shields including the normal shield.

I picked up the Lightning shield first (it's directly above the first loop-de-loop in Green Hill-Mania). I then picked up a bubble shield followed by the fire shield. You know the breakable brown walls which appeared in the Sonic 1 version of Green Hill as well as the Mania version? Well, I used the fire shield (which has lovely animation) to smash through the wall.

I imagine they will spread out the shields evenly across each zone. Whilst they won't always benefit the terrain, at least they still provide one-hit protection..............apart from when you go underwater and no-doubt lose your fire shield

[ChikoLad]

I did see a Bubble Shield, in the same place you first see it in Mania's trailer, but you have to jump off the oval loop to get it or else you pretty much get locked out of it because you fall down a bit of a drop at the end of the loop. I was too busy going fast before I realised it was there.  

[FReaK]

 

have you guys seen this footage yet?

[LukA8]

So how long should I expect to wait until someone hacks the Chaotix into this game? I'm currently playing Sonic Classic Heroes and I'm enjoying it so much I'm actually considering to wait for someone to do it before I play Mania. I'd love the trio to be official DLC but Sega would never allow them to be acknowledged as Classic characters.

Also, I wonder where this game takes place in the main timeline (if it does), because Tails doesn't remember Green Hill in Generations...since he's only been to about 10 copies of the stage.

[Muscles Maximum]

I'd imagine Tails and Knuckles' story would be considered non canon. I'm sure no one considers Tails' story in Sonic 2 or 3 or CD to be canon.

If that's the route they take other characters should have been playable so long ago >:(

[Spееdy]

I don't know if you guys noticed but for some reason Eggman monitor did cut a minute and 15 seconds on the timer clock... I wonder, why is that? A glitch? (at 1:45 on the footage) Though next same Eggman monitor did nothing on this matter.. (2:39) Hmm..

Edit: Oh, this is from Polygon, then it's not new.

[TheOcelot]

18 minutes ago, Spееdy said:

I don't know if you guys noticed but for some reason Eggman monitor did cut a minute and 15 seconds on the timer clock... I wonder, why is that? A glitch? (at 1:45 on the footage) Though next same Eggman monitor did nothing on this matter.. (2:39) Hmm..

The footage was edited at 1:45 which is why the timer changed from about 1:29 to 0:14. The guy who was playing must have died (a bit later in the stage), the timer reset to 0:00 when he restarted from the checkpoint (which he originally touched at 1:35). Therefore, the timer was at 0:14 when he got to the Eggman item box again.

[Spееdy]

2 minutes ago, BenderMania said:

The footage was edited at 1:45 which is why the timer changed from about 1:29 to 0:14. The guy who was playing almost certainly died, the timer reset to 0:00 when he restarted from the checkpoint (which you can see at 1:35). Therefore, the timer was at 0:14 when he got to the Eggman box again.

Oh yeah, now I see. Looking at it, ring count was 71 and then 2. So it's edited, but so tricky that I have mistaken it  

[Knuggles]

Does anyone know if Sonic goes "I'm outta here" in Sonic Mania?

[nikfan]

Sadly nobody can know that until somebody tries, I myself a disapointed that nobody tried that while playing the demo on the party, hehe

[Your Vest Friend]

22 hours ago, LukA8 said:

So how long should I expect to wait until someone hacks the Chaotix into this game? I'm currently playing Sonic Classic Heroes and I'm enjoying it so much I'm actually considering to wait for someone to do it before I play Mania. I'd love the trio to be official DLC but Sega would never allow them to be acknowledged as Classic characters.

Also, I wonder where this game takes place in the main timeline (if it does), because Tails doesn't remember Green Hill in Generations...since he's only been to about 10 copies of the stage.

I dunno if that would even be possible. While the game is heavily based on the old engine, it seems like there's some new gimmicks and tricks that wouldn't be compatible with the 32X/CD spriteset.

As for the timeline stuff...yeah, probably a case of only Sonic's story being canon, as someone said above. 

Sadly nobody can know that until somebody tries, I myself a disapointed that nobody tried that while playing the demo on the party, hehe

You probably wouldn't have been allowed anyway.

[BlueFlare]

23 hours ago, FReaK said:

 

have you guys seen this footage yet?

Yes, this isn't new. This was posted on youtube a while ago and the original video includes commentary and actual sfx.

[neezTHEhuman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7JCfnT4csI

Been looking through as many game play videos of Studiopolis as I can find on Youtube mostly because I'm interested in how the new levels will be designed and so far everything's looking fantastic aesthetically but the actual courses themselves seem a bit disjointed and very 'CD-esque' which I find slightly off putting to be honest. I love Sonic CD but even I'll admit that the level design is chaotic and disrupts flow yet this game looks to be trying to emulate that with just how maze like it appears to be and with springs hidden or otherwise popping out all over the place also like that game there seems to be a lot of emphasis placed on exploration with the giant (presumably) bonus rings and destructible objects which brings me back to my previous point about how disjointed Studiopolis looks.

In the video at 3:27 the guy playing gets thrown down to a lower route but when he tries to spin dash his way back to the upper path he can't also at 5:30 he fails to jump over the gap  and falls to a lower area but again there is no way to backtrack to the upper route should any one choose to do so, this might seem extremely nit picky but that kind of design is what I mean by 'disjointed' and is something I find incredibly frustrating especially in a game where there is a huge emphasis on exploration. This kind of issue is present in a lot of Sonic games to be fair so I'm definitely not just having a go at Taxman, classic Green Hill in Generations had a Buzz Bomber right at the start which you needed to bounce off with enough speed to make it to the upper route and if you screwed up you were stuck to the lower path, Classic Sky Sanctuary did the same thing but with Egg Robo instead but also who remembers having to restart the stage multiple times to collect all the red rings in that stage? If what I said up till now hasn't made any sense that last example is the clearest example of disjointed level design and something I hope Sonic Mania will not suffer from because it's a personal pet hate of mine and therefore could probably ruin my experience, also add lack of flow too as I mentioned right at the start.

[LukA8]

On 12.8.2016 at 5:51 PM, VEDJ-F said:

I dunno if that would even be possible. While the game is heavily based on the old engine, it seems like there's some new gimmicks and tricks that wouldn't be compatible with the 32X/CD spriteset.

As for the timeline stuff...yeah, probably a case of only Sonic's story being canon, as someone said above. 

I don't think the sprites would that big of a problem. If anything, they would look a bit out of place, and some new ones are probably needed. If they are planning character-exclusive paths like in 3&K, that could indeed turn out to be a problem, but there's no sign of that for now. With how active the modding scene is when new games are released (at least for a while), I'm hopeful someone is at least going to try.

 

On 11.8.2016 at 7:41 PM, Apple Kid said:

I'd imagine Tails and Knuckles' story would be considered non canon. I'm sure no one considers Tails' story in Sonic 2 or 3 or CD to be canon.

I always thought the Sonic & Tails story is the one considered canon, at least for Sonic 2 and 3. We'll have to see how it turns out here.

[Manticore]

Tee Lopes on the music of Sonic Mania!

[Muscles Maximum]

12 minutes ago, LukA8 said:

I always thought the Sonic & Tails story is the one considered canon, at least for Sonic 2 and 3. We'll have to see how it turns out here.

Yeah, Sonic + Tails, not Tails alone.

7 minutes ago, Manticore said:

Tee Lopes on the music of Sonic Mania!

Dang, a hunk and he makes good music for Sonic. Some people have it all.

[Wing]

I'm guessing for sure Doomsday will return, most likely Chemical Plant too. Something I've always wanted though, is for the Game Gear levels to get reimagined. They were amazing to me and I'd love to see them in 16 Bit or 3D glory. Stages like Sky High Zone and Jungle Zone would look great like that to me.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Wing
New stuff

[JezMM]

On 12/08/2016 at 4:47 PM, nikfan said:

Sadly nobody can know that until somebody tries, I myself a disapointed that nobody tried that while playing the demo on the party, hehe

Playtime was limited on the demos to make sure everyone got to play, no-one is gonna want to stand in a queue for half an hour to waste their turn like that.

2 hours ago, Wing said:

I'm guessing for sure Doomsday will return, most likely Chemical Plant too.

Doomsday was a super-sonic only final boss stage, not even really a "zone" but a situation that occured in the story.  You're just flying through space, it's not really a "location" for Sonic to revisit.  So I've no idea why you'd think that is "for sure" at all.  Chemical Plant maybe but I doubt it.  Green Hill is obviously an exception due to it's majorly iconic status, but I think doing any more stages that we already got to see re-imagined (and expanded upon) in Generations would be a wasted opportunity.

[Tails spin]

I want aquatic ruins to represent sonic 2.  I don't care if it trumps hydrocity from being in

[Wing]

44 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Playtime was limited on the demos to make sure everyone got to play, no-one is gonna want to stand in a queue for half an hour to waste their turn like that.

Doomsday was a super-sonic only final boss stage, not even really a "zone" but a situation that occured in the story.  You're just flying through space, it's not really a "location" for Sonic to revisit.  So I've no idea why you'd think that is "for sure" at all.  Chemical Plant maybe but I doubt it.  Green Hill is obviously an exception due to it's majorly iconic status, but I think doing any more stages that we already got to see re-imagined (and expanded upon) in Generations would be a wasted opportunity.

I was thinking mania was a reimagined genesis story, thats all really, is the plans for the game confirmed? I was told no details were given

[G-Force]

Since they're planning to do several remixed zones, I've been thinking of what might be interesting to see, and I've had an idea.  For a little while now it's been kinda bugging me that Angel Island Zone gets lit on fire in the middle of Act 1.  You get half an Act of regular jungle, and then one and a half acts of burning jungle.  Am I the only one who thinks it might be cool to get a full length act or zone where the jungle doesn't get lit on fire?

I figure they could do it a couple of different ways.  They could either

• Do two full acts of regular jungle, possibly with the water hazards exclusive to Act 2 to create a sort of "Act 1 Jungle > Act 2 Swamp" progression,
• Hold the firebombing until the actual midboss to create a more distinct "Act 1 Regular Jungle > Act 2 Burning Jungle" idea, or
• Make the firebombing optional.  Perhaps the midboss triggers the bombing when it appears, and killing it fast enough will prevent Act 2 from being on fire.

I know the last one's a little crazy, but I thought it was a cool idea and I wanted to throw it out there.

[Wing]

1 hour ago, G-Force said:

Since they're planning to do several remixed zones, I've been thinking of what might be interesting to see, and I've had an idea.  For a little while now it's been kinda bugging me that Angel Island Zone gets lit on fire in the middle of Act 1.  You get half an Act of regular jungle, and then one and a half acts of burning jungle.  Am I the only one who thinks it might be cool to get a full length act or zone where the jungle doesn't get lit on fire?

I figure they could do it a couple of different ways.  They could either

• Do two full acts of regular jungle, possibly with the water hazards exclusive to Act 2 to create a sort of "Act 1 Jungle > Act 2 Swamp" progression,
• Hold the firebombing until the actual midboss to create a more distinct "Act 1 Regular Jungle > Act 2 Burning Jungle" idea, or
• Make the firebombing optional.  Perhaps the midboss triggers the bombing when it appears, and killing it fast enough will prevent Act 2 from being on fire.

I know the last one's a little crazy, but I thought it was a cool idea and I wanted to throw it out there.

Imagine it was like the sonic advanced one instead xD on fire