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


Ryannumber1gamer

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The Studiopolis Shirt looks awesome, I have so many Sonic t shirts but I think I might have to get another one!!:P:D

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16 hours ago, BenderMania said:

There's a certain satisfaction I find about seeing the giant-ring appear at the end of the stage, knowing that you've played well to get it to appear.

I can only disagree. Back in the day, finishing Sonic 1 with all emeralds was really difficult. In the mobile remaster is much more affordable thanks to the save game feature. But anyway, it still takes time to get to the end of the act. 

To me, Sonic 3 & Knuckles was perfect. Giant rings and star posts everywhere. 

 

And yes, Mania looks more 32x-esque than Saturn-esque to me. At least for the resolution.

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The Saturn-esque moniker comes from Taxman himself; over on NeoGaf. And I dunno, I kind of prefer to think that this is the Saturn finally getting 2D Sonic love; even the 32X got Knuckles Chaotix. 

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On September 1, 2016 at 4:57 AM, StaticMania said:

"Recent ST titles"

 After Sonic Heroes and before Sonic Generations is the height of Knuckles' flanders-ing.

^ This. Knuckles works best as a cheerleader for Sonic. Anything else is flandering and takes too much screentime. 

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You didn't miss a whole lot, just Aaron showing the hosts the game; like some secrets (like a good look at the bottom path of Green Hill) and stuff. The typical info we already know like Mania will have an actual story and all that jazz.

Again, it's really nothing but it was a good time when Aaron's around. Though I was a bit disappointed that Matt from Tails Channel wasn't in the segment.

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2 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Thanks for the stream @Ryannumber1gamer.

It's was an interesting one. Aaron showed off the lowest route in GH. The lowest route (which shows off some of the underground-cave background) includes the area with the crab badnik (as teased in the announcement trailer).

Green Hill is supposed to be the tamest of the remade stages but there are plenty of routes to explore!

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Well we can't say it's the tamest since it's the only stage shown that's been remade but I'd say it's a safe bet.

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5 minutes ago, Soni said:

Well we can't say it's the tamest since it's the only stage shown that's been remade but I'd say it's a safe bet.

The Taxman actually did mention that it was the tamest of the Classic stages.

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Sonic Mania is truly a beautiful game. I mean even the detail is so amazing and the passion that went into it is aw-inspiring.

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I noticed at 9:50 in that vid, there's an upward trail of rings that shows you were to go that moves back and forth along with the moving platform. It's just a neat little thing I noticed but i don't think that's ever been done before?

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Defining point in Sonic history here. The reception for this game is remarkable, deservedly so. 

There is no way that this will just be a one time thing with the hype around this game.

Getting such a 90s vibe from that trailer. 

Oh, and did I mention that 1-up and invincibility music? ?

My one tiny nitpick with the footage is the placement of a few enemies. This was a problem I had with the classics as well and can live by it. This might just be me. 

Marking most of the points in making a fantastic game. Easily something I have never been able to say with a Sonic game since before Sonic Adventure. 

I can't wait to see more. 

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13 hours ago, Adamabba said:

Mania's invincibility theme sounds alot like Twinkle Park 1:

 

The first song was in Genesis' Sonic 3D blast as well.

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1 hour ago, BenderMania said:

This just arrived through the post today :D

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Looks pretty cool!

Just curious how does that shirt fit, more like slim or regs?

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1 hour ago, BlueFlare said:

Just curious how does that shirt fit, more like slim or regs?

Tricky question. I thinks it's more like a regular fit. The t-shirt fits me fine.

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17 hours ago, Detective Paradox said:

For those who weren't able to watch the stream which was showcasing Sonic Mania, I managed to upload it on YouTube:

 

The area at 3:55 in the video where the player is launched by the hidden spring into the off-screen snail badnik is pretty bad design, hopefully that's not in the final product. The snail badnik is already hard to deal with as it is, with the small blue projectiles it shoots out that cover a wide radius. And that's to say nothing of the rows of spikes and Eggman monitor at the bottom of the rotating platforms the player has to avoid as it is, having to factor in the snail on top of those two is kinda ridiculous. Too many ways of getting hit in a small and slower-paced segment.

Really, I think the snail badnik could stand to be toned down in its use as well as its attacks. It rivals the Sonic 2 Metropolis badniks of aggravating enemy placement and design.

I'm still liking most of what I'm seeing though otherwise. Pretty cool that in Green Hill, taking the lower path brings you to the underground setting, well before all of the level routes converge at the end of the level.

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1 hour ago, Gabe said:

The area at 3:55 in the video where the player is launched by the hidden spring into the off-screen snail badnik is pretty bad design, hopefully that's not in the final product.

I agree. I see some areas where the badnik placement is pretty deliberately obstructing, like areas in Sonic CD people complain about (Quartz Quadrant badniks and ceiling hazards some of which require you to become a ball immediately or dodge after touching ground from high speed sections, for example), but Sonic CD is actually an example of the right way to do this. This particular section reminds me more of Aqua Lake from the 8-bit series where they place lobster badniks and spear hazards in the same underwater hallway. But the demo so far shows me more of the first example of placement and not the second, so this doesn't concern me really. The physics work, that's the main thing.

Also despite many people saying Spring Yard, I get more of a Stardust Speedway vibe off Studiopolis, because of the many twists in the road which lead off at different levels. And the freakin flying things pestering you all the time. Or maybe even Metallic Madness? I bet the game will have a Sonic CD feel for all the new levels actually, given that Taxman and friends no doubt studied that game more than others.

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Regarding Aaron's playthrough:

The way he used/spammed the bubble-shield was impressive. It seems to have a good reach and manoeuvrability is sublime. It was the one elemental shield from Sonic 3 which needed some tweaking and they've done a good job.

I want to talk about the lower route which Aaron showed us:

At about 8:50 in the video Aaron tried to go back up the tunnels, but then decided against it and continues-eventually going down to the lowest route via underneath the reworked design from act2 of GH from Sonic 1. At 9:44 in the video on the lowest route (just after Aaron lands on the spikes), you see a route (to the left) going up a loop-de-loop which looks like you can't backtrack up, just like later in the video at 10:39 when Aaron tried to spindash up a loop-de-loop but can't because of a small horizontal block which needs to be destroyed from the other aside (above), which is a bit like some of the loop-de-loops in Hill Top from Sonic 2). I don't like designs like this which prevent back-tracking. I know sections preventing backtracking aren't uncommon in 2d Sonic games, but it feels like a poor design.

Now, the reason why Aaron tried to go back up the tunnels at 8:50? My guess is that you can enter the lowest route earlier in the act, which I think you do by jumping passed the two 10-ring item boxes and invincibility box which are on the low route (just after the start of the act) just passed three small sets of spikes. Once you collected these items boxes in Sonic 1 you had no choice but to jump back up to the normal route (where you come out right by the first loop-de-loop with the shield item-box on top). In Sonic 1 if you continued to the right after the three item-boxes instead of jumping up you would die because there is a bottomless pit. However, in Mania I'm 99% certain that the bottomless has been replaced by the start of the new lowest route which will eventually take you to the top of the loop-de-loop at 9:44. If that makes sense?

I don't think many fans have found the lowest route in the playable demo which is why Aaron wanted to show it off.

2 hours ago, Gabe said:

The area at 3:55 in the video where the player is launched by the hidden spring into the off-screen snail badnik is pretty bad design, hopefully that's not in the final product. The snail badnik is already hard to deal with as it is, with the small blue projectiles it shoots out that cover a wide radius. And that's to say nothing of the rows of spikes and Eggman monitor at the bottom of the rotating platforms the player has to avoid as it is, having to factor in the snail on top of those two is kinda ridiculous. Too many ways of getting hit in a small and slower-paced segment.

Really, I think the snail badnik could stand to be toned down in its use as well as its attacks. It rivals the Sonic 2 Metropolis badniks of aggravating enemy placement and design.

I'm still liking most of what I'm seeing though otherwise. Pretty cool that in Green Hill, taking the lower path brings you to the underground setting, well before all of the level routes converge at the end of the level.

Agreed. The placement is kind of dickish. The same could be said when Sonic gets hit by the snail badnik at 3:37. It's attack is extremely fast with a long reach and unless you know it's there you will get hit. If the snail badnik at 3:55 was placed higher up the wall then it would be a bit more fair. Even the placement of the snail badnik at 7:14 is kind of dodgy, it's attack nearly hit Sonic.

Here's a slight concern; when you touch the side of a spring in Mania (you don't see it in Aaron's playthrough) whilst running, Sonic will automatically be bounced upwards which is a design choice they have adapted from Knuckles Chaotix. In Sonic 1, 2 & CD if you hot a spring by running from the side it doesn't do anything. You have to jump directly on top of the spring for it to bounce Sonic up. Now, the design choice in Mania is good because it helps keep momentum but you can also end up hitting the spring whilst going faster than you meant to, which means you would bounce further than you wanted and could result in you hitting trouble.

At 10:11 in the video; Aaron uses the bubble-shield to bounce back up to the normal level. However, if Aaron had continued to the right instead of bouncing up he would have hit a spring. Now, when I played Mania at SOS I did hit the spring which took me by surprise and I was rocketed forward (and upward) quite taken aback by how far I travelled, not knowing where I would land. I ended up landing on one of the platforms moving up and down at about 10:22 just narrowly missing the spikes. I just feel that the spring automatically launching Sonic up when you touch it's side takes away a bit of the control. 

I didn't realise there was a purple (Chaotix) ring item box at 10:16 which Aaron got by using the powerful spindash. Nice touch!

Aside from a few minor concerns Mania looks super fun.

 

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Any level ideas you want to see in Mania? Both twists for the re-imagined zone and ideas for brand new ones.

We all know Green Hill's new twist is the cave, which isn't all that cool, but hey, Taxman himself said it's the tamest of the re-imagined zones, so yeah.

Studiopolis is Mania's casino/carnival-esque city at night/evening.

Sonic-Mania-Shot-01.jpg

Act 2 (presumably) of Studiopolis even have its own luck gimmick like Casino Night.

 

 

 

 

 

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