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

[Jango]

GUYS STOP GIVING THEM IDEAS! Have you forgot:

Don't.

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

The other problem with Metropolis Zone is that it's Metropolis Zone. haha

I just find it a frustrating level, personally. It comes across as more tedious than other final levels, and the badniks are too much of a headache for my tastes.

To be fair, the old zones in Mania will be redesigned. So any zones that were badly designed in the original games could be a lot more fun in Mania.

[Wraith]

I want at least one of Sonic CD's zones to be made into something I can enjoy, since I love the aesthetic so much.

[Indigo Rush]

I guarantee you Sonic CD will have some level rep; knowing Taxman's tastes, there's no way we won't at least see some inspiration from it (aesthetically, mind).

But... if Wacky Workbench is in. Mania Team. Listen. Please.

If Wacky Workbench is in.

Make it GOOD.

[Tracker_TD]

27 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I guarantee you Sonic CD will have some level rep; knowing Taxman's tastes, there's no way we won't at least see some inspiration from it (aesthetically, mind).

But... if Wacky Workbench is in. Mania Team. Listen. Please.

If Wacky Workbench is in.

Make it GOOD.

Sonic CD levels have already been confirmed multiple times, like when the Playstation Blog first posted about Mania; it's just a question of which levels. 

[Jango]

And it better be Quartz Quadrant.

Because that music. I need it.

 

[TB100]

Quartz Quadrant and Stardust Speedway would definitely be my Sonic CD reps. But beyond CD,

I think Hill Top could lead to an interesting reimagining in my opinion. Like let's say it starts like the Original Hill Top Zone, but instead of going underground like in the original, you run right below the clouds into a rainy forest. And you basically go back and forth between the hill tops and this rainy forest. Think hilltop heights from Sonic BTS. Just With all the usual Hill Top elements and music. 

[Lucid Dream]

Is there no chance for Triple Trouble, Knuckles' Chaotix or the other classic Sonic titles to have a level? 

I kinda really want this again 

 

 

[Indigo Rush]

Why Hill Top Zone didn't have snow in it to begin with still bothers me to this day.

[TB100]

7 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Why Hill Top Zone didn't have snow in it to begin with still bothers me to this day.

I knew Winter Zone was a thing, but I never knew that Hill Top was originally gonna had snow in it. (Learn something new every day.) Maybe it could serve as the winter zone in Mania. If Ice Cap couldn't be done (for obvious reasons.) or if the team hasn't already thought of a winter level themselves.

(Plus Lava+Snow is always a interesting combination.)

[Indigo Rush]

Nah, I have no idea if Hill Top was originally going to have snow in it. I'm just saying that it would have made sense to include a snow in a mountain-top themed level; it would also have been nice to have something other than an Emerald Hill recolor. It just would have been better, I think.

Coulda done some neat stuff with snow and lava, too. Some steam gimmicks or melting snow turning into waterslides would've been cool.

That said, I'd vouch against Hill Top for Mania; I'd instead like to see Mystic Cave or Chemical Plant again. I'd even be down for a revamped Metropolis Zone. But not Hill Top. I just don't like Hill Top 

[Celestia]

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

Why Hill Top Zone didn't have snow in it to begin with still bothers me to this day.

The Death Egg was warm enough to melt snow from a distance, obviously.

I'd love Stardust Speedway as long as they make the gimmick of the stage more fun, because I always gets stuck on That One Section (I think in Zone 2?) and it's....not fun. I love CD in general tho' so I'm excited to see what stage(s?) are gonna be remade.

[JezMM]

2 hours ago, Lucid Dream said:

Is there no chance for Triple Trouble, Knuckles' Chaotix or the other classic Sonic titles to have a level? 

I kinda really want this again 

 

 

I don't believe they have explicitly deconfirmed, but it would be hugely surprising considering I'm SURE a factor in the nostalgia levels is that the art design process for them is probably significantly shorter/cheaper than the brand new stages.  8-bit stages would be much closer to making a new stage, since literally no part of them can be reused vertabim.

[TheOcelot]

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

I just don't like Hill Top 

Gotta agree with you. Hill Top's aesthetics does nothing for me. It's boring, rather short with little challenge apart from when the lava rises, and even those sequences (especially act2) are easy to master. It's got multiple routes but they're not particularly interesting. It's just dull and feels more like a filler stage.

I'd much rather see zones like Aquatic Ruin, Mystic Cave or Oil Ocean which have more interesting gimmicks, colour and level design.

A remake of Mystic Cave where they fix that pit and make it an insta-kill (without spikes at the bottom) sounds good. Mind you, if they remake Mystic Cave then surely Hidden Palace (accessed via the pit) should be included as well! We could end up with a re-imagining of the re-imagined version of Hidden Palace 

2 minutes ago, Celestia said:

I'd love Stardust Speedway as long as they make the gimmick of the stage more fun, because I always gets stuck on That One Section (I think in Zone 2?) and it's....not fun. I love CD in general tho' so I'm excited to see what stage(s?) are gonna be remade.

I also love CD and I'm getting a lot of CD vibes in the news zones, especially Mirage Saloon. Studiopolis reminds me a lot of Collision Chaos and a little bit of Wacky Workybench.

I think a combination of Star Light zone & Stardust Speedway would make for an interesting level.

I'd also like to see Quartz Quadrant re-imagined. It's a beautiful stage but it's design and layout in CD was a bit disappointing. It's very much "hold right to win". There's definitely untapped potential.

 

[Pawn]

The talk of Hill Top reminds me that I'd like to see a level with a prehistoric theme. It would be cool to see fossils making up various environmental staples like slopes and loops, badniks designed around dinosaurs (like those from Hill Top and Hidden Palace) and some ghosts knocking about the place for extra flavour. Maybe add a fog gimmick for the latter half.

[Salamander]

I quite like Hill Top Zone's aesthetics, but I'd be hard-pressed to explain quite why.  I think it might be because it dials back the complexity a lot; it's fairly simple, unassuming.  Humble, almost.  I wouldn't want it to be more than it is, but at the same time... I also think it'd be a pretty bad pick for Mania; objectively, there are more interesting zones than the zone which is kind of a breather in terms of visual energy.

I feel like I'm the only one rooting for Tidal Tempest from CD, alas.  Certainly, there's no way both it and Hydrocity are going to get in, and Hydrocity's probably the better Labyrinth-variant...  But I really like Tidal Tempest's bold blocks of colour and very rigid architecture, all ninety- and forty-five-degree angles; the alien, hauntingly relaxing music.  Plus, a conceptually brilliant boss where fighting and surviving are literally the same action; I feel like they could reconfigure it as it is into a miniboss and then develop a boss which takes the concept further somehow.

[Jango]

If Nack is in Mania, and better yet, as an unique boss (like Metal Sonic in CD), Sunset Park Act 3 music would make an AWESOME theme. Fingers crossed.

[TB100]

I wonder if Sonic 3's multiplayer stages are eligable for the reimagining treatment?

I'll be neat to see what Endless Mine, Azure Lake or Chrome Gadget would look like as full levels. (Especially since the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remastered proposal would've had them as full levels.)

 

[JezMM]

1 hour ago, BlueBlur91 said:

I wonder if Sonic 3's multiplayer stages are eligable for the reimagining treatment?

I'll be neat to see what Endless Mine, Azure Lake or Chrome Gadget would look like as full levels. (Especially since the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remastered proposal would have had them as full levels.)

Same deal as 8-bit stages really - assets and stage concepts would have to be created from the ground up, so they "might as well make a brand new level" with that time/money budget really.  This would be a super neat surprise, but keep hopes low, I guess.

Beyond that they're not exactly canon since they only exist in 2P mode, so they'd be a bit weird to include in the whole concept of Sonic revisiting locations from his previous adventures.

[Indigo Rush]

If we're doing that though, Chrome Gadget or bust. Love the music to that one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...don't tell me Michael Jackson's behind that one, too.

[JosepHenry]

50 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

If we're doing that though, Chrome Gadget or bust. Love the music to that one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...don't tell me Michael Jackson's behind that one, too.

A full Chrome Gadget stage... 

This is all I want. It would be a perfect hit at the nostalgia strings.

[Rexeljet]

Sign me up to the "I want to see Chrome Gadget in Mania" club as well. Even if it's unlikely to happen, It'd be amazing to see the S3 multiplayer levels (as well as those of Chaotix and/or the 8-bit titles) get some love in one form or another. The level music was (mostly) intact in S&K collection and Pocket Adventure, so if nobody was claiming the rights to it then, I'm not sure who would be doing it now.

As for the 2P levels' canonicity, I always assumed they were probably other areas of Angel Island that weren't part of the route that Sonic/Tails/Knuckles took in the main story. Red Mountain doesn't appear in S3&K either.

I'd love to see Flying Battery in the game. It has one of my favourite music tracks in S3&K and I'm pretty certain Sega has the rights to the tune. Plus, with it being an airship, its placement in the level order doesn't really matter a huge deal.

**Warning: unrealistic speculation and rambling ahead**

I believe it was mentioned earlier in the thread that the reimagined S3&K level(s) will go against the player's expectations. At first I considered the idea of Sonic stumbling across the airship, crash landed from when it was abandoned in S3&K, and the level is overgrown and falling apart. Of course, the only things wrong with this are:

a. The battery is no longer flying, and 

b. As per the discussion re:Scrap Brain, having badniks in a completely abandoned environment would leave some dark implications.

Perhaps, after a boss battle, Robotnik could retreat to the abandoned battery, without really having time to think, and take to the skies. However, after years of disuse, it's suffering from flight problems so, as well as falling to bits, it's rocking and swaying about. An extra challenge could come in the form of trying to keep your balance on the dying airship. Imagine a frantic, scrambled remix of the Flying Battery Zone music and you've got a pretty intense and interesting reimagining of the level.

[Slingerland]

On 12/31/2016 at 3:58 AM, Jango said:

Just compose a new music. Problem solved! SEGA owns the GAME.

You're forgetting the part where everyone on forums like these complains about how the music is different for undisclosed reasons.

Also, Ice Cap Zone is heckie boring. Y'all just there for the music. If the original music is gone (which it would be in Ice Cap's case), ain't nothin' there but repetitive, seemingly infinite ice foreground.

[expansivelovestories]

On 1/1/2017 at 8:37 AM, Rexeljet said:

Sign me up to the "I want to see Chrome Gadget in Mania" club as well. Even if it's unlikely to happen, It'd be amazing to see the S3 multiplayer levels (as well as those of Chaotix and/or the 8-bit titles) get some love in one form or another. The level music was (mostly) intact in S&K collection and Pocket Adventure, so if nobody was claiming the rights to it then, I'm not sure who would be doing it now.

As for the 2P levels' canonicity, I always assumed they were probably other areas of Angel Island that weren't part of the route that Sonic/Tails/Knuckles took in the main story. Red Mountain doesn't appear in S3&K either.

Yes   Azure Lake particularly appears that it could exist near Ice Cap due to the uniquely glacial appearance of the background mountains.  The backgrounds of Sandopolis and Carnival Night seem to imply the possible locations of their corresponding stages too.    

It seems possible that the Mania team has set, (similar to what happens with crowdfunding) goals for the core game, everything they hope to be able to include in working order that is lovely to play and replay; and then, some additional goals of what to include as long as it is up to the same standard and they have time/resources!  Then what is unfinished, but may feel to the team to belong with Mania and not a future game, could surely be added in when it is completed and works well together, as a separate download, or some type of patch or expansion to Mania later this year or next! 

[Pawn]

9 hours ago, Slingerland said:

 

Also, Ice Cap Zone is heckie boring. Y'all just there for the music. If the original music is gone (which it would be in Ice Cap's case), ain't nothin' there but repetitive, seemingly infinite ice foreground.

It may not have had the best level design in the game, but I definitely wasn't bored by it. Not that it really matters since the developers would be rebuilding the majority of it anyway. And I love the foreground tiles *shrug*.