Sonic Mania & Forces Interview(s)

[TheOcelot]

The fact that @Slingerland and the others working on the level design have taken inspiration from Sonic CD and 3&K (which are my two favorite classic Sonic games and have the best stage design IMO) makes me so happy.

In all the footage we've seen it's obvious the level layout is inspired from these two games. I always wanted a game which combines level layouts from both. Fuck yes!

[Chris Knopps]

On 6/17/2017 at 11:40 AM, Bobnik said:

Here is another interview that caught my eye. Especially the part where Nakamura talks about how the story will be told from playable characters' perspectives, somewhat similar to SA2.  

...Isn't that how ALL games stories are told?

What's so special about that?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Finishing different levels nets you different cutscenes depending on the character.

[Chris Knopps]

22 minutes ago, Shaddy the guy said:

Finishing different levels nets you different cutscenes depending on the character.

Again...

What's so special about that? It's to be expected.

[Zippo]

Do you guys think there will be anymore news on Friday or was E3 the last bit of news for awhile?

[molul]

11 minutes ago, Zippo said:

Do you guys think there will be anymore news on Friday or was E3 the last bit of news for awhile?

I think there will be a last trailer for the Sonic 3 zone around mid-July.

[Mark1]

10 hours ago, Chris Knopps said:

...Isn't that how ALL games stories are told?

What's so special about that?

The classic trilogy was never known for this aside from two different stories in S&K. 

If it's elaborated more from that then all good for me ?

[Bobnik]

4 hours ago, molul said:

I think there will be a last trailer for the Sonic 3 zone around mid-July.

IIRC Aaron said in one of the interviews that there probably won't be any more zone announcements, so that there remains some element of surprise.

[molul]

Hmm I see. I don't find it clever, honestly. The closer a game is to release, the bigger the marketing effort should be. If there are no new announcements, the hype either remains or decreases (not that the hype is low on this game, of course).

A Sonic 3 zone announcement 3 weeks before the release would be the last hype peak, and it would prepare the ground for a launch trailer on August 15th, with all the zones revealed so far.

[Tenko]

I'm guessing there will be a Sonic 3 zone drop at some point, even if it's just in the final release trailer. Every other classic game they are covering has had one of its zones shown except for Sonic 3, and the team likely knows the positive response news on Sonic 3 would get. Especially from fans who know about the presumed music issues, and Sonic 3 Remastered not being greenlit, plus the missing representation in Generations etc etc. the list goes on.

Aaron did mention they aren't showing most of the game prior to release, especially new zones, due to wanting the people who purchase the game to still have surprises left, but at the same time he said they are prefering to show off the old remastered zones in the clips they do show. So it wouldn't shock me if leaving Sonic 3 till last, in a release trailer or final drop of info is not only a thing that's going to happen, but because of the fans, might have even been planned as the final "OMG WOW" moment before the game hits.

[Milo]

So Taxman had this to say over at Retro about how the game got started:

Quote

Mania's dev story is pretty neat actually, and I'm sure we'll discuss it in the fullness of time but the short of it is this:

Our initial proposal was actually to do a rather modest little original 2D game & bundle in the remasters to sweeten the deal. Iizuka-san then suggested the "Mania" concept of re-imagining the classic Zones along with our new Zones as one cohesive game, and our team went to work coming up with a new story and ideas to go with it. So yeah, we've really been able to run with it, and produce something considerably more grandiose (classic zones have new BGs, layouts, bosses & gimmicks after all).

Anyway, it's back to work for me! 

___

This is mostly in-line with Iizuka's interview back from April as to how the game started development, in which SoA and Taxman approached him about making more ports of the original games. The main difference however is that Taxman says he and SoA's original request was to make a small new 2D game and add the existing remasters to it.

[molul]

I hope the agreement between Iizuka and Taxman included that if Mania's sales are good, the money would be invested on the Sonic 3 remaster. And then they would make a "Sonic Classics" bundle with the remasters and Mania.

[TheOcelot]

Ha, Taxman's comments were in reply to a post I made on Retro! 

Really awesome to get some insight.

Actually, the the idea of a new (small) 2d game and the remasters included still would have been pretty cool! Kudos to Iizuka for suggesting they do something more original. Look what it's grown into!

Mania: For the Maniacs by the Maniacs 

[ChikaBoing]

I stiill thinks it's interresting how two polar opposites came out these last few years (Boom and Mania) within Sega of America. Fucking Sega.

[Milo]

2 minutes ago, ChikaBoing said:

I stiill thinks it's interresting how two polar opposites came out these last few years (Boom and Mania) within Sega of America. Fucking Sega.

It probably had something to do with Boom cratering so hard it contributed to Sega of America being hit the hardest when Sega started its restructuring phase in 2015 (with 300 jobs cut and the historic SoA office being moved out of San Francisco). The coup-de-grace shot following rounds of layoffs from 2012 and 2013.

[ChikaBoing]

16 minutes ago, Gabe said:

It probably had something to do with Boom cratering so hard it contributed to Sega of America being hit the hardest when Sega started its restructuring phase in 2015 (with 300 jobs cut and the historic SoA office being moved out of San Francisco). The coup-de-grace shot following rounds of layoffs from 2012 and 2013.

That is the reason, but historically we have seen Sega release some of the best and worst games ever within the same year(s). You just never see a company like this, it is totally strange. 2006 had Sonic 06 and Virtua Fighter 5. 2009 had Iron Man 2 and Bayonetta. You know.

BTW regarding Sonic Team involvement in Mania...which I know is a topic on the Retro topic (Gabe=Yeow, I know ). You mentioned that they have the same supervisory role that they have in Boom. In Boom, Sonic Team were only the "Sonic Character Supervisor"; which is a similar role they had in Sonic Chronicles, because they were living in Japan. It is more like Sonic Rivals with Mania, because like back then, Iizuka was living in the US. Ironically however, Backbone who was developing Rivals wanted actually wanted to do Sonic Advance remakes, which Iizuka rejected in favour of the ill-conceived racing concepts. 

[expansivelovestories]

2 hours ago, OcelotBot said:

Ha, Taxman's comments were in reply to a post I made on Retro! 

Really awesome to get some insight.

Actually, the the idea of a new (small) 2d game and the remasters included still would have been pretty cool! Kudos to Iizuka for suggesting they do something more original. Look what it's grown into!

Mania: For the Maniacs by the Maniacs 

It does really feel like the best possible game to come next as part of the original series' sequence of games; yet, many aspects including this concept probably wouldn't have been floated in the mid 1990s.  This is when it was meant to happen!   

I like the unstated idea that Iizuka-san intended to make each member of the team even stronger in all of their respective crafts, while also bringing an otherwise impossibly good new Sonic experience to life, by providing them this unique, and uniquely challenging, goal!  He knew that they could do it.  That is one of the core experiences of being human and working together in groups that has happened for millennia isn't it; making the impossible into the possible through foresight and collaborative creative actions and conversations!    

 

[Celestia]

15 minutes ago, ChikaBoing said:

BTW regarding Sonic Team involvement in Mania...which I know is a topic on the Retro topic (Gabe=Yeow, I know ). You mentioned that they have the same supervisory role that they have in Boom. In Boom, Sonic Team were only the "Sonic Character Supervisor"; which is a similar role they had in Sonic Chronicles, because they were living in Japan. It is more like Sonic Rivals with Mania, because like back then, Iizuka was living in the US. Ironically however, Backbone who was developing Rivals wanted actually wanted to do Sonic Advance remakes, which Iizuka rejected in favour of the ill-conceived racing concepts. 

...

You know what? I'm joining the Anti-Iizuka Club. I finally understand now.

Spoiler

It's joke XP

Honestly I hope Mania does well enough to not only encourage followups by the same team, but also convince SEGA to be more willing to bring in new devs, despite how uh...catastrophic that's been (I don't think I need to name names). Hopefully they've learned from that fiasco. Plus it's actually a really good idea to "test" new devs with stuff like remasters. In my wildest dreams they'd revive Rush into a full on subseries with some new devs who won't fall into the same habits as Dimps while also understanding the good points of those games....sigh.

[Milo]

1 minute ago, ChikaBoing said:

BTW regarding Sonic Team involvement in Mania...which I know is a topic on the Retro topic (Gabe=Yeow, I know :P). You mentioned that they have the same supervisory role that they have in Boom. In Boom, Sonic Team were only the "Sonic Character Supervisor"; which is a similar role they had in Sonic Chronicles, because they were living in Japan. It is more like Sonic Rivals, because like back then, Iizuka was living in the US. Ironically however, Backbone who was developing Rivals wanted actually to do a Sonic Advance remakes, which Iizuka rejected in favour of the ill-conceived racing concepts. 

I was talking supervisory more in the sense that they largely seemed hands-off on both projects. Iizuka's role on Mania's production, based on his comments, sounds like he is just giving his approval on the ideas and level layouts the team comes up with; and isn't deeply involved in the actual game design. Likewise, Iizuka/Sonic Team's input on Boom seemed to go no further on how drastic the character redesigns could go.

[ChikaBoing]

12 minutes ago, Gabe said:

I was talking supervisory more in the sense that they largely seemed hands-off on both projects. Iizuka's role on Mania's production, based on his comments, sounds like he is just giving his approval on the ideas and level layouts the team comes up with; and isn't deeply involved in the actual game design. Likewise, Iizuka/Sonic Team's input on Boom seemed to go no further on how drastic the character redesigns could go.

Of course they are also supervising the visual side of Mania, specifically approving character designs. It's team between the both Iizuka & Hoshino, but whenever Sonic is involved anywhere  (from Mario & Sonic, Smash Bros. to Sonic Allstars Racing) you can see Iizuka & Hoshino being credited on how Sonic should look. For Sonic Boom and Sonic Chronicles, Iizuka had nothing to do with approving any gameplay ideas, because that involves more day to day interaction which is hard(er) from Japan.

Like I said, Rivals had Iizuka credited for "Game Concept", which is likely to happen for Mania as well.

BTW if you haven't seen it; Hoshino's reaction to Mania is well worth watching:

 

[Tenko]

I'm hoping they still decide to release the remasters on other systems. It's a pity they couldn't have bundled them with the collector's edition or something a Mania Maniac's Edition if you will.

[Alienrun]

https://www.famitsu.com/news/201706/14135044.html

Spoiler

Q: A new trailer was revealed in the end of May.
Iizuka: Yes. In this clip, we added a new stage from ‘Sonic the Hedgehog CD'. There is no time warp element like in the original, but we arranged the stage to add a taste of it.

RIP my hype lol. I wonder how they are going to accomodate for this...its no wonder Startdust Speedway was only teased.

[ChikaBoing]

Going by this interview (http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/543/1543432/) - Mania will have more zones than any other classic Sonic game?

Quote

Iizuka : There are the most number of stages in the Classic Sonic series ever.For that reason I want to say, I try not to overwhelm you so much as to keep your enjoyment.

 

[Salamander]

Good news, but we were pretty sure that was the case anyway.  Well, it's nice to have what looks like confirmation.

[Milo]

3 hours ago, ChikaBoing said:

Going by this interview (http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/543/1543432/) - Mania will have more zones than any other classic Sonic game?

 

For reference, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3&K are tied as the longest classic Sonic games with 14 zones and 11 zones respectively, including one-act zones. (If you're not including one-act zones, then the total drops down to 11 zones and 8 zones, respectively.) I'm referring to both games as tied in this instance, as Sonic 2 is technically the longest if you're strictly going for individual releases (1, 2, CD, 3, &K); whereas Sonic 3&K is the longest if you're referring to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as the one intended game (1, 2, CD, 3&K).

This also lends credence on the possibility of past Genesis Sonic games having more than one remixed zone in Mania; though it remains to be seen if the amount of remixed zones from each past classic game will be proportionate (i.e. each game gets two remixed zones, resulting in ten remixed zones overall) or not.