Sonic Mania SPOILERS/Impressions Thread

[SSF1991]

Apparently, you don't need Gold medals to unlock the stuff in Mania. You just need Silver ones, according to folks that have streamed Mania (such as the most recent one I linked to earlier in the thread).

[Celestia]

So...I guess the gold ones are just for bragging rights? Huh.

[Jango]

This game is too awesome for its own good. I'm here siting at working, thinking about playing it xD 

I envy the Switch owners haha

BTW, I think I'm gonna get the Collector's Edition, even if the price here is over 3 times more expensive. 

[Azure P]

6 minutes ago, Celestia said:

So...I guess the gold ones are just for bragging rights? Huh.

Think it's meant for the PS4 and Xbox achievements. So basically.

[TargetWatch]

1 hour ago, Chameleon of the Spoilers said:

I just don't see where it looks horrible, it follows the same direction of Generations and Colors which were a success, it relies on those ideas but expands on them, for example with the wisps turned into weapons, the old zones being twisted since Eggman took over, the custimizable character and the story is more ambitious. Both Mania and Forces are a rehash-fest honestly, they rely too much on nostalgia and Classic Sonic, but Mania lacks new content and the returning zones look really tame. And you say Forces is a mess, while SA1 had 6 different playstyles, Forces only has 3 which are all Sonic-y. Forces looks like a good game, it's just overshadowed by Mania's perfection as a classic game.

All Sonic-y? WTF does that even mean? In addition, just cause Colours and Generations were a success doesn't mean that constantly rehashing those ideas won't eventually lead to the law of dimminishing returns. Lastly, there's nothing ambitious about Sonic Force's story, it's going to be the same: 'Lol, two Sonic's, different dimensions ain't that cool?' bullshit where everything will be glossed over or poorly explained. I'm not saying either one of these games are ideal, the re-imagined stages will harm Sonic Mania in the long run. Lastly, I say Sonic Forces is a mess simply to the fact instead of using actual canon characters that have relevance, meaning they're putting them aside for Classic Sonic and an avatar creator which suspiciously looks like a reskinned Boom Sonic that had to be repurposed quickly. SEGA don't fool me. (You can even tell from the stark difference in proportion that avatar was originally Boom Sonic.)

[JosepHenry]

Waiting for the PC version by watching LPs...  I discovered that the Heavy Rider is female and her Motobug Jimmy is a homage to that Polygon Jim member from Retro that passed away some years ago. I don't know if that has been posted here yet, but that's really cool.

Until Mania doesn't come out for me.... Please have a giant Forces news explosion not too long until then? So SOME (I SAID SOME) people will stop being so pessimistic (Hopefully) by showing cool stuff about the game that they will love and get hyped for? (Hopefully) 

[TargetWatch]

I sincerely doubt it. Something about Forces just feels off in a big way.

[Stasis]

So many questions and the answer is most likely cut content.

Were the HBH's normal Egg Robos who were transformed by the Phantom Ruby? The online manual says Eggman dispatched the HBH's to retrieve the Ruby but clearly he sent normal Egg Robo's?

Is it just Knuckles who fights the Heavy King? I thought it odd Sonic doesn't fight him at all in his story and then he's in a random form in the true final boss? Knuckles does but there's no special transformation in to what we see later.

Regarding the true final boss, what mech is Eggman in? It looks like one he has previously battled in based on the damage and it being held together with tape.

What is the importance of Little Planet? After being teleported there it somehow becomes a big part of the story that we don't see.

Was the WIP animation of Sonic dodging the Heavy King scrapped?

What was the Titanic Monarch? It just appears to be a big robot that does nothing and has no purpose?

What flies out of the Titanic monarch and leave Little Planet at the end?

I'm sure I've got more but this will suffice for now.

Edit: just abused debug mode to get the Chaos Emeralds on no save mode to see if the HBH's can be killed in the final boss. Nope. Wonder why we can damage them though.

 

[NegaMix]

So... the gold medals are basically no different than Crash Bandicoot's platinum relics? That's good to know. Maybe I'll be able to unlock everything after all.

[DiamondX]

Who teached Sonic Super Saiyan Blue?

 

[Red Hot Jack]

2 hours ago, TargetWatch said:

All Sonic-y? WTF does that even mean? In addition, just cause Colours and Generations were a success doesn't mean that constantly rehashing those ideas won't eventually lead to the law of dimminishing returns. Lastly, there's nothing ambitious about Sonic Force's story, it's going to be the same: 'Lol, two Sonic's, different dimensions ain't that cool?' bullshit where everything will be glossed over or poorly explained. I'm not saying either one of these games are ideal, the re-imagined stages will harm Sonic Mania in the long run. Lastly, I say Sonic Forces is a mess simply to the fact instead of using actual canon characters that have relevance, meaning they're putting them aside for Classic Sonic and an avatar creator which suspiciously looks like a reskinned Boom Sonic that had to be repurposed quickly. SEGA don't fool me. (You can even tell from the stark difference in proportion that avatar was originally Boom Sonic.)

Sonic-y means fast and platforming gameplay, while gameplays in other games were vastly different from that. And what is wrong with following the steps of previous successful games? I thought we agreed that Sonic shouldn't reinvent itself everytime, but needs to stick with successful formulas. Mania does the same by sticking to 3&K's formula. And I don't see any wrong with the custom hero, they didn't add it just to fuck with your minds, it was to appeal to a different audience where OCs are popular. Plus I think it fits with the theme of the game of the resistance. Just because you don't like the choices of Forces doesn't mean its quality will suck.

[DiamondX]

Both Forces and Mania are great games made for different audicences.

Just because you don't like one of the games, doesn't mean that the game is bad. Maybe you are not part of the target audicence for that game.

Mania = Classic Sonic/Older fans

Forces = Modern Sonic/Younger fans

[TargetWatch]

Just now, DiamondX (Trunks) said:

Both Forces and Mania are great games made for different audicences.

Just because you don't like one of the games, doesn't mean that the game is bad. Maybe you are not part of the target audicence for that game.

Mania = Classic Sonic/Older fans

Forces = Modern Sonic/Younger fans

And Classic Fans... (Despite that the gameplay for Classic Sonic in Forces is vastly mediorce.) No identity, it wants to please everyone and therefore it'll end up pleasing no one. Merging eras isn't the way. Making multiplle games like Nintendo do is.

[DiamondX]

Forces isn't for Classic fans. They got Mania.

 

Classic is just a fun gimmick.

 

Mania has diferent characters and there's no problem with that. It shouldn't be a problem with Forces.

[TargetWatch]

4 minutes ago, DiamondX (Trunks) said:

Forces isn't for Classic fans. They got Mania.

 

Classic is just a fun gimmick.

 

Mania has diferent characters and there's no problem with that. It shouldn't be a problem with Forces.

Which is a prequel to Sonic Forces... Classic is not a fun gimmick, he's a lame exploit to justify complacency.

He's also only there due to the fact the boost games can't be sustained in 3D due to how resource intensive as well as expensive it is.

If Sonic Mania is supposed to be a prequel and the Classic Sonic gameplay of Sonic Forces is not up to par with that prequel then clearly there's something wrong here.

There's no good reason for Classic Sonic to be in Sonic Forces.

[Red Hot Jack]

Forces also wants to please classic fans by adding Classic Sonic, but who told you his gameplay will suck? According to those who played it at E3, physics have been fixed. And yeah, Mania also has multiple characters.

[TargetWatch]

23 minutes ago, Chameleon of the Spoilers said:

Forces also wants to please classic fans by adding Classic Sonic, but who told you his gameplay will suck? According to those who played it at E3, physics have been fixed. And yeah, Mania also has multiple characters.

And it won't please us! Here's a couple of problems from the first Classic Sonic level alone... (Assuming it's the first, if it's further into the game then that's even worse!)

- Boosters before a loop (We've a spin dash, don't make it redundant by putting boost rollers before the first bloody loop-de-loop. That's a bad way to go about creating a tutorial. A tutorial should lean the player into the mehcanics, look at Sonic The Hedgehog one for example, the peaks and valleys allow for subtle experimentation with the games physics based system. With Sonic Forces I feel Sonic Team have gotten this completely backwards.)

- Sonic's movement appears to be jittery upon impact of enemies. (Generations had a similar problem.)

- The design of the level itself is already vastly inferior to Generations. (It appears we've gone back to blocky 2D plat-forming, which goes against the design philosophy of this series...) Not to mention the level itself is just bare and empty, it's mostly just a series of straight lines. Compare that to Sonic Mania's first level?

- Zero momentum based physcis. (The high-light of Classic Sonic's games isn't even going to be a mechanic in Sonic Forces, so already Mania will be viewed as the far superior game for Classic Sonic when the two are compared.)

- Automation. Now I don't know about you, but I remember when S-tubes were part of the actual gameplay and were not merely there for spectacle, for instance you could control the speed whilst in the tube in the Classic Sonic games + Mania , whereas in Generations and now Sonic Forces the very moment Classic Sonic does, so much as slightly enters one he's automatically propelled forward with an invisible force. (This is just degrading interactivity when there's precisely no need for it.)

The fact Sonic Team can't be arsed to implement the crucial element of Classic Sonic games in Sonic Forces in order to justify having Classic Sonic after failing to do, so in Sonic Generations in 2011 speaks volumes about how much they don't care.

Classic Sonic is only in Sonic Forces cause he's become a marketing exploit. He'll add absolutely nothing special to the game.

[Red Hot Jack]

All those things have no impact on the quality of the game though, critics and the audience will not even notice, only classic fans are this picky. Still, momentum physics are in the game, the only issues are the abundance of springs and boostpads, but this is only a first stage thing because it focuses too much on speed.

[TargetWatch]

7 minutes ago, Chameleon of the Spoilers said:

All those things have no impact on the quality of the game though, critics and the audience will not even notice, only classic fans are this picky. Still, momentum physics are in the game, the only issues are the abundance of springs and boostpads, but this is only a first stage thing because it focuses too much on speed.

Bolded the bits that are wrong. As for focusing on speed? I don't get that sense when looking at that level. Not at all. Its overly blocky design causes consistent breaks in game flow. That's pretty bad for the first level and already makes Sonic Mania shine way above Classic Sonic in Sonic Forces when it comes to level design and gameplay.

[expansivelovestories]

18 hours ago, Rodx said:

Is only me or the Heavies didn't die in this game ? if not, is a obvious setup for a future game .

It might allow many DLC zones/zone packs where they are continuing to roam free and surely also changing their strategies?  These zones might have to be implied to exist prior to the game's full concluding sequence in which they may have all turned back into their original basic forms.

[Red Hot Jack]

15 minutes ago, TargetWatch said:

Bolded the bits that are wrong. As for focusing on speed? I don't get that sense when looking at that level. Not at all. Its overly blocky design causes consistent breaks in game flow. That's pretty bad for the first level and already makes Sonic Mania shine way above Classic Sonic in Sonic Forces when it comes to level design and gameplay.

I agree that the level design is better in Mania's Green Hill, but it looks too tame compared to Forces, and I don't think it's blocky, the springs are for speed.

[Meta77]

1 hour ago, TargetWatch said:

And it won't please us! Here's a couple of problems from the first Classic Sonic level alone... (Assuming it's the first, if it's further into the game then that's even worse!)

- Boosters before a loop (We've a spin dash, don't make it redundant by putting boost rollers before the first bloody loop-de-loop. That's a bad way to go about creating a tutorial. A tutorial should lean the player into the mehcanics, look at Sonic The Hedgehog one for example, the peaks and valleys allow for subtle experimentation with the games physics based system. With Sonic Forces I feel Sonic Team have gotten this completely backwards.)

- Sonic's movement appears to be jittery upon impact of enemies. (Generations had a similar problem.)

- The design of the level itself is already vastly inferior to Generations. (It appears we've gone back to blocky 2D plat-forming, which goes against the design philosophy of this series...) Not to mention the level itself is just bare and empty, it's mostly just a series of straight lines. Compare that to Sonic Mania's first level?

- Zero momentum based physcis. (The high-light of Classic Sonic's games isn't even going to be a mechanic in Sonic Forces, so already Mania will be viewed as the far superior game for Classic Sonic when the two are compared.)

- Automation. Now I don't know about you, but I remember when S-tubes were part of the actual gameplay and were not merely there for spectacle, for instance you could control the speed whilst in the tube in the Classic Sonic games + Mania , whereas in Generations and now Sonic Forces the very moment Classic Sonic does, so much as slightly enters one he's automatically propelled forward with an invisible force. (This is just degrading interactivity when there's precisely no need for it.)

The fact Sonic Team can't be arsed to implement the crucial element of Classic Sonic games in Sonic Forces in order to justify having Classic Sonic after failing to do, so in Sonic Generations in 2011 speaks volumes about how much they don't care.

Classic Sonic is only in Sonic Forces cause he's become a marketing exploit. He'll add absolutely nothing special to the game.

Don't say us. These are issues YOU  have

1 hour ago, DiamondX (Trunks) said:

Both Forces and Mania are great games made for different audicences.

Just because you don't like one of the games, doesn't mean that the game is bad. Maybe you are not part of the target audicence for that game.

Mania = Classic Sonic/Older fans

Forces = Modern Sonic/Younger fans

I need that little Mexican girl saying why not both lol I'm born 89 and love both lol

[Psychicmoose103]

1 hour ago, Chameleon of the Spoilers said:

Forces also wants to please classic fans by adding Classic Sonic, but who told you his gameplay will suck? According to those who played it at E3, physics have been fixed. And yeah, Mania also has multiple characters.

I think the reason people don't care as much about manias alternate characters is that they all play the same. Tails and Knuckles are basically just sonic but with flight and climbing instead of drop dash and shield moves.

[Dee Dude]

In Avatar's defense, they're basically Sonic with gadgets, Wispons and no boost.

So it's kinda fair to put them on the same level as Tails and Knux type gameplay.

But I digress since this is a Mania topic.

[superman43]

I don´t if it was written here already, but the Final Boss name is "Egg Reverie". I don´t know if it´s real name or just someone called it like that though.