Do you need to have played Sonic to understand Mania?

[Josef]

Hello everyone, I hope this isn't a dumb topic.

I haven't posted in the other thread because I want to avoid spoilers if I can, I think a game is always best when you know virtually nothing about it going in. I almost always buy games blind.

So do you need a knowledge of 2D Sonic to play Mania, since I'm worried I might find the game too hard or I might have no idea what's going on since I've never played Sonic in 2D. I know that it features remixed levels, do you need to have played those levels to understand what to do or how the level works? The only level I know in Mania is Emerald Hill lol.

I can actually buy it now on PS4 and it's really cheap, way cheaper than I though it would be. I don't normally play 2D games but I'd be interested to play old style Sonic and see if the automation complaints are valid lol

 

[sonicdudeatdawn]

Oh don't worry about a thing. It'll be weird but by the 2nd zone you'll get it down.

The 2d games aren't as automated as some modern titles.

The only thing you might miss out on are the loads and loads of references

[Pawn]

I don't see why not. There will be the odd moment here and there that'll have you scratching your head, sure, but overall it's a fantastic game that anyone could potentially enjoy.

21 minutes ago, Josef said:

The only level I know in Mania is Emerald Hill lol.

And even then, it's actually Green Hill. ;P Poor old Emerald Hill never gets brought back.

[Celestia]

There are a few bosses in particular that kinda rely on you having knowledge of past games to instantly know what to do. They're probably easy enough to figure out, but one involves a genre shift in reference to a non-platforming game and one has a new control scheme*, so I could see some people being thrown off if they never played/aren't aware of/forgot the source material.

*Referring to:

Spoiler

Chemical Plant Act 2's boss and Hydrocity Act 1's boss, respectively.

 

[Jango]

Understand what? How to play it, the story?

The game is uncomplicated, great looking for a retro title and has a modern, yet 90's feeling amazing soundtrack to acompaign it.

You should not have trouble enjoying Sonic Mania because it's a well made game.

[Blue Blood]

@Celestia

The CPZ2 boss is incredibly easy. While it's definitely an unexpected genre shift and criticism makes sense, it's set to the lowest difficulty option and most people are familiar enough with Tetris and Puzzle Bobble (or clones) to be able to work it out. I can't imagine anyone would really be that thrown off by it.

HCZ1 is a bit different though. I watched an LP of two Classic fans get totally stumped by it, and I was in absolute disbelief. You played this boss a thousand times before and recognised that it was switched around, so how on Earth did it take you so long to realise that you have spin the fan (using the only button used through the entire game) to suck Eggman in? Personally, I didn't even realise that you could drop bombs on my first play through - it just seemed obvious that you wanted to draw Eggman in, and not the bombs that he was placing.

The game is pretty self-explanatory in general. You have one button, and levels will often start in small/enclosed areas to show you how any new gimmicks work. For example, Knuckles' first levels puts him in a different area to Sonic and Tails, and to navigate it you have to use his gliding and climbing skills. Or even Chemical Plant 2, which shows you how to use the giant syringes and goo to bounce.

[Celestia]

Spoiler

That's true. With the Puyo Puyo boss, as far as I've seen, Eggman pretty much just messes around the entire time. XP  Like I said, I'm sure most players have or will figure it out pretty easily, but I do think that boss in particular was an odd choice.

 

[HywelAtTheMoon]

As for Mirage Saloon 2, you may want to look up some of the Archie comics (Nack, Bean and Bark take after the comic book characters here).

[Azure P]

5 hours ago, HywelAtTheMoon said:

Spoiler

As for Mirage Saloon 2, you may want to look up some of the Archie comics (Nack, Bean and Bark take after the comic book characters here). 

 

 

 

Nack, Bean and Bark are from Sonic the Fighters actually.

[Meta77]

4 hours ago, Josef said:

Hello everyone, I hope this isn't a dumb topic.

I haven't posted in the other thread because I want to avoid spoilers if I can, I think a game is always best when you know virtually nothing about it going in. I almost always buy games blind.

So do you need a knowledge of 2D Sonic to play Mania, since I'm worried I might find the game too hard or I might have no idea what's going on since I've never played Sonic in 2D. I know that it features remixed levels, do you need to have played those levels to understand what to do or how the level works? The only level I know in Mania is Emerald Hill lol.

I can actually buy it now on PS4 and it's really cheap, way cheaper than I though it would be. I don't normally play 2D games but I'd be interested to play old style Sonic and see if the automation complaints are valid lol

 

the 2d games are very very simple, you do not need to really know much to play them. Hell most the time you can literally just spin cash through a stage, stop to hit a enemy and then continue to spin dash. I literally got through half of the green hill zone with the fire shield and mashing jump to skip through the stage off screen.

[___-_]

Hmm well, It's kind of the equivalent of when you jumped into Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 before anything else: Both Mania and Adventure are placed after Sonic CD and 3&K, the two most story driven games of the classic era, so there're Angel Island and timeline shenanigans you'll get a little better understanding of if you played those games first to know why things happens in their sequels and understand their eastereggs and callbacks, though really it's definitely not complicated to understand what's going on from just playing Mania and Adventure themselves. It's pretty straight forward (Although both have little inconsistencies once you're more familiar with the whole Sonic lore, but at the same time and especially for Mania's case, the more you know of the lore, the more likely you'll be blown away by the surprises it has to share).

Spoiler

There is one point in Mania where it genre shifts, and that's the Chemical Plant Zone's boss where it homages Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, another classic era game which is basically Puyo Puyo (A Tetris derivative). It's the only thing that really strays from the core game. It's a neat surprise for those who knows Sonic's more obscure games, but it can be seen as "Whoa wtf? That's completely different!" for those who have no idea. It's not hard to beat though, as it's really more of a fun homage than anything else. 

Even if you somehow never seen or played Puyo Puyo in your entire life before, it's just easy to follow and mimic what Eggman's doing on his side who is preventing his beans from filling up the screen, and he's kinda design to lose on his own anyway (I could swear he's a harder with Knuckles, though). (Although the one thing I wish they retained from DR.R MBM was show how angry Eggman gets when he's loosing to better convey the new player that they're winning, but it's really not that serious)

After this boss though, we go straight back to core Sonic stuff again. Since you should be familiar with the genre shifting from Sonic Adventure and 2, It's not going to hit you out of left field. 

So yea, nothing crazy. You're not going to get overwhelmed or anything like that. Also, I don't know what others have told you, but Mania's really input heavy and involved (And I know, I speedrun the shit, haha), so little automation is at play, although there are significantly more automated speed moments sprinkled out in more zones compared to the classics, but they're in mini burst, in levels that play out longer, and it doesn't compensate for lack of coding knowledge or short cutting on Sonic's physics since that's all in tact in Mania. It's significantly less automated than Sonic Adventure and 2's and are used for different reasons, but since you liked those games too, Mania definitely shouldn't be a problem for you automation wise.... So yea...with all that I'd say get that shit.

[Tails spin]

3 hours ago, Celestia said:

There are a few bosses in particular that kinda rely on you having knowledge of past games to instantly know what to do. They're probably easy enough to figure out, but one involves a genre shift in reference to a non-platforming game and one has a new control scheme*, so I could see some people being thrown off if they never played/aren't aware of/forgot the source material.

*Referring to:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chemical Plant Act 2's boss and Hydrocity Act 1's boss, respectively.

 

Spoiler

The puyo puyo boss through me off at first as I look at it for a bit and Eggman doing combos. But like you said it was easy to figure out

 

[Maxtiis]

The only thing that you would benefit from playing the other games before Mania is you'd understand some of the references the game has, otherwise you can go into blind and still get the full experience.

Of course I'd still recommend playing Sonic 1, CD, 2, and 3 & Knuckles when you get the chance. We refer to them as the "Classic Sonic" games for reasons beyond them being over 20 years old. I can't guarantee you'd like them and since they're old school their difficulty might be a bit more than you would expect, but if I can give any advice I'd recommend playing a version of each that has a save feature.

If you're interested in trying them out, the remastered versions of 1 and 2 are the best when it comes to these two(and the cheapest at $2.99), but if it's your first time with them the touch screen controls might be too much of a learning curve (they're only on mobile as of right now). So if that's a problem get the 3DS ports, just remember they're not the remasters, but you can save anywhere with them. Sonic CD's remaster is on nearly every modern system now so it shouldn't be a problem to get. Sonic 3 sadly never got a remaster, but the best available version I can think of would be on Steam, unless you're willing to emulate Sonic 3 Complete which I doubt.

Anyway, go ahead and buy Mania now. It really is a great game even without its legacy.

[TheOcelot]

Mania is a very easy game to pick up and play so you don't need to have played the previous games.

Of course if you've played Sonic 1 - 3K you'll likely understand more of the references and understand how Mania will play-the momentum physics and some of the level design & gimmicks.

The bosses may be a sticking point. Some are unorthodox and some are a bit potracted.

[Josef]

Hi all, I'm back lol.

I just bought and played through Sonic Mania since you guys said I wouldn't feel overwhelmed playing it and wow, I was overwhelmed! Overwhelmed by how awesome it was!

I know this might sound bad, but I honestly didn't think Sonic was supposed to be a very good platformer, all I've heard over the last decade or so is that "Sonic is all about going fast" or that "Sonic was actually never really that good" so I just assumed Sonic was supposed to be a fun, thrill ride with not much depth. And while I do still enjoy Adventure, I have to be honest, Sonic Mania is a way better game. I never realised Sonic was this good in 2D! It has so much platforming and clever little gimmicks and design and I think it's actually faster than Adventure .

I'm not going to say much else about the game because I don't want to spoil it for anyone reading, but I loved the way the levels were so massive and you could go all over the place, that was so cool! I actually understand why people criticise Forces for automation now because Mania has such expansive levels that are so fun to explore. Let's be honest, Mania's just a better game lol. I feel really silly now for my past words about automation not being that big a deal.  I was so wrong .

And I loved the way Knuckles actually had real levels and didn't have to find emerald shards! That was the key thing I didn't like about Adventure, so I loved the way Mania made him play just like Sonic.

I know this might be a bit OTT, but I actually think Sonic Mania might be one of the best games I've ever played . Thanks guys for recommending it!

 

 

[CleverSonicUsername]

You should try out the other classic games, coming off of Mania. There's quite a bit to appreciate in how Mania references and builds upon material and gimmicks found in the older games, and it would certainly deepen your appreciation of both. Each of the classic games are available pretty readily on just about any platform for relatively cheap. The mobile ports are generally considered the best versions but sadly only CD's remaster is available on multiple platforms, with all other versions of 1 and 2 (as well as 3 & Knuckles) merely being emulated versions.

 

They're still really great games though, give them a shot.