Sonic Forces classic stages take inspiration from Sonic Mania

[TheOcelot]

Yes, I'm not joking.

Article from Polygon:

Quote

I may be in the minority, but I get a lot of anxiety just thinking about Sonic’s casino levels. At a pre-Tokyo Game Show event last week, Sonic Forces’ lead programmer, Hiroshi Takunaga, demoed Casino Forest for us — and even he found himself struggling with the game’s various pinball segments. I just remember getting magnificently stuck in Sonic CD’s version of the casino level, Collision Chaos, back in the day ... so stuck that I still struggle to get past it even now.

But Casino Forest looks charming, the slot machine rigamarole aside. And anyone who still swears by Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s Casino Night Zone and its successors will likely find much to love in Casino Forest. It’s a paean to those beloved older games’ stages, as are the other Classic Sonic levels in Sonic Forces.

Don’t expect a recreated Sega Genesis experience, a la Sonic Mania, however. Sonic Forces is a modern Sonic project through and through. But Sega did tell me that Sonic Mania’s success at adapting original Sonic gameplay for the current generation had an influence on how the team developed Sonic Forces’ Classic Sonic stages.

“[Takunaga] has spent a lot of time going in deep on how [Sonic Mania] feels and how it moves,” game director Morio Kishimoto told me. “In that aspect, Classic Sonic stages have taken some reference to Sonic Mania because it’s been a very great help at looking into Classic Sonic.”

Just looking at Forces' (classic) Green Hill and Casino Forest I fail to see Mania's influence in terms of level design. What they should have done is try and replicate Mania's momentum physics as close as possible.

[Dee Dude]

Can't wait for the inevitable rage and insults from the oncoming replies. 

Anway, it's BS if you ask me. I love Forces but Classic's gameplay from the looks of it seems nothing compared to Mania.

At best, it's really feels like they want to try and replicate what Christian's team did right but just couldn't, even I have to admit it's pretty silly to think they're doing anything on Mania's scale. I wouldn't blame them being impressed by it and wanting be just as good but....eh.

What Sonic Team is doing still resorts to awkward blocky platforming, boring paths, and strange object placement.

Sorry guys, probably should've stuck to 3D lol.

[Diogenes]

9 minutes ago, TheOcelot said:

What they should have done is try and replicate Mania's momentum physics as close as possible.

In fairness to Sonic Team they were surely a good ways into making Forces before Mania started proper development and retooling how your character behaves late in development is, I would think, fairly costly.

In fairness to everyone else that classic Sonic was shit in Generations was bad enough and there's no excuse for them not fixing shit on their own for Forces regardless of Mania.

[Multikaris]

Well, I think they got the idea of using lots of old zones from them, and changing them up in different and seemingly arbitrary ways. But the original stages are where they differ. Stuff like Studiopolis and Press Garden are very different from Casino Forest.

[Diogenes]

3 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Well, I think they got the idea of using lots of old zones from them

Sonic Team had already made Generations, a game made up entirely of returning levels, before Mania was even a thing.

And remixing levels for Mania was supposedly Iizuka's suggestion in the first place.

[Detective Kaito]

Even though both Generations and Forces didn't get the physics right, Generations at least got the level design right. Generations' level design had multiple paths and felt open, especially in Sky Sanctuary, Speed Highway, and Seaside Hill. It's sad that they can't replicate that level design, it's almost like they've never played Generations or any of the Classics at all.

[Soniman]

Most of Classic's levels in Generations had fun levels, interesting and clever gimmicks, and decently elaborate level design. Farthest thing from shit in my opinion. If they had just cleaned up the physics it could've been golden, but of course Forces rather rest on their laurels 

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

1 hour ago, TheOcelot said:

Sonic Forces is a modern Sonic project through and through.

If they said this, then why is classic sonic even in this game in the first place? What kind of communication is going on with sonic team?