Sonic Mania Plus - Famitsu Preview (Encore Mode is more than meets the eye...)

[BlueFlare]

Oh boy, it will be my first summer holiday week when Plus comes put. Everything they've showed looks perfect so far. I can't believe we'll get at least a little taste of Angel Island, a level I originally was hoping to see in Mania. 

Mania (Plus) will be my favorite Sonic game x10!

[gato]

Uh, that's neat. But I wonder why they chose to show the most tame scenes possible for the game's "final" trailer.

Spoiler

In any case, I'll happily play Sonic Mania Heroes.

 

[Sonic Fan J]

3 hours ago, Lord-Dreamerz said:

Honestly I don't know why you seem to have such a beef with her hammer. I keep seeing you rag on about it on multiple topics for no reason. Goodness forbid Amy has a iconic weapon?! It's something she has had starting with Sonic The Fighters, Amy has had her hammer in some form or another for over 22 years now. so there is ZERO reason for anybody not to associate it with her. It's fine that you don't like it yourself, but it's not strange that most of the rest of us prefer her with it regardless of classic or modern style and think of it along with SEGA that it's apart of her iconic character. No good reason not to include it when making any normal version of her playable far as I am concerned. Instead of worrying about how exactly SEGA would make her playable if they ever decide to include her in a new Classic Sonic game... we first need to simply hope for and get lucky if they ever decide to include her whatsoever.

It's a long story for the most part that I should probably comment on more in my status than derailing this topic. As for why I commented on my distaste of it here , it was more a response to the "Hammer Drop" comment and it being a reason to not include Amy that was meant to be a joke more than anything. Only my gameplay suggestion follow up was really meant to be taken seriously.

As for her hammer being iconic and even SEGA affiliating it with her Classic and Modern Designs; well I could argue for the sake of argument but I won't. Instead I'll just say that I never affiliated it as iconic with her Classic design because I had never heard of Sonic the Fighters until after Adventure had come out and never saw it affiliated in an official capacity beyond that game until the Archie Mega Drive comic less than two years ago. I hope this doesn't come across as sarcastic sounding (apologies if it does) but that does not seem like an iconic affiliation with her Classic design to me.

Lastly, I do agree, regardless of my dislike of the hammer (especially when affiliated with Amy's Classic design) that since she is one of my favorite characters just seeing her playable again should make me happy. Sorry though if my dislike of the hammer offends you, I know I'm pretty much alone in disliking it and have already once been ostracized from a forum because of that dislike.

 

On topic,  @Son-icka I'll take Phantom Ruby warps if that's all they can get us realistically if they truly offer randomized level playthroughs on every encore run.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Can't wait for Plus!

[Multikaris]

12 hours ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

Can't wait for Plus!

Personally, they need to do a bigger tie-in to Forces to get me excited.

[blueblur98]

i love this game already and it's not even out, not to mention i don't even have the hardware necessary to play it (but hopefully that will change soon)

[Jango]

You don't have a PC?

[blueblur98]

i do, but it drops frames on literally everything

[Eurisko]

Man this is going to be a blast. They really have pushed the boat out for this. Some of this extra content and features could have been easily left out for a sequel. 

[superman43]

2 hours ago, blueblur98 said:

i do, but it drops frames on literally everything

"Everything"... I played Mania on Pentium 2-core, 1.8 GHz... on constant 60 FPS, I doubt your PC is any worse than my previous laptop...

[Your Vest Friend]

boop

So apparently in that same interview Iizuka says that in Encore mode you can choose either Mighty or Ray to play a stage, but with the press of a button you can switch to Sonic at any time.

Jury's out on what the full meaning of this is. 

[TheOcelot]

4 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

boop

So apparently in that same interview Iizuka says that in Encore mode you can choose either Mighty or Ray to play a stage, but with the press of a button you can switch to Sonic at any time.

Jury's out on what the full meaning of this is. 

The translation is as follows:

"In Encore mode, one would choose either Mighty or Ray to play the stage. With one button, they can be switched to Sonic anytime."

 

The exact rules of Encore aren't clear yet, but we have seen footage of Knuckles and Tails (separately) in Encore mode. We've also seen screenshots of Sonic & Mighty playing together and Sonic & Ray together. One of the screenshots shows that you can press Y (on the Steam version) to switch characters (presumably at anytime).

Bottom left screenshot:

Whether you can switch to other playable characters as you play through each act is anyone's guess.

It's also not clear whether you will be able to play (or at least) start with Tails & Knuckles together or Mighty & Ray together etc. This might not be possible if the level design has been significantly changed to suite Ray and Mighty's ability, meaning that perhaps either Sonic, Tails or Knuckles will have to play with Ray or Mighty to allow you to get through some parts of each act (sort of like how Sonic 4 Ep2 forced you to use the co-op moves to get passed some sections).

At the very least I hope you can play with Ray and Mighty (one being AI following) in normal Mania mode, because some screenshots do appear to show Mighty and Ray (separately) in Mania mode. 

[Red Hot Jack]

I have a theory, a game theory.

Since we saw that footage with Tails and Knuckles and it is simply a palette swap, I predict that's not actually Encore Mode, now that Iizuka said you can play as Mighty or Ray and switch to Sonic. Encore Mode is different, this also explains why the trailer footage did not have tag team... my hope and excitement is now restored!!

[GuyWithThePie]

Anyone else wondering what's up with the more Green Hill-styled grass in Angel Island?

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, GuyWithThePie said:

Anyone else wondering what's up with the more Green Hill-styled grass in Angel Island?

What's there to wonder about? They've drawn the grass a little differently, therefore...?

[Indigo Rush]

OG Angel Island had subtly striped grass as well. I'd wager that it's just been enhanced to help it fit a little better with the rest of Sonic's world. Same for the little instances of checkerboard patterns in the ground as well. Helps it connect a little better visually with South Island and Westside Island without removing any of what made Angel Island stand out.

[Salamander]

I don't know if I'd call Angel Island Zone's grass in the original "striped," exactly, it's more that each individual blade (i.e. pixel column) was delineated from its neighbours.  I agree the effect is intended to visually connect it to Green and Emerald Hill Zone; within the single product of Mania, they might well want their opening zones to have a little more coherence in theme, though I'm not sure if I like it myself.

[Multikaris]

4 hours ago, FFWF said:

I don't know if I'd call Angel Island Zone's grass in the original "striped," exactly, it's more that each individual blade (i.e. pixel column) was delineated from its neighbours.  I agree the effect is intended to visually connect it to Green and Emerald Hill Zone; within the single product of Mania, they might well want their opening zones to have a little more coherence in theme, though I'm not sure if I like it myself.

I guess this is also why they changed the eyes of the meter droid compared to Hei-Hou. Meter Droid’s eyes look like the standard googly black eyes on any other Badnik, as opposed to the glassy eyes of Hei-Hou (though Crimson Eye did have the glassy optics anyway, but it was the final sub-boss). 

[Salamander]

Maybe; I'm not sure if that's for badnik consistency or that they just wanted Meter Droid to have a more cartoonish and humanised appearance anyway.  If they did it for some aim of enemy design consistency, it probably wasn't just the eyes they put through that filter; Hey Ho is more industrialised all over.

[Multikaris]

10 hours ago, FFWF said:

Maybe; I'm not sure if that's for badnik consistency or that they just wanted Meter Droid to have a more cartoonish and humanised appearance anyway.  If they did it for some aim of enemy design consistency, it probably wasn't just the eyes they put through that filter; Hey Ho is more industrialised all over.

Yeah, and I think it might just be a homage to the Game Gear boss design style moreso than 3K. DD Wrecker and Crimson Eye have the glassy eyes and more industrial appearance of the S3K sub-bosses, and most of the others have no eyes or face at all. 

[molul]

I thought this thread would talk about the new pinball bonus stage: