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Sonic Mania |OT| Dreams Come True

Tyeforce

Member
Is there really no stage select for save files to replay previous stages? So if I don't get all 7 Chaos Emeralds before the end, I'm screwed and have to start over from the beginning? Meaning I shouldn't bother clearing a zone unless I got the Chaos Emerald, otherwise I'm just throwing away one of the limited opportunities to get one before the end? Ugh...
 

jman2050

Member
Is there really no stage select for save files to replay previous stages? So if I don't get all 7 Chaos Emeralds before the end, I'm screwed and have to start over from the beginning? Meaning I shouldn't bother clearing a zone unless I got the Chaos Emerald, otherwise I'm just throwing away one of the limited opportunities to get one before the end? Ugh...

Once you beat the game you'll have the option of selecting any level to play in that save file.
 
Is there really no stage select for save files to replay previous stages? So if I don't get all 7 Chaos Emeralds before the end, I'm screwed and have to start over from the beginning? Meaning I shouldn't bother clearing a zone unless I got the Chaos Emerald, otherwise I'm just throwing away one of the limited opportunities to get one before the end? Ugh...

You still technically clear the game at the end even if you don't have all of the chaos emeralds, meaning you can pick your stage.
 

Tyeforce

Member
Once you beat the game you'll have the option of selecting any level to play in that save file.

You still technically clear the game at the end even if you don't have all of the chaos emeralds, meaning you can pick your stage.
So I can replay levels after clearing the game and still get any Chaos Emeralds that were missed for that save file? So there's no need to start a new save file if you don't get all 7 Chaos Emeralds the first time around?
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Did I just see the UFO make a fucking U-turn and run the course in reverse?

Or am I really just that tired?
 

Griss

Member
Just had the worst game over ever. Beat the boss in Zone 11, put down the controller for a sec as it's late and I'm tired... one of the platforms rises up for some reason and before I can grab the controller Sonic gets crushed into the ceiling and dies. Game Over, start zone again.

Fuck me that hurts. Was sure that having beaten the boss I'd have a moment of peace like you always do.
 

FinalAres

Member
This game is so good. I can't wait to see what the team do next. I hope it's all new levels, rather than just more of a mix of new levels.
 

ryan13ts

Member
Did I just see the UFO make a fucking U-turn and run the course in reverse?

Or am I really just that tired?

If you're talking about Stage 5, I'm almost positive it does that on that stage.. or at least it looked that way to me too. Only stage I thought I saw that too, and coincidentally the hardest special stage IMO.
 
Wow I'm loving this game!

I briefly played the first two acts last night and felt underwhelmed, I was very tired and called it a night.

Today holy shit, things really pick up from Chemical Plant 2 onward. I had my jaw open for long stretches. And omg the music! 💓

I've been on virtually a media blackout of the game on purpose, and I'm absolutely loving the surprises and the execution of the levels so far. It really feels like a top class "best ever tier" platformer.

I'm sure this has been asked a hundred times but how do you do a drop dash?

Switch players, are you using the stick or the buttons for directional input?
 
Wow I'm loving this game!

I briefly played the first two acts last night and felt underwhelmed, I was very tired and called it a night.

Today holy shit, things really pick up from Chemical Plant 2 onward. I had my jaw open for long stretches. And omg the music! 💓

I've been on virtually a media blackout of the game on purpose, and I'm absolutely loving the surprises and the execution of the levels so far. It really feels like a top class "best ever tier" platformer.

I'm sure this has been asked a hundred times but how do you do a drop dash?

Switch players, are you using the stick or the buttons for directional input?

Jump, let go of jump button and at your highest point press and hold jump. When Sonic hits the ground he will dash in ball form.

I play fine with my joycons and never touch the analog stick. I play my Neo Geo games like this too so maybe I'm weird.
 

Branduil

Member
Just had the worst game over ever. Beat the boss in Zone 11, put down the controller for a sec as it's late and I'm tired... one of the platforms rises up for some reason and before I can grab the controller Sonic gets crushed into the ceiling and dies. Game Over, start zone again.

Fuck me that hurts. Was sure that having beaten the boss I'd have a moment of peace like you always do.

That boss has a second form this time
 
Beat the game without the emeralds. I'd say it's slightly less difficult than previous entries, but the level design is easily some of the best in the franchise. I wish they had chose less levels like Chemical Plant and Hyrodocity and some better standouts, but Mania's versions of these levels are arguably better than the originals.

Trying to get the emeralds. 5 gave me a tough time and now so is 6. Going to sleep now, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have dreams about blue spheres.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Guys...the end of Studiopolis Act 2. The buzzing. Just noticed it on the last play-through.

I'm dying here.
 

Jhn

Member
If I had one complaint it would be that the new zones are generally a bit too much like CD in their visual design.
The color palette is very garish compared to the more consistent classic stages.
 

VeeP

Member
I died the first time because of a time-out because the level is too long.

I had to put my Switch on sleep and go to bed because that level was so long. I kept saying let me just finish this and it turned into almost 20 minutes. And I'm not even done with the zone yet. Pretty sure I didn't die once yet either.
 

Griss

Member
Beat the game without the emeralds. I'd say it's slightly less difficult than previous entries, but the level design is easily some of the best in the franchise. I wish they had chose less levels like Chemical Plant and Hyrodocity and some better standouts, but Mania's versions of these levels are arguably better than the originals.

Trying to get the emeralds. 5 gave me a tough time and now so is 6. Going to sleep now, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have dreams about blue spheres.

Yeah, my big issue with the game is that pretty much all of my favourite zones are the new ones, so I'm left wondering what a game that was 100% new rather than 33% new would have felt like. I do think that they introduced some cool ideas in a lot of the act 2's of the returning zones, but the act 1's often felt just like you were playing the original game again.

I also would quibble a bit with some of their zone selections, but I know that's highly subjective and you're never going to get everyone to agree with whatever you choose. I think most would agree that Green Hill and Chemical Plant was an obvious and great start, but after that you can make a lot of arguments.

I haven't beaten the game (I'm close), so perhaps I'm wrong, but there being no
beach/tropical
level or
ice
level hurt. On the other hand I really could have done without
Flying Battery
and
Hydrocity
. Those are far from my favourite zones in Sonic 3&K.

First negative feedback from me:

Zone 4 (or is it 5?)
Flying Battery
act 2 is a bad boss.

You have to put yourself in harm's way to hit him (doing it with 0 rings is a feat of skill I'm surely not capable of -- started suiciding once I hit 0, because what's the point?), and half the time you knock him into the spikes he doesn't take damage -- comes across as random. AND 25% of the time the collision detection doesn't register a hit, so you go crashing through into the spikes.

Took 4 minutes. It's not game ruining by any means, but that's a worse boss than anything in S3&K.

Yeah that's a bad boss. Any time you know exactly what you need to do but doing it is a tedious exercise in frustration then something has gone wrong.

There are quite a few bad bosses in this game, which is a shame because the bosses are really inventive and obviously have quite a lot of work put into them. Maybe if they didn't have a boss at the end of every act the quality would be a bit higher. The boss of Zone 9 is super annoying too.

Part of the problem is with core sonic design - the one thing that makes a boss truly challenging is how easy it is to recover your last ring. If it's easy, then the boss will be cake. If it's hard / impossible, welcome to a challenge. That really shows how silly the whole ring mechanic is but that's just what Sonic is so...
 

Jhn

Member
On the other hand I really could have done without
Flying Battery
and
Hydrocity
.

Those are some of my favorite returning zones, admittedly based mostly on their music. They are also a lot better than their originals.
Lava reef
was a really welcome surprise as well, again based mostly on how good the music is.
 
Apparently on PS4 the buttons for confirm and cancel actually go alongside your hardware, i.e my US PSN version of the game uses O for confirm instead of X on my Hong Kong console.
 

Renekton

Member
If I had one complaint it would be that the new zones are generally a bit too much like CD in their visual design.
The color palette is very garish compared to the more consistent classic stages.
Didn't feel that way to me, it's quite vibrant and ebullient. CD was darker, abstract and occasionally harsh.
 
Oh man just beat the game without getting all the chaos emeralds, that last stage takes forever but the music is so good.
Now to go through it again and get the emeralds.

How many Blue Spheres do I need to pass to get
Mean Bean Mode
?
Anyone know?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I know you can actually press left at the start of a special stage till you're facing the wrong way and do the stage that way going backwards through the course (lovingly known as "special stage hard mode"), and the UFO knows to turn around once it realizes it's getting closer to you, but I don't think I've ever had a UFO reverse course normally :(

Some of its normal movement does jump between different forks though.
 
I cleared my Sonic & Tails save with 2 Emeralds. Just about managed to get the third emerald after a few re-loads of Green Hill but the 4th one is kicking my butt now. These special stages are really tough. I'm terrible at Blue Sphere too, I'm just not good at reacting and working out where to go in time.

Options menu needs to let us turn off time-outs and choose a lower top speed for blue sphere for the less skilled players :p
 
I have to say this game really is bloody brilliant and the real Sonic sequel I've been waiting for since Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The controls are perfect and feel exactly as they should, with correct physics for Sonic's movements. I love the level designs, remixing old levels and adding new ones, it all works great, with multiple paths, which give it plenty of replay value and good reasons to play as Tails and Knuckles. Only slight disappointment is no Amy Rose to complete the character lineup. :(

The graphics are spot on, capturing classic Sonic perfectly with bright, vibrant colours and improved animations too, Sonic has never looked better. The soundtrack is also amazing, with brilliant remixed original tracks and brand new ones, which are really catchy. I keep finding myself humming some of them when not playing, they are some of the best music tracks in any Sonic game.

You can tell Christian Whitehead and his team are massive fans and deserve all the praise for Sonic Mania, a true love letter to Sonic fans. Hopefully they will be able to do more 2D Sonic games, as they have proved that Sonic just works better in 2D, with the best Sonic game in many years.
 
So I'm on the 5th zone now. Few thoughts:

  • Game looks and sounds gorgeous. Loving how rich the backgrounds are.
  • CRT Scan lines is such a nice little touch.
  • Jumping off of a slope is still really annoying
  • I haven't touched a Sonic game in years, and this project made me miss the fuck outta Marble Zone. Wish it was in here as I would have loved to see how they would have remixed it.
  • I really hate that if you run out of lives and die in Act 2, you start from the beginning of Act 1 again. Feels like QoL shortcoming rather than something that contributes to difficulty. Hope they fix this with a patch.
  • The bossfight where you
    have a goddamn Puyo Puyo match against Robotnick
    was incredible. Was grinning from ear to ear.
  • Doesn't deter from actual gameplay at all, but I hope they also patch the Homescreen lag/bug for the Switch
  • The intro animation is so beautiful. Soon as I saw it, I started wishing Sega/Mania-team worked on a new Sonic game where the gameplay looked like this animation. We have the hardware now to make this possible right??
  • Still blows my mind to be playing a full fledged Sonic game on Nintendo hardware. Especially a Sonic game that channels Genesis so much.

Despite some nitpicky complaints here, I'm actually loving this game. Made realize I had forgotten what I loved about Sonic. What an awesome little surprise this has turned out to be. Everyone that was involved with making this game happen should be so goddamn proud at what they've done.
 

LordKano

Member
I really hate that if you run out of lives and die in Act 2, you start from the beginning of Act 1 again. Feels like QoL shortcoming rather than something that contributes to difficulty. Hope they fix this with a patch

That's deliberate, there's nothing to fix about that.
 

The Cowboy

Member
So what's peoples max keepy uppy's on the Act 1 finish signs?, you get 100 points for each uppy - fun little mid act game :D.

Got 12 only so far :(
 

Tizoc

Member
I FIND it funny how there isn't a speedrun yet of the game beacuse I could REALLY go with knowing the fastest route in this final zone.
For now I'ma listen to Mirage Saloon Act 1 track.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
[*]I haven't touched a Sonic game in years, and this project made me miss the fuck outta Marble Zone. Wish it was in here as I would have loved to see how they would have remixed it.

One of my favorite zones as well and disappointed it wasn't included either.
 

Harlock

Member
Oh, that chemical factor boss sucks if you are colorblind. At first can differentiate between blue and purple. I will try see the slightly different shape.
 

jmartoine

Member
Slightly annoys me that there is no Marble Garden zone in the game. The announcement trailer show Green Hill, Marble Garden and Flying Battery as the zones representing Sonic 1, 2, and 3 in the "timeline" part, sucks that only 2 out of the 3 made it into the game.
 

Kyle

Member
Slightly annoys me that there is no Marble Garden zone in the game. The announcement trailer show Green Hill, Marble Garden and Flying Battery as the zones representing Sonic 1, 2, and 3 in the "timeline" part, sucks that only 2 out of the 3 made it into the game.

Marble Garden is Sonic 3 along with Flying Battery (well, S3&K)... Did you mean something else?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Yo the Knuckles version is so good.

I really, REALLY love the nod to the Adventure era just from Sonic and Tails having a rock/guitar focus (albeit tailored to the Saturn feel of the soundtrack) and Knuckles just goes 100% Adventure Knuckles.
 

Branduil

Member
I would hope, for a hypothetical Mania 2, that we get something from Sonic 8-bit. Specifically Bridge Zone. They'd have to completely rework it of course, but there's a lot of potential in that kind of level. The most iconic thing they could bring from that level, other than the music of course, would be the unique auto-scrolling segments.
 
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