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Sonic Mania - Special Stages, Bonus Stages, & Time Attack Shown Off

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Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
It's not intentional. The Sonic social media account and western advertising are self aware but I really don't think Sonic Team is. Pretty sure Forces is playing its edginess completely straight.

I have reason to believe otherwise, there's a few reasons but for Sonic Team specifically I partially think that since Izuki at least keeps on saying this stuff is for kids and maybe older fans may not appreciate some things Forces is doing in interviews, which sounds more aware than usual at least.
 

J@hranimo

Banned
I am one of the monsters who loved Sonic 3's bonus stages over all of them so iam glad to see they have both styles in the game.

Monster? Why, it's the best one! No silly spinning blocks that screw you up, no Tails screwing your ring count up by accidentally hitting bombs, no weird depth issues with attempting to hit UFOs.

I like them all, but Blue Sphere is the best.
 

Finalizer

Member
Haha, I remember posting on GAF a year ago, right after the first Mania trailer debuted, how the Drop Dash was going to be way more useful and easily understood than the insta-shield. People were skeptical! I've been waiting for high-level gameplay footage of Mania to come out to illustrate just how useful it is, because most of the press footage so far never even really touches the Drop Dash.

To be fair, most of the Mania footage is played by folks who probably haven't played a truly classic Sonic in over a decade, so expecting much beyond the basic mechanics is probably expecting a bit much, heh. Still, it looks intuitive enough that once folks start sinking their teeth into Mania, they'll wonder how they lived without it, like the introduction of the spindash so long ago.

I still wish there was some way of performing an insta-shield though. Such a satisfying way to pop Orbs.
 
Since this is the most active Sonic Mania thread at the moment I just was wondering if anyone has seen near production versions of the collector's edition. +$40 is a good chunk of money for that statue and essentially nothing else. I was really hoping a physical version would be added in...
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I hope they hint at a sequel very soon. I don't want to stop playing Mania games for a very long time!

Here's something Takashi Iizuka had to say on that:

But for Mania it's kind of like a new approach. To target specifically 2D fans. So we don't know whether it'll be accepted positively in the market. We'll find out after the game's released, and we can figure out the direction of future titles after seeing the reaction.

IE, if it sells well and the response to it is good then it's on the table, unsurprisingly.
 
The dream is that Mania sells amazing and we eventually get a sequel with 100% original stages (assuming the devs want to make it). Hope the game does great.
 

Ty4on

Member
I really don't see why Mania won't sell well. Maybe poorer legs than regular Sonic games, but the hype is really strong.
 

Finalizer

Member
I really don't see why Mania won't sell really well. Maybe poor legs, but the hype is really strong.
The lack of a physical edition could be a hindrance. I don't expect it to sell poorly or anything, but it really feels like Sega is leaving money on the table here, especially in light of how amazingly the Crash remakes sold physically.
 

Kinsei

Banned
I'm not a fan of the new special stages. I'm glad blue sphere is back even though I'll probably never play it after my first run.
 

low-G

Member
I love everything I see here. Now I'm kinda craving Sonic 2 super stages too, although I prefer Sonic 3's and I love how this new Sonic CD/R-ish thing looks.
 
Looks great! It amazes me to see what they've been able to do with such a small team, especially seeing as how the game has only been in development since 2015.
 
Looking fantastic, very much what I wanted from a new Sonic game.

If only Sega had done this years ago and spared us from some really terrible Sonic games. Oh well, better late than never, this is gonna be the best Sonic game in a long time by a long way.
 

VandalD

Member
Every time I look at a new video for this game it's all fantastic. Really looking forward to release day. I'll certainly miss the insta-shield, since I played the crap out of S3&K, and went through it again recently, but the drop dash looks like a great idea.
 

Thabass

Member
Was never a fan of those checkerboard stages. But I am desperate for a decent Sonic game to play. Last one was Generations (not great), unless you count Transformed (pretty fun).

Sonic Mania |OT| Pixel Perfect

Sonic Mania |OT| Perfect Blue

I prefer Sonic Mania |OT| Limitless Blue.
 
Simply jawsome. We've got Sonic 2's ring combinations and time limit, Sonic CD's scrolling expanse and UFO chase, Chaotix's spheres and environmental hazards, all linked together by racetrack design, strafing and speeding up, and 3D Blast-like low poly aesthetic. And I can't wait to learn every Special Stage track for time-attack purposes. This looks a lot more fun for getting Emeralds than Blue Sphere or the old halfpipe, and the reveal's been worthwhile.
 

RRockman

Banned
Sonic Mania |OT| NO WAY? NO WAY! GET BLUE SPHERES!


No insta shield, i am cri.

Sonic Mania 2 better up the ante hard with special manuvers.
 
The new special stages are fire and Blue Spheres is a welcome addition IMO. Nostalgia overload.

Any word on the review embargo for this game? Super curious to see the Metacritic score on this one. Hope it's a Sonic game that reviews extremely well and sets the charts on fire.

If that YouTuber with the Green Hill speed run is posting that video then surely review code has been sent out?
 
The new special stages are fire and Blue Spheres is a welcome addition IMO. Nostalgia overload.

Any word on the review embargo for this game? Super curious to see the Metacritic score on this one. Hope it's a Sonic game that reviews extremely well and sets the charts on fire.

If that YouTuber with the Green Hill speed run is posting that video then surely review code has been sent out?

I think I called an 89 Meta almost a year ago. Hoping it's somewhere around that!
 

brinstar

Member
besides the reused stages, it's blowing my mind how much this looks like the Sonic 4 for Saturn I dreamed of as a kid.
 

Guess Who

Banned
Regardless of the Metascore, we all know there will be some "classic Sonic was never good" hot takes to come out of this and they will be utterly unbearable
 

Mr Swine

Banned
Sonic Mania |OT| NO WAY? NO WAY! GET BLUE SPHERES!


No insta shield, i am cri.

Sonic Mania 2 better up the ante hard with special manuvers.

Nah better with

Sonic Mania |OT| Snoppingas usual I see!

Man I'm both glad that the Sonic3 special stages is back but sad that it's only a bonus stage :( the new one looks good but why is Sonic running so slow at Mach 1/2 and 3 :p
 

LordKano

Member
I fully expect a lot of reviewers to give lower scores because they will bitch about the difficulty. Seeing how IGN played the game, I'm 100% sure it will happen.
 
Regardless of the Metascore, we all know there will be some "classic Sonic was never good" hot takes to come out of this and they will be utterly unbearable

Yeah that's what I'm expecting. Decent, honest game journalists giving this much-deserved 9/10s but then some lame outliers giving it 7/10s just because they have a vendetta against Sonic.

If it's as awesome as we're all expecting it deserves a greater than 90 Metacritic score IMO.
 

MrBadger

Member
Sonic Mania |OT| Sonic 4 as you truly imagined it

Regardless of the Metascore, we all know there will be some "classic Sonic was never good" hot takes to come out of this and they will be utterly unbearable

Eh, the Crash Bandicoot hot takes didn't prevent N-Sane from exceeding sales expectations
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
besides the reused stages, it's blowing my mind how much this looks like the Sonic 4 for Saturn I dreamed of as a kid.
Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Looking back, though, I don't see how Sega would have ever released a 2D Sonic game during the Saturn era. Not when the competition was all about 3D. It would have been viewed in a negative light at the time, I'm afraid.
 

Piers

Member
I have reason to believe otherwise, there's a few reasons but for Sonic Team specifically I partially think that since Izuki at least keeps on saying this stuff is for kids and maybe older fans may not appreciate some things Forces is doing in interviews, which sounds more aware than usual at least.
Somebody made a point that Shun Nakamura is back into development, as producer no less. He was the director for Sonic 2006 and I believe was one of the people behind ideas like "wouldn't it be cool if Sonic had a human girlfriend".
 

rtcn63

Member
Sonic Mania |OT| A History of Violence

tumblr_mf41vp4z9z1s0se68o1_500.gif


I actually want to play Sonic CD on PC. Is it emulated? I've never gotten the hang of how to use those sega classic games on steam.
 
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