Iso Kilo
Sonic 1 Hacker
Towns Folk
I know, I'm very late on this. The review should have happened in August or October at the most. But Christmas is now, so that's when I got Mania. But enough rambling about why I was so broke that I waited until someone bought the game for me, I got a review to do.
The Sonic series has been going downhill as of late, with the releases of Sonic Lost World and the infamous Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. And when it seemed like Sega had no hope of returning to their former glory of Sonic Colors and Generations, they had one more trick up their sleeve. They had hackers and developers of fan games make a new classic Sonic game. The game was to be named Sonic Discovery, evident by an interview with the lead developer of Mania, Christian Whitehead, where he explained how the name was shut down by Takashi Izuka for Sonic Mania instead. And is also proven by an unused graphic in the files as well.
The end result was great! And was so well at recreating the original 1990's feel and look, that if you took someone who didn't know anything about Sonic, and asked them which of the games were new, they might have chosen Sonic 3. And the music was god-like, Tee Lopes is a master in his skill. His remixes of original tracks like Chemical Plant and Flying Battery are amazing! And his new songs for Studiopolis and Press Garden are a treat to the ear. And as for gameplay, it's solid, never in a moment have I felt like the controls were bugging out or out of sync. I was in control of Sonic at all times. The level design is big and maze like, similar to that of Sonic 3's Carnival Night and Marble Garden. Although, I'm not entirely a fan of this large design, meaning I could easily miss Special Stage rings. But I do suppose that is it FAR better than the linear design of Sonic Forces, or Sonic 2's Emerald Hill Zone. However, I do have an issue with automated sections, where Sonic is shot off so fast by springs, booster, loops and other items just to make sure the player either misses goods such as monitors or once again, Special Stages. And as for stage choice, it really annoys me, most of the stages are returning zones, like Green Hill. And these 'nostalgia' zones sometimes are just so obscure it's frustrating. No, I do not want to play Oil Ocean! Or rather Sandopolis. See that's another thing with Sonic Mania, it takes gimmicks from other zones, just as filler. I'd rather have new stages with old gimmicks, than old stages with different, old gimmicks. If you're going to use old zones, than at least keep their old gimmicks, and their gimmicks alone. And next is the Special Stages, which I had mentioned twice already. They brought back the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Special Stages as means to unlock new content. But for the new Special Stages, they are amazing! They're reminiscent to Sonic R, even with similar models, but not identical. And they are slightly slippery, but that was most likely done for challenge, instead of referencing R. Once you complete the 7 Special Stages, you unlock Super Sonic. And Super Sonic is as how he usually is, overpowered. But he's given the extra speed, jump and invincibility for a good reason; you went through all of the trouble of unlocking him, it's a reward. And a neat "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" ordeal that the developers added was the fact that some of Super Sonic's sprites are the same to regular sprites as normal Sonic. This is actually a joke as to how in the Genesis games, the same thing would occur. But this isn't the only nod to the classics Mania does, it also makes jokes to unused content in the series. Examples of these include Splats, an unused badnik for Sonic 1. Green Hill act 2's background, where old screenshots should mountains with waterfalls. Or a somewhat hidden Easter egg, because when you start up a new game, the opening cutscene shows Tails wearing his aviator goggles from the Sonic Anime Movie. But if the player chose Tails, then Sonic will pilot the Tornado with goggles that were unused in Sonic 1!
Overall, I love this game just because of how many memories it brings back, although, with the save system, it takes away that challenge I used to know, I always used to see how far I could get in Sonic 1 or 2 without getting a game over. I used to constantly cry to my mom "Can you please let me play until I pass Labyrinth?" But now, when my mom needs to drag me somewhere, I can just save. It's not as fun. I mean, sure with the new layouts, I would never be able to actually finish the game for years, But I still wish I could play with out using the save function. I mean sure, there is a no save slot, but it's just not the same. The no save slot is more of a "Oh, I just need something to do to pass the time" playthrough instead of a "I want to beat this game 100% in 1 go!" playthrough. But in the end, I love this game just because of how many great childhood memories it brings back. Sure, I'm 13 and I should be relating more to Sonic Unleashed or something, but I wasn't given an Xbox or Playstation when I was growing up, all I had was my Sega Genesis, and my N64, but I couldn't really play the N64 because my sister covered the controller in glue.
Anyways, this has been my review of Sonic Mania, with the least amount of spoilers possible, although, I guess everyone has already discovered every nook and cranny that this game has to offer. So I guess it's a bit redundant to hide the secrets and unlockables...
Knuckles & Knuckles mode is best mode.
The Sonic series has been going downhill as of late, with the releases of Sonic Lost World and the infamous Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. And when it seemed like Sega had no hope of returning to their former glory of Sonic Colors and Generations, they had one more trick up their sleeve. They had hackers and developers of fan games make a new classic Sonic game. The game was to be named Sonic Discovery, evident by an interview with the lead developer of Mania, Christian Whitehead, where he explained how the name was shut down by Takashi Izuka for Sonic Mania instead. And is also proven by an unused graphic in the files as well.
The end result was great! And was so well at recreating the original 1990's feel and look, that if you took someone who didn't know anything about Sonic, and asked them which of the games were new, they might have chosen Sonic 3. And the music was god-like, Tee Lopes is a master in his skill. His remixes of original tracks like Chemical Plant and Flying Battery are amazing! And his new songs for Studiopolis and Press Garden are a treat to the ear. And as for gameplay, it's solid, never in a moment have I felt like the controls were bugging out or out of sync. I was in control of Sonic at all times. The level design is big and maze like, similar to that of Sonic 3's Carnival Night and Marble Garden. Although, I'm not entirely a fan of this large design, meaning I could easily miss Special Stage rings. But I do suppose that is it FAR better than the linear design of Sonic Forces, or Sonic 2's Emerald Hill Zone. However, I do have an issue with automated sections, where Sonic is shot off so fast by springs, booster, loops and other items just to make sure the player either misses goods such as monitors or once again, Special Stages. And as for stage choice, it really annoys me, most of the stages are returning zones, like Green Hill. And these 'nostalgia' zones sometimes are just so obscure it's frustrating. No, I do not want to play Oil Ocean! Or rather Sandopolis. See that's another thing with Sonic Mania, it takes gimmicks from other zones, just as filler. I'd rather have new stages with old gimmicks, than old stages with different, old gimmicks. If you're going to use old zones, than at least keep their old gimmicks, and their gimmicks alone. And next is the Special Stages, which I had mentioned twice already. They brought back the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Special Stages as means to unlock new content. But for the new Special Stages, they are amazing! They're reminiscent to Sonic R, even with similar models, but not identical. And they are slightly slippery, but that was most likely done for challenge, instead of referencing R. Once you complete the 7 Special Stages, you unlock Super Sonic. And Super Sonic is as how he usually is, overpowered. But he's given the extra speed, jump and invincibility for a good reason; you went through all of the trouble of unlocking him, it's a reward. And a neat "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" ordeal that the developers added was the fact that some of Super Sonic's sprites are the same to regular sprites as normal Sonic. This is actually a joke as to how in the Genesis games, the same thing would occur. But this isn't the only nod to the classics Mania does, it also makes jokes to unused content in the series. Examples of these include Splats, an unused badnik for Sonic 1. Green Hill act 2's background, where old screenshots should mountains with waterfalls. Or a somewhat hidden Easter egg, because when you start up a new game, the opening cutscene shows Tails wearing his aviator goggles from the Sonic Anime Movie. But if the player chose Tails, then Sonic will pilot the Tornado with goggles that were unused in Sonic 1!
Overall, I love this game just because of how many memories it brings back, although, with the save system, it takes away that challenge I used to know, I always used to see how far I could get in Sonic 1 or 2 without getting a game over. I used to constantly cry to my mom "Can you please let me play until I pass Labyrinth?" But now, when my mom needs to drag me somewhere, I can just save. It's not as fun. I mean, sure with the new layouts, I would never be able to actually finish the game for years, But I still wish I could play with out using the save function. I mean sure, there is a no save slot, but it's just not the same. The no save slot is more of a "Oh, I just need something to do to pass the time" playthrough instead of a "I want to beat this game 100% in 1 go!" playthrough. But in the end, I love this game just because of how many great childhood memories it brings back. Sure, I'm 13 and I should be relating more to Sonic Unleashed or something, but I wasn't given an Xbox or Playstation when I was growing up, all I had was my Sega Genesis, and my N64, but I couldn't really play the N64 because my sister covered the controller in glue.
Anyways, this has been my review of Sonic Mania, with the least amount of spoilers possible, although, I guess everyone has already discovered every nook and cranny that this game has to offer. So I guess it's a bit redundant to hide the secrets and unlockables...
Knuckles & Knuckles mode is best mode.