Sonic Mania thread.
I’ve heard this game is being tryed by many new people, so it could be considered the game that puts sonic back in the limelight (for good reasons).
If anyone has tried it, talk about it.
My experiences have been negative so far, but I’ll save the rant until I’m a little further just in case my outlook changes.
PC user, got to wait a whole 2 further weeks for release meanwhile console users get to play it now, not bitter at all, honest. 
Buying it on Steam.
Yup, actually glad I didn’t pre-order now, would have been even more annoyed.
bought it on the nintendo switch, came away pretty impressed it is a legit sonic game. music is good, graphics are too for what they are, and i felt like i was back in the 1990s durin simpler times. flaws however have carried over across the decades, like sonic feeling like hes in quicksand once you have been slowed down or you fuckedd up.
Edit: Minor Spoilers to the gameplay and small plot detail ahead. Nothing huge but fair warning.
I’ve played it a lot since it launched yesterday on the Xbox One, though given all the spoiler vids on youtube there were Monday, it seems a bunch of people managed to land early copies, not sure how though.
I’ll try to dive into it without spoiling anything in case that matters to anyone here.
If you are a fan of the old Sonic games of the early 90’s, then this will definitely appeal to you. The artstyle is very much a good throwback to early pixel games. However, it’s more of a 32 bit era than a 16 bit era, but that’s not really a bad thing. Sonic has extra frames of animation than give him a more fluid movement, and even has new animations to round him out. Tails and Knuckles have also had the same treatment, and they’ve all been upgraded with a better, brighter color palette. The sprites have a distinct Sonic 2 era design to them.
The stages are also very vibrant and colorful, with a great deal of detail and care generously put into each and every one of them. There are multiple layers of paralax scrolling that I’m not sure either the Genesis, 32X, or even the Saturn could duplicate, but since it’s being developed for modern hardware I don’t really care. All the enemy assets also have the same fluid level of animation and vibrant color palette.
Most of the levels are big. Each of them try to blend the principles of Sonic level design in a way that makes an almost perfect level design. They all try to include exploration, platform, and speed, which each level has plenty of sections where you’ll be going very fast, and sometimes with very clever movement schemes. However, the later levels can suffer a little bit as perhaps they are maybe a little too large, and most stages I found myself taking around 5 or so minutes to complete, at a minimum without trying to explore.
There are plenty of throwback levels and also entirely new stages to explore, and each of them has a unique gameplay aspect to each of them that makes traversing them fun and fresh. No two levels use the same gimmicks twice, at least in the same way.
The end level bosses are where the game begins to get frustrating. Some of these bosses play a lot like old ones from past games, but only for about one phase of a bigger battle. Boss battles are a lot tougher than past Sonic games. You could attribute it to a lack of familiarity with these new battles, but even after you practice them and become accustomed to their strategies and quirks, some of these are just plain tough. I will say this, each battle is also unique, there is no repetition from one boss’ tactics to the next.
They rely on some quick timing, which is the norm for Sonic games, but this game leaves less room for error, and feels like a Sonic hard mode the original games never had. However, enough practice and you’ll eventually get it, but it can get tough.
Another point of frustration is the special stages. I can applaud them for trying something new that blends elements of all the previous stages, and it does so pretty well. Unfortunately, the altered physics within the special stages can sometimes be the REALLY frustrating factor, and will set you up for failure time and again. Again, trial, error, and practice, but when finding special stage entrances are much more difficult in these humongous levels, where many of them are well hidden, the opportunity to practice isn’t that easy. Fortunately, once you complete the game, you can replay any level you want over again, and locate and repeat easier to find stages to try over and over again. They aren’t bad, but you have to realize the trick to beating each level, as there are shortcuts and tactics you can take to make it easier.
The earlier special stages are pretty easy, but at stage 4, they begin to turn up the difficulty. Still, it’s fun, and I’m glad they did something entirely new, which any iteration of the main Sonic line (which I do consider this one) should. The stages you play in at the crossing of the starposts are a classic Sonic special stage, almost completely untouched and as you remember them, which is one way of perhaps injecting a little nostalgia in (but I can live with it since I always enjoyed those old stages, they were my favorite of the old games), though I can understand if some people feel like it may be a little shoehorned in. These stages don’t unlock chaos emeralds, but do unlock some of the games unlockable extras, including gameplay altering elements, extra modes, and achievements.
These starpost stages also have some completely new layouts as well, different from the original layouts in the old games, but with the same rules to apply. Many of them will require some thinking, and retrying, (in some cases OVER and OVER), but the starposts are plenty in every stage, so trying these over and over again is much easier. There is one that’s a brain teaser, but if you’re clever, you can get it.
The story is told over a series of miniature cutscenes, which is kinda cool, considering there are some unique sprites made just for these sequences. However, I feel like without an old Genesis style manual, there is some missing context. The game revolves around Robotnik (or for the newer generation, Eggman) who has made a crew of new robots called the hard boiled heavies. I won’t spoil anything else, but I will say there are also some nice, classically animated scenes made for the game as well, as if Toei themselves designed these sequences.
Gameplay is solid. Sonic controls everything like what you remember from the Genesis era. The game tracks him to the center of the screen (usually, there are very few moments where he gets ahead of the camera, but those are either moments where the camera has a forced pan control, or he’s going super fast, but those sections don’t happen often and they don’t have enemies that will harm you in such instances). As I said earlier though, the special stage physics for collecting emeralds will have altered physics that you will have to get used to and play around.
If you are a fan of old Sonic games before the 3D era, then you will enjoy this one very much. There are lots of small touches that acknowledge the old games, while having new surprises as well. The developers worked very hard on this title and it shows. While not perfect, it is an impressive step in an unexplored direction for the Sonic franchise, and I hope more like it follows up in the future. This game is very impressive, and if like me, you’ve been wanting a more impressive 2D retro version of Sonic, this game is definitely what you’ve been wanting. While I hope that other modern Sonic endeavors succeed, regardless of whether I’m a fan of them or not, I would very much like another game like Sonic Mania in the future. I wish all the success in the world for Sonic Forces, but Mania for now has my attention.
If anything, I hope maybe they can expand on this one with some new stages in time. The game as it is a worthwhile package on its own, but given how well they did this one, I can’t help but want a little more. It’s a breath of fresh air to me. Where almost every classic franchise (Mario, Megaman, etc.) has had a retro remake, this is one franchise where this should have happened sooner, but I’m glad it’s this group of developers and talented people who brought this to us. Sonic 4 was a good try, but it just doesn’t measure up to this classic 2D animation and physics. This is a Sonic retro game worth playing.
Never really played a Sonic Game so can someone tell me if it’s worth picking up?
I’d read @IronFlame’s post above, as he does an excellent job of breaking it down. Good Sonic games are really fun and this sounds like a good one to me. I was wary, but after reading a few reviews (as well as the very informative post above), and listening to a few podcasts talk about it, I’ve decided to get it.
I forgot to mention, the music for the game is really great too. Each stage feature two distinct tracks, one for act one, and another for act two, with each having it’s own distinct flair while keeping with that stage’s audio theme. Much like how you can hear the street fighter riff/theme in many of the different characters stages, the act one/two bgm of most stages keep in theme.
The retro stages from classic Sonic games also have remixes of their 90’s era counterparts. Green Hill still carries that famous tone that began the franchise, chemical plant still has the guitar based techno sound that the Genesis was well-known to produce. I won’t name off all the classic stages, but if you played them in the day, you’ll recognize those themes once more. It’s just another level of care the designers took to ensure you feel at home coming back to these stages.
The music from the new stages made just for the game also have a certain appeal that fit in well the other classic tracks you’ll hear.
Spoiler tags for us unfortunates who can’t play it yet? I’m already having to self-filter unless I want the whole game spoiled for me in the next 2 weeks. 
I’m not sure I spoiled much. The retro and new stages are not really a secret since they showed them all over youtube, and the minor story detail I revealed is more or less in the description of the game on the xbox marketplace, and is probably on the steam marketplace as well. So I’m not really sure where to mark off a spoiler tag.
I apologize if I did spoil something though, but I tried really hard not to divulge very much.
I feel like I know why.
My CE is coming in today so I have yet to play it myself.
I know your a big Sonic fan, so what are your expectations for it?
I played some sonic casually back in the day and really looking forward to it, since it seems like a solidly executed nostalgia kick. Done in a way that works for todays players, kinda like how Shovel Knight is a modern retro game.
Had it downloaded ysterday myself but am close to the end of ‘I am Setsuna’ and want to finish that first before diving into Sonic Mania. Fingers are itching though 
Sorry, it’s more a generalised feeling of trying to stick my fingers in my ears and not read anything about the game till I finally get to play it, no harm done. 
I did sneak a few videos of the soundtrack only, though, it’s sounding amazing, which I’m very pleased about, and I had the level selection spoiled for me by a random, seemingly unrelated website, which annoyed me a bit. I was very surprised at the lack of Ice Cap Zone, Micheal Jackson ties or not,
I fully expected it to be there.
I’m not sure whether it’d be wise to ignore this thread for 2 weeks now…
It’s going to be a classic Sonic game. Nothing more, nothing less. Which is why I wasn’t as excited as most people for it.
I’m sure it’s going to be fun and well made. But it’s not really gonna surprise me. I’m much more curious and interested in Forces.
I understand, it’s a really good game and I felt the same way about it as you do. Unfortunately, my youtube recommendations kept popping up videos of people playing early on Monday somehow. So for most of Monday I had to avoid those, which wasn’t easy. It seems like about a thousand different people had their own take and say, their own set of comments, and a how to on doing this task or accomplishing this goal, see this cutscene, etc.
I understand that completely, but I will admit, I was unaware of the extra two weeks you guys have to wait to play it on PC. With it still being relatively early though, I tried to keep in mind that very fact and not spoil it for the world. Most of what I went into was covering gameplay and such, but I understand how even that could be somewhat spoiler-ish in its own way.
Good luck with the self-imposed retreat. I hope when you finally get the game it’s worth it to you. I feel like it has been to me.
Go ahead and give it a shot.
I’m enjoying the game more now, but I’ll mention my previous gripes later after I beat the game.
I beat Mania yesterday and thought it was very good. I really only have two complaints.
I’m not much of a retro rider, but I understand why Sega is doing this. Considering what a bad rep Sonic games have gotten whenever they tried something new, considering the many incredibly bad and broken messes of games they’ve released, going back to their roots is understandable. And I hope the Sonic fans are enjoying it.
I’m kinda curious about Sonic Forces. It looks like a piece of edgelord mess… being an edgelord myself, even I cringed at the trailer. Not to mention the villain looks like Ray from Mighty no. 9, and we all know how that went…
Which is a shame, because though it wasn’t the greatest game, my favourite Sonic game is Sonic Adventure, and I thought Sonic Generations was great! Also, I personally loved the character redesigns for Sonic Boom, but the game was so broken that it was literally unplayable. I’m just happy to see the Sonic Boom cartoons are so good! ^^
I can only imagine how hard it must be to be a Sonic fan. It has the potential to be something good, something fun and awesome… but Sega has let down their fans time and time again.
I hope they have done their fans right this time.
I mean, if a main villain isn’t edgy, then what’s the point?
Edgy: Dark, mysterious, vicious, no regard for life, dangerous, powerful,
Now let’s look at good traits for a villain:
Dark, mysterious, vicious, no regard for life, dangerous, powerful.