Sonic Mania Plus - PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC - 17th July | New DLC - £3.99

Tafdolphin wrote:This game makes me very, very happy. It's exactly as I remember the Mega Drive games feeling: there was speed but there was also exploration and experimentation (and a fair bit of frustration). It's amazing how well they've produced a real sequel to the 2D Sonic games.

Happy happy happy.

This. It feels perfect everything feels just right. Epic work puts sonic team and all previous games to shame.

This is a great day to be a sonic fan. Walking the line between nostalgia and innovation like it ain't no thing

jiggles wrote:I actively dislike Studiopolis. The colour palette is a mess and the act 1 boss has some real annoying physics to it

Is that the missile one?

Also my prediction came good :datass:

Flying Battery Zone can get strawberry floated. The random bouncy gooseberry fool is so infuriating

Decided to pack it in for the night after the game glitches out for about the third time this evening.

Really enjoyed it so far, the first three areas are absolutely banging, the couple later after that leave a bit to be desired, which is something I found with old Sonics too, losing inspiration after a few stages. The music is absolutely on point too.

I find the lack of a stage select a bit baffling, I guess it comes when you've beaten the game but just seems odd to leave it out before then.

Looking forward to going back through early stages and finding out what's going on and what the themeing is all about, I absolutely suck at the special stages though.

Stage select wasn't in the old games, bar Sonic 3 where you could chose the levels when you completed the game, or on all 3 with cheat codes.

strawberry float Zelda and the horse she rode in on this is GOTY

jiggles wrote:I actively dislike Studiopolis. The colour palette is a mess and the act 1 boss has some real annoying physics to it

Yeah I find it a little visually confusing too. It riffs on the like of Casino Knight and Carnival Hill, but they were much clearer in terms of aesthetics. It's a bit of a muddle.

I don't actively dislike it, mind, just that the second new zone is much, much better. Bar the boss, which is probably the game's weak point in that this encounters don't feel as memorable as some of the classics.

Some are frustrating, like the fourth zone's boss:

And as for the Chemical Plant Act 2 Boss:

All in all, though, it's a great game. I just wish my expectations had been tempered, as I thought it was only to have Green Hill as a remix and the other zones would be all-new ( I thought I read that there were 6 zones, with 5 being new). For me, it's just a little too safe by relying on these old zones. The second Acts are good, however.

At it's worst, the game feels like a very very well-done fan mod (which I guess it sort of is). For me, while it's far and away the best Sonic game for two decades, it's still a level below the MD titles, though it's hard to ever be objective about games I have played since I was 4. It's hard to properly judge a game when it's literally older than the hair on your balls.

At it's best, when you're playing through some of the new stuff, it feels like it's just carried on from 1994. The second new zone was great and visually felt like the next step up from the MD titles. I probably prefer Sonic 3/S&K's visual style to the Sonic template they copied, and I think that S3&K remains untroubled as the best Sonic game, but they've nailed 90% of it. Boss and level design is a touch below the best and for me, it's too much of a retro love-in rather than "Sonic 4".

Speaking of Sonic 4, I actually enjoyed that, but it looks like a steaming turd now. I thought some parts of the Dimps game were harshly treated (once you got around the different physics) but with Mania, they've just nailed the feeling of Sonic from the off, which Dimps never really did.

Hoping that this isn't just a one-off. That they've tapped into that retro nostalgia as an opening salvo, and get good sales like other recent re-releases, remixes or reboots, and are able to do a "proper" sequel with all new stuff.

Gave it a few hours before hitting a bit of a wall at the Flying Battery Zone boss. The hitbox seems a bit finicky, but I'm not going to pretend it hasn't been a while since I touched a Sonic game.

Fantastic so far, though.

The levels are massively different, especially act 2.

Really enjoyed this, played it for about 4 hours, maybe 5. Pretty easy overall too. Though I did game over on the final boss. Need to get them chaos emeralds next time though.

And the 4th zones boss was awesome.

Lucien wrote:
Pedz wrote:The levels are massively different, especially act 2.

The act 1's that I saw were more or less identical. The old zones are 2/3rds of this game, and if half of that 2/3rd's is old acts I've already played a thousand time then it's frustratingly in the way of the new content for me. I'll probably skip this and hope Mania 2 (if it ever happens) is all new zones.

They have elements of the originals like the chemical plant climb and such but they are far far from identical.

You get a little 10 second section you give a nostalgia buzz then you are doing something different.

I suggest you watch it again and then some vids of the original and a guarantee you they are different.

Lucien wrote:
Pedz wrote:The levels are massively different, especially act 2.

The act 1's that I saw were more or less identical. The old zones are 2/3rds of this game, and if half of that 2/3rd's is old acts I've already played a thousand time then it's frustratingly in the way of the new content for me. I'll probably skip this and hope Mania 2 (if it ever happens) is all new zones.

Mate, you're straight up wrong here. Each old zone starts similar to the original then curves off dramatically. My favourite act of the game so far was Act 2 of an "old" zone because it was surprising, clever and incredibly fun.

You've been watching the wrong footage.

To be fair, two-thirds of each old stage's first Act seems to be the old layouts. The start to twist stuff in its closing moments, along with a new boss, and then the second Act basically uses the original layout as a template, along with reusing assets but remixing them along the way.

Flying battery is gooseberry fool!

The bits where you get blasted and run updpside down boil my piss as I instinctively change the redirection I'm saying to run but that screws me and fall to my death because I'm meant to keep the same direction pressed even though that is actually the wrong direction. strawberry floating annoying!

Given this is a primarily a download release, will we have any idea how well it is selling?

Only if Sega or the platform holders release the figures I guess.

Errkal wrote:Flying battery is gooseberry fool!

The bits where you get blasted and run updpside down boil my piss as I instinctively change the redirection I'm saying to run but that screws me and fall to my death because I'm meant to keep the same direction pressed even though that is actually the wrong direction. strawberry floating annoying!

The only bit that's really frustrated me so far was the Studiopolis boss. Most of the bosses are strawberry floating hard, as they should be, but that one felt like it was luck more than anything due to the positioning of the missiles.

How's everyone doing with the Special Zone? The catch the UFO one I mean. Got the Green emerald but the second one is nails.

Sonic Mania Plus - PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC - 17th July | New DLC - £3.99

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