Tanoomba
ジョーディーすれいやー
- 10,170
- 1,439
I spent a good 9 hours with the game so far, beat it once with Sonic & Tails and am in the middle of playing a more thorough run with Knuckles.
Overall, it's an excellent game worthy of the heaps of praise it is receiving. It really does feel like the best Sonic game since 3&K. It's really nice to see Sonic go back to his roots and it's even nicer to see that retro platformers are still welcome in today's gaming scene.
(Very minor gameplay spoilers, I suppose.)
About 2/3 of the zones are pulled from past Sonic games. In most cases Act 1 is a tweaked version of the original stage with a new coat of polish and some minor changes. Act 2, though, usually adds new elements and stage mechanics, often pulled from other classic Sonic zones that didn't make the cut. Chemical Plant Act 2, for example, adds sticky sliding platforms, DNA helix elevators, and bouncy gel that you can make even bouncier by "injecting" it with goo from a giant syringe. While it still looks like Chemical Plant Zone, it's essentially a new stage at that point. However, some of the Act 2 additions are more low-key and subtle, not differentiating them enough from their source material. For Hydrocity Zone, for example, I have a hard time remembering what they changed in Act 2. If you're thoroughly familiar with Sonic's Genesis oeuvre, you might get hit with a bit of "been there, done that" a few more times than you'd like. Personally, I didn't consider this a problem because I still felt that overall there was more than enough fresh and new material to keep me engaged throughout.
One of the things I enjoyed the most about Mania was the many, many references to past Sonic games, certainly beyond the Zone remixes. They go from gameplay-related to purely aesthetic, and noticing them becomes somewhat of a meta-game for the Sonic aficionado. Act 2 of Oil Ocean, for instance, features a mechanic where the air gets progressively contaminated with orange toxic smoke, which will eventually harm you. The only way to clear the smoke is for Sonic to pull one of the suspended handles scattered throughout the level. This is a direct reference to virtually the same mechanic used in Sonic 3's Sandopolis Zone, where Sonic needs to periodically pull handles to light up the area and prevent ghosts from tormenting him. This connection to Sandopolis Zone is further reinforced through the infusion of pseudo-Egyptian themes in Oil Ocean's BGT. There's a cute reference to Sonic Spinball at the beginning of Chemical Plant Zone where Sonic gets wet and shakes off the water similar to how he does at the beginning of Spinball. I love that kind of stuff.
The Genesis Sonic games were all brilliantly composed, but the Genesis had a pretty lousy sound card, so the music tracks drawn from past games sound better than ever. In particular, Mania's composer went hog wild creating interesting remixes for Act 2 of most familiar zones. However, Since Sonic 3 and Knuckles already mixed up the BGMs somewhat between Acts 1 and 2, you won't be hearing much new in levels drawn from that game, music-wise. This was mildly disappointing since the original S3&K remixes never had much of an impact on me, and it seems like a missed opportunity to do something fresh with them. I will admit that this is nitpicking, though, as I adore Mania's soundtrack and can easily listen to it when not playing the game.
The controls are as solid and comfortable as they have ever been. Rest assured they didn't fuck this up like in Sonic 4. I like that they included the elemental shields from S3&K, as those were always a lot of fun to use. There are a few underwater areas, but they aren't particularly frustrating (I don't think I drowned once yet). The levels themselves are huge, and offer the best of both Sonic playstyles: Lots of areas to explore and secrets to find, and plenty of streamlined paths designed for speed-based play. The stage design lends itself very well to multiple playthroughs, and generally includes secrets you can only reach with Tails or Knuckles. I will say that I was somewhat annoyed at how often I would climb a tall wall with Knuckles only to find nothing at all. Since you're encouraged to explore, it seemed weird to me to have so many unattended dead-ends. In fact, Knuckles' climbing ability still has the same foibles it always did, such as going into freefall the moment you climb a ledge that has upward-pointing spikes on it and being unable to climb certain surfaces. Oh, and depending on your expectations this could be a major or minor gripe, but there are still a few cheap hits that'll take you out while you're following a speedy path, and there are plenty of "Oh shit, I could have held left there to get to another area, hope I remember that next time" moments. As far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be a Sonic game without that, though.
I do have one fairly large complaint about the game design, though. I thought S3&K had some of the best bonus stages in the series, and I remember putting much time and effort in my youth trying to get all the blue orbs on the giant spheres. These were WAY better than either Sonic 1 or 2's bonus stages, which were essentially exercises in frustration. But in S3&K, you only accessed these stages by finding the giant rings usually cleverly hidden in the stages. These were uncommon and required effort to find, so the sphere stages were a reward for going out of your way. In Sonic Mania, however, you can play one of these stages every time you activate a save point with 25+ rings. This happens ALL THE TIME. So you'll play a couple of minutes (or less) of a stage, do a lengthy bonus level, play another bit of the stage, do another bonus level, and so on and so on for pretty much the entire game. This really hurts the pacing of the experience, IMO. Sure, you don't HAVE to play the bonus levels, but doing so earns you silver medals which unlock fun and interesting secrets. I thought I was done with them once I beat all 32 bonus stages, but then I realized I have to get GOLD medals by collecting all the rings as well as the blue orbs, an exponentially more difficult task (especially considering how fiendishly nasty some of these levels can be). I doubt I'm going to have all 32 gold medals any time soon, and while it's a challenge I look forward to overcoming I kind of wish it didn't have to pop up so repeatedly in the middle of standard Sonic gameplay.
Speaking of bonus stages, I quite enjoy the new Chaos Emerald bonus stages. They're fun and exciting and feel right at home in a Sonic game. They do get really difficult really fast, though, and it seems as though each new one I reach takes exponentially more tries to beat than the one preceding it. I haven't gotten them all yet, so there is still game content I have not yet experienced (besides whatever I'll unlock by collecting all the gold medals).
Of course, I feel like I must acknowledge the elephant in the room and talk about the controversy the PC version of Mania was involved in. It seems like claims that the delay was due to "optimization" were false, and the delay was actually so they could add Denuvo to the game, Denuvo being a DRM anti-piracy measure that everybody hates. This infuriated me. I had to miss out on the initial hoopla when Mania was officially released. I had to avoid Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and any discussions that might include spoilers. While console gamers got to share their experiences, I had to go into blackout mode and sit on my hands and only get to join the club well after the fact, after the initial excitement had already died down. When I learned this was because they added fucking Denuvo, I was understandably pissed. There are many more aspects to this story that I was less pissed about (Sega originally didn't list the game as containing Denuvo, many pre-purchasers couldn't get a refund because the game counted as "activated" the moment they received their free copy of Sonic 1, the game would originally only allow you to play if you were online, etc), but for me it was all about depriving me of a shared cultural experience for a stupid fucking reason. HAVING SAID THAT, while I completely understand people's anger and frustration at Sega's shady practices, I disagree with people flooding Steam with negative reviews that don't reflect the quality of the game because they're angry. Sonic Mania is brilliant and the most fun I have had with Sonic in a long time. It's a great game and deserves to be acknowledged as such. The developers, drawn from a community of hardcore Sonic fans, did an exceptional job and it's disappointing to see their work shit on because Sega can be assholes.
TLDR: Love it. If you ever enjoyed classic Sonic, you owe it to yourself to play Mania.
Overall, it's an excellent game worthy of the heaps of praise it is receiving. It really does feel like the best Sonic game since 3&K. It's really nice to see Sonic go back to his roots and it's even nicer to see that retro platformers are still welcome in today's gaming scene.
(Very minor gameplay spoilers, I suppose.)
About 2/3 of the zones are pulled from past Sonic games. In most cases Act 1 is a tweaked version of the original stage with a new coat of polish and some minor changes. Act 2, though, usually adds new elements and stage mechanics, often pulled from other classic Sonic zones that didn't make the cut. Chemical Plant Act 2, for example, adds sticky sliding platforms, DNA helix elevators, and bouncy gel that you can make even bouncier by "injecting" it with goo from a giant syringe. While it still looks like Chemical Plant Zone, it's essentially a new stage at that point. However, some of the Act 2 additions are more low-key and subtle, not differentiating them enough from their source material. For Hydrocity Zone, for example, I have a hard time remembering what they changed in Act 2. If you're thoroughly familiar with Sonic's Genesis oeuvre, you might get hit with a bit of "been there, done that" a few more times than you'd like. Personally, I didn't consider this a problem because I still felt that overall there was more than enough fresh and new material to keep me engaged throughout.
One of the things I enjoyed the most about Mania was the many, many references to past Sonic games, certainly beyond the Zone remixes. They go from gameplay-related to purely aesthetic, and noticing them becomes somewhat of a meta-game for the Sonic aficionado. Act 2 of Oil Ocean, for instance, features a mechanic where the air gets progressively contaminated with orange toxic smoke, which will eventually harm you. The only way to clear the smoke is for Sonic to pull one of the suspended handles scattered throughout the level. This is a direct reference to virtually the same mechanic used in Sonic 3's Sandopolis Zone, where Sonic needs to periodically pull handles to light up the area and prevent ghosts from tormenting him. This connection to Sandopolis Zone is further reinforced through the infusion of pseudo-Egyptian themes in Oil Ocean's BGT. There's a cute reference to Sonic Spinball at the beginning of Chemical Plant Zone where Sonic gets wet and shakes off the water similar to how he does at the beginning of Spinball. I love that kind of stuff.
The Genesis Sonic games were all brilliantly composed, but the Genesis had a pretty lousy sound card, so the music tracks drawn from past games sound better than ever. In particular, Mania's composer went hog wild creating interesting remixes for Act 2 of most familiar zones. However, Since Sonic 3 and Knuckles already mixed up the BGMs somewhat between Acts 1 and 2, you won't be hearing much new in levels drawn from that game, music-wise. This was mildly disappointing since the original S3&K remixes never had much of an impact on me, and it seems like a missed opportunity to do something fresh with them. I will admit that this is nitpicking, though, as I adore Mania's soundtrack and can easily listen to it when not playing the game.
The controls are as solid and comfortable as they have ever been. Rest assured they didn't fuck this up like in Sonic 4. I like that they included the elemental shields from S3&K, as those were always a lot of fun to use. There are a few underwater areas, but they aren't particularly frustrating (I don't think I drowned once yet). The levels themselves are huge, and offer the best of both Sonic playstyles: Lots of areas to explore and secrets to find, and plenty of streamlined paths designed for speed-based play. The stage design lends itself very well to multiple playthroughs, and generally includes secrets you can only reach with Tails or Knuckles. I will say that I was somewhat annoyed at how often I would climb a tall wall with Knuckles only to find nothing at all. Since you're encouraged to explore, it seemed weird to me to have so many unattended dead-ends. In fact, Knuckles' climbing ability still has the same foibles it always did, such as going into freefall the moment you climb a ledge that has upward-pointing spikes on it and being unable to climb certain surfaces. Oh, and depending on your expectations this could be a major or minor gripe, but there are still a few cheap hits that'll take you out while you're following a speedy path, and there are plenty of "Oh shit, I could have held left there to get to another area, hope I remember that next time" moments. As far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be a Sonic game without that, though.
I do have one fairly large complaint about the game design, though. I thought S3&K had some of the best bonus stages in the series, and I remember putting much time and effort in my youth trying to get all the blue orbs on the giant spheres. These were WAY better than either Sonic 1 or 2's bonus stages, which were essentially exercises in frustration. But in S3&K, you only accessed these stages by finding the giant rings usually cleverly hidden in the stages. These were uncommon and required effort to find, so the sphere stages were a reward for going out of your way. In Sonic Mania, however, you can play one of these stages every time you activate a save point with 25+ rings. This happens ALL THE TIME. So you'll play a couple of minutes (or less) of a stage, do a lengthy bonus level, play another bit of the stage, do another bonus level, and so on and so on for pretty much the entire game. This really hurts the pacing of the experience, IMO. Sure, you don't HAVE to play the bonus levels, but doing so earns you silver medals which unlock fun and interesting secrets. I thought I was done with them once I beat all 32 bonus stages, but then I realized I have to get GOLD medals by collecting all the rings as well as the blue orbs, an exponentially more difficult task (especially considering how fiendishly nasty some of these levels can be). I doubt I'm going to have all 32 gold medals any time soon, and while it's a challenge I look forward to overcoming I kind of wish it didn't have to pop up so repeatedly in the middle of standard Sonic gameplay.
Speaking of bonus stages, I quite enjoy the new Chaos Emerald bonus stages. They're fun and exciting and feel right at home in a Sonic game. They do get really difficult really fast, though, and it seems as though each new one I reach takes exponentially more tries to beat than the one preceding it. I haven't gotten them all yet, so there is still game content I have not yet experienced (besides whatever I'll unlock by collecting all the gold medals).
Of course, I feel like I must acknowledge the elephant in the room and talk about the controversy the PC version of Mania was involved in. It seems like claims that the delay was due to "optimization" were false, and the delay was actually so they could add Denuvo to the game, Denuvo being a DRM anti-piracy measure that everybody hates. This infuriated me. I had to miss out on the initial hoopla when Mania was officially released. I had to avoid Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and any discussions that might include spoilers. While console gamers got to share their experiences, I had to go into blackout mode and sit on my hands and only get to join the club well after the fact, after the initial excitement had already died down. When I learned this was because they added fucking Denuvo, I was understandably pissed. There are many more aspects to this story that I was less pissed about (Sega originally didn't list the game as containing Denuvo, many pre-purchasers couldn't get a refund because the game counted as "activated" the moment they received their free copy of Sonic 1, the game would originally only allow you to play if you were online, etc), but for me it was all about depriving me of a shared cultural experience for a stupid fucking reason. HAVING SAID THAT, while I completely understand people's anger and frustration at Sega's shady practices, I disagree with people flooding Steam with negative reviews that don't reflect the quality of the game because they're angry. Sonic Mania is brilliant and the most fun I have had with Sonic in a long time. It's a great game and deserves to be acknowledged as such. The developers, drawn from a community of hardcore Sonic fans, did an exceptional job and it's disappointing to see their work shit on because Sega can be assholes.
TLDR: Love it. If you ever enjoyed classic Sonic, you owe it to yourself to play Mania.
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