(2017) Sonic Mania (PC/PS4/Switch/XbOne, 2017)
That’s right.
Not just my favorite 2D Sonic game
Not just my favorite Sonic game released in the current era.
My new favorite Sonic game, period.
Last year was Sonic’s 25th anniversary, and after waiting for any news on what they were going to do, a really bad livestream event took place in July 2016 and with it came the announcement of two major Sonic games coming out next year, an unnamed 3D Sonic that turned out to be Sonic Forces and a new 2D Sonic game called Sonic Mania, developed by Christian Whitehead, Headcannon and PagodaWest, creating a whole menagerie of developers for this game. And after seeing the initial trailers, I was actually pretty hyped for the game. My original plan was to ask for a $20 Steam card for Easter and use it to buy the game, but about a month before Easter the game turned out to be delayed another few months. I still decided to get a Steam card for Easter but instead bought Night in the Woods (which is actually a game I should review sometime) and proceeded to wait patiently for the game to come out as official music was uploaded onto Youtube. As the game’s official release date came about, the PC port was delayed for another couple weeks but at that point I didn’t really care because I already missed out on it during Easter and the Steam Summer Sale so whatever.
But when it did come out, I kept track of the reviews and ratings for the game and from what I heard it was becoming the highest rated Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2, a game released 16 years beforehand and going into it I had pretty high hopes. As a huge fan of the classic Sonic games, it looked like the game I had really been waiting for all this time. And after months of avoiding spoilers like the plague, a generous friend of mine gifted me this game and after spending the past week playing through it… my expectations were met perfectly and even exceeded in a number of aspects.
So, straight and to the point - Sonic Mania plays like the classic Sonic games. And if you’ve played any of them at least once in your lifetime, you get the gist of it. And I have to say, comparing it to the last major 2D outing (not counting games like Colors and Generations that had both 2D and 3D sections) that was Sonic 4: Episodes 1 and 2, Sonic Mania really makes up in all the areas where those games didn’t so great in. While I don’t really hate either of those games, I’ve always found that they both lack replay value and suffer from poor physics and really bland level design. And while Episode 2 slightly improved aspects of Episode 1, either way Sonic Mania just does a lot better for me. Sonic Mania controls in a similar way to the classic Sonic games while also controlling a tad smoother and the overall pacing is generally very consistent as the levels play out. Physics are pretty much on-point, again taking more from the classic era while also being more polished and suited for a more modern era. As a whole, the physics and controls are more at home if you’re a fan of the classic games while also feeling smoother and more polished obviously to fit as a reboot of the classic games in a modern era, and just to get to the main point, they really did a good job handling the overall gameplay with how the characters play.
Moving on to level design, there are twelve zones in the game, consisting of eight remixed zones from the classic games and four original zones. Now, the main and only real criticism I’ve heard from this game is that the game does lack originality due to 2 / 3rds of the zones being remixed versions of zones previously seen in the classic era, and while I can kind of understand if you were looking for something fresher and more modern as far as level themes and motifs go, I actually feel like Sonic Mania does such a good job adding to and remixing the classic zones that I personally don’t mind it so much. Each of the classic levels mixes elements that recreate aspects of the original levels while also adding to them with more expansive level design and in some cases creative new ideas that build upon the original motifs. For example, Oil Ocean Zone adds graphical elements such as being able to burn sections of oil with the fire shield and leads to Act 2 where it becomes a cloudy mess where your rings are taken away one by one if you don’t pull down the switches in enough time (woah global warming). And for what it is, all the levels, remixed or not, have a lot of exploration to them. I mean, this game takes what I liked about the classic Sonic level design with branching pathways and really builds upon that while balancing the horizontal level design seen in Sonic 1-3&K and the vertical level design seen in Sonic CD. The levels are huge, and are full of different collectables such as the elemental shields, blue ring boxes and giant rings that take you to special stages like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. For me, this really adds to the overall replay value of the game by letting you explore the levels for collectables while also being able to interact with graphical elements in the games while also being full of new and clever ideas. Also like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, there’s a boss at the end of every act and once again they do some creative stuff here. I mean you end up seeing the Death Egg Robot at the end of Green Hill Zone Act 2 (only the first zone in the game), take control of the mech in Hydrocity Act 2 and the best one in Chemical Plant Zone Act 2 when you have to beat Dr. Robotnik in a round of Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. I mean come on, that’s literally perfect. Going on from that, not only are the classic 2D platformers referenced but also some of the Game Gear titles and spinoff titles for that matter. In Hydrocity Zone you can float up in a large bubble and in part of the boss in Stardust Speedway Act 2 has you fighting Metal Sonic with a Silver Sonic, both references to the Game Gear version of Sonic 2 and Fang the Sniper also makes an appearance as does Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear, the latter two being characters from Sonic the Fighters. In general there’s a lot of references and even though eight of the levels were just rehashes of the themes and motifs I already experienced playing the classic Sonic games, there was still plenty of new stuff to run into and expansive level design that still managed to feel really fresh to me.
In addition to the expansive level design, there are bonus stages and special stages in this game that go along with the main levels. The bonus stages work in a similar fashion to Sonic 2 and 3 & Knuckles where they can be accessed if you pick up 25 rings, carry them to a checkpoint and jump into a ring of stars that appear above. And wouldn’t you know it, the bonus stages are a recreation of the Sonic 3 Blue Sphere special stages where you can collect all the blue spheres to earn gold or silver tokens depending on if you get all the rings and the perfect bonus or not, and they can be used to unlock other modes and play styles, such as the CD play style bringing back the Super Peel Out, the 3 & Knuckles play style bringing back Sonic’s instashield, the debug mode, and the… & Knuckles mode where Knuckles tags along with you. And if you’re already playing as Knuckles, there’s now two Knuckleses.
Screw it, that’s freaking hilarious.
The special stages, like I mentioned, are accessed by giant rings hidden throughout the level, and for what it is I did get a kick out of them and did enjoy how they played. In the special stages, you have to chase after a UFO holding a chaos emeralds while keeping an eye on the timer and collecting blue spheres to increase your speed. The timer is made up of rings, and collecting more of them will grant you more time to chase down the UFO. If you collect all of the chaos emeralds, you unlock Super Sonic, which again plays like he does in the classic games, so nothing I can really add to there.
In terms of difficulty, I didn’t find Sonic Mania to be too hard as a whole, but there are some aspects I did get stuck on. The special stages I mentioned do have a share of challenge to them as they all require thinking and different strategies leaving you to decide whether it’s better to just go and collect as many rings as you can and worry about blue spheres later, and I did get stuck at a few parts. The game really encourages exploration, while also having a great deal of challenge here and there, and there were times where I found myself having to explore the levels a bit before moving on. There was also some challenge with the bosses, and I won’t deny that I did die a few times on Oil Ocean Act 2’s boss in particular. And since there was some challenge to the game, you could almost say that this game kind of reminded me of Dark Souls.
Now excuse me while I go die for making that joke.
Seriously though, while far from the hardest game out there, there were times that were the game did get fairly challenging but as someone who’s beaten Sonic 1 and 2 multiple times it was nothing too over the top and was just right for me to appreciate at least a little bit of challenge here and there.
On top of all that, how do I feel about the overall presentation, the graphics, the music and so on. Let me tell you… wow, they did an excellent job presenting this game. The game alone while not quite something on the Sega Genesis or even on any of it’s add-ons, it actually did feel at least like a game I’d see myself playing on the Sega Saturn. While the “retro” style is pretty overused in the current era of indie games, I will say that I do feel it works here for what they were trying to accomplish as more of a “throwback” Sonic game for the 25th anniversary. The graphics are really nice to look at, taking the classic sprites and classics and doing a lot more with it, adding a much bigger and more colorful color pallette making each of the levels pop out in their own way. It’s just really nice to look at despite the overused style. And as for the music, well, it has a lot of remixes of classic themes as well as new tracks obviously depending on the zones, and the game overall has a really great soundtrack between the remixes and new themes, all of which I could really see listening to casually on Youtube while I’m doing work and whatnot. The presentation just in general was just one aspect that took me back to playing the classic Sonic games for the first time via the DS Classic Collection (shut up i didn’t grow up in the genesis era) while also making it feel more modern and fresh, making the whole experience all the more enjoyable to me.
Conclusion:
Well, what more can I say? Sonic Mania has been the Sonic game that I’ve been really wanting all these years and after all that hype I can safely say that my expectations went from being hit perfectly to exceeded in some cases. And like I said, this might just be my new favorite Sonic game and probably one of my Top 5 favorite games of all time just for taking the classic Sonic formula which I’ve always enjoyed and breathing life in it for a more modern and fresher experience. And, to be quite frank, this is really a game I can recommend to everyone. Even if you didn’t care so much for the 2D Sonic formula, Sonic Mania really adds to it to make it more interesting and more polished. There’s tons of replay value to be found here, and I can guarantee that after playing it once, it’ll probably become one of those games like Super Mario World and Sonic 2 that I’ll probably play dozens of times and maybe even go back to it at least once a year or so. I mean, heck, even after I’m done writing this I sort of have a temptation to go back and explore the levels once again. Being the highest rated Sonic game in 16 years, it really deserves that title, and even after hearing all the mixed feelings regarding Sonic Forces (which I eventually plan on getting and reviewing), I’m just glad that this game came out and honestly, a Sonic Mania 2 with more original levels and whatnot would probably be perfect.
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