Finally, we have the return to form that Sonic fans have been waiting for all these years. This isn’t just one of the best Sonic games of recent years, but one of the best Sonic games full stop. You owe it to yourself to get a copy of this masterpiece.
It is surprising how well the developers understood the underlining reasons Sonic was so loved in the 16bit era. Gone are the autorun, the messy 3D levels and the horrible clown characters, gone is the linear cheap thrill design of the modern 3D games. In their place, we got excellent level design with hundreds of different routes, elegant design choices and supremely balanced gameplay which bring us one of the best Sonic games since Sonic & Knuckles. Pity Sega was too afraid to budget for modern graphics because they would have had a full priced, instant classic on their hands.
Sonic Mania is a game made by fans for fans, fueled by passion instead of money. A wonderful trip to the golden days of the hedgehog, with great level design, faithful graphics and melodies, and the good old gameplay.
Sonic Mania delivers what fans waited for years. Cool soundtrack, tight controls and awesome graphics really blends in with the atmosphere of Sonic has, just like in the old school Sonic games.
Sonic Mania is a wonderful blend of classic Sonic and new ideas, and should serve as an example of the great things that can happen when game companies embrace fan creators. There's no reason Sonic Mania shouldn't be followed by multiple sequels that continue its remixing magic.
Like the Kevin Smith version of A New Hope I imagine almost daily, Sonic Mania is a game made by fans, for fans. And that's not a bad thing. Newcomers may be turned off by the intermittent difficulty spikes, but others may finally understand why many childhoods were spent looking for a kid who had a Sega Genesis.
Sonic Mania is both an homage to and continuation of the classic Mega Drive games, and is crafted well enough to satisfy any long time fan of the series. The gameplay is nearly identical to the original games, (especially 3&K) adding only a few new ways of traversing the levels.
The nostalgia pandering could be said to be the games biggest asset and it's biggest flaw, as the familiarity makes it instantly recognisable as the "true" Sonic 4, while too many of the levels are just revisiting the ones we've already played in earlier games (some questionable choises of such levels were made in my opinion - such as Oil Ocean). The changes include a lot of new gimmicks, which are slightly too numerous at times and hurt the flow of the gameplay. The boss fights have been greatly overhauled to be more intricate and many of them are quite tricky the first time around, but once you learn their pattern most of them get ridiculously easy during later playthroughs.
Definitely a great game and well worth its price, but you can tell it's basically a glorified fan game (which to be fair, it is) and I don't think it's quite on the same level as its Mega Drive counterparts, especially not the afforementioned S3&K.
Sonic mania is a good game.
The graphics are amazing, gameplay is tight and fair and the music is just ok. The 20€ price tag is amazing, even though there isn't anything to compell you after the end.
It took me about a week to finish the game 100%, trophies and all. I finished the game on three separete save files with 3 separete characters, with all the chaos emeralds on each one with all the gold medals. After that, I only popped the game up to mess around in debug. There was nothing else to keep me coming back. Sonic mania is a 3 time wonder.
Also the callbacks and referances are epic for long time fans!
Soulless, no substance, no passion, and no reason to exist. Sonic Mania is a disgrace to both the Classics, and the franchise as a whole. Play Sonic 1 or 3 instead, they won't waste your time or your patience.
I got this for the 2-player competitive mode that first appeared in Sonic 2. That mode remains pretty fun, with the drawback that you have to play each level in 1-player before you can play it 2-player competitively. This is dumb, particularly since this is tied to each player profile.
The 1-player game is pretty meh. Gone are the digestible levels of Sonic 1&2 -- now the levels are crazy long, and yet they kept the 10-minute timer. I don't have fun exploring these levels because they're so long, winding back and forth, so I just want to get to the end and be done with it.
I was also hoping for the slot machines from Sonic 2 Casino Night Zone. I don't believe those have returned.
SummaryExperience the ultimate celebration of past and future in Sonic Mania, an all-new 2D Sonic adventure running at a crisp 60FPS with stunning HD retro-style graphics. Multiple playable characters give you the ability to go explosively fast as Sonic, soar as Tails, or power through tough obstacles with Knuckles’ brute strength. You can re-l...