Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

Very minor thing but I just found out Mighty can kill the Beanstalk enemy in Stardust Speedway Act 1 with his ground pound. Is there any way to kill that enemy aside from that--can you with the bubble shield downward bounce attack or fire shield sideways attack? Honestly don't think I've ever tried to attack them; just assumed they were invulnerable to any and all attacks.

Anyway, cool that Mighty can defeat them with his ground pound.

 

Yeah, I think it goes dark sometimes after being idle for a bit. The game also doesn't actually freeze when you click away, it just stops rendering more until you click again.

 

You can destroy them if you attack them from below, but there's not a lot of platforms that allow you to do that.
From my own experience, Mighty completely destroy Stardust Speedway (and Press Garden), he's so much fun to play :v:

 

Playing with most of those cheats on I found you can actually make characters other than Sonic do the super peel out move....sometimes. They just play their fastest run animation when doing it but worked for every character so long as you had forced encore and max moves on.

 

The other condition is that each character must have been Sonic at some point to use the peel out.

 

That's an interesting side-effect - doesn't sound intentional, but a neat find. Makes sense they'd use their max speed animation, as turning the peel-out on also replaces Sonic's max-speed animation with the peel-out animation for that Sonic CD vibe.

 

Should Ray have been a smolboi?

I saw some mentions a while ago that we was too big and should be more like Tails, and at first I thought so too but tbh he is already shorter than everyone except Tails (if you ignore his hair flick). Though his head is a little wider than Sonic. I think he's acceptable.

(To clarify, he looks great, I mean his height is acceptable...)

 

Ha--I get why lots of folks think he should be similar in size to Tails since he feels most similar to Tails as a character, but yeah even before this post I was going to say I'm fine with Ray as a big boi.

He looks great when he's flying--it's only when you're slowly walking around that he seems maybe slightly too big. But I'm used to his size now. Plus them large sneaks are glorious (best sneakers in the game now, in my opinion).

Thanks for the great comparison gif; hadn't realized how much his hair takes up. That CPZ Mean Bean coiffing really worked.

 

I think he looks better shrunk down a bit. He's smaller than Sonic and Mighty, but still bigger than Tails. He looks a bit weird at his current size, and too much like Sonic in the face. Ray doesn't actually look that much like Sonic in his artwork, but in-game he looks too similar.

I love Ray's design in Mania. Having blue shoes makes him stand out quite a bit somehow. And he's just so much fun to play as too. I dislike that I dislike a number of his sprites though.

 

Funny, I also think Ray feels too big in Mania and decided to make some changes of my own, but I tackled it a little differently.



I think most of the feeling comes from his facial proportions. His eyes were made bigger than anyone else's, which, while not a bad idea for a distinctive visual trait, did a lot to make him feel big despite his head being a pretty appropriate size, pixel-wise. Making his fur tuft smaller also make a big difference.

Didn't just mess with his proportions, though. Both him and Mighty are weirdly desaturated compared to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. The biggest signifier of this is that all five of the characters have six shades for their base fur/shell colors, and for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, the bottom three shades are all at max saturation. Mighty and Ray's, on the other hand, are about 30-40% less saturated, and that alone makes them look less vibrant. This always kinda bugged me about their coloring, because in-game Mania is clearly going for a bright, saturated look, even if it doesn't match up with the colors/shading in some of the game's official art. Despite this, Mighty and Ray's sprites both match up more with their official renders' coloring than with the style set in-game. Makes 'em feel out-of-place.

 

Finally played it. I LOVE ray's move-set. So refreshing. Mighty on the other-hand....while the spike thing is pretty cool, I don't really care too much for the ground thing. In-fact, it kind of interrupts game-play for me in my opinion. I've only gotten a few stages in though, so it could change.

 

For the level select code on Switch: I select Mania Mode, Hold down Y and then select No Save and the press Start (or A). But it goes to the Angel Island cut scene. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

You need to go in the Game Options and turn Debug Mode on in order for the level select code to activate.

 

Has anyone else found the giant ring in Encore's Titanic Monarch 2 yet? I almost laughed out loud when I saw where they'd hidden it.
Encore Mode continues to grow on me...

 

You mean the one where the unused Egg Capsule used to be? Is cleverly hidden.

 

Yes - that being the location, and also how you get to it.

 

Yes, this surprised me on my last playthorugh of the Zone - went through it one more time (with Mighty and Ray, of course) after having got all the Emeralds so I could see the proper ending.

Didn't even realise that area existed, so was surprised when I ended up there - is it only used in Encore Mode, then?

 

I believe so. There's a similar room used for the goalpost in Time Attack, but it's not the same location since both rooms co-exist in Encore.

 

What in blazes made them create the encore mode special stages so difficult? What, are they trying to give us mental breakdowns? Otherwise, everything is very fun.

 

I'm on #3 encore SS so far...

I'm re-learning them in general though it seems. I've seen footage of the later ones and honestly I love it, more of a great special stage that is pure fun and I'll keep saying it: Should be accessible outside of normal gameplay as an extra!!