Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

Another possibility is that you get something different depending on how many rings you have, like S3&K (and maybe Blue Spheres goes away if you have all the gold medals). I do think it would be better if Blue Spheres was its own separate thing though, since it doesn't give you any items to use. Maybe they should have placed some monitors in there as an added incentive.

 

Mania Plus is getting a new bonus stage? Awesome. Perhaps inspired by Sonic Spinball and Casino Night.

Taxman said the Blue Sphere bonus stage was initially just a placeholder in Mania until they decided to use them. So perhaps this new Pinball bonus stage was originally intended to be the sole bonus stage until the Blue Sphere got the nod. Fascinating.

Wonder if we'll be able play both bonus stages in Mania mode and Encore mode, of whether the new bonus stage will be solely for Encore?

Yeah, alternating the bonus stages like in 3K makes sense.

I still think it would be better if we could access all blue sphere stages (to collect the emblems) from the main menu instead of in a normal playthrough, because it's just annoying when I accidentally go into the blue sphere bonus stage when I've already collected all gold emblem (unless you want to transform back from Super Sonic to normal Sonic).

 

Out of all things they could remix they picked the absolute best and catchiest track of that game.
Are they in my head?

Also yay bonus stages!

 

I'm really glad that they are including a new bonus stage. I always felt that that was the only thing really missing from Sonic Mania aside from some of the level transitions. I love the Blue Spheres bonus stage but I missed being able to get rings, extra lives, and power ups like in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I think that they can either make it so that you can access Blue Sphere's from the Extra's menu or you can toggle and change what type of bonus stage will appear in the Options menu.

I love that the bonus stage music is a nod to SegaSonic Arcade and I think it's fitting since it is the game that Mighty and Ray debut in. I also like that it's a possible remix of one of the more catchy songs from that game's soundtrack. SegaSonic arcade had a really good soundtrack actually! There are a lot of songs that I really liked from that game. I can't help but feel like this might also have some nods to Sonic Spinball somehow as well. Now, the only question I have is how the bonus stage will function and look. I wonder if it'll look like the Sonic CD early pinball machine bonus stage or function similarly to it.

 

Ha, looks like your dream is coming true!


"Plus" seems so damn cool--way better than I expected. I thought we'd only be getting Tee's full version of "Angel Island Act 1" and nothing else when it came to new music--four new tracks total is absolutely wonderful. Can't wait to hear 'em (thank god the Japan physical version of "Plus" comes with these new tracks on CD, though this makes it even more of a bummer that it's not included with the U.S. physical version so it could be $10 cheaper--hopefully the CD or at least these tracks get released here as well at some point).

If the Pinball bonus stage replaces Blue Sphere entirely in Encore Mode, which would be my presumption, what a rad idea/great thing to include. Even the most stalwart devotees of Blue Sphere surely have gotten their fill of it in "Mania" by now, especially with the randomly generated mode. Tying it into "SegaSonic" and doing a rendition of one of the best songs from that game... just fantastic. As if we needed any more proof that these folks are fucking great/know what they're doing.


Obviously this is the spoiler thread so we all knew what we were in for, but it is kind of a shame Sega Japan seems to be very cavalier about putting out the coolest/most noteworthy aspects of "Plus" well before release. If all we had to go on was the "Plus" trailer we wouldn't know about Angel Island, the ability to swap characters, the Pinball bonus stages, etc. And of course the 1.04 patch accidentally getting pushed to PS4 players in one region ruined the surprise of those changes/additions as well. Could you imagine if none of this had happened and all we knew going into July 17th was that Mighty and Ray would be playable, and Encore mode zones would have different color palettes? On the other hand, this info getting out there might be a good thing because it's easy enough to avoid for people that aren't purposefully looking for it in threads such as this, and all the info has just progressively made clear that "Plus" is gonna be a damn good time/well worth getting.

Can't imagine there's much more left to find out about aside from the new color palettes for Hydrocity, Oil Ocean, Lava Reef, Metallic Madness, and Titanic Monarch. (We haven't seen much of how badniks/objects/etc. are placed differently within the zones, and I hope we don't see much regarding that, though it'd be nice to see how it differs for at least one or two zones at some point. Aaron said in the most recent stream that they might play a bit of "Plus" at some point before release, so that would likely be where we'd get a glimpse of those changes.)

 

@ SonicGenesis89 Would be sick if the pinball stage was based on the scrapped one from Sonic Cd with its interchanging layer depth gameplay mechanics .

 

I dunno about Mania Plus, but whatever the next (inevitable) Taxman lead Sonic project is, it definitely needs to see a re-imagining of this concept for a bonus stage. I've always wondered how it works, and they probably have access to materials from it I'd imagine.

 

Wow they're really going all-out with this, pouring as much love and devotion to the project as last time it seems. A new pinball bonus stage sounds fucking awesome.

Hope we get confirmation preferably before the year is out that Sega does intend to produce a sequel/successor to Mania. Given Mania's immense success it should be a sure-fire thing.

 

Lots of new Mania Plus screenshots added to the official Japanese PlayStation blog:

https://www.jp.playstation.com/blog/detail/6913/20180516-sonicmania.html

Not really anything that spoilery that I can see, but I've posted it here just in case. The most interesting things I noted:

• Mighty's intro for Mania Mode is shown, giving us a glimpse of his looking up animation. The section of the intro shown looks almost identical to Sonic's, with Mighty looking up at the group of EggRobos digging up the Phantom Ruby - however, I'm guessing the preceding section will be different as I can't imagine Mighty will simply ride in on the Tornado as Sonic does...! Since his whole thing is being a peaceful traveller, I'm hoping he'll start off just chilling on the beach or something before hearing the commotion and investigating.
• Ray's idle animation is also shown, which references a Sonic pose from some early artwork. Looking back, another frame of this was visible in the April 26th Famitsu article, though it was unclear at that point whether or not it was some sort of cutscene-specific animation.
• Encore Mode pallets for three of the stages are shown - interestingly, Mirage Saloon has a sunset pallet in the screenshot rather than the night pallet seen previously, though the night pallet screenshot is also present on the page. In Mania Mode, both the Sonic/Tails and Knuckles versions Act 1 have time-of-day transitions partway through the stage; as barely anything bar the background is visible, it's very possible the sunset shot from early in Act 1 and the pallet will transition to the night variant partway through the stage.
• An additional screenshot of Mighty and Ray's Encore Mode introduction is shown - the machine they were trapped in lies destroyed behind Sonic, with Ray standing to the left of the screen and Mighty to the right. I'm guessing the player has to walk over to whichever one they want to choose as their partner character, after which the character-swap tutorial thought bubble (as seen in the earlier Famitsu article) would appear above the chosen partner?

In addition to all this, there's also various other shots of Mighty/Ray in Mania Mode, and a clearer look at a few previously-released shots of Sonic and Mighty in Encore Mode.

 

I didn't know I wanted ghost data for Time Attack until now. What a nifty addition!

 

I'm buying Plus, no question, but look at Mirage Saloon vs. Green Hill with the sunsets. MS is beautiful, but then it makes GH look like complete ass garbage. The different types of clouds just make the differences even more apparent.

 

Must admit also not a fan off the poo brown, but there must be a technical reason for it.

 

It's been said, but I think the weird orange-brown GH color is supposed to be a throwback to Sunny Shores Act 3 from Megamix (Ver. 3):





Do agree that it does look rather odd though. They probably could had gone with a different shade of orange, or maybe set it to a different time of day.

 

My problem with it is that the orange-brown sky blends in with the mountains and the checkerboard foreground tiles. At least in the Megamix version they changed the mountains and checkerboard to that kinda tan-looking palette.

 

Could it also be a nod to Sunset Hill from Sonic Advance 3?

 

Green Hill also was seen at sunset in Generations.. Heck, why not just all of the above? :v:

 

I don't think the sunset GHZ looks terrible, TBH. They gave the water a nice look. It does clash some with the foreground. Doesn't look terrible, but could be done much better is my verdict. I'd say bring the sky slightly out of the orange/brown range and very slightly towards cooler tones.

Alternately, the sky could stay the same while bringing the foreground more towards cooler tones. That would work, too, and may look even better.

 

Man. I'm hoping there's a mod to replace the background as soon as the game is released. It's funny because GHZ in Sonic 1 always had the issue having a very unnatural looking dark blue sky. Now we're having the exact same issue except with a dark brown sky. Looks way more reminiscent of the ultra-polluted Scrap Brain Zone rather then a pretty sunset.

The only reason I can think of as to why they didn't go with a color scheme similar to Mirage Saloon Zone is because that would make three stages with the same Sky color Greenhill, Mirage Saloon, Oil Ocean. No excuse for the poor color choice they went with, though.

 

Looks like people are starting to find Encore stuff in that leaked 1.04 PS4 patch via debug mode. Full version of "Angel Island" music is very good, as expected. Wonder how much more of Encore data exists within that leaked patch. Differences between what's in there and what's in the final build should be interesting. Feel bad for the dev team about the patch accidentally being pushed and Sega Japan revealing a bunch of the most interesting aspects of "Plus" well before launch--but speaking for myself, it is all just making me more excited for "Plus."

 

Whoa, what's a neat midnight snack for my timezone. That pretty much confirms EVERYTHING about Plus's intro.

• Angel Island is merely an introductory level so Plus' new mechanics can be learned
• It comes with its full song, along with a proper title card (with a different color)
• Mighty and Ray get liberated by Sonic from that capsule, and the Heavy Magician steals the Ruby again
• She gives it to the Heavy King, now in a big pile of junk with all the other HBH, the Ruby activates him, and sends the whole party to GHZ

I must agree, it's quite a shame that all got leaked. But I am more hyped than ever.

PD: Also... goddamnit, I need to see a Sonic 3 Remastered by Tax and Stealth. It needs to happen. Look at those gorgeous AIZ visuals I can't stand it...

EDIT: I want to add some technical stuff. Obviously all enemies are there, as they most likely ported the entire scene from S3, objects included, and then started to replace the chunks with the updated art. The glitched starting point appears to be caused by the location Sonic was after hitting the signpost back in the intro; the proper transition seem to require Sonic position to be more to the right, close to Knuckles intro area. Hitting the signpost there will most likely also fix the background, as it will carry it over from Knuckles area.

It is interesting that, after the background fixes itself through the level, there are no missing tiles anymore; could that change fix them, or maybe they were still replacing the chunks at the beginning with the updated art?

There is water in the level, seen at 1:13. It looks technically similar to S3 AIZ water, but with added wavy effects.

I don't get why Ray and Mighty's objects are not present, when an entire zone from the DLC got into the update. Perhaps the Sonic duplicates ARE Mighty and Ray, but without their art implemented?

Many questions, I would love to fiddle with that zone!