I like the idea of "Deep Impact zone" where you explore the ruins of the Death Egg which landed on another island or maybe as an underwater stage. If I were to pick two zones from each classic (I assume there will only be one remade from each game), I'd quite like to see Star Light zone (as well as Green Hill) from Sonic 1. Aquatic Ruin or Mystic Cave from Sonic 2. Got to go for Ice Cap or Hydrocity from Sonic 3. Ice Cap always felt like one of the weaker levels in Sonic 3. For S&K I like the idea of revisiting Mushroom Hill Valley or Sandopolis with the zone showcasing the wreckage of the crashed airship from Flying Battery. Maybe have Lava Reef with the remains of Hidden Palace/Sky Sanctuary at the end? Picking stages from Sonic CD is a bit trickier. Studiopolis visual design and gimmicks makes me want to rule out Collision Chaos and Wacky Workbench. I guess I'd go for Tidal Tempest or Quartz Quadrant? I always found TT more enjoyable than Labyrinth. I like QQ's setting but they could have done more with the level design. It really is an easy "hold right-to-win" stage. I'd rather they try to avoid remaking stages which appeared in Gens and Sonic 4. Perhaps they could use stage designs from zones which never made the final cut; like Wood zone from Sonic 2 or Taxman's Desert Dazzle stage. I like the theme of the carnival stage from Sonic Crackers.
I think a pretty neat stage idea would be the crumbled dropped-from-the-sky ruins of Sky Sanctuary, mixed together with the destroyed dropped-from-space remains of the Death Egg, out in the ocean below/around Angel Island.
I was thinking, just last night, that a "Wood Zone, but on crack" would be amazing. It's something I'd love to see.
So something that's been on my mind, but I haven't heard brought up yet. At the title screen of Mania, there is the island of Sonic's head... Do you suppose this is a placeholder of sorts, so that we are kept guessing what the various zones will be like? Or, maybe "Mania" in the title, is actually referring to some sort of mental state that Sonic is in, and the setting of the game takes place in Sonic's mind or something??? /> The Sonic face island doesn't offer much clue as to what the zones will be like, as they otherwise often do.
So the islands offer a hint though? Sonic 2 and 3 show nothing. Sonic mania has nostalgia attached to it, thus Sanic island
Yeah, I'd imagine the island being Sonic's face is just a placeholder, maybe they just removed all the locations you would normally see on the island to avoid spoilers. As the story is going to take place with Sonic visiting old zones across multiple islands, then the game will surely feature more than one island? Maybe you start the game in "Sonic" island and then proceed to the others. Maybe there will be an island shaped like Tails head, Knuckles and Eggman "Eggmanland" island :v: Apparently this story is taking place in it's own continuity so how will Sonic move from island to island? By plane or by teleporting perhaps. It's definitely gonna be interesting to see what StealthTax & PWG come up with.
For what it's worth, I did notice two different islands in the background on the title screen. Maybe "Sonic Island" is a place in the middle of the three out in the ocean that we'll visit? :specialed:
I'm gonna speculate that the island is artificial, and is possibly a place where Eggman is summoning past zones to populate it alongside brand new zones for whatever reason.
SEGA launched some awesome Mania t-shirts today. [Main page post] The first design is Studiopolis [UK] [USA], with the differences being the avaiable colours. And the second design differs more for some reason; UK Icon Shirt and USA Triple Threat. No idea why there's such small variations in the designs and colours available, but hey ho they all look good. And they're all only available up until the end of September, so don't wait aroudn if you're interested. I got the Icon shirt in blue and Studiopolis in slate. Gonna echo the main page though - cool as these shirts are, I'm really hoping we get that Studiopolis art in poster form. It's just gushing is true classic Sonic style.
The shirts intrigue me. Not so much for the t-shirts itself (though they are good), but more about what this means for how Mania will be supported by Sega. If Mania considered important enough to get official clothing merchandise, I wonder what other promotional materials could be on the table. Artwork, short animated-tie ins, etc.
Awesome! Going to grab the ultra-cool Studiopolis t-shirt. It's a really good t-shirt. Just stunning. So these are only available for a limited time?
I've purchased the Studiopolis t-shirt via Amazon UK. Just waiting for it to arrive Just watched the PAX Stream of Mania. The only thing new was that Aaron showed off the lowest route in GH. The lowest route (which shows off some of the underground-cave background) includes the area with the crab badnik (as teased in the announcement trailer). When Aaron played GH he destroyed the mid-zone boss super fast. Total badass!
BlueParadox posted a video of the PAX stream of Mania here. We finally get to hear the full miniboss theme, although it's being talked over. Also, the area with the crab badnik from the trailer is at 9:34.
Tee Lopes delivers on the miniboss theme and extra life fanfare as well, god damn that is absolutely brilliant. So far this is shaping up to be one of my favorite Sonic soundtracks. I like the underground cavern background, but something about it feels... off. I can't quite put my finger on it.
I'm not nitpicking or anything, but is it the pixelated god rays ends not blending with the background? The background GHZ hills starting from the middle to the right overlapping the indoor cavern area? The white line around the dark caves leading to the sky looking a bit jaggy? image resaved using mspaint's not so good format saving tool, resulting in some compression/loss of quality This is probably at mid-alpha stage. Apart from that, it looks delicious!
Maybe it's the indoor trees and flowers that other people were discussing earlier? Or the "seemingly solid" lights that come from the cracks in the walls?
