Indoor trees and flowers inside a cavern seems very cool in my opinion. Cavern has cracks and holes that allow rain to come in, which is a nice touch. I wonder if there will be 3 acts in all levels since GHZ is 3 acts, and that boss footage is obviously a miniboss.
Personally I'd like to see another Metal Sonic race or a full on battle. The race against Metal Sonic was one of the highlights for my Sonic CD playthrough, and I'd love to do it again.
Watching that video reminds me - has anyone figured out what exactly the object that fires out all that electricity at the start of the title screen animation is? It's obviously there for a reason - can't figure out what the hell it's supposed to be. The only thing I can think of is a single glowing visor-style eye, similar (but not identical) to the S3&K Mecha Sonic's. Could this be the case, and if so, is this a hint we'll see a MkIII Mecha Sonic at some point in this game...?
Reminds me of the Mega Drive 1's power light. Might have actually salivated during that video. I'm looking at that Chaotix thread and getting excited for this game. Have they bolted on a bit of Emerald Hill Zone Act 2 to the top of Green Hill? I kinda want to see a new level now.
The part at 3:50 shows exactly what I was complaining about with regards to level design - a badnik off-screen that you literally spring into, and can only avoid if you already know it's there.
^ I didn't see any Badniks at 3:50. What I saw was a Robotnik monitor that people keep making the mistake of hitting.
Behind the monitor is a spring and above the spring is a badnik. I'll agree that that's pretty unfair placement. I think a few of those snail badniks need to be moved and their projectiles are rather to avoid as well.
I like that if you take the lower path, you can actually get into the underground cavern location of Green Hill before you get to the miniboss / second act. It makes the transition from above the ground to underneath it a lot more natural in retrospect. That said, the main path transitioning to the underground section still looks rather odd to me. Maybe if they implemented a wall transition (think the wall barriers that hide the seasonal changes in Mushroom Hill), the change would look more cohesive. I can definitely see DigitalDuck's complaint there. Assuming the map designers intended/expected the player to ignore the springs/monitors entirely and use the spring star bumpers --best name I could come up with for those-- to get to the rotating platforms instead of using the springs, that would be the only way to avoid touching the badnik, as the monitors/springs end up acting as more of a deliberate design trap. This wouldn't be a problem if the badnik was placed much higher, you would then be able to at least see it when you are lifted upwards by the springs without getting hit. I also gotta echo Blue Blood's complaint about the film reel projectiles being hard to avoid. They cover a wide attack radius and --due to their small size and similar color scheme-- blend in very easily with the rotating platforms, so you wouldn't even be aware that they are there before it's too late to dodge them. For what it's worth, I've seen a handful of similar complaints about the projectiles over at the Neogaf thread about the game as well. The snail badnik could really stand to be modified in its attacks or appear more infrequently in the levels, the way they are currently implemented evokes Slicer/Asteron/Shellcracker levels of poor enemy placement and design. It covers way too many options for the player to avoid being hit. Moreover, that section of design below the rotating platforms already has three-four rows of spikes and a Eggman monitor in-between the star spring bumpers, so there's at least two hazards for the player to keep in mind as it is. I feel that having the snail badnik in that area as a third hazard (especially with it placed above the hidden springs inside the Shield and Eggman monitors) is overkill. Too many possible ways for the player to get hit or die in such a constricted and slower-paced area of design. I'm not surprised that the player ended up dying at that segment, even if (speaking hypothetically) Studiopolis is intended to be one of the later/more difficult levels in the game.
Because no one has mentioned this yet, I figured I'd ask: the SMS/GG version of Sonic 1 has caves or at least one cavernous section in Green Hill, right? Is anything we've seen so far directly from 8-bit Sonic 1 or is it only the concept that's been brought here? (Now that I'm thinking about it, I suppose the underground sections in Generations, both Act 1 and 2, could have also been references to the 8-bit version. Huh. I never thought of it that way.)
In Sonic 1 8-Bit the first part of Green Hill Act 2, Sonic goes into a "cave" section, but it isn't as big as the one in Sonic Mania (and Generations). Also, the cave areas are more closed in and there isn't grass or trees.
It's me or the light between Sonic and the boulder is similar to the Labyrinth Zone beta screenshots?
If you didn't already do so, you might be too late now - I keep getting a 404 when I click on the Amazon UK links, and I can't find the shirts by manually searching for them on Amazon UK either. Looks like I might've missed my chance :/
How bizarre. I noticed just after I ordered them that I could no longer find them by searching, but at that time the links still worked. They don't even display correctly in my order history any more - The image is just a generic "no image available" icon and I get the same 404 clicking the links. Wonder what's happened? For what its worth though, I got the t-shirts today and I'm not impressed. For £18 each, they're really poor quality. They absolutely reek of glue and the designs are really cheaply printed on. I don't they're last more than a couple of washes. Huge shame. This is the sort of quality I'd expect from a "2 for under £10" deal at Primark.
If the T shirts are low quality then it sounds like I dodged a bullet. Fingers crossed for a Studiopolis poster.
Here is the video that was posted earlier, but with the first part of it that was cut off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrW_Civ6VmY
Also, GameXplain just posted off-screen gameplay of Sonic Mania. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIjEPkThYc8[/media]
Wow, I don't think I had seen that lower GH path until now. Really looking great! Gotta say though, that was definitely the fastest playthrough of Studiopolis I've seen up until now, and in watching it, I'm realizing the badnik placement is pretty... precarious. Most of the time when people complain about bad badnik placement in Sonic games, I brush it off as user error. But the speed that the level seems to have you going in some of those spots seems to be actually setting you up to hit them, like when he hit the spring at 4:03; it's enough time to jump over an Orbinot in a usual situation, but it's also in a narrow interior portion which means the players ability to dispatch the Orbinaut is limited as to other places. I don't want to get too picky on it, but there were some other close calls with fly badniks that didn't really feel like they were the player's fault in Studiopolis, and I'm feeling that Badnik placement could certainly be refined a bit.