I can imagine it now, a redone Marble Garden with a giant, sanctuary-like room for the boss that collapses. Those glass windows should be put to good use, the devs could do something amazing with the assets already there.
Ooooookay so some people like Marble Garden. And its music. I will admit though that Knuckleduster was awesome. At least can we agree that MGZ > AIZ. If the burnt-out Angel Island gets the Mania pick... >:/
Did somebody say Angel Island Zone?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPPWKEfw6I Come on, it's so tropical. I love the dense feel of the stage, too. There's foliage everywhere in the tall rainforest of a stage. I don't think I'd like to revisit it when it's all burnt, though. I'd rather just see Hidden Palace Zone again or something, maybe Launch Base Zone. Launch Base Zone's music was pretty anti-climactic. Yet somehow it's fitting. Like, Sonic 3 wouldn't be Sonic 3 without LBZ, for some strange reason. Chalk it up to that Jackson black magic I guess.
Well yeah that's basically it. Aesthetically, AIZ was cool until like 20% of the way through. That, and it was tiny. I could handle a new, not-burnt-out, 4x bigger AIZ... perhaps a recovered, regrown Angel Island zone. Or just some part of it that Robotnik didn't torch. Gimmicks-wise it has potential too. But Hydrocity for Mania > *.
I actually haven't listened to most of the album in a really long time. Knuckleduster's just the one I know the best. ...Now I'm gonna go listen to the album again :v:
I probably would have felt that way to, had I not been introduced to the song through this awesome animatic.
Oh, right, Knuckleduster, the second song based on MGZ to feature vocals. Even though everyone tend to forget the first one
Sonic 3 is such a tough one for me to pick a level from, I really love them all (except burning Angel Island Zone... never been a fan). I would really love to see Carnival Night, but that might be too similar to Studiopolis. I think Hydrocity would be the best choice though, it gets bonus points for the music.
I personally always enjoyed the theme for Death Egg in Sonic 2. I Kinda hoped at some point they'd make a full level using that track, It just seems odd compared to the rest of the music and you only normally hear a few seconds of it at best. On another note, The cave part of Green Hill in Mania reminds me (sort of) of the Season changes in Mushroom Hill. I hope we see pallete changes during gameplay, maybe even musical changes at certain points in levels. An example is the music in LittleBigPlanet that can have instruments added and taken away at certain points!
I didn't notice that at first, you're totally right! They're probably going for a S3&K approach for Knuckles levels! Oh man, just think of all the possibilities for the cutscenes for moving between zones! I can't wait!
I like AIZ much better than MGZ, but I agree that it is a rather short level. This is fitting considering it was the first level of Sonic 3, but if you took it and placed it somewhere later in the game, I think it would really stand out as a weaker level. If they were to have a Mania version, I'd like it to first be longer than the original, but also to have the forest fire gimmick to actually effect gameplay instead of being purely aesthetic. Maybe after the fire, platforms crumble more, the ziplines can snap, things like that. Personally, I'm hoping for Ice Cap Zone to come back, if only to hear the sweet, sweet remix that we never got in Generations.
There are so many Icecap remixes out there. I really enjoy Act 2, but I think for me (if not everyone) Icecap's appeal is style over substance. There's kinda not a lot that goes on in the zone. That said, if it got the Mania treatment and arrived full of new gimmicks, that could be cool. But I think I'm wishing for new Icecap, not more Icecap. Goooootta be Hydrocity. :D
I think it would make a lot more sense for Knuckles to start in AIZ rather than GHZ. Maybe Knuckles can have his own path through the zones this time, instead of just retracing Sonic's steps like he did in his story in S3&K.
THAT would be cool. At the very least, having different level orders for different characters would go a long way to making different runs feel unique. It's something that Sonic Adventure did quite well, customizing the order of levels to match each character's story's and gameplay. Compare that to Sonic Heroes, which had the exact same level order 4 times over and made the game a chore to play.
I'm really curious as to how Hydrocity would develop as you progress. With Green Hill the level moves downward, but with Hydrocity it would perhaps move upward. It could be structured like an iceberg where the bulk we have already seen is underground and underwater, and then this time we might move upward to a palace like structure. It might look like a combination of Angle Island and Aquatic Ruin, or perhaps similar to Sky Sanctuary.
When I saw the drop dash for the first time, I thought it was great that they were adding something new to the original formula. But then I got thinking, would they just leave Tails and Knuckles the same? In Sonic Advance 3, when you play as Knuckles with Amy as his partner, Knuckles can do a sort of wall dash thing. When I played it, I thought this was a great way to mix up the old wall climbing mechanic. I guess it's a bit unlikely that they would change something, considering there's already footage of Knuckles, but it'd still be cool.
I loved that move in Advance 3. It's a fun way to speed up climbing, at the cost of falling if you don't manage to reach a ledge at the peak of the spindash. It's not going to be in Mania, but I agree it would be a nice and inoffensive addition.
