I think most of us would agree Sonic 1's Labyrinth Zone is the worst of the series, right? No redeeming factors that I can think of. I'll likely get a lot of hate for this, but you know what zone I can't stand? Aquatic Ruin. Sure, it's short. But it is by no means any bit of fun for me. But that's just me.
Quartz Quadrant >>> Stardust Speedway. Okay, I'll be honest, I was low-key generating bait, but I really like Quartz Quadrant. Easily one of the most unique Sonic zones that doesn't get enough recognition. I mean, I can't be angry if all we get from CD is Stardust, but I really want to see a rendition of Quartz Quadrant, or at least hear one more remix of that zone's song. That being said, I really like what they did with Stardust Speedway.
Labyrinth's one of those Zones that I personally really love, but I get 100% why people hate the shit out of it (but even then, I still can't see anyone justifying to me putting anything below Wacky Workbench). The music, the art, and a handful of vertically oriented chunks of level design are pretty cool. I think my real love for it stems from having decidedly conquered it, to the point where it's no longer a challenge for me. Makes every romp through it more of a triumphant walk than anything else. I have a similar sort of love for Marble in Sonic 1. Aquatic Ruin: When I was a kid and always ended up taking the lower paths, I didn't care for it, but nowadays it's one of my two favorites from Sonic 2. I just really dig the tropes and atmosphere of it. Also fully echo Amnimator's thoughts on Quartz Quadrant.
Aquatic Ruin: Above water = 10/10 stage Aquatic Ruin: Below water = 2/10 stage Aquatic Ruin reused in Sonic Pocket Adventure with Mushroom Hill's music = -60/10 I can understand hating the zone, And I do at times, but the music is great and so long as I stay on dry land I have a good time. I enjoyed that it never forced you to go underwater and it was instead more of a punishment for not making a jump or platform, unlike Labyrinth which just brought the pain. Is it weird that I hate Labyrinth Zone, but love Tidal Tempest? Maybe it's just the music/atmosphere of the levels but I feel like I should feel the same about them.
Sonic and the word Labyrinth don't go to well together it seems. As a platforming stage, Labyrinth is well designed and challenging. As a SONIC stage, it's a poor choice due to the almost total removal of speed. Sonic stages are best when they blend both speed and exploration. The modern games lean too heavily towards speed and remove the exploration element, but some of the classic stages took out speed a bit too much as well, with Labyrinth being the worst of them. Hydrocity is pretty much the perfect blend of a water stage with speed and platforming, but I don't mind either the above or underwater sections of Aquatic Ruin either.
But hey, I think we can all agree that LOST Labyrinth is fucking shit. The absolute worst part of a rather mediocre game. Bad gimmicks, frustrating and boring level design. Especially the 2nd and 3rd act. I mean, the chances of Sonic 4 getting a Mania level are basically 0 after the disappointing sales of Ep 2. Don't think we have to worry about that.
Ok, so many zones, that I must say: - Marble Garden: I don't hate it, I just hate its music and the spinning top gimmick. Change those and I would only be mildly whining about minor aesthetics issues like slopes not having smooth curves and parallax background not having enough contrast with the tiles. - Carnival Night: I hate this much more, it has too many partially or fully automated segments, and, again, disgusting music. - Sandopolis: Rope gimmick and local badniks deserve hate, but the zone is quite nice, is challenging, full of different gimmicks and so on. Ghosts feel a bit out of place in a Sonic game (Hello, Mario!), but they do their job. - Lava reef: Seriously? Is there someone that doesn't love this level? Too many similar stones, maybe? - Labyrinth: It's a great zone, I don't get why you hate this. The 8-bit music fitted better, but that's the only fault I see here. this level shows vertical gameplay, which, yes, isn't as fast paced as usual, and being slow underwater is uncomfortable, but that's the point, changing the rules of the environment so you can have a different kind of challenge. - Tidal Tempest: Not really that similar to Labyrinth, even if it was their intention. Not a big deal of a level but yes, it has a great atmosphere. - Hydrocity: Great, but not that great level design as you say; thanks to some gimmicks. - Aquatic Ruin: Great music, great aesthetics, meh level. Feels like emerald hill with water (Neo Green Hill Zone!), and then they added more boring and frustrating stuff. it could be great if revamped for Mania, but not in its original state. - Wacky Workbench: Yes, this one wins the worst classic level award unless bouncing floor is turned off. Other things in this level are ok, so I suppose a decent level could have been made just using existing assets. - Quartz Quadrant: one of my favourites from CD and one of the least used level designs. I agree this one should be there if two zones from that game had to appear on Mania. Wow, you brought many levels into this topic. Back to Mania, Hydrocity would be my first pick from S3, and Lava Reef from S&K merged with hidden palace if it gets a second one (so Master Emerald appears, you know).
https://steamspy.com/app/584400 So are these numbers a good or a bad sign? Too early to tell? Inaccurate? (I don't know how reliable these kinds of pages are) I don't understand why it says 12800 owners one day then dropped to 10,000 something the next. What should we expect right now in terms of pre-orders/sales?
That's predictable. Preorders are rarely done in the PC side of things anymore. Since 1.) It makes little sense when a game is digital. Supply is always there. 2.) PC for a while had a whole lot of half-functional console ports to the point where most saw it as a better idea to wait for reviews. If you really want to get a vague idea of how much the PC version will sell, most multi platform games on Steam sell about as well as the Xbox One versions, but don't take that as 100% fact.
If anything, I love Marble Garden for its insanely high number of special stage rings (I think there are around 13 total in the zone, if memory serves). Exploring the level is a ton of fun, and there are several opportunities to go fast. I honestly only dislike the spinning tops (though spinning them on the ground is pretty entertaining).
I'm actually more interested in general sales. If we had ways to track them for the other systems (Switch, PS4, Xbone), I would. But I don't think there are any public listings on those. I'm genuinely optimistic about Mania's sales potential, I was just wondering if we have any way to track that potential other than youtube views and speculation, including post launch numbers.
I'm really hoping the Zones ramp up in difficulty well, and actually get difficult. I like Labyrinth because its hard but agree it could use some fast sections and the boss doesn't make much sense. Same with Scrap Brain, its actually a challenge, maybe less fire bursts that slow you down and more threats that don't stop your momentum. Things like the fast moving ground saw blades in Scrap Brain and the wave of spikes in the floor in Metropolis, these things just missing you is awesome. Also some bad guy's that actually pose a threat but aren't too cheap.
Classic Sonic isn't all about speed, and I think it's great that the series has a few levels that focus on more traditional platforming. I dislike Labyrinth Zone because of the drowning, not because of the lack of speed. And Marble Garden is one of my favorites in the series. Maybe the real challenge in designing Sonic levels is not only balancing fast and slow sections, but also creating sections that can be played either way and still be enjoyable regardless of how you prefer to play.
I've pre-ordered the game on the european PSN and I didn't get the themes. Is it true that, unlike in the US, the themes are locked until the game is released ?
I asked to PSN EU support and they said that the content will be available with the game release. Meh :\
I know it's still way off to be thinking about this, but if in a scenario where Mania got a sequel and added an additional playable character, that character could be "Locked-on" to the first game as Free DLC. It would give so much replay value to Mania just as Knuckles exploring Sonic 2 was.
We should have a "Create-A-Hedgehog" mode where you waggle a virtual cartridge to get your odd-coloured Sonic.
