I just watched the entire Sonic Mania panel. It's a great watch and I recommend everyone here check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K6hU14wero&ab_channel=TheSonicStadium Obviously it features our messiah Whitehead, but it was also great to hear from Stealth, Tom Fry and Tee Lopes. I think Iizuka also came across really well, I know he's been involved in some less than stellar titles, but he seems like a really great guy at the least. He gave most of the presentation to Team Mania which I thought was pretty gracious, he could have spoken over everyone pretty easily as head of Sonic Team. It's also great to know he was responsible for Mania getting the go ahead: I think he genuinely does care about the community and good Sonic games, even if he obviously makes some astounding mistakes. Whitehead's pretty much as he is in all interviews, but it was really interesting to Stealth give his perspective on things. I'm not sure if he doesn't want people constantly talking about his fangame roots, or if he thought it was unprofessional to talk about it in front of Iizuka, but he seemed wary to discuss his time in the fan community when asked by Webber. Mind you, he seemed to give pretty short and to the point answers generally, so I'm not sure if he's like that normally or he was just shy :v: . I did like his responses to the special stage reveal; "you've probably very familiar with this, not too much unfamiliar" etc. It was pretty funny to get such a to the point answer about how the special stage is a clever remix when Webber was hyping everyone up :v: . I was also glad to hear from Whitehead that this isn't like CD's UFO stages or as he said "if you're thinking it's another bloody UFO stage it isn't" :v: . I thought Tom Fry was a cool guy, he probably doesn't get enough credit for his work on the new stages to be honest. I also think his work on the promotional art is excellent and it was interesting to hear how he was somewhat relieved to work on it when he spent so much time on pixel art. And his assistant artists definitely don't get enough credit: the remade sprites for the returning levels and for Tails and Knuckles are great. Well, except for Tails' face when he carries Sonic in flight :v: I think Tee Lopes is somewhat in disbelief that everyone loves his music so much, but then I suppose Sonic music is such a high calibre that it must be intimidating to work to that level :v:
Ladies and gentlemen; Sonic Retro. :specialed: Does anyone know if a USB Saturn pad works with OTG cables for Android devices? Wouldn't mind playing through the ports of 1, 2 and CD with one. You know, to take up at least a little of the three weeks remaining 'til Mania.
Also, another interesting thing on the panel was that Taxman essentially confirmed the game's length. "Sonic Mania's definitely longer than Sonic 1, 2, Knuckles and comparable to Sonic 3 and Knuckles". I think this last bit has been somewhat lost in translation, the way he says it in a somewhat cautious manner makes me think it's a zone or two short of Sonic 3 and Knuckles (hence his adding that there's various modes we haven't seen yet which will add to the game's length). Sonic 3K has 13 full stages and Sonic 2 has 8 full stages (Sky Chase, Wing Fortress and Death Egg are really mini stages). It's also important to note that S3K has far bigger stages than Sonic 2. We should also factor in that Taxman's inital pitch was a modest original title. I think we can deduce Sonic Mania's size as such: Conservative Estimate: 5 Returning Stages (1 stage for each game) 4 New Stages 9 in total Generous Estimate: 7/8 Returning Stages (with certain games getting additional stages) 4 New Stages 11/12 in total
It's a great watch. Comforting even! Everything about this game has been made with passion, case, attention to detail, nods to the old ones and a look forward to. I am astounded by the special stage though - love the way it is a mash up of all the previous special stages in different ways. A real celebration of the classic era of Sonic. I feel like I keep coming on here to post, and agree with people, and sing the game's praises. Such a far cry from the Sega forums where I was a few steps short of a union official for the "we hate sonic 4" fan club...! Not much else to say but loving it.
If by "full stages" you mean 2 act zones, isn't it just 11 in S3&K's case? Hidden Palace, Sky Sanctuary, and Doomsday are all just extremely short 1 act boss zones, though Sky Sanctuary has a bit of platforming between bosses.
Thanks for the detailed notes Laura! Super interesting to read! I think we have every reason to be excited for Mania and can't believe we're only three weeks away now. It's getting close! I'm really looking forward to playing it - more so than any other game in recent memory. I don't think I've been this hyped for a game since I was a kid and got Sonic 3 and then Sonic and Knuckles for presents around the time they were released. Really feels like a blast from the past - Mania looks that exciting and such a worthy successor to the classics. On a semi-related note if anyone's playing this on Steam and needs a good reasonably priced controller that's good for 2D games I highly recommend this one from Logitech. Bought it on a whim recently and I've played through the fucking amazing Sonic Time Twisted with it and it's perfect for Sonic games. It has a really awesome D-pad. Then again most of you are hardcore and going with Megadrive/Saturn pads with adapters which is probably just way better. 22 days and counting! EDIT: Just to add to the stages speculation I'm near damn certain that "comparable" to Sonic 3K pretty much means "the same as" or at the very least "almost the same as" so I'd expect 13 stages - 12 at the minimum.
True, but the bosses of Lava Reef and Death Egg are their own separate acts, so it balances out. I generally consider S3&K a 12-full-zone game myself.
So is Knuckles' Sky Sanctuary. Though I don't think boss-only acts count as full acts, as Naka once referred to Sonic 2 as a ten-stage game IIRC. They're more like boss arenas.
Well either way we're getting a fucking long and epic game - that's my perception of what they were trying to get across, that it's a long and epic adventure like Sonic 3K was. My educated guess, since we all seem to be doing it: 12 zones. 5 new original ones and 7 remixed stages. Would love for there to be more! Also if we're doing math, that'd be 58.3% remixed stages and 41.6% new ones - so it aligns closely with their 60/40 breakdown. EDIT: Also one more long shot prediction: Sonic 3K remastered is coming at launch as a surprise or shortly thereafter. And that's why Taxman teased it with the Blue Spheres image. Come at me bros.
It would make sense financially to have all the classics available when Mania releases. Well, frankly it would make more sense to have them all available prior to Mania's release.
A minor thing I'm curious about: I can understand the Egg[man] reference to it, but why ARE the new enemies called the "Hard Boiled Heavies" anyway? Hard Boiled is obvious - as it's Eggman - but what's "Heavy" about them? Is it just because it sounds like a cool name? It doesn't give much away as to what they are like... Maybe they're like heavy machinery or something? Secondly, do you think we'll get a digital version of the "instruction[less]" booklet? I think that'd be a great idea Thirdly, I truly hope all these remasters will come to Steam eventually; we've only got Sonic CD so far is that right? I bought Sonic 1-3&K on Steam thinking that at least Sonic 1 & 2 were the remastered ones (I don't actually like Sonic CD, and I've not been in the 2 remastered topics to find out). and I was disappointed that they weren't the remastered versions (at least it's got all the 'mods' to them)
You don't even have to look outside the franchise, there's already a Heavy. Guess he's the soft-boiled one.
To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of 2D Sonic; the Genesis games are certainly great, but I have a strong preference for 3D games in general. However, at the same time, I'm not too fond of Sonic's 3D games, and I consider the main Genesis trilogy (1, 2 and 3&K) to be far superior to any of them. While I would have been happier to see Sonic Team do a 3D Sonic game that's actually to my liking, it is nice that we're getting Mania, a game that seems to be a true successor to Sonic 3&K after all these years. The gameplay and level design look great, and Tee Lopes's soundtrack is awesome. I'm really hoping that at least 6 of the levels in this game are set in entirely new locations; I want the entirely new content to at least be as long as Sonic 1 and the standard Sonic 3, which both had 6 levels, so Mania feels more like a proper successor to those games.
Okay, I'll take a stab at this. The problem with your theory is the Sonic sprite being a Mania sprite and not the original one. I would love it if the previous games were unlockable like Sonic 1 was in Generations, but the Blue Spheres image implies to me some sort of challenge or time attack mode featuring older stages to explain the Mania sprite. Unless they did it on purpose for that photo just to mislead us. Or if the previous games are unlockable and playable in "Mania mode" with drop dash added and/or other things. If Sonic Mania turned out to basically be Sonic Jam 2 via unlockables, it would be the best thing they could possibly do. I don't think they'd do it for the $20 price though.
So it's nice to see a bit more directly how Iizuka related to the team here. A lot of people give him crap, and understandably so after letdowns like 4 episode I, and him leading bad projects like Shadow (ironically, he had very little to do with 06, only being credited for Special Thanks, and has mostly been in the producer role for nearly all games after Shadow), but one thing did stand out to me. Maybe it was just because of the major backlash 4 has caused, but it became clear that when he assessed the Mania team's prototype, his number one realization was that making a proper classic game required a certain skillset and level of talent. I think a lot of us take for granted just how the production on those titles worked; you had to have an intimate understanding of the gameplay style and engine to recreate it and match the original team's passion. Something most developers typically don't have. Team Mania does; they have been here with us for 20 years. They are some of the most experienced members with these titles, dating back to the SFGHQ days, where they were some of the most accurate genesis style coders/designers of that era. Iizuka may or may not know of that history, which is fine, but he instantly recognized that they created the classic style in a way no other member of his team may have done. He was, afterall, on the team back when he was even younger than them (23 or so) working as a Sonic 3 designer. I'd argue that while the games seem simple, there are few that are up to the task of creating a game like this. That's why it was special in the 90s, and that's why it will be special now. I'm grateful that he recognized that, and I hope the sales success translates into him allowing more projects going forward. It may not be his project, but he does see that this game was important to the "mania". Something finally clicked, and I am glad we'll have the chance to play this soon.
You present a good counter argument and a solid theory yourself - however Taxman quite explicitly stated at the time that it was not Sonic Mania running on that second screen in the photo. So it's either Blue Spheres Overload: The Orbs Return standalone (and separate to Mania) or it's Sonic 3K remastered. Honestly think the latter is more likely. Then again, given the Mania sprite it could even be something else entirely. But it's not Mania.
Here's the post you were referencing, in case anyone else wanted to dig it up too: http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=35709&view=findpost&p=885254 Sorry, you're right. I remembered the sprite but not that comment. Outside of my "Mania Mode" theory, the only other thing I can think of is that the sprite was intentionally like that for the photo.
