That means the earlier Zone Post list from 4chan was most likely legit, because we had 'no' prior hints of this, nor even Spoiler a confirmation of more than one Zone per game. Meaning Spoiler There are at least 13 zones total, maybe plus one final boss zone. Exactly S3&K Length. The remaining 4 are Oil Ocean, Metallic Madness, and 2 original Zones, correlating perfectly to 5 new zones for 5 hardboiled heavies, and 8 classic returning zones, which if you do the math, fits perfectly with the 60/40 ratio we were told. Welp, this is it. We now know almost the whole game's zone contents.
As fun as seeing all that was, fairly little has been actually spoiled. which is fine, can't wait until the 15th, this has me so damn hyped Spoiler and damn, Stardust Speedway looks absolutely stellar, that Metal Sonic fight looks slick as hell
Yeah, the first 8 zones are all things we knew about, either through announcements, or unintentional leaks. The zone bosses and what story cutscenes there are have been the biggest spoilers so far. (Aside from what I posted above and the 4chan list of returning stages, which seems legit, but doesn't name new zones). Zones 9+ are where the true secrets of the game seem to lie, and the streamer stopped, so we're back to waiting. Of course, he's probably not the only one with the game, so I expect more news soon.
Those spoilers are making me want to play the game even more... It's Sonic 2's release all over again. Spoiler Oh hey, Sonic OVA reference. :D
Huh, I thought they were supposed to post that Monday. I feel that today's actions led to it happening now.
The animation is superb, but the music is pretty boring. The music used in the pre-order trailer was SO MUCH better... Does anyone know if that'll be anywhere in the game?
Oh my god, such great animation and designs (not that I expected otherwise). I'm afraid I don't get why the music is in a completely different style than the rest of the game, though...
I'm not really digging the intro as much as I'd hoped to. Then again, it would have been pretty hard to top Sonic CD's animation coupled with You Can Do Anything, so my expectations were a tad high. It's still pretty good, though! Not going to deny that.
I didn't like that the intro was set in a magical hub world instead of depicting situations that are more game-like (such as the Green Hill pencil test from the pre-order trailer), and that it focused almost exclusively on Sonic while Tails and Knuckles were mostly just there, but the animation itself is top notch! I absolutely love the way Sonic looks and moves! He looks even better than he did in the animations from CD. Another bad point for me is that music is also too bland when compared to the fast-paced animations, and has no exciting moments to go with the action. So yeah, I was also expecting more excitement from the intro. Hopefully there'll be more animated sequences besides that one, including all the stuff we've already seen in pencil form, and some exciting music for once.
You silly kids ... complaining about every single detail. It's really cute. This is intro is by far WAY better than Sonic CD's. And "You Can Do Anything" doesn't fit that sequence nearly as much as "Sonic Boom" did. I will admit, Sonic CD's intro set up the story a lot better, but Mania's intro is just way more fun to watch.
It looks like the streamer stopped for awhile, perhaps even altogether. This still leaves at least 6 zones (mostly) unspoiled (He only played a small part of Mirage Saloon, which is Zone 8). I haven't watched all the footage, but I do think I need to sit down and assess what we have now. Warning, I discuss a LOT of what was seen in the stream below. Beware! Spoiler 1. Green Hill and Chemical Plant are both what we've seen, yet they look quite good. I avoided watching much of the stage layouts to minimize true exploration spoilers, but what I did see was a good balance of new and old for act 1s, even in CPZ1. It's familiar, but offers enough twists that I feel I have much to explore. Overall, I'm pretty happy with these. 2. The PyuoPuyo boss leak was correct. Hilarious idea. I'm sure it will shock many, confuse several newer players, and make many true enthusiasts laugh. I hope it won't be too hard for the casual player so as to turn them away, because it is a HUGE break in the game's classical pacing. Good luck to speedrunners here. 3. I actually avoided Studiopolis act 2 entirely, so can't comment much here, but act 1 is as good as all other footage has shown. 4. The special stages make a lot of sense in motion and look very playable. I look forward to these. Didn't see enough of blue spheres to comment, but I did see reused stages which is a big meh, but I'm sure there will be lots more to it. 5. Flying Battery looks solid from the bits I saw. Act 2 is a storm, which is a nice twist. The electric pylons from Wacky Workbench make a very cool return, and the boss is quite clever. 6. Press Garden is interesting. Great gimmicks, solid visuals, and it does seem to have vague homages to Sonic Retro (being a bit of a blend of Egg Garden and Warehouse, with a winter twist in the second act. I'm not yet sure how I feel about the layout, as it looks very cramped, but it's genuinely hard to judge things like this when they player is pretty bad at this game. Overall, what I saw looked good, but I'll be able to better judge when I play for myself. Watched nearly all of this one, oops. Bossses were both great. 7. Stardust Speedway Act 1 I only saw seconds of, but I love the visual updates to the past. The transition between Acts 1 and 2 were clever and made sense given the nature of the game it came from. Act 2's layout seemed... a bit too close to the original, but it went by so fast that it was impossible to judge it. The bits I saw of the bosses were amazing though. Better than Sonic 4E2's appraoch. 8. Hydrocity Act 1 looks decent... though familiar. Act 2 had me getting upset, as it seems to be nearly exactly copy/pasted from S3&K. I REALLY hope I'm viewing this incorrectly, because that is a huge disappointment if true. I know Sonic 3's zones were already pretty big, but that doesn't justify cloning something this directly. Will have to play it when I get my hands on it. Both bosses were good at least, with the first being absolutely hilarious. Also, where were the transitions!? That's another huge letdown, or rather, it feels incomplete... 9. Mirage Saloon... oh please oh please don't tell me ALL of Act 1 is a sky-chase sequence. The streamer died about a minute in, but that will be HUGELY disappointing if true, because it means we've pretty much already seen nearly all of Mirage Saloon, and this is supposed to be one of the new stages!? What a huge waste. Overall, I am impressed, and there is much I avoided, but I'm also concerned about a good portion of what I did see. I know there are at least 5 more zones left we've seen NOTHING of, so there is a lot to still look forward too (40% of the game), but points 8 and 9 in my rant above are really, really concerning. 9 'may' be a moot point, but I'm not sure. Edit: Also, since this is a non-spoiler now, I LOVE the intro, including the song. It's different, but very well composed and still fits the 90s 16/32bit motiff, so I don't see what others are concerned about.
It does feel like the intro music did needed more of a punch to match what was going but it made it more nostalgic and honestly I still loved it.
