I thought it was cool dude! Not perfectly correct or accurate but still a slick looking t-shirt. You know what I meant. :v: Yeah RedBubble is basically "I'm a designer and want to sell my designs" and I think they don't particularly give a fuck about the legality. Like, I doubt any of these designs are Sega sanctioned. When the official Mania t-shirts dropped RedBubble almost immediately had imitations. It's an awesome place for Sega/Sonic attire even if it's not completely kosher.
Yeah, that's what Redbubble's all about. I'm not a fan of the site myself as it's others making money for art they didn't create
That's not all Redbubble is, though. There are plenty of artists who put out original work. I have an account, myself, and I also work on Diamanda Hagan's merch store on there. Needless to say, that's original work. (Although you could have course argue whether a parody of the Jurassic Park logo is all that original, for instance but you get my point). Yeah, there's crap-tons of piracy on there, but there's plenty of legitimate stuff, as well.
The Nintendo UK website has posted a list of the top 30 most downloaded Nintendo Switch eShop games in 2017 for European territories. Unlike the ranked list of eShop downloads from Nintendo's Japan website I posted a while back; this list includes retail games like Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Splatoon 2. Which makes it all the more impressive that Mania not only ranks at #5, it actually sold more downloads on the eShop in 2017 than any three of the aforementioned titles! (Splatoon 2 ranks at #11, Zelda: Breath of the Wild ranks at #12, and Mario Odyssey was just one step behind at #6! The plumber does get a consolation prize of having Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ahead of Sonic Mania on the list at #4.)
Sonic Mania still lighting the charts on fire. And as usual Yeow you're super reliable and punctual reporting this stuff. You're the best contributor to this thread. Thanks and kudos man. Sega can't be oblivious to Mania's super success. It's immense and both critical and commercial. Stellar reviews, game of the year accolades and insanely strong sales across all platforms, especially consoles, that are currently blowing Forces out of the water. Perhaps Sega are waiting on a certain milestone (like say, 5 million in sales or something like that) before issuing PR? The should shout Mania's sales performance from the rooftops and I hope they do soon. Would ultimately love to see hard numbers. And I sincerely hope Sega and Sonic Team act upon Mania being a sales phenomenon with future games in the series. Sonic Mania 2 needs to happen. EDIT: On a separate note RedBubble is awesome - really high quality stuff - and they do host many credible artists on there. And I did end up ordering that Sonic Mania t-shirt in the end!
I'd take either - just more Mania style games in any form, with the same developers. It has to be an inevitability at this point with Mania's astonishing success. A potential "Mania 2" that is entirely original and all-new content however, yeah that's the stuff of dreams. Could even be possible and even probable with Mania selling millions. We'll see I guess.
If a sequel for this game ever happen, I'm afraid they'll fuck it up and credit Mania success to something completly off the mark once again. "People loved Mania. Mania had returning stage, so it has to be reason people loved this game so much ! Let's just do a sequel with only returning stages !"
haha, yeah - this is almost exactly how Iizuka seems to think, right down to his thought processes. A rain cloud of a possibility unfortunately. Then again - Mania's critical response made a lot of noise about the shit we've talked about here endlessly - only four original stages when there needed to be more, the level transitions and so on. Hopefully that critical feedback will make a difference. . One thing to note is that Taxman said he had pending "discussions with Sega" coming up - and I did notice that he went dark and silent around that time, with only a vague New Year's tweet to show for it, and this happened around the exact same time Stealth stopped updating his Patreon (late September, early October) i.e. both of them have gone silent, shortly after they were due to speak to Sega. Could be grasping at straws here, but it is unusual both have gone silent. Neither have posted here in months for example when previously they were both quite active. I'd say a new contract job is a realistic possibility. Whether it's with Sega and Sonic-related remains to be seen however. It's all unsubstantiated speculation for now.
"Hmm... sales figures show that people are only buying recent Sonic games that feature Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, that's interesting..."
This. I'd be beyond hyped if Sega announced a sequel within the next 5 months, but if they do I sure hope they take their time with it. Mania is the greatest success a Sonic game has seen in so many years. The amount of not only sales, but positive press and word of mouth this game has received is astounding, and I believe if they play their cards right this could truly be Sonic's return to the gaming mainstream. Of course, platformers aren't even really mainstream anymore, but Mania was the first Sonic game where I could ask friends who AREN'T already platforming/Sonic fans if they've heard of it, and because of the huge critical success of the game they would tell me thw didn't just hear about it, but they bought it yesterday and are excited to start playing. Mania 2 (or whatever it's called) cannot disappoint. Forces has already dealt a bad blow to Sega's credibility, but if the Mania team can successfully release another Sonic game that's truly good enough for the public eye, Sonic might just become a household name again.
I would not be surprised if this is SEGA's take-away. That or they decide to ax the 3D segments from the Sonic Team titles even further than they already have. Maybe both!
It really should be shoved down their throats that the best part of Sonic Mania was the original content, levels especially. Besides, what would a Sonic Mania 2 even remix? They already played all the best trump cards for Mania, and any level that seemed "lesser" was represented as a gimmick in other levels.
It would open with remixed versions of Green Hill and Chemical Plant, of course. What else would you possibly want in a new Sonic game?
Also, I'm just now realizing the credits theme of Sonic Mania wasn't a reprise of all the zone themes like Sonic 1, 2, and Knuckles did. I did find a fan-edit that did it though so there's that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhY30AhEdDA It's not perfect but it fills the void a bit. :v:
If the Mania team(s) had their personal picks with the stages in a possible sequel, (All of their proposed remix stages were rejected.) I think it would still be enjoyable. There may have been a mountain of great ideas for the stages they wanted to remake. The only thing I'm not sure about is how the story would justify bringing back the phantom ruby in any capacity. While the new gemstone McGuffin was nice, I'd like to see a Sonic game without them at all. We need more new stages, regardless. As much as I didn't want to admit it at launch, Mania's paltry 4 original stages was more than a little disappointing; can't even enjoy Press Garden anymore, because it teases so much potential that's not explored elsewhere in the game. Two final stages in past games prefacing Mania's final stage added to that, and made casual full-runs feel somehow exhausting. I might wait for level editing in the modding scene to mature before I feel like playing Mania again, which is a sad feeling for me. Half the reason I bought Mania was not only so I'd have another fun Sonic game to fully run through, when I have a free hour and an urge for Sonic platforming. (Like I did constantly with Sonic 2 as a kid.) I wanted was a fresh, fast game to enjoy Time Attack on besides Freedom Planet. I can normally live with the sometimes frustrating enemy placements in Mania's levels, but the total lack of an optional Sonic CD seek-ahead camera, and the absolutely depressing absence of bosses, makes it twice the grind of getting a good time in FP without the fun or substance. Without recognizable set pieces at certain points and a sensibly moving camera, you're always at the mercy of your memory of a stage's layout. The Sonic 2 style lagging camera feels like a step backwards in terms of visibility. Am I the only one lamenting how oddly Mania's Time Attack mode is setup? Even though Mania instantly outclasses Sonic 3 & Knuckles for me, personally, I feel like Time Attack shouldn't have been a direct evolution of Sonic CD's Time Attack mode. It made sense there, since there were no mini-bosses, and bosses had the third act all to themselves. Sonic Mania, meanwhile, is nothing like that. You're missing a large part of the game's contents if you use Time Attack with the intent of practicing for an optimized full fun.
To be fair, a casual full-run of S3&K is exhausting. I always start to run out of steam at Sandopolis (compared to Metallic Madness for Mania).
