Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

^oh god burn that :v:

The grass is the new FBZ pipes and green eyes.

I wonder if the art team had such winded discussions over grass?

 

..except it's not copy/pasted from another zone. Similar? Slightly. I like it, though. I agree it's not a huge issue.

 

People overblowing mild discontent just because the people voicing it don't feel like backing away from their positions is a hallmark of this community, and, I believe, these forums are even marketed with this fact as a selling point.

"Visit the Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board, where your innocuous opinion can and will be made the primary subject of discussion for entire pages of our famous megathreads!"

 

So for those with the 1.04 patch, have you checked level select to see if they updated special stage to work like the Sonic 1 & 2 remasters where you can play the corresponding number to play that special stage?

I'd rather see them add it to time attack in plus, but making them selectable via level select would be fine too.

 

Speaking of special stages, those would be really neat to have in VS. mode. Though I guess they'd have to make it so the blue spheres don't disappear on one player's screen when the other player gets them.

 

I can confirm that by playing sound test "00" and then selecting special stage on the level select screen you can now play special stage 1. "01" for SS2, "02" for SS3, "03" for SS4, "04" for SS5, "05" for SS6 and "06" for SS7.

Same for the blue sphere bonus stages.

 

I'm sure Taxman and team knew exactly what they were getting into by changing the grass.

 

I discovered something totally unexpected in the 1.04 version of Mania this morning. Whilst I was checking to see whether you could now play any special stage using sound-test in level-select, I also discovered that Sonic Mania Plus will feature SEVEN BRAND-NEW "CATCH THE UFO" SPECIAL STAGES!!!

I played sound-test "07" in level select out of curiosity to see if there was an unused 8th special stage (which there isn't as far as I'm aware) and ended up in a special stage with a new layout but with the black background of the original 7th special stage....

All new special stages have completely new lay-outs.

The first (and so called) easiest special stage has the background of the original seventh special stage. The second special stage has the background of the original sixth special stage. The third new ss has the background of the original fifth ss. You get the idea........and the seventh (and final) new ss has the background of the very first special stage.

You can play the new special stages via level select by inputting "07", "08", "09", "0A", "0B", "0C" and "0D" respectively.

When I briefly played these this morning they seemed a bit intimidating, but I got a chance to play them again this evening. I got used to them and I've managed to beat all seven new special stages! I've recorded my playthrough.

When I played the new special stages I beat the 1st, 3rd and 4th at first attempt, but I needed quite a few attempts to beat the others.

In the video I play the first new special stage. I skipped the second special stage because it was giving me trouble. I then beat the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh special stages. I then went back and beat the second special stage.



I think we can safely assume the seven new special stages will be playable in Mania Plus Encore mode.

I have no idea what the reward will be for beating all seven new special stages. Maybe Hyper forms???

 

Oh neat! 7 new special stages is awesome. I'm going to try not to spoil all of these so I can keep the challenge but I love how there's more to see.

And yea maybe they will use Hyper forms? This is the perfect excuse to bring back Hyper Sonic, as Plus is basically Lock On content for Mania. If not maybe these are the special stages used in Encore mode?

 

At this point, I'm pretty upset this patch leaked. This is too much info for us to have certain about Plus before it comes out; takes the fun out of it.

And I don't mean that like "wah I wish I didn't have to check this thread of my own free will and see ALL THIS CONTENT", I mean that nothing's stopping game news outlets, Twitter accounts, YouTube uploaders (and YouTube's recommendation/search algorithms), etc. from spreading this info everywhere. It just lessens the impact of it all.

That all said, this is cool as hell and I'm looking forward to experiencing all of it when the game's out. Gonna have to try to have better self-control and not read this thread anymore, though.

 

This makes me unreasonably happy. The special stages were my favourite part of Mania, so I can't complain at a Track Pack DLC.

Still annoys me that the ground bumpers affect you when you're in the air, wish they'd make them more visible, but that's a minor thing.

 

I'm in this boat. Well the special stages weren't my FAV but they were amazing and I'm so glad we have more of them. I'm not watching the vid but confirmation is nice.

Frankly this dearth of new content at 5 dollars is a STEAL

 

Ugh... I haven't got past special stage 3 still.
Guess gotta step up my game :specialed:

 

Once I got the hang of it, the Special Stages are one of my favorite things to do in Mania. I leave my complete save slots alone when doing a replay just so I can play them again! So this makes me really happy.

I doubt this means Hyper forms would become available, what I think is that Encore Mode will come with its own save slots independent from Mania Mode. So, what's a better way of getting the emeralds again than new layouts for the Special Stages? It makes total sense for me.

 

Not gonna lie... my tired ass saw this post and initially read "Catch the UFO" and immediately conjured up ideas of 3D versions of the Sonic CD special stages... I need to go to bed. But this is still really cool nonetheless. I was personally never a fan of Overkill the Hedge- I mean Hyper Sonic, but it makes sense to add Hyper forms, and it will please a LOT of fans for sure. They should definitely add Hyper characters.

 

My assumption would be the new pinball bonus stage replaces Blue Sphere entirely in Encore mode, and these seven new layouts of the special stage will just entirely replace the original seven layouts. They knew if the bonus and special stages were identical from Mania mode that most people that have played Mania mode a ton of times would not care/be disincentivized from doing them again, or would feel like it was a boring chore to get through for the sake of "completion." Can't be overstated how great and highly appreciated it is that they went to the trouble of making new layouts and coming up with an entirely different bonus stage--that's rad as hell and now makes me look forward to doing both of them in my Encore playthroughs.

Considering how much they said Hyper forms are not coming back, especially in the Comic-Con panel last year, I doubt they ever return. I know a text graphic regarding them was found in the game, but surely that was from very early in production when it was just a consideration until the team and/or Sega decided it'd be overkill. Who knows, nothing is set in stone and they could well have decided to include them for "Plus" (or perhaps in a proper sequel), but I definitely would not expect it. But yeah, those new special stage layouts are rad--especially like the third, fifth, and seventh ones (do note they are slightly out of order in the video, if the order is reversed from the main game--I'm saying I like the ones with the same background as the first, third, and fifth from the main game). Huge thumbs-up to Slingerland or whoever did all the work for them.

And yeah, as Muscle Wizard said above, this revelation officially makes Encore an absolute steal at $5. (I think when they used the word "dearth" about the new material they meant to use a word more like "deluge" or "surplus.") People who are picking up the $30 physical version of "Mania" for the first time are getting an absolute butt load of material to experience. (I feel like playthroughs with extra characters are more vital/interesting in "Mania" than they ever have been in any previous Sonic game, so having at least 5--6 if you include a solo Sonic run--playthroughs to go through in one game is absolutely stellar. And of course repeating runs with character(s) you've already done is often rewarding/fun as well. Again, kudos to the whole team for putting so much rad stuff into the game.)

And for a silly person like myself, all the stuff revealed about "Plus/1.04" (officially and unofficially) just makes me feel better and better about getting both a Japanese import (for the soundtrack on CD--gotta have that beautiful lossless quality finally) and a U.S. copy (import is for Switch since it's region free and the native region is for PS4 for dat superior d-pad). And I'll be doing the $5 upgrade for my PC copy, which is the one I'll enjoy the most since I can use my Saturn controllers (got three SLS USB ones in black, white, and gray, and two regular ones + the Mayflash USB adapter--hopefully these will all last me until I croak, ha).

 

Thanks for testing that!
I'm glad to hear that there are new ones as well, I loved the special stages in Mania.

 

Holy Jesus Fuck! Those special stages! I was getting dizzy just watching this. I already know I'll never be able to beat these. Looks like it's impossible to catch the UFO at Mach 2 now, you are required to reach Mach 3 in these. Damn. These are really hard and I bow down to you! There's going to be plenty of bitching about these soon, but people asked for it!

I'm never going to see Egg Reverie to Egg Panicky on my own merit.

 

Yeah I meant deluge and the like haha. The insane amount of content in this encore mode DLC alone is crazy, but what we get for free is also AMAZING value.

For 5 bucks this is so much. Like, of note:
- A tag team mode that changes the dynamic of the game
- 2 new characters that offer playstyles unique to this game alone, further differentiating it.
- Entire sets of new levels, gradually they gain more differences
- Harder, more interesting special stage layouts that further make Encore Mode feel designed for long-time series veterans.

All of this AND Mighty and Ray still work in the Mania mode alongside new level layout additions made for them pushes this wayyyy over the 5 dollar threshold. It's such a god damn DEAL!

 

How different do the stages get? Sonic's MSZ1 is the only difference I've seen that's remarkable.