Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

I'd love if they could be added under Time Attack like Sonic CD (2011) did.

I really enjoyed topping my previous Special Stage times in Sonic CD (2011). It also helped me get better at them and get the Time Stones.

 

Going through Mania Mode's special stages again as Mighty and Ray really helped me get to grips with the Encore Mode stages - I was really out of practice before then, but afterwards I don't think there was an Encore Special Stage I had to retry more than 3-4 times before I beat it (aside from the last one - I think that took me somewhere between 8 and 10 tries due to all the jumping between small floating islands with no barriers, which took a while getting used to at Mach 3...!)

For comparison, on my initial run through Encore Mode prior to revisting Mania Mode, I didn't manage to beat a single Special Stage.

Also, yes, Time Attack for Special Stages would have been an awesome addition. Still wish Angel Island was selectable on the Encore Mode Time Attack list, too - yes, it's short, but it would have been fun to play it with other characters and to see how insanely quickly it could be completed by dedicated speedrunners, haha.

 

Special Stages were available in Time Attack in the original Sonic CD, they didn't add that in the remake.

 

Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Since the 2011 version, my copy of Sonic CD for Sega CD has somewhat been neglected. :v:/>
(Though Batman Returns driving sections hasn't)

 

Encore mode took me about 3 h to beat:

• It's not as optimized as Mania mode
• The harder difficulty is ok as long as you keep exploiting the controls
• Encore mode = 'Practice is over'-mode?

Comments on the Metascore? It's boost power!

 

Hold up, I thought these were still in the remake. I vaguely remember unlocking Stage Select and Sound Test (as oppose to DA Garden) this way for the first time, which I never did on any previous release.

Unless I'm going bonkers. Sadly I can't boot up my 360 to check...

Edit: Whoops, misunderstood the post. I am stupid - Ignore forever.

 

Mainmemory's not saying that it wasn't in the remake - just that it's something which was also a feature of the original, rather than something specifically added for the 2011 version.

 

Oooh Yup. Just realized when I read it more carefully than... well, not at all it seems! :v:

On the plus side, it's made me want to bust out the Taxman Sonic CD again once I've wrapped up my Mania progress.

 

...I see what you did there. ; )

 

Codenamegamma found out what the unknown cheat codes does:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kOYRdAmWz0

Instructions are in the description, which I will not post here out of courtesy. It's a multi-step process that gives you all Gold Medals.

 

Been out for a while, I wanted to play all the plus stuff before posting here about it (PC version), and got the last emerald in encore yesterday, so it's time to write a huge post. Spoiler tags separate sections for an easier read and also help making the post smaller.

Boss tweaks:

Spoiler

I've noticed most changes to bosses only happen in Mania Mode, with only Metal Sonic and TMZ2 boss being different for both mania and encore modes. From those, Silver Sonic room got nerfed (and the second running section after it simply dissappeared), Metal Sonic Kai is new and technically harder, and phantom eggman got a bit harder. This last one is the only minor tweak that made a boss harder, as Kai is completely different from the spiked wall from before.

The rest of the tweaked bosses were nerfed just for Mania mode, which means that Encore is harder on this side but not really hard for anyone that mastered those bosses in their original form. I like this, but doesn't make that much sense, specially in most cases where the bosses are too easy now. These are the bosses I noticed they nerfed for mania mode: SPZ2 (not sure, does eggman fly a bit lower now?), FBZ2 (the spider seems to be much lighter when hit with a spin jump), OOZ2 (well, didn't really notice, just read it here and confirmed when playing), and TMZ1 (goodbye, gravity changes!).

Besides that, I think they've reduced the hit count for some bosses, quite sure in egg spider's case. Can someone confirm?

Pinball bonus stage:

Spoiler

More useful than having blue spheres there forever, and a way to escape frustration if you're having a bad time with the level you're currently on, but I don't really like it: it's not a good pinball, and you have to spend quite a long time in there to earn goodies, compared to, say, glowing balls where there was also pinball and there were random items too. I usually play pinball plus only for the first two items at most, and usually only enter there if I really need something at that moment, such as an elemental shield. Oh, and rings you grab on pinball itself don't add to your ring count, which is a shame as they only give a symbolic amount of pinball points compared to the rest of the table.


Oh, and just for you to know, I made a full run through encore mode without accessing the pinball at all, and nothing really that bad happened. I had to play a bit longer with less than five characters after a couple of silly accidents, but that was all.

New characters:

Spoiler

Mighty:

Spoiler

Seeing some of you so enthuastic about him made me doubt, but, when I played as him, it confirmed what I thought the day his abilities were revealed: he's just a gimmicky Sonic clone that offers nothing of worth to my gameplay. Not just that, but that buffed modern Sonic stomp helps more halting gamepplay than revealing items or hitting enemies not under the mighty drop. Looking so much like Sonic made me react sometimes as if I was playing as him, so imagine my face when I went straight down instead of double jumping with my electric shield. This last thing is just my fault, but the point is I already have Sonic doing this and more.

I have to give a dedicated paragraph to his shelled back. Honestly, I don't have a clue on how this works save for the example in AIZ and GHZ2 boss. Sometimes, the protection failed when I thought it wouldn't, some other times it succeeded when I thought it wouldn't. I'm telling this to the point of being hit by something that previously didn't, and vice versa. Seems like it also protects your back when not curled, but who knows, I prefer to play as always and have nice surprises once in a while that rely on this trait and lose rings as a reward to my braveness.

If I explain this all it's because I think this complexity is too much for the simplicity a Sonic game usually has; IMHO, there are better ways to make Mighty unique and there are simpler ways to handle a hard-shelled character. But good for those of you that can get the best from him, I just use him on Encore as expendable when I don't need to use the other character's ability, which happens less than you'd think. It's more like a joke character like "Oh man, I got heavy/bomb in the combi!".

Ray:

Spoiler

This guy on the other hand, is great. I love both his gliding and his mood, any frustration goes out when I end an act and there he goes with his thumbs-up pose. The best moment was at the start of CPZ, but his monkey swing really makes him look like a swinging monkey. While his glide may be a little complex to handle at first, it does make sense and really adds something to the aerial navigation between Tails' flight and Knuckles' gliding and climbing capabilities. While, as someone pointed out, his sprites would need more shading to fit better with the rest of the game, I like how it looks, I have no problem with the head of his body, head, or anything else. He's now my favourite character along with Sonic.

Encore Mode:

Spoiler

Gameplay:

Spoiler

This is exactly what we needed to improve the classic formula and make this game be something really new, and this is how a team/partner system is made, not that Sonic Heroes shit. My first run through encore felt a lot better than my first run on Mania mode last year, and that's saying something. I also like a lot the randomness from the monitors, I usually break the question ones and the cycling ones with no strategy or remorse, and, while I usually think which partner do I want to change with the partner monitors, I usually break theam even if I already have the best characters available, just for the sake of changing gameplay conditions. Having the chance to make Sonic a follower is really fun too, specially with Tails as the leader.

Difficulty:

Spoiler

Saying Encore is the hard mode of the game is true because most of the time it has a trickier layout, but, honestly, on my first run I only lose a character twice, once per TMZ act, and only to recover them less than 30 seconds later with the help of a monitor. The way I lose them, I could have lost them in Mania mode too, as one was the typical silly crush you get with this game's engine and a bottomless pit also on Mania mode thanks to another reckless silly mistake. Bear in mind that I beat Mania mode with each character choice before entering encore, so I had time to practice the standard layouts and the new elements present in that mode. Oh, and I think I also found more giant rings in Encore Mode runs than I usually do in Mania mode.


Speaking of giant rings, some of the new special stages are the ones deserving the hard mode title. I got the 5th emerald on last giang ring from the first run, and wasn't able to get the 7th one in my re-run, so I had to abuse the FBZ ring after that to get the last one, and there were a lot of tries before getting it. For the record, the number of tries I needed for each emerald:-1st: Got on 2nd try.
-2nd: Got on 3rd try.
-3rd: Got on 5th or 6th try. (really had to make a good ring/sphere acquisition management).
-4th: Got on 1st try. (Quite lucky with this one, only had 4 more seconds)
-5th: Got on 10th try, maybe? (Seemed easier than 3rd, but I was clumsy)
-6th: Got on 4th try.
-7th: Lost count, around 20 tries.As you can see, the last one took me almost as many tries as getting the other six. Too many pits, too hard to cut distance, to hard to control Sonic on Mach 3. Overall, do it perfect or go away.

Palettes:

Spoiler

While I agree most of them look worse than the originals, they where trying to keep on with the them of different lighting, usually because of a different time of day. I mean, look at SSZ1, it's still on sunset, how you'd expect it would look? Not saying the work couldn't have been done better, it's just the changes were consistent with the theme: LRZ1 looks hotter to reflect a more active volcano, for example. They don't hurt my eyes at all, not even TMZ, though it seems to oddly mimic Metropolis zone from Sonic 2..

Bugs and oddities:

Spoiler

Not too much to say in this section, however:- I watched the full credits roll after the first Mania mode run, and it had specific credits for Switch, but not for PC, PS4 or XB1. Not sure if that's really an issue, but it's odd to have credits that look like they were meant for a different version of the game.

- Hammer drop messes with layering in those MMZ2 sections where you can walk in front of the wall or behind it. I hammerdropped a Monitor that was already on the ground to a lower place because of the layering trick, which made said monitor unreachable.

- Hammerdropped in mania mode after beating red eye, more specifically when the signpost was falling, and the game crashed.


- I suffered the black and white ending on the first 3 runs through Mania mode, never again after that, and the opening was colourful the only time I watched it.

- Many sound halts, it's obvious the code to handle the track switching was modified but not properly enough to avoid any kind of issue.

- Loading the game now takes ages. I haven't tested if there are any other performance issues.

Plot stuff, including some fun:

Spoiler

- From what I've seen, the ending only shows the phantom vortex destroying everything while everyone flees, both the furries and eggman.

- After playing Mania mode with both Knuckles and any other else, I can honestly say everything was an illusion, like a dream. The only real things that happened here are five standard eggrobos unearthing the phantom ruby in front of most characters, and those regular eggrobos carrying the ruby away in front of Knuckles. besides that, everything is just the delirium going on, to the point of going crazy in egg reverie (egg dream, you know) and creatiing an alternate reality where eggman thinks he's winning. Modern dimension being just an illusion is now canon.

Other random stuff:

Spoiler

I completely forgot what else I was going to say, might edit if I manage to remember it.

 

This is great- I was starting to worry that the last code was really just a development leftover. Talk about well-hidden.

If I ever find myself replaying Mania years later without my original saves, this will be a godsend. I love Blue Spheres but I don't think I'm ever going to want to grind out all of the medals again.

Props to the devs for including these cool little secrets. Same to codenamegamma for finding them.

EDIT: Figured I'd point this out since this is news to me, but that first code on the title screen actually unlocks debug mode from the game options screen (on the file select menu). So you can use that to enter the hidden level select and input the rest of the codes without ever stepping foot in Blue Spheres even once.

 

Can anyone tell me why the intro animation is in black and white now? Also the encore mode chaos emeralds are so much harder.

 

Which version of Windows are you using?

 

Cross-posting my answer from the no spoilers thread for anyone that has one or all of these issues with the PC version: black and white animated cutscenes, blurry full-screen visuals, inability to change filters, etcetera. I posted about this fix on July 19th in this thread, but didn't give detailed instructions at the time:

Go to Computer>C:>Program Files (x86)>Steam>steamapps>common>Sonic Mania>Settings, and double-click/open the Settings file. That will open the file in Notepad and have a bunch of text related to your "Sonic Mania" configuration settings. At the top under [Video] the thirteenth or so line will say "shaderSupport=n." Just change the n to a y, and click save when you exit the window.

Then your PC copy of "Sonic Mania" will mostly go back to behaving normally--full-screen visuals will be normal again, you can change filters, animated cutscenes will be in color, etc. The only issue that won't be resolved by doing what I just said is the slowdown after using Time Trial--that's an issue caused by the latest PC build using a poorly implemented updated version of Denuvo. That should hopefully be resolved soon in a patch; until then just avoid using Time Trial mode altogether.

I wrote about all the issues the newest build of "Sonic Mania" on PC brings, as well as the issues the PC version has always had since launch, here. Even after modifying the Settings ini file and fixing most of the major issues the new update brings to "Mania" on PC, that version is still clearly inferior to all the console versions, and I would recommend playing the game on console instead if you can. The only advantages the PC version has over the console ones is the ability to play with a Saturn/Genesis controller (which requires you to futz around with Steam's controller settings since "Mania" on PC doesn't have native DirectInput compatibility), and the ability to load mods. Other than those two advantages, though, the PC version is inferior to all the console versions. Which is sad because the PC version only has a handful of issues (sluggish animated cutscene playback, no native DirectInput support for Saturn controllers, etc.) which if resolved would make it the best version. And someday, once the PS4/Switch/Xbox One versions are no longer backward compatible with future iterations of consoles made by the console manufacturers, the PC version will be the only easy way to play the game. It'd be a damn shame if the minor issues with the PC version still have not been resolved by then. I hope they are sometime soon.


One addendum that applies to all three of my posts about the issues with the PC version: if the opening and ending animated cutscenes play back at a sluggish 10-20 fps for you (either prior to the most recent update or after you change shaderSupport=n to shaderSupport=y and your cutscenes go back to being in color but run sluggishly again), I think that issue may be restricted to Windows 7 users only (meaning they should playback fine if you're on Windows 10). Need to do some testing before I can definitively say whether this is true or not, though.

 

I'm on the Switch and find the sound tends to cut out. Anyone else have this problem?

And yeah, the Chaos Emeralds are a low point of the game. The stages are just too hard. They were fun in Mania Minus, but here they just become repetitively dull.

 

My own thoughts on Plus/Encore:

The update/Plus content fixed my biggest problem with the game, that being that the utterly unrewarding timesink that is Blue Sphere was the sole bonus stage. The pinball thing actually gives you plenty of reasons to go in (want a specific shield? lost a dude or two?), whereas the other thing just made me avoid checkpoint stars like the plague after I got all the gold medals unless I wanted to unsuper.

I love Ray. He is absolutely adorable and a ton of fun to play as. I think he's my favorite character now. I didn't actually find out how cool Mighty was until Metallic Madness Zone; prior to that point, I wasn't getting hit much and never had him following me as the AI partner. I had wrongly assumed his thing was just that smash-down attack and was very disinterested, so I kept switching him out when I got the chance. Somewhere in MMZ1 I wound up swapping out both characters and he wound up being my secondary. I quickly noticed him bouncing off all the saws littered about the place and making a unique sound. Didn't find out until later that Angel Island teaches you about this if you pick Mighty, but I picked Ray at the start and missed that information entirely.

Angel Island was neat, if perhaps a bit empty feeling. Not having a big ring at the near start of the level bugged me a lot more than it should have, but I don't think I can rightly complain about that. On the note of big rings, they were much harder to find this time around. Still quite rewarding to find, though. I still don't yet know how I feel about the pity prizes in the old big ring locations that didn't continue to have their big rings.

Encore Mirage Saloon 1 is too good for this world. My only dislike is that big ring tease near the end, which I assume is a Mighty-exclusive goody. Always seemed like a middle finger from the game when it showed you a big ring and then disallowed you to go back and get it, though I reckon this one could be slightly less of a problem in that regard since the screen doesn't lock until after you've gone a decent bit by it.

I really don't care for most of the Encore color schemes (to the point that I wish there was an option to opt to just use the first set of palettes), but Oil Ocean Zone stood out as pretty nice looking to me.

I really don't like that partner Tails can't airlift you in Encore, even if being able to switch to him at any time makes that more or less pointless.

The Encore special stages are the absolute highest point of the game for me. Very difficult at first, but insanely satisfying to win and even more so to get good at. It seems like the difficulty is rather out of order, though. The last one was appropriately the one that made me have to grind in FBZ1 to see the good end the first time, but other than that it felt like the difficulty was sometimes going in reverse order. That may just be me, though. I really love the reverse visual theme order, as an aside.

This was definitely worth the five dollar upgrade to me. A good chunk of my enjoyment belongs to the new special stages, but I had a good blast with the rest of the game too.

 

On PC I experience a lengthy moment of silence when turning Super. The music takes way longer to kick in.