So long as the spooky imaginary ghost of Jackson/his family looms over Sega's head, I honestly don't know what the chances are for zones like Ice Cap and Carnival Night. Maybe with their PC remixes, but I doubt Sonic Team would want that. Or I could be wrong and this is just my "RIP Sonic 3 HD" side.
CPZ Act 2 uses the same swirl tubes that were originally in CNZ. It would be unlikely that they'd stick that very specific design in 2 levels.
The. Jackson. Family. Does. Not. Own. The. Rights. To. Icecap. Zone. Please see Master Emerald's post a page or two back.
I don't like this CP music remix at all. The level design looks nice, but not so memorable; to me, it's the less interesting of all reveals they've made until now. While the obvious level to include from Sonic 3 would be Hydrocity, I think Lanch Base deserves a place in Mania: it had a lot of potential but they didn't make it good enough, so this would be the chance to take the best from it. Oh, and I didn't expect them to show that much of the game, either; I think it would have been wiser to just tell us things like "Chemical Plant will be included!", specially when we already knew that second acts of the revisited zones would have new twists. I'm way more hyped by that screenshot showing a zone that looks like a botanic garden to me.
Something I've actually been curious about for a while is if Brad Buxer put himself at risk legally by using the Jetzons' Hard Times as the basis of Ice Cap. I imagine the only reason he got away with it was because it was unreleased at the time. Even though he was a member of the band, did he PERSONALLY own the rights to that recording when he sampled it, or was it owned by the band as an entity and/or the label at the time? And if the latter is the case, would that technically make it's inclusion copyright infringement? Music rights can be a tricky issue with who owns what (see Roger Waters/Pink Floyd or the weird situation surrounding the song "Thermacare" by the band Chiodos). Only reason I bring it up is because there might still be some legal strings attached to utilizing the tune in a non-port iteration of Ice Cap that would make the tune unusable in Mania.
Like Dark Sonic said, this particular Chemical Plant is using the same Carnival Night swirl tubes. I can't really see them repeating the same thing again in another level. I guess they can have CN without them, but why even bother putting them in another level?
Also, it would be awesome to have a more functional* version of the Chaotix final boss. Would work great as a true final boss in this "Classic Sonic celebration" (and the Bad Ending scene could be a nice setting for a Super Sonic fight). *"More functional" as in, his final form actually attacking the player, for example.
People have been wondering whether Metal Sonic will feature at all, since the Stardust Speedway reveal (if he is in the game, I hope Sega keep it a surprise). That got me thinking further, since Tails and Knuckles are playable in this one, and it's a celebration of the classic Sonic series in general, might we finally see the return of Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll? How cool would it be to play Stardust Speedway as Knuckles, expecting to fight Metal Sonic and suddenly Metal Knuckles shows up?
Given how Fang and the boys are actually in the game, confirmed by the Ars Technica article, I see no reason why Metal Sonic wouldn't be a boss, or something.
The final boss will be the Death Egg Robot sentinel from Park Avenue and the story will continue from there in Sonic Forces. :v:
I certainly hope not. That would be unforgivable! I know there could be a time flux to easily explain it away, but to mess with the timeline from 1999-2017 would be cruel. Mania leading into SA1 would be more appropriate.
I think the tiles are actually darker and it's a welcome change in my opinion. As much as I love S3K's art style it can look a little washed out in places since it's darkest tones are dark gray instead of black.
Alas, as much as the game's art and music had going for it, I don't think there's enough all-around nostalgia for it to merit an appearance in Sonic Mania. Even if they do it right and make something excellent, it would remind people of everything Chaotix got wrong to begin with.
Apparently, there's a pre-pre E3 Twtich stream going on that showed off Sonic Mania and the Green Hill Zone Act 2 boss. Screencaps in this tweet.
Except Sonic CD was praised by critics and sold a LOT when it was rereleased on PC, XBLA and PSN. That rerelease was made by what's now the Sonic Mania programming team. Chaotix as never rereleased, it's super obscure (because... lol 32X), the only Chaotix reference in any game after that (besides the Chaotix being in Heroes) was the Door into Summer remix in Generations, etc etc. So Chaotix getting a Mania level... not gonna happen. Maybe an easter egg, maybe a full zone in Mania 2, not this time though. I'd be very surprised otherwise.
Those new animations for looking up and finishing the level are beautiful. They really capture a sense of personality that the original games didn't.
