I blame it on there only being 365 days in a year, so the chances were pretty high :v: I want to hear live mixes of everything! I also expect a dance-off using the Hard Boiled Heavies Mischief theme.
Eurogamer put Mania at #27 on their list of the Top 50 Games of 2017. Kudos to PWG/Mania artist Tom Fry highlighting the recognition on his Twitter. e: Mania also made #11 on USGamer's Top 20 Games of the Year 2017.
Only #27? Clearly now is the time to mount an assault on the Eurogamer offices. =P Mania's excellence continues to be highlighted.
THE BRITISH ARE COMING ! (You hear Sephiroth theme in the background) lmao So who's #1? Cause eif it something stupid then wtf Eurogamer
I think what's throwing people off are the S3&K special stages useing Blue Sphere's Speed up timeing. Oh also I should mention Blue Sphere Sonic Jam Version has no Speed up at all
Glaber: Sonic Mania uses the same speed up rate as Sonic 3 & Knuckles Special Stages. It's only the Blue Sphere game (when you lock-on S&K with any game that isn't S2 or S3) that has a different timing. Master Emerald: The mod loader has that as a cheat code.
The blue sphere bonus stages are the worst part of Mania for me. Not that I actually dislike blue sphere; I enjoyed it just fine in 3K. I just think as others have said, it breaks the pacing of the game for a simple bonus stage. Lasts far too long to be as accessible as it is. I would have enjoyed it much more as an extra unlockable mini game in Mania instead of dispersed throughout the main game.
I agree that blue spheres makes for a bad bonus stage. At the very least, I think you should need 50 rings to access a bonus stage instead of 20 or whatever it is. Also, I know we already complained about bosses, but holy cow is Titanic Monarch's act 1 boss terrible as Knuckles. Honestly, it seems broken. The only reliable way to even do damage to the boss is to abuse the temporary invincibility you get from taking damage. Knuckles' jump is too low for this boss. They should've adjusted it.
What a stellar game, I'm finding myself on multiple playthroughs even after I've finished the damn thing! Easily one of the best Sonic games to come out in a long time.
Is there a way to access special stages 2-7 via level select? I tried playing songs 01, 02, etc. then choosing special stage, but I am always sent to special stage 1. Is this because in mania mode you always visit the latest unbeaten special stage? (I am playing on Switch.)
Did anyone find the name of the files in .unknown folders? Because they're md5 hashed. What I know so far about them is that there's one gif, one wav, six models and one unknown encrypted file, the hashed name of the gif is 'bb690e6627c6a2a86bd58434a26aa292' and the wav is '3465d2cf44eb0a1c10cc0cfedc98278c'. Spoiler The gif seems to be 'Enemies-old.gif' of press garden act2, but when I hash "data/sprites/psz2/enemies-old.gif", the hashed file name is different.
If RSDKv5_extract doesn't have their names, it's pretty safe to say nobody's found them. MD5 isn't reversible, so the only way to find the names would be if the game uses them (which it doesn't seem to, otherwise someone would have found it by now) or by guessing. Barring developer intervention, it's likely we won't ever find the names.
John from Eurogamer's Digital Foundry put Sonic Mania as game of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_zc7iMPkU
Not everyone will agree with that list, but Mania is certainly my personal GOTY too. And frankly, it's all down to opinion at the end of the day. I really don't know if I could have enjoyed Mania much more than I did when first playing it or than I do now when I run through a couple of levels every week at least. Even if it was composed entirely of original levels, cutscenes weren't missing and Blue Sphere didn't come up too often, there's not much that could have significantly made the game better for me. A second game would be another story - any more remixed levels or cut content would disappoint me in a sequel, but it's just not enough to hinder the experience this time. I absolutely love the game despite and in spite of some of the criticisms some people cite. There's really no denying that this is the best received Sonic game since the Mega Drive days, and it's certainly the first Sonic game in a long time that's felt like a passion project. The team set out to make a good game, rather than just a game that would sell. It's a roaring success in every way. I don't know if it's a shame or not that the combined brilliance of Mania and atrocity of Forces have actually pushed me away from the series in a way I never thought possible due to my lack of confidence in Sonic Team and SEGA. Oh well... Bring on the sequel!
Someone on Era compiled a list of the best to worst reviewed games of 2017 on Metacritic under a list of criteria: not including in the list games with <20 reviews, DLC/expansions, or ports/re-releases of pre-2017 games; while also narrowing multiplatform releases down to the version with the most reviews and folding games with episodic releases (Life is Strange, Telltale's Batman/GotG, etc.) or multiple versions (Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon) into one entry. Mania (PS4, 86) charted within the top 20 games ranked, sitting at #18. Forces (PS4, 58), meanwhile, charted at a much, much lower rank of #201...in a list that has a total count of 211 games. Funny how that works. :v: Also, Whitehead sends his thanks to those who supported the Mania ride throughout 2017. e: gamestm just recently gave Forces a negative 4/10 review, which made the metascore drop to 57. e2: GameRankings also present similar results if you check their All-Time Best and All-Time Worst, for games with at least 20 reviews released in 2017. Mania is on the former list at #16 (PS4, 87.02%), while Forces is on the latter list at #7 (PS4, 58.80%).
Could be reading in to things here that aren't there, but is that a cryptic hint to his next potentially Sonic related project set for 2018? Even if it's nothing super glad everyone united in their overwhelming love and support for Mania both pre and post-release. Hope Project Plus news comes soon.
Thats seriously impressive. I mean think about it, what other game series can boast about in making it into both Top 20 Best and Top 20 Worst Games in the same year?
Ha, probably a bit too early to expect a new project has been agreed or is underway. I dunno, perhaps a current-gen port of the remasters could be possible this year. Mania is a bloody good game. Not my GOTY. Horizon Zero Dawn is my personal favorite of 2017, but Mania comes close. I've played Mania to death and then some. Recently I've been trying to do a no-hit playthrough (or as near as possible) with Knuckles (without using the super form much), which is quite frustrating in places, thanks to some of the slightly unfair boss fights and occasional questionable enemy placement. Is still a really good challenge though. I've been exploring like crazy to find the most interesting routes and discovered some excellent level design and lots of secret areas which I expect a lot of players haven't found, like this special stage ring in SS I found a few days ago: Team Mania really did a great job in creating not just good level design, but also creating original design which helps Mania's zone layouts feel unique when compared to the layouts in Sonic 2, 3 and CD.
