Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

The countdown jingle playing when a player was running out of time (like in Sonic 2) wasn't in the original release was it?

 

I was going to ask the same thing about the siren sound when the first player arrives.

 

I wasn't really too bothered with the lack of online multiplayer, but that playthrough really does bum me out there isn't any; I really love 4P MP stuff like that (case in point--raised on N64 GE 007). It doesn't help that online multiplayer is rarely if ever considered in the mainline/platformer Sonic games (Sonic 4: Episode II is the one exception to the rule I can consider off the top of my head), and I can't really think of any platformers in general outside of LBP that offer online either.

Ray seems to gain mad speed when he dives down. I can see him being super useful in speeding through level routes structured downwards.

Hate to keep beating a dead horse, but man the way the JP side of Sonic is promoting Mania compared to the Western/US side is hilariously night and day. They got to play and broadcast a 4P MP match, we got a 30-second view of the manual with burnt toast.

 

I think it's because Sonic hasn't been popular in Japan 'since' the classic days at all, really, with Only Sonic 1 selling very strongly if I recall... and even then he never reached US/UK heights of popularity.

But there's just enough nostalgia for classic Sonic in japan that they want to capitalize off of it again and reinvigorate that, but it requires extensive marketing to get viewers there to pay attention.

Did it work with Mania's sales there? I don't think we have any data on Mania's Japanese sales yet, do we?

 

Apparently Mighty's idol animation (which you can see once the player finishes the act in the 4-player footage) is a reference to Sonic's animation from Sonic 2 Game Gear:

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That's quite cool - always nice to see another reference to the 8-bit Sonic 2...!

I'll admit part of me was hoping Mighty's idle animation might be based on his one from Chaotix, but I can also totally see why they didn't go down that route given that his animation there involved the ever-present Combi-Ring. If you did the same animation in Mania, you'd have at least a few people wondering where he gets a ring to twirl around his finger from if the player has no rings - to avoid that issue you'd have to have a secondary waiting animation to use in the event the player has no rings, in which case why not just use that one as the de facto idle animation and avoid the ring issue altogether?

Interestingly, this means both Mighty and Ray's idle animations are based on well-known Sonic poses from classic media outside the Mega Drive games, rather than poses they themselves have been depicted in previously.

Looking forward to getting a proper in-depth look at these two in motion once the DLC launches - wonder what their victory poses will be like? Also, I know Encore mode seems to work differently character selection wise, but in terms of Mania Mode do we think we might get an option to play as Mighty & Ray together as well as individually? They're very much depicted as buddies in the Sonic & Tails vein in Mania Adventures, so it'd be interesting to see that carry through to the game itself - though unless Mighty could surf on Ray's back while he's gliding or something, I'm not sure how useful it'd be compared to the existing Sonic & Tails combo.

 

I really hope Mighty & Ray is a combo, although I wish they'd get rid of the assigned partner system and they just let you pick who you want to follow you. I don't really care about the utility of the partner character, it's just a fun addition (I mean Tails was pretty much useless as a partner in the original Sonic 2, but there he was anyway).

Seeing Ray and Knuckles together in Mania Adventure 3 really made me want to play as those 2 together. Of course I'm sure this will inevitably not be an issue on the PC, but it shouldn't have to be that way.

 

You might be right. The recent Sega experience in Akihabara a few months ago was pretty big on having Sonic's face everywhere (Sonic merch, Sonic Bags, big guy in Sonic costume, etc..), despite being a general SEGA event and not a Sonic event. I don't think it's anything to do with marketing Mania though, I just think SEGA's realised that Japan didn't hate Sonic as much as they thought and now they're rolling with it.
Meanwhile, a few years ago you wouldn't have seen a lot of Sonic stuff in Japan at all outside of maybe a keychain or soundtrack two. There's definitely been a shift in tone.

Although tbh, SEGA America could already be under the assumption of "Dude, you already know if you're buying Mania Plus or not by now!" and are coasting on memes until the launch. :v:

 

Mania was Japan's 22nd best-selling Switch eShop game of 2017, reported by Nintendo (JP)'s official website themselves. Worth noting that the list only counts eShop/digital-exclusive games, so eShop sales of games on retail (Zelda: BotW, Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey, etc.) weren't included. Data from surveys Nintendo conducted also had Mania as the 17th most-recommended Switch game from players in the region.

Which does make me wonder if Mania Plus could actually move the needle for Sonic in Japan in a way that past Sonic games have failed to do for the first time in years. Even if it's just for a small bit. The least it could do is at least significantly Forces' OW (a little over 10K on its debut week, across PS4 and Switch...which was still the best debut for a Sonic title for its OW since Unleashed) or stay on the charts for much longer. It helps that Mania also did have some physical advertising presence in Japan, with stuff like the Mania-themed trains and billboards--far more than what it got in the West.

Really, I'm gonna be watching Mania Plus' overall retail/sales performance like a hawk over the coming weeks / months. The re-release needs to seriously outperform sales expectations IMO in order for it to really hold as a future direction for the series. The original Mania announced to have cleared one million units after eight months? Mania Plus should to sell twice (if not thrice) as much in half the time if you ask me.

 

Really like Ray's animation--makes me look forward to playing as him even more.

"Sonic 2" and "Sonic 3K" are both being played today at SGDQ ("Sonic 2" starts in about 10-15 minutes). No "Mania" at the event (it was at AGDQ this past winter), though. I'm hoping that "Mania" will be run at AGDQ 2019 (this upcoming winter/early January), and that they'll be doing Mighty and Ray runs. Would also be rad to see a "Mania" race between 4 runners, like they often do for classic Mario games. I really hope "Mania" (and 1, 2, CD, and 3K) all become staples at the events going forward; seems like they probably will.

 

We'll be lucky if it sells 500k units, to be honest.

 

Mania Plus not even breaking 500K would be lower than the first two Boom games (SC and RoL) combined.

Those were games that had bad-to-legendarily awful reviews and --concerning RoL-- was exclusive to a commercial flop of a console.

You really think Mania Plus is going to sell worse than those titles?

If Mania Plus isn't able to surpass 500K then it's an absolute miracle the original Mania has sold over one million units at all.

 

I think things could go either way, given that Mania already sold like gangbusters initially, and many of those players can just get a plus DLC update for a few bucks. Not to mention promotions for mania plus are much more iffy this time 'round.

I mean, Mania Plus will be amazing, but I think the release is more of a bonus than a solid push to expand the crowd. Is this really a game that will appeal to kids when they are already over-saturated with minecraft/pokemon/lego releases vying for attention? Sonic still appeals to children of course, but it is not mainstream for kids anymore, and many of the most dedicated players already bought the game last year digitally and are likely fine with that. When I was a kid in 1991-95, Sonic had a mass marketing campaign behind it to catch my interest (lots of commercials, product placement/merchandise/cartoons, tie ins, and the games... all on network TV).

I think Mania plus actually has a lower sales target than the digital release, IMHO. I still think it will be seen as successful, however, but digital games are quickly eating into the physical media sale space these days.

 

I believe it'll easily exceed over 500k especially with Mania Plus's new content which is a haven for modding.
People will buy the game for the game, and also buy it for the mods too.

 

I don't think Sega would be giving Mania Plus a retail release to begin with--or a traditional retail release, anyway--if Plus was merely a bonus component for those who already bought the game. They had plenty of options to give a little more without going the current route.

Plus is not only getting a retail release, it's getting a standard retail release like practically most games. Sega could had saved on resources by, say, making Mania Plus exclusive to a retailer (WalMart, GameStop, Amazon, etc.), exclusive to a platform (like making only a retail PS4 version, but none for Switch or XBO* version), or even handed distribution tasks to another publisher; but they didn't. There's no strings attached (at least as far as we know, anyway). Moreover, Sega even went the extra mile of adding special goodies to the retail version itself--the flashy slipcover, the detailed instruction manual, the reversible cover, the soundtrack (in Japan)? None of that was necessary, yet they did it anyway.

*Though it is worth noting that Japan won't be getting an Xbox One retail release for Mania--which in fairness is for a good reason considering the state of Xbox in the region

For what it's worth I'm not actually expecting for Mania Plus to be a commercial sales storm. I'm thinking that like the original release, sales would likely be modest--not terrible, but not great either. The main crux of my post was merely to say I don't think "modest sales" should be the goal. I don't actually think it will sell gangbusters but I'd really love it to do so.

 

I still don't see how Mania Plus is going to be any better for modding than the base game. Do you know something about how the game is programmed that I don't?

 

It at least will have some more base features that'll be fun to play around with, like Encore mode's tag team system and additional character slots. All these have been tackled already mind you (by the same person I believe), but it'll make playing around with those features probably a lot easier.

 

Having two extra characters doesn't make it any easier or harder to make custom character mods, unless you specifically wanted the new abilities those characters have. The tag team could be used for something, I guess.

 

Plus has had minimal hype outside of the fan base. I am not certain it will do as well as it deserves. However, I think it's a bit of a conundrum because Mania already had its time to shine and it shone bright. Too much hype for the Plus upgrade may be ill-spent anyway because it could be construed as excessive for an upgrade or something along those lines. I can't see it being a massive seller but I do think sales will be steady because it's both DLC and a physical release. Steady continuous sales seems optimistic enough for this. I'm taking the plunge anyway and will get physical releases for consoles I don't even have. Excellent gift material. I'm hyped. If Amy magically appears in the game, it will help boost sales by leaps and bounds methinks.

 

I personally don't think Plus has to do incredibly well either, though I'm sure it will do respectable numbers anyways. SEGA already said Mania itself exceeded expectations and it will definitely have some potential influence on the future of the franchise, this DLC is just a good takeaway for those who wanted a physical release and the people who owned it already looking for more content.