Sonic Mania Plus (Consoles Physical; PC Digital) - Non-Leaks Thread

Maybe Ray could get a double jump of sorts after his glide or something... Ok, maybe that would be too weird. =|

 

EB Games Australia opened up pre-ordering.

 

I've been following this thread for days and the most interesting thing to me is Sonic Mania 2 being stealth-announced in the newspapers in Press Garden. I've played the hell out of Mania and honestly never noticed. It'd be super interesting if prior to Mania's release Sega already planned for a sequel and both Taxman and Stealth were aware of that intention - particularly given all that "we're going to wait to see how Sonic Mania is received" rhetoric from Sonic Team. I mean a sequel is pretty much inevitable at this point given Sonic Mania seems to be its own franchise now with a very rapid re-release and television series being made - but it's fascinating to see there's technically an allusion to a sequel being green-lit in the fucking game itself. Kudos to the member that alerted us to this (just checked: CollectiveWater). Thanks dude!

Now, whether to pre-order Sonic Mania Plus on PS4 to show my support to Taxman/Stealth and send a signal to Sega even though I don't own a PS4 yet. Decisions, decisions. Think I will to support the game. I already have vanilla Mania on Steam but I want to vote with my wallet and show Sega we loved the game so much we'd be willing to even buy two copies and we all want a sequel.

 

Have they said what Encore Mode even is? Saw some people early talking like we learned what it was, so I wasn't sure I missed anything.

 

We only know what they said at SXSW and on the poster - the levels will have visual differences and will be explored in new ways. That's it, and it's that vague.

 

During the SXSW panel they described it as: "Encore Mode will give you a new way to experience the game. We're gonna add some visual changes to each zone, and a new way to kind of explore each Act. Uh, y'know there's a real nice visual touch that's in there so if you've already beat 'Sonic Mania' this is gonna give you a good experience playing through it again."

So yeah from that most of us are assuming it's gonna be the same 12 zones from the original game with minor visual changes (color palette and/or a few new assets here and there) with some minor changes to the original level layouts/design to give those of us who have played through the game countless times a slightly new route to explore/enjoy. We don't know anything beyond that, and likely won't until they officially show any of it.

 

It hasn't been explained with any degree of clarity just yet. We just have their very vague comments from the panel that signified some kind of "remix" mode with minor adjustments and changes to the existing zones. Something interesting to note is that Mania Plus promo indicates "and more" when listing the bonuses to the game so I wonder whether they've stealth-added an additional zone or something like that and are intentionally keeping it under wraps to save it as late-game marketing surprise. Or other additions we're not aware of that'd make this enhanced version of the game even more alluring.

New characters and a "remix" mode are welcome additions but what would seal the deal for me is a new zone or two. Until they say more we can only wonder.

 

I think someone earlier in this thread speculated that Ray could function similarly to Flying Squirrel Mario in New Super Mario Bros. U. It's a standard glide function, but you can get an extra burst of height when you need it. It lets you cling to (but not climb) walls as well. They should definitely add something to make Ray's glide better than Knuckles' glide.

I wonder if Ray/Mighty will have any jump height difference, like how Knuckles' jump is lower than Sonic and Tails' jump.

 

Although I am hyped to play as Ray & Mighty, and appreciate all the hard work to give us new content... I can't help thinking it might have been a better option to save them for a 'Mania 2'. Would have made a good selling point, imo

 

I don't think it would be a good selling point. Nobody except us even know who the hell they are.

Also to be honest, I'm kind of worried encore mode is going to be worthless. It just sounds like they are recoloring some shit and calling it new. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

True, but then they could be sold as 'new' characters

 

Welp, that just leaves the door open for a large number of other characters to join the roster in the next game. Possibly even a new one

 

That was also there in my wishlist y'know:

>Sonic Mania: $20 USD, Sonic Mania Plus: $30 USD (50% increase)
>Sonic Mania: $27 AUD, Sonic Mania Plus: $50 AUD (85% increase)
Fucking typical.

 

the idea of a "new" mania character is interesting, and wouldnt be surprised if one was teased/revealed in Adventures to hype people up for a future release once Plus rolls around. That said, while the Hardboiled Heavies make sense as they're extensions off the existing idea of Sonic villains / Eggman himself, I would imagine SEGA would be a biiiit touchey on having the new team design a whole other playable character from the ground up... at least initially. Perhaps once they've "proven their worth" enough, the "Mania" brand can branch out into a longform passion project with Team Mania at the helm, or at least the directors of it, giving them semi-limited creative freedom. That's the ideal situation, anyway, and of course anything could happen from now onward, but it's fun to think about, and definitely something that would be nice if it happened.



OH, also, I'm really wondering how palette's going to be handled. I know there's a dead space in the palette currently--I think--because the top few rows are reserved for players and the bottom few for stage elements hence why objects tend to only look "correct" in their OG stage, but I'm wondering how much free space is actually available and how much palette crossover there's going to be. Like, if Mighty's going to borrow some of Knuckles' red, or Ray Tails', or if they'll take new real-estate to avoid any conflicts--if so, how much, and how will that affect the potential for other added content?

Of course the Retro engine is, I assume, only bound to palettes by choice, so it can be worked out to make exceptions when needed or some clever trickery, but if we were really to get "more characters" on top of Ray and Mighty, how many would we be able to get before we start just running out of colors? Are we going to see some revamps to the palette engine to account for the added material? Will the current way palettes are read/wrote to change, forcing people who've been modding to have to re-do some of their work?

These of course are issues solved by people here on retro themselves when dealing with tons of characters and having to conform them to different palettes, but the reason I bring this up is because if we have 4 player co-op, and if all 4 characters are supposed to have their individual color sets that can also cycle their base color (usually comprised of 5 shades), all at once on the same screen, I just have to wonder how much room there is before that starts becoming a problem. Haven't looked at mania's files in a hot minute cuz of a few reasons, but from what I remember there's enough space available for Mighty and Ray... But for any potential, EXTRA DLC, I don't know. Someone more adept at the genesis games and how optomizing pallets work for those + someone whos worked with mania could probably have a better idea than me.

 

Mania 2 can just add the remaining members of Sonic's band to the roster. :v:

 

I have zero clue on how the game works, but the palette editor shows that some .bin files use multiple slots for different palettes. I would think that they could just use the next slot for whatever new characters or common objects they would need to add.

 

Honestly, i think that sonic mania 2 should re-add the chaotix back as playable characters and expand on the movesets they had in that game (while removing wall climbing as that is knuckles' move) since they already have established movesets and sprites, but I'd be fine if it the only new playable character was amy since she would probably play differently to the gang we have with mania plus

 

How about adding Bubsy for Mania 2? That could be used as another [in-joke] tie-in to Sonic Forces :p *is bricked*

Spoiler

I'm kidding in case you're wondering :p

 

I've seen a number of people here still question why Angel Island is in the ocean in Sonic Mania. The question that boggles my mind more is why the heck they changed the grass in Angel Island to match Green Hill Zone? So Green Hill Zone's influence is starting to creep into other zones now??

 

Now that is something I'd like to see!