Sonic Mania Plus SPOILER THREAD with UNMARKED spoilers!

I'm sure it'll happen but the challenge will be to implement the flying mode. No doubt someone will put something in for the contest anyway.

Anyway, has anyone come across this yet? It's what happens after you fall from the flipping platforms above nearby.

 

Strangely enough, people found out in PC version that pressing Y/Triangle while in Special stage will increase your Mach Speed by one, which means you can reach Mach 3 near instant and win Special Stages with ease (especially Encore ones)

Also spamming it increases your mach bonus as well so you can reach overall bonus like this. An accidental dev/debug leftover, I think.

 

I think the answer is "yes" but just in case, does the Mania update add the Plus menus? Because it would kinda suck if we're not able to go back to the old ones even after disabling the Plus DLC.

It would be like reconning them and I liked their simplicity.

 

Some things I noted upon playing Mania Plus:

- Classic time limit/Time Overs seems to be off by default now. Anyone picking Mania Plus up won't have to worry about the time killing them, I guess. (At least in Encore Mode, anyway.)
- I made note about the COG review saying that they lost all of their characters when they fell into a pit in Flying Battery / Encore Mode; but that seems to have been a weird glitch. I fell into a bottomless pit and only lost one character. Hm.

By the by, update on review metascores (with Mania Plus and Mania original, focusing on PS4/Switch versions):

Opencritic:
Mania - 87 (84 scored reviews, 91 reviews total)
Mania Plus - 88 (23 scored reviews, 25 reviews total)

Metacritic:
Mania - 86 (PS4 - 70 reviews; NSW - 21 reviews)
Mania Plus - 89 (Switch, 13 reviews); 87 (PS4, 17 reviews)

GameRankings:
Mania - 87.02% (PS4 - 40 reviews), 85.73% (NSW - 11 reviews)
Mania Plus - 90% (NSW, 7 reviews), 86.36% (PS4, 11 reviews)

 

Ya the new menu is part of the update, not the DLC. So theres no going back.

 

Lol they messed up the R on the spine. Otherwise I love this reverse sleeve. Now the deliberation wherever I should import the Japanese version too.

 

Well, damn, that really sucks.

Guess I'm making a backup for whenever I want to experience the original Sonic Mania again. If Denuvo allows me to play it.

 

so does the physical version apply the dlc to the digital version or not? Already found out the physical version takes the same slot as the digital version on the switch's menu.

Just found out that one of the music glitches is actualy a fade glitch. sometimes brought on by an extra life. it'sa also fixed ingame by triggering another music change or another extra life.

 

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I'm not sure where else to and I feel an entire thread on the topic feels unnecessary (hello again, folk of Retro). Anyway, without further ado:

Just finished my first playthrough of Encore mode. Hot damn, some of those special stages are very hard indeed, but certainly a fun challenge. Playing through the game again with a fresh coat of paint was worth it alone - I've always been a sucker for interesting alternative palettes (mainly thanks to some of the fantastic hacks you guys have made).

The addition of Mighty and Ray is great! I really love the Mario-cape-esque gliding ability given to Ray; it's a really refreshing way to navigate the air compared to Tails and Knuckles, and also reminds me of those wonderful hang-gliders in Sonic 2 8-bit (which, incidentally, eluded me for years - that was my Barrel). For that matter, the Flying Battery transition was a great little nod!

My favourite feature, though, is probably the ability to take characters to unusual and normally out-of-bounds locations without using any form of cheat, like debug. Being able to potentially use all five characters in a stage really mixes things up. It reminds me somewhat of Sonic 2 Heroes, and the gameplay I've seen of Chaotix (I've never actually played it, unfortunately), but with even more replay potential. I mean, who doesn't love playing as Mighty and Ray together, or having two different flight characters at your disposal? (Not to mention having Tails lead Sonic into spikes and badniks for a change!)

I'm not sure how to word any of this fanboying particularly eloquently, so I'll simply add to finish:

Oh man, I'm so stoked!

 

Flying Battery Zone. Before the first moving platform brings you down, there's a handle. Grab it and there's a path to a Big Ring.

That's where I'll be practicing the new Special Stages. Just got to Stardust Speedway, 2 Emeralds so far.

EDIT: Taking a break because Metal Sonic beat my fucking face in.

 

Some thoughts after my first contact with it:

-Mighty is more fun to play as than I expected, although maybe it would have made sense for him to have a lower jump since he's supposed to be the heaviest character.
-The three different behaviors that he has when hitting spikes while curled up are... interesting. You can even roll on top of a row of spikes for a few seconds if you don't fall from too high.
-Feels weird that he can activate the temporary invincibility at will by hammer dropping them, though.

-Ray doesn't seem to break the game as much as I thought he would, at least as far as I've played with him.
-His Chemical Plant intro made me laugh out loud.
-The flaw in his "hanging" sprites (lacking flaps) is very apparent once you know about it.

-Mania Mode allows to play as Mighty or Ray, but the four additional slots that would be required for their two saves haven't been added. Bummer.

-The main mechanics in Encore Mode are pretty interesting. The palette swaps, not so much. But we all knew that already. =P

-The pinball seems to be a bit... clunky? Doesn't flow nearly as nicely as Sonic Spinball or even Revenge of the Gator.

-What happened with the new sound effects, seriously. They all seem to feel out of place in a Classic Sonic game.


Overall, I'd say that the Plus DLC is probably worth the 5 bucks but, after Sonic Mania's bar raise in quality, it feels like something went slightly wrong.

That said, I'd buy the physical release if I could afford one of those consoles.

 

This is a real shame! I had 8 perfect save slots of Emerald and non-Emerald playthroughs on my Mania save. Guess it's not so essential now that Super transformation is a seperate button though so I can hopefully live with sacrificing a save slot or two..

 

Cheeky buggers.

 

^ Yeah, noticed that when I quit the game earlier. It's literally the perfect place to put that easter egg.

Went to GameStop earlier today and acquired a Switch copy of Mania Plus. (I went to Walmart earlier, but they didn't have it.) Feels so great to finally have a physical copy...even though I don't actually have a Switch to play it on...yet. Until then, I still have my Steam copy + Encore pack. It's also worth it for the artbook (which is indeed beautiful, especially love the starting/ending pages that have the Yasuhara-styled sketches; and there's some really interesting boss sketches and HBH concept art), the reversible cover (also great), and for the plain simple fact of being able to show my personal further support for the developers and Classic Sonic projects.

Knowing the developers, I wouldn't be surprised if the original menu was hidden somewhere in the game and it could be accessed by some sort of special input / cheat code. Then again, that may be wishful thinking.

 

Just use Tails and fly up

(I did it again and again over 2 hours trying to get the final emerald!)

 

It's bug time again! Bugs present (that I knew about and could reproduce) in the last version I did this for, and their status now, spoilered for your convenience.

Spoiler

- At one specific spot in FBZ2 holding down puts you in your crouching animation on the ceiling, but the right way up (instead of upside down). (FIXED)
- There's no visual indication of when the Flying Battery boss can be hit. (NOT FIXED)
- Why is there no transition from Flying Battery to Press Garden? (FIXED)
- Rolling as Sonic or Knuckles while facing left on the rotating tubes in Press Garden make you do this odd skim along the top. (I thought this was intentional at first, until I tried doing it facing right or as Tails) (NOT FIXED)
- Holding left when entering the Press Garden miniboss prevents the boss from spawning and forces you to restart if you're playing as Knuckles. (FIXED by forcing a cutscene, which also fixes a conveyance issue - not the best way of doing it though)
- Breaking ice while the extra life jingle is playing causes the act clear jingle to play and stops the level music. (I previously claimed this to be fixed, but only the easily reproducible version was fixed - other related music bugs can still occur)
- There doesn't seem to be any reason behind when Metal Sonic is vulnerable. He becomes vulnerable in the last phase, but there's no visual or logical reason behind it. (FIXED by changing the boss)
- Why is there no transition from Stardust Speedway to Hydrocity? (FIXED)
- Holding left in Hydrocity, Tails can fall through the aqua shield monitor. (NOT FIXED)
- Heading upwards in Hydrocity tubes, Tails' tails point in the wrong direction. (FIXED)
- Collision with tubes in Hydrocity is generally wonky, especially where path swappers are concerned. (NOT FIXED)
- The HZ2 boss has exactly the same bug as the original HZ1 boss in that when the victory animation triggers and you're on the wall, you'll end up doing a pose standing on nothing. (NOT FIXED)
- Why is there no transition from Hydrocity to Mirage Saloon? (FIXED)
- Mirage Saloon Act 1 is terrible. It has literally every single problem that Sonic 2's Sky Chase does, and more. It goes on too long; it looks stupid running in place to move a plane (just let me move the plane directly and show Sonic looking cool on the plane instead, like he does at the end of the act); you can spindash (or new! Drop Dash!) on the plane, or just run as Super Sonic, and die; and it's off-putting when objects suddenly fly away from you because now you're moving down-left (in the original game, they waited until all objects were off-screen before panning like that so it looked like it was the Wing Fortress going past you, rather than sudden backwards flight). Come on guys, even Sonic 4 did this better. (LITERALLY NONE OF THESE THINGS FIXED)
- There's no indication that standing on the outside piston things in the OOZ1 boss will kill you. (NOT FIXED)
- The gas in OOZ2 decreases your ring count even when you're invincible (but not when you're Super). (NOT FIXED)
- Why is there no transition from Oil Ocean to Lava Reef? (FIXED - and how!)
- The rocks in Lava Reef still look like penises.
- Going too fast into the Lava Reef boss as Sonic (possibly requiring a drop dash?) reveals where the level ends as the tiles stop. (FIXED)
- Why is there no transition from Lava Reef to Metallic Madness? (FIXED)
- The MMZ1 boss can crush you without warning if you stand on the side of the screen. (FIXED by forcing a cutscene - again, not the best way of doing it)
- Entering a bonus stage in MMZ2 while mini will respawn you at normal size, and although it's still possible to complete the level it's incredibly unintuitive as to how to do so. (NOT FIXED)
- Flying during the dropping spike sections in Metallic Madness can make you clip through the floor. (FIXED)
- Spindashing on conveyor belts that are side-by-side while mini causes Sonic to collide with the edge of the second when he should just run along them. (NOT FIXED)
- Perhaps when Sonic is mini, Tails should respawn as mini too instead of continuing to try to run alongside you at his normal size. (FIXED)
- There's some kind of weird tile at the very start of Titanic Monarch 2, if you head left from the start. It looks like a wall tile but you can go partially through it. (NOT FIXED)
- Entering the final portal in Titanic Monarch 2 as Super Sonic turns Sonic back to normal, but continues to use the Super music. (FIXED - RIP Red Tails)
- Why can't I do repeated low bounces with the bubble shield like I can in Sonic 3? (NOT FIXED)
- Super Sonic uses regular Sonic sprites for many things, most egregiously the spiral tube in LRZ1. (FIXED)
- Blue Sphere stages remove an extra blue sphere from your counter when forming groups in a certain way. (FIXED)

Decent number of fixes. I get the feeling a few of those not fixed are intentional, which is... disappointing, to say the least.

Mighty is fun to play as, but he almost comes across as just being Sonic with a permanent bubble shield. Haven't gotten used to Ray yet, that's a task for another day, and I'll try out Encore mode then too.

Spoiler

I liked the old Metal Sonic boss better. This one is too cheap, taking one hit can bounce you into the death pit behind him. Bring back the wall!

 

Finished quite a bit of content...

1. Encore mode with all 7 emeralds and both endings.
2. A full Mania Mighty playthrough with all 7 emeralds.
3. About 4 zones as Ray (though I used him a lot more in Encore).

Overall thoughts?

The Encore special stages were actually easier than I expected them to be, I beat emerald 6 in only 2 tries. 7 in only 3 or so.

That's not to say that they're 'easy', I got the Mania mode 7 emeralds as Mighty with only missing Special Stage 5 once (and I hadn't touched the stages in 6+ months), so I've pretty much mastered this engine. But, actually, I think the new stages are a fair challenge. Much harder for the less seasoned, but still beatable if your reaction time is good.

The New Metal Sonic killed me quite a few times at first, but I eventually got the pattern (it just requires some patience and spindashing when he's open. Whatever you do, do NOT get behind his chest, that's near instant death unless you're super.) I can see why IGN complained about it, but it still falls back down into the 'git gud' category.

Some of the new special stage ring locations were quite a surprise, but many I've not yet found. I'm surprised you guys found an entire NEW set of places to hide nearly all of them... only 1-2 were in their original spot in nearly every act I tried.

Finally, the new Encore mode Mirage Saloon 1 is a 'great' level... huge, expansive, tons of paths to choose from. The previous videos don't really do it justice as I ended up choosing a path that was nothing like the ones previous playthroughs used. By this stage I stopped caring which character I used and was happy to run around with pretty much anyone. This solves Sonic's lack of an act 1 in spades (and combined with Knuckles exclusive act 1, now makes Mirage Saloon the biggest zone in the game, and as an all new level. Wonderful!)

All in all, Mania's a great package, no question. I've beaten Mania mode at least 7-8 times now, and Encore Mode once, yet I never cease to find new paths here and there in at least 1 stage.

Would I like a bigger final boss for Encore? Sure. But beyond that, this game is near perfection now. Only a few recycled layouts hold it back, and those honestly didn't bother me today in this playthrough.

 

I had Sonic and Ray at the time.

Beat Encore Mode with 3 Emeralds, got the fourth just now. I should quit for the night; I have to wake up at 5:30 for work.

 

I don't know if someone already reported this but... I think it's kinda important.

I really wanted to buy this expansion, but some problems with Steam during the day prevented me to do it (I hope having better luck tomorrow). So, while recently exploring the new update, I found out that you can access MOST of the DLC content from the Developer menu in the vanilla game... without having PAID for it.



It seems they were a little neglected this time, right?

 

I don't see this as a big deal, as funny as I thought this was when I tried it myself. Four-player splitscreen is not accessible, and neither are Mighty or Ray. Three of the biggest reasons you'd want to pay money for Encore aren't there from the developer menu.

For the most part, it seems exactly like playing the leaked PS4 build, with the broken version of Angel Island and all. It's a little fascinating.