Accessible shmccessible! I just didn't get into Sonic for running fast and doing tricks, I got into Sonic for platforming and physics, which have been neglected for too long. I don't have any loyalty for the brand or the character, the moment Sonic lost the platforming and the physics was when they lost me, simple as that. If Mania succeeds in creating a new branch of Sonic games with the elements that brought me in the first time, I'll be more than glad to become a fan again, and pay for such games.
This isn't really news, but Youtube personality videogamedunkey made a video today that talked his thoughts on Sonic Mania. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxvPG4xCyCA The Mania part starts at 4:50, but the whole video is entertaining. What I take away from this video is that while I never would have taken Dunkey for a Sonic fan, he seems to have loved the classic games. This game is definitely attracting people outside of our core fandom, and likely will bring back people whose last Sonic game was on the Genesis. I know we get caught up with our own community and circles, but it is refreshing to hear what other people think of the game.
A channel with 3.4M subs calls Sonic Mania his most anticipated game of 2017. This can only be good for sales. Now all we need is for PewDiePie, Markiplier and Game Grumps to play it at release.
He spent their entire play-through of S3&K on Grumpcade bitching about it. In episode 1 he starts out saying he hates Sonic because "there's nothing to it, you just go" but then has his mind blown when Completionist shows him all the secrets. Guessing Arin just played the games "hold right to win" and never gave it any more thought than that. I kind of hope they give Mania a shot, but not if they're going to be dicks about it.
Well yeah. Arin's not actually good at video games. Like, at all. He just shouts and does really bad beat boxing into the mic and tries way too hard to be funny. Arin has already written off Mania in his tweets when it was announced and now. Don't expect Arin to suddenly change how he feels about Sonic. He's doing it because it's the cool thing to say that "Sonic was never good".
Honestly don't want Game Grumps playing Mania. The comments section after Arin's inevitable whining will just be like free pickings for trolls. It will just stink up the game to a large audience.
Given that this is a retro throwback, I do think we need to brace ourselves for some degree of Yooka-Laylee-esque backlash from people who haven't ever played a game like this, or haven't played one since they were kids. ESPECIALLY because it's still a Sonic game. Mania could perfectly recapture and reimagine that old-school style, but you'll still have some who'll hold it up as Proof That Sonic Was Never Good In The First Place.
So as someone who loved Banjo-Kazooie when I first played it a few years ago on Xbox 360: Yooka-Laylee didn't receive a backlash just because people think Banjo hasn't aged well. It received a backlash because it failed to be a good Banjo game to a lot of people. I won't go into the problems I have with the game because this isn't a discussion thread about Yooka-Laylee, but I imagine if it was a better designed game that it would have received more positive reception. It's just that reviewers who hadn't played Banjo-Kazooie in a long time blamed it on "the genre not having aged well." Anyway, I don't think Sonic Mania has to worry about review scores if it's actually a good Sonic game. Re-releases of the original Sonic games still review pretty well, and press reception for Mania has been incredibly positive so far. So I doubt this will be another Yooka-Laylee situation.
If I get an extra PC copy of this game I'd give it to Vinny from Vinesauce. He's playing a Sonic game this year apparently, might as well be this one. And I got tired of Game Grump long ago. There 10 minutes format, combined with the fact that they suck at video games, makes the videos awful to watch or listen to since it's mostly just Arin yelling.
Do we have any idea of the price yet? I'd like to buy copies for some of my friends who don't care about the series anymore but thought this looked good.
We don't, tough going by how digital-only games are usually priced these days I'm guessing it'll be 15-20 bucks.
Let's all just stop worrying about review scores for Mania. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the 4th highest scoring 3DS game of 2015, the only games with *slightly* better Metascores were SoR2, Gunstar Heroes and Majora's Mask. The Tax&Stealth remakes were very well-received by critics, Sonic CD got 8/10s from nearly all the big gaming mags and websites. You're forgetting that everything labelled as "Retro Sonic" will inevitably get good reviews and will be regarded as a good game by the general gaming public. Remember all those good reviews Sonic 4 Ep 1 got simply because of its "retro" aesthetics and gameplay? Sonic Mania, being as well-made and faithful to Sonic 1, 2 and CD as it is going to be, is pretty much destined to be a great, if not particularly memorable, game in the eyes of the public, which will regard anything that "returns to the roots" as good after the Sonic Boom debacle of 2014. The "proof that Sonic was never good in the first place" thing will most likely vanish once people get to actually play Mania, it was like a dumb meme that some jackasses came up with in 2015 because it was just "kewl" to hate Sonic at that time, and it will end like all dumb memes. And no Game Grumps LP is going to prevent that from happening (besides, almost no one defended Arin Hanson's whining in their Sonic 3&K LP, despite that game's apparent flaws and bugs). As already mentioned by some other people here, Mania will be covered by major youtubers with a more positive opinion on the classic Sonic games. Remember what Iizuka said, about old Mega Drive Sonic fans buying Mania because of nostalgia and teenagers and kids buying the game because they recognize the character from other Sonic games they've played (which could be modern and classic ones)? Pretty much that is going to happen. It's why Sega of America and Sega of Japan are even letting the Mania team make an official Sonic game.
Frankly, I can see the Grumps ignoring Mania entirely, and just homing in straight at Forces. Far less likely to get a backlash, far more comedy potential in mocking the OC creator.
So Aaron posted a pic of some Sonic themed cookies and cake pops that were available at some Sega event. Well, for today the catering company Beverly Hills Premier Catering and some of its employees have been posting some pics on instagram of them at the event calling it "the Sonic Mania event." Maybe it was to celebrate the game being finished or at least having a concrete release date? Anyways, I hope once it gets a release date they go all out on the marketing for it. I wouldn't even mind getting some 90s inspired advertisement like how they did the Collectors Edition commercial. I was thinking the other how a magazine ad would look like for Mania so I did this. Spoiler It would honestly take me back to the 90s if I saw something like this.
It's E3 Judges week, which is when game companies hold events where gaming press can already check out games before E3 actually starts. I saw gaming press tweet about the event, so it's almost certainly for that.
I think the Grumps will do Mania. Solely to fuel Arin's ego and his super funny opinion that "Sonic was never good". It's so funny. Arin Hanson is definitely a good judge of that.
It's so weird to me how Arin and Aaron are both quite close and yet Arin continues to intentionally shit on Sonic with no remorse. I'm not saying he should censor his opinions, but at least turn it down a LITTLE bit man. I'd like to think Arin can at least appriciate Mania purely on the principle of it but... probably not. Arin will be Arin. At the very least get Jirard back so it's not a one-sided assault.
Arin seems to like Sonic for everything except the gameplay. He's said the character designs are brilliant, loves the music, and the neat little touches in atmosphere. He can never get to the reason why we like Sonic, the idea of speed and fluidity as its own reward for exploration, convinced its purely nostalgia and aesthetics that fuel the fanbase. Also, to the internet at large, we're all furries. Won't deny there are some among us, but its disingenuousness is comforting to the cynics who went on DeviantArt 10 years ago and were, evidently, forever scarred.
