Looks similar to Sonic CD's SS where each just has a unique theme and not based on a zone from the game. We've seen four of Mania's special stage themes so far and none look like a zone from the game or from the classics IMO. The other three being:
Those floating spheres in the special stages, one looks partially destroyed. They have to mean something. Another is showing crystals (and magnificent reflectivity on the ground water).
So, why does the Nintendo eShop not have this on their "coming soon" page? You'd think Sega would want to advertise it on every console it will be on, but instead, the coming soon games have like 3 indie games that come out around the same time. Just weird since we know Sonic does well on Nintendo consoles, so you'd expect it to be advertised.
According to GamesRadar you can retry Time Attack by holding Y/triangle. http://www.gamesradar.com/sonic-mania-makes-a-clear-distinction-between-special-and-bonus-stages-ones-fun-the-other-is-far-from-it/ They're not so keen on the Blue Spheres Bonus Stages however.
Surely this doesn't mean what I think it means. The rest of the article is basically saying "if you liked Blue Sphere before, you'll still like it now. If you didn't..."
Because it's the 90s again and the Sonic vs. Mario debate is a big part of that nostalgia, and it's just one more hype outlet to get us through the next 9 days.
I never understood the hate for blue spheres other than it's difficulty. I always felt that special stage was tough but fair and extremely well thought-out.
Expect a lot of this kind of silliness when the actual reviews come out and modern gamers re-assess 90s gaming again. While I can see their point, Blue Spheres are a proven mechanic. Fortunately, they love everything else. Call me paranoid about getting a good metacritic score this time 'round. I just want to see this game do really well critically for once.
Call me casual, but I honestly hope that's the case. A big part of me being hesitant to playing Sonic 3 is the fact that if I fail a Blue Sphere stage, I have to go hunt down another ring to try again, and the last time I went ring hunting, I was beating my head against a wall trying to platform to a ring. So being able to try again immediately would be nice.
Considering Special Stage retries was a praised feature of Sonic Time Twisted, the inclusion of retries in Sonic Mania would be just as welcome.
Yeah, I know it sounds like a massive dumbing down, but a retry function is a godsave. I'd be so fucked if Sonic CD 2011 and Sonic 4 didn't offer those options.
The mobile ports of Sonic 1 2 and CD had special stage retries. If you pause during a special stage right before you fail, you can restart it at the cost of one life. Maybe they're trying to make this standard for Sonic games? I guess I'm okay with it. Faster Super Sonic doesn't bother me at all.
My understanding is that Rings go down per second in the special stage, and from the looks of it, you keep your main level ring count, a la Chaotix Bonus stages. So, Special Stages being reaccesible sounds odd until you realize their is consequences for doing it.
I really dislike this mechanic because it also encourages you to memorize the position of the first 7 special rings and never bother to search for them past first few zones.
If the number of rings you have play a factor and if they don't respawn in a stage, I think that's fine. Also gives the blue combine ring more of a purpose. EDIT: Looking at the footage again, doesn't seem like that's the case. Hmmm...
This idea (unlimited special stage attempts) sounds absolutely terrible to me. This would mean that one can easily get Super Sonic on their first playthrough simply by finding seven giant rings (regardless of familiarity with the special stages) which could be done by the end of the second zone. Not only does this devalue the giant rings, of which there will be ~50 across the game, but it will also enable the vast majority of players to acquire what is effectively a bonus mode on their first playthrough and interfere with how the levels and bosses were designed to be first experienced. Sonic 3 & Knuckles nailed the implementation of Super forms, by A) restoring all giant rings once the save file has been cleared, and B) providing a zone select per-save so any unlocked super forms can be used in any zone. I would hate to see this changed in a bad direction. On the official channel's video, Sonic has 104 rings when entering the special stage, and starts the special stage with 25 on the clock. Where did you get this idea?
