Here's a potentially contentious issue. I've always sort of considered Sonic Pocket Adventure as part of the mainline 16-bit Sonic series. Much like Mania, it was a "best of" rehash of elements from Sonic 1 to 3k. Now that Mania has kind of stolen its crown, can it still keep the same company? Should there have been a "P" in the elevator?
I wouldn't put too much stock in the lift's button selections. You'll also note it's missing a C for CD as well =P
Man, when that pre-order trailer dropped, people began treating that Elevator as Sonic's version of Hyrule Historia. Tyson Hesse created a real monster. (edited version with Sonic Eraser, SegaSonic, Drift 1&2, Schoolhouse, Garfield double pack when? :v: )
Didn't Aaron and Tyson say that CD happened on "another elevator" during his time on the official stream, in a kind of hint-hint-nudge-nudge way that suggested they were talking about defining the timeline split of Mania and Forces? Or did I imagine that?
Even then that doesn't make sense because Stardust, Metal Sonic and Amy have to canonically appear in both timelines, so then what's the point? I do remember when Aaron and Tyson were vaguely referring to it, but its uneedlessly complicated now for some reason
Fingers crossed they were just having a giggle and weren't trying to give any serious answers. I'm 99% sure it's not there simply for aesthetic reasons, and because SEGA are probably too afraid to dictate it's placement in the timeline because no-one at SEGA can decide whether it takes place in between 1 and 2 (the correct placement, as agreed by scholars, doctors, scientists, upstanding citizens and probably people who worked on CD), or just some point after 2/3&K (only agreed upon by worst of humans, degenerates, all the worst criminal offenders, heathens, digital marketing managers, etc).
That's weird... I was just thinking about that this morning. Specifically, I was thinking about how unexpected Metallic Madness's inclusion was. It appears right before the final level (though I honestly don't mind that), it was the final level in the game it came from, and one of its mechanics (the tubes that let you change direction) was moved to Chemical Plant. Before the game was released, spotting level-specific mechanics in other levels was our main basis for determining whether a zone would be missing from Mania, and while it was a solid method of deductive reasoning, Metallic Madness ended up presenting itself as the sole exception. Personally, I never expected it to appear in Mania at all. I was actually quite upset when I first got there because I was never a fan of the original zone, but then I listened to the music and saw how good the level design was, and all was forgiven.
On that note, anyone else notice that from Mirage Saloon up to Metallic Madness, every zone seems to reference the zone immediately following it? The train in Mirage Saloon has oil tanks labelled OOZ, Oil Ocean Act 2's boss uses the weird gun-barrel arms from the original Lava Reef Act 1 boss, and Lava Reef uses the stomping platforms that used to be in Metallic Madness. Just something I find interesting. I also had a comment on Metallic Madness > Titanic Monarch and zone fatigue, because I have a different perspective on the issue. I think it's a shift in tone that needed proper buildup or transition and ended up getting neither. Metallic Madness was a Final zone before, but Mania's version does a lot to emphasize its more mischievous traits than its oppressive ones, both through the music's arrangements and the more competent level design making better use of the original zone's weird penchant for backward-facing diagonal springs. It's all in-line with Metallic Madness's brighter or more saturated coloring than other final zones (Scrap Brain, Death Egg, Death Egg again), too. The gachapon boss is the icing on the cake, being a fun and goofy self-referential fight with no menacing qualities to speak of. Meanwhile, Titanic Monarch is much darker (literally, at the beginning of act 1), more low-key in its music and overall presentation, and seems as a whole trying to evoke a sense of finality through escalating tension. These two tones clash pretty hard, and without any foreshadowing to the zone/structure's existence in the vein of the Death Egg's importance in S3K, complete with no scene transitioning out of Metallic Madness and into Titanic Monarch, the tension and importance the game tries to impart on the zone is kind of out-of-left-field and not very impactful. If the player'd been given a bigger connection to Titanic Monarch, either just in the transition between zones or throughout the whole game, I think it would've kept more steam and felt less fatiguing. Honestly, the whole situation gives me vibes of once-again trying to retain the attempt at reviving cut content from Sonic CD, with Metallic Madness being the lead-in to Final Fever; except, in this case, Final Fever is a full zone, and instead of feeling like an unexpected but welcome extension, it lands more in the park of "how much more do I have to go through?"
The first couple playthroughs of Titanic Monarch were a bit intimidating, but more so as I was too cautious and letting time run out. Last time I played it, I did so as Knuckles....while on the phone. The Act 1 boss was a bitch (how many hits is it? 20???), but only had a couple deaths. Act 2's portals gimmick was quite refreshing and truly allows the Zone to stand on its own. The level has the appearance and first impression of badassary, but it's more of a breeze than earlier levels. It makes Scrap Brain seem hard but I'm thankful too that it's not difficult to the point of causing physical damage from frustration! BUT Did they forget to put in a revamped version of the barrel here? It would have been totally appropriate.
An unused version of the barrel does actually exist in Mania, though it was intended for Metallic Madness rather than Titanic Monarch.
I just realised the parallels between Sonic Chaos and Mania's intros So can we retcon the story in Chaos to change that to the phantom ruby, rather than the red chaos emerald.
Speaking of which, is there any way to legit kill that boss as Knuckles without just damage-boosting the whole fight? His Jump-height just didn't seem to allow for clean hits for me.
There is, but I don't have the patience for it. The hit box during phase 1 seems to raise and lower at points I've yet to figure out any timing. I surprised myself a few times when I would jump across as the “balls (?)” retracted actually hitting something/the eye.
First Part is easy. It just requires some timing. https://my.mixtape.moe/ewqrfx.webm Second part is also easy, just requires you to be patient.
For phase 1 I usually charge a spin dash in the far corner of the screen. When the orbs come down you can spin dash and jump over them to hit the eye, then bounce back to the corner. You can get one hit in before the orbs move outward and one afterwards by this method without ever worrying about getting hit. The exploding spikes will always fly over you.
I have this criticism of Mania - its bosses often require too much waiting to beat safely, or abusing invincibility frames to beat quickly. You can beat the TM1 boss as Knuckles without taking damage, but it's so much more practical just to go at it with brute force. And CP1 is just boring to wait around for.
It's funny, because all prior examples of Taxman bosses follow the same format. Retro Sonic's 1st boss and the Hidden Palace boss both require a lot of waiting and dodging.
CPZ1's boss is so easy to just take the damage and wail on it, I feel like it shouldn't be so simple to win like this. Then again, it's only a Zone 2 boss so maybe that makes sense. Mega Man 10 had a good challenge mode which involved re-fighting the bosses but under certain conditions (Gold medal for not taking any damage). If Mania had included something like this it would have encouraged players to notice Boss Patterns and openings a little more. I would have probably preferred something like this over the Blue Spheres Medals.
I had the exact same criticism of the HPZ boss. If anything, that was even worse because you couldn't brute force your way to winning unless you had Tails to damage it whilst flying. Waiting and dodging doesn't have to be bad, as long as you can land more than a single hit when the opportunity arises, the waiting periods aren't excessive and the dodging is actually fun and involving. This is why I always hated a lot of bosses in the 3D games, particularly SA1. Chaos 4 was a slog.
