My memory is veeeeery fuzzy given how long it's been since I've played the mobile versions, but wasn't it just CD that used a simulated d-pad, with 1 and 2 having something closer to approximating an analogue stick? Either way, I'm pretty much in agreement - doesn't matter how good the remakes are, the phone was never going to be the ideal way to play them, and that's true for Mania as well (though the mess of this release is doing any favours). It's honestly a little baffling not only that 1 and 2 were stuck in mobile jail for so long to begin with, but that they're now going full circle with putting Mania on mobiles when it can run on pretty much any PC made after the death of dial-up.
1 and 2's UI does make it look analogue, but at the end of the day it's still just a D-Pad since RSDK only processes digital input like the Mega Drive originals. Honestly it's kind of surprising that the remasters and Mania never did add analogue movement, I think it'd enhance how you work with momentum.
This is really impressive! Played Mania at 240p on my Wii via my CRT a few weeks back and loved it. Kinda wondered then if any Dreamcast port had made any strides, but did not expect to see it this good. Hope we can get audio soon.
Oh wow this is looking to be in much better of a state than last time I saw it. Back then each tile was a unique quad which lagged the hell out of the console, so it's good to see they got the rendering engine in a more stable state. Maybe some day someone will be insane enough to get a pseudo demake of Mania going on the Saturn as the game was kind of designed as if it were a Saturn game.
Technically impressive, but good grief the screen crunch is real. In that regard, it looks more like something from the Game Gear.
It's kind of funny that despite the Mega Drive originals being 4:3 and everyone being used to it, when Mania gets put into 4:3 it's odd and unnatural, despite being the same (but higher color count) sprites and parts of levels.
16:9 is definitely a quality of life feature that 2D Sonic games sorely need. It's a criticism that's been done to death that Sonic's speed doesn't mesh well with hazards and a limited view. So I wouldn't say we're spoiled by 16:9, but instead, it's such a natural and necessary aspect of 2D Sonic, that to take games that were always in that ratio and put it back in 4:3 is very jarring and would definitely change the way you play it.
I find it kind of hilarious that seemingly a lot of people here can’t stand playing the classic games in 4:3 despite that being the only option for many years. I find myself playing emulated MD versions more than any Retro Engine/remake versions just because they load faster, don’t have to deal with extra menus, and they don’t have the occasional physics oddities.
I'm so used to the classics that I didn't even notice that DC demo 'wasn't' in widescreen. Not that I want to go back. Widescreen is absolutely a massive improvement, it's just I have that much experience with the old limitations that my brain didn't even notice it at first.
I have no real issue swapping from 4:3 to 16:9 and back but I can also agree that the additional real estate is really nice. Still find myself playing the games a lot on a CRT at 4:3 though, even stuff like Sonic 3 AIR for mods and it’s additional features.
Widescreen certainly isn't "necessary" for 2D Sonic, in fact, usually quite the opposite. 16:9 ruins boss arenas in the original games, so 4:3 will always be superior in games designed for it.
The Metallic Madness boss in the CD remaster added lasers to the sides that functioned as walls to avoid that problem, but they looked hilariously out of place aesthetics-wise.
Sonic 1 also did it in both 2013 and Origins release, except aesthetics-wise it looks better and organic here. The Big Arms arena in Origins ver. of Sonic 3 don't let you go off-screen too iirc.
You’re thinking of Sonic 3 AIR, which has invisible wall objects around the arena. Origins lets you go off the sides, which have a hover object, ala Sky Sanctuary, there. Honestly, either I would have put in walls like 3 AIR or have it be a bottomless pit. As an aside regarding bosses in widescreen, while most of them do indeed end up kinda weird with arena changes, some actually work better with the wider screen real estate - EHZ, CNZ(S2), HTZ, DEZ(S2), AIZ2, HCZ2, MGZ2, CNZ1(S3), CNZ2(S3), LBZ1, MHZ2, SOZ1, SOZ2 and DEZ1(SK) are the stages whose bosses I argue benefit from the wider screen estate as they require little to no functional changes to the boss design while simultaneously improving visibility greatly.
I actually was thinking about this one, but I think I just explained it badly lol. I do like A.I.R.'s solution too tho'. I think I just prefer Origins' one because it felt more... creative. Althought, I would understand Origins' solution would be maybe a little annoying for some people, so they would rather have the invisible walls.
