Sonic Mania (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC...Netflix?)

I actually thought that reusing levels instead of making a whole new game (aka Sonic 4 as I imagined it) was Tax's idea considering the preexisting assets he has with his ports but I was wrong. Iizuka never ceases to disappoint.

 

I actually kind of get the feeling this game probably should be delayed and not released until 2018, which I've been saying for ages now. I mean, expecting such a small dev team to undertake such a mammoth project on their own was probably wishful thinking to start with. We are still seeing stupid graphical glitches and tile errors in the most recent trailers, the game as a whole looks really unpolished. And yeah, the trailers might be using old prototypes, but we haven't seen anything suggesting sprite polish. The trailers are all we have to go off.

It probably will be released in Summer though, if only because 2017 wouldn't be such the cool PR rebirth if Mania doesn't release.

But I wouldnt mind waiting until 2018 honestly.

 

I can't argue with the rest, because I haven't been paying attention to the sprite or anything of the like, but this part of your post bothers me. Every time someone gets their hands on the game, they all say it's fantastic and controls great. You can be upset about the graphics and sprites all you want, but if the game was unpolished control wise and the like, people would be talking about it.

 

I meant unpolished graphically.

 

I sure hope the point of Mania existing isn't to justify shoe-horning Classic Sonic into Forces...

Also, I hope Sega realizes that they can use Mania to bring in a younger audience and rejuvenate the fan base. I've seen very small kids (4 to 5 y/o) that love Sonic, yet have difficulty playing Adventure style, and find the Boost games too superficial and unfullfilling. Yet when they play the classics they are able to clumsily make reasonable progress. I think Mania, as a spinoff branch, has the potential to be a substantial portion of the IP, but from reading Iizuka'a words I don't get the impression he sees it that way. I honestly think a physical release, in addition to download, with maybe even a small Classic inspired display sign would be a very smart strategic move. I think Sega should try and put more weight behind Mania, not just hope it cators to the "sonic mania".

Lastly, I'm curious what their "BG-rules" are?

 

honesty I can't help but think Iizuka presents himself as a fearful jealous guy, the man who has had shit flung at him for his average games over the years now has some competition in the development department that was formed outside his circle. If Mania is a massive success while Forces isn't then this IMO would have backfired hard in his face career wise unless he tries to take some credit for Maina's development. I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for our homegrown devs under a NDA having some overhead doing minimal work while reaping in the credit as if he's the brains behind the project. Though if anything the chance to develop an official game as a fan is a dream come true so taking that political crap is a taken as the end goal is all that matters.

 

So now it's official that Sonic Mania truly takes place before Sonic 4? The Little Planet is still doomed I guess. I'm curious as to what the story is, but something tells me the Hardboiled Heavies were disappointed in how Eggman performed in the old zones which is why they probably returned to all the previous islands. They rebuilt the Flying Battery from his plans most likely (or salvaged and repaired it?). It better invade some other zones.

Edit: No game has ever been 100% polished, let alone any Sonic game ever. So those type of expectations are unrealistic.

 

Cheers for posting that.

I like the idea of it being set after 3K, and Sonic is 'clearing up' the rest of Robotnik's crap.

Good stuff

 

OK hold on. The only sprite work that doesn't look polished is the FBZ foreground and some randomly placed items in GHZ Act 2. The rest of it looks great. I hardly think this game needs to be pushed back because of that.

 

I really hope they have expanded this in someway, even if it's just giving Tails a button to teleport back on screen (or making it so he can't pass the boundaries of the screen). It would be great to get a 2 player Co-op Sonic game that wasn't frustrating!

I might be misremembering, but I think Stealth said something along the lines that they want to focus on getting all the new features in first. If they fixed all the glitches first, they would be wasting time, as when they added in new features it would create more glitches. So it's better to do all the glitch fixing towards the end when there's no more stuff to add. But like I said, I might be misremembering.

Iizuka does come across as credit hogging in that interview, which isn't very classy, but it could just be the way the interview was conducted. I doubt he is jealous or fearful of the team. If he was, he could deny them the extra development resources/time and just force them to release the game as it is.

 

Upper management in Japanese video game companies taking credit for the slave labor of their developers has been a thing since the '80s, more news at 11.

 

Iizuka hate aside, I love that line. This genuinely sounds like they're responding to our years of nagginglove with something that basically this site is bound to enjoy and they're doing it right. It basically sounds like he's saying "Sales be damned, just have fun you guys, thanks for sticking with us despite years of questionable decisions."

So thanks Iizuka, appreciate it :v: And yea, even if Iizuka was the one to say "put classic levels in this" it at least sounds like it was a compromise to the idea of more ports, which would be fun too, but we can still play the originals I'd rather have a new title even if it reuses older levels.

Also I kind of like the idea of the HBH's playing the boss role for the levels. It's in some ways a call back to the game gear Sonic games, where outside of Sonic 1 you never really fought Robotnik until the final level. If that's the case I'm fine with that.

 

This is a pretty gross exaggeration

 

Or as a counterpoint: what the fuck are you both smoking it looks great and it's not even finished yet.

 

"Pretty gross exaggeration" was my diplomatic way of saying "What the fuck are you smoking", so yeah :v:

 

Well, in general, the fact that the most serious issue I have about Mania so far is that it "doesn't correct (some of) the flaws of Genesis's games" is itself an indirect form of compliment. How good the game has to be so that its biggest problem is lack of polish in some details, especially in case of details that already existed in the original games?

Not that I think this is a good excuse to rid the game of criticism. I would say that the problems with the foreground of FBZ is something of the same level as, say... Mania bringing back Super Sonic, but without doing all his sprites (as in Sonic 3&K). Yes, it's like the original game, but no, I don't think it would be too much to ask from a new game to be careful to make some adjustments to make it look more polished, especially since they are making adjustments in other things.

 

I'm honestly happy about revisiting the old zone because we get to see them fleshed out further. Like, as tired as I am of seeing #FuckGHZ, being able to peel the curtain back and see all this extra content that was ""always there"", or how things may have changed, is really blissful. Had all the levels been revisited I think it would have felt bitter-sweet, but since we are also getting new zones, it's like... not only having a piece of cake, but also getting to eat said piece of cake... right?

Edit: oh, and also seeing the zones in a higher resolution with modest palette improvements will be the bees knees.

 

This is one of the most frustrating and infuriating things I've read in some time. He's starting from the assumption that a classic-style game is intrinsically a niche product. With a mindset like that, is it any wonder that Sonic 4 turned out so poor?

I hope Sonic Mania outsells Sonic Forces. Don't get me wrong, I want Forces to succeed. I want that game to turn out better than we're expecting and assuage all (most of) our fears about it. But if Mania outsells it, that might give Sega and Iizuka the dose of reality they need.

 

Even if Mania does outsell Forces, I don't think Sega/Iizuka are really going to think much of it. If only because A. Mania is going to cost a lot less than Forces, so of course it's going to outsell it in that regard, and B. Mania doesn't have a crazy high budget like Forces does, so they're likely expecting to make a large profit off of it either way.