beat the game with all emeralds as sonic like half an hour ago you goddamn lunatics did it. holy shit. you fucking made a great sonic the hedgehog game. i cannot believe i just played a great sonic the hedgehog game. i hope there is a god and you guys get to make another game with all original levels (don't get me wrong what you did with the classic levels was fantastic, you managed to mash together my literal two least favorite sonic levels and i somehow managed to not completely hate it)
I beat the game as Tails in around four hours, with 3 emeralds. Overall it was an uplifting experience, and you can tell it was made by a passionate team! I feel grateful for all of the things that conspired to make this game a reality, and seeing all of the people who normally make fun of Sonic games turn around and praise this is wonderful. Non-spoilery thoughts: Cons: - All the warts from the classic games' physics are present and accounted for, so precision platforming is still tricky with that bowling ball acceleration. It would have also been nice to see similar quality-of-life improvements to Tails and Knuckles as with Sonic's drop dash. As a Tails main, I'd love to be able to hold down to descend faster while flying; Sometimes I'd accidentally press jump twice while jumping at a boss and end up soaring into the air, missing the window of opportunity. - A few of the bosses drag on with periods where they can't be hurt. Pros: - Smart level design that anticipates where you're likely to go and doesn't thrust you into spikes/enemies/etc as much as the Genesis games, which makes my personal gripe with classic physics far less of an issue. - Dat pixel art - Dat music - Dat animation - Nice unlockables - A super fun special stage, easily my favorite out of both the classic and Advance series. - Excellent final boss (or penultimate boss if you have all the emeralds), probably my favorite of all the classic games. It even resets the timer before the fight due to how long the preceding act is. Spoilery thoughts: Spoiler - Stardust Speedway is probably my favorite of the remade zones. Both acts are gorgeous, the layout isn't nearly as confusing as in CD, and the Metal Sonic fight is quite the spectacle (although it took me a while to figure out how I was supposed to damage him and it feels very obviously choreographed with the way you can't damage him at first and then suddenly you can in the final phase). - Favorite boss fight is probably Hydrocity Act 1. Nice twist! - Re: The ending tying into Forces; If that's true, then I'm amused at the irony that the most fangame-like aspect of this game was something that Sega themselves insisted on. :v: Honestly I don't mind, especially if this entices people who play Forces to double dip with Mania and find out how Classic Sonic got involved in the first place. - It's genuinely touching that Heavy Rider's motobug is named after Jim. If that was intentional, then that's awesome! Playing Mania made me feel more confident that Freedom Planet 2 is branching in a different direction. Both are 32-bit styled but in different ways, and even though they share similar stage gimmicks, the context and theming makes them feel different.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the plot. What did you guys think about it? Spoiler Why is there a Time Stone in Angel Island to be more specific And I'm guessing it becomes Infinite's power?
Who the fuck though it was a good idea to go back to Act 1 after you get a Game Over. I just died to the final boss and have to do that ridiculous final zone again Otherwise, I love Mania.
Played for a bit. Jumbled thoughts incoming. I hate Sonic 3's Special Stage. Making it a bonus stage for Mania is supremely aggravating for me. The actual special stage is alright, but also a little aggravating. Sonic doesn't turn well at all. The music is kinda just there. I'd praise Tee Lopes for crafting an inoffensive soundtrack for the game but it doesn't really sound like a compliment. There are a couple of great twists on old tracks but nothing I'd throw up on my Google Play. That Chemical Plant Puyo Pop boss was a bit of a dick move because, funnily enough, I'm not a big fan of Puyo Pop. Yes I know it's a Mean Bean Machine callback. But it's still Puyo Pop. Kinda makes me not even want to play that zone ever again. Only kinda, cause turning Act 2 into Wacky Workbench Redux was neat. But seriously, I do not like Puyo Pop. Oil Ocean's twist was bloody amazing, and an excellent way to reference Sandopolis's ghost thing. That was brilliant. Titanic Monarch Zone is weird and feels entirely out of place. From the visuals to the design to the music, it feels like it does not belong at all. I appreciate that you guys wanted your own twist on the Final Zone trope but this felt like a miss to me. Press Garden, though oddly named, is definitely my favorite original zone of the lot. Looks great, and I love the familiar but weirdly applied gimmicks. Conveyor belts that bounce you, and fling you around too? You guy's are sooooo cray-cray. That's all I've got right now.
I also don't like the final zone. Well, I like it but feels it goes on far too long. It's the only zone that pisses me off. That and the fact I have to keep replaying the whole bloody thing :p Is there any 'infinite lives' code or something :v:
Completed Sonic & Tails with all of the emeralds. It was an amazing 3 hours. If the devs are reading thank you so much for bringing back a special time in my life when it was just my Genesis and me. Only thing though, Spoiler I apparently unlocked peel out and the insta-shield which the insta-shield was one of my only gripes with the game and I was thrilled to see it again. However I cannot find how to use it at all. It's not in any menus and I tried starting a no save file. How the heck do you use it? Also maybe can we get a patch that lets you use it in your save files?
Go to No Save, then the button legend beneath should have a button for Secrets depending on your console (It's Triangle for PS4.)
You have to wait for his electricity charge to cool down and then he's vulnerable. i got halfway through and died :v:
Ran into a bug in one of the blue spheres stages. The counter got off or something. Said I had only 2 spheres remaining when 3 were on the board right in front of me. When I collected 2, one blue sphere flew away with all the other yellow and red spheres. I caught it on my twitch stream, I'll try and find it later after I get some sleep.
Oh there is an opening? I figured, but I'm tired and impatient and kinda wanted to just beat him to death so I could see the (bad) ending.
Spoiler Start spindashing and release it the moment he stops zapping. His shield doesn't pop up again until a few moments after he's done. It's not as bad as a certain magician Heavy's unfair shuffle, because somehow I can't figure that out.
Build up some lives in the earlier zones and take your time to explore and enjoy the game that you been waiting for, for so long. I really hope the game is chalanging like you say, because I want to push my sonic skills to the limits! I havnt played the game yet myself , I tried and failed to stay up to midnight but due to heat exhaustion from peeling paint Off my house in the hot sun yesterday, I just couldn't push myself to keep my eyes open, failed at around 11:40pm.
Honestly the final boss is the only one that killed me. And also the first boss, because it wasn't entirely clear I was supposed to fight it so I just kept my distance and ran out of ground :v:/> Which brings me to one more complaint. This game doesn't always do a great job of telling the player what they're expected to do. I can't give specifics right now, but there were a few times were I just jumped on something without knowing for sure what to expect. Andrew75: I wouldn't say the game is challenging at all, really. I got two game overs, and I don't think I would've gotten either had I been approaching this game like I do every other time I've played a new 2D Sonic game. The only things that may be challenging are the boss fights, which pull the most shenanigans by far. And no, seriously, literally changing the game the player is playing is just a bad call. I honestly wasn't sure if it mattered if I won or lost the first time I encountered that Puyo boss because I thought "surely this is just a neat callback and the real boss will pop out if either I or Eggman lose?". Nope, you better know how to stack a decent 2 or 3 puyo chain otherwise this is where you die.
Aww man I can't play it till 11:00 am here in Florida. Got the x-box one version. Aww really? maybe they can add a Hard mode later ? hmm wishful thinking I suppose.
Spoiler the Metal Sonic fight as Knuckles is super annoying. As Sonic, you have multiple ways to beat him because Sonic jumps higher and thus, it's way easier to bounce Silver Sonic into him. Because knuckles jumps lower if you get under silver sonic and jump upward, he's not flung as far up and won't hit Metal Sonic. There was only 1 reliable way to get hits in on that boss as Knuckles, and it took me like 3 lives to figure out. You have to get in close to silver sonic, so when he spin dashes, he'll stay on the ground rather than jumping over you, and just as he takes off, spin dash back into him, and he'll slam into the wall to reliably hit metal sonic. That boss is the only time I have ever legitimately gotten a time over in a Sonic game outside of the barrel. I spent 10 minutes trying to hit him as Knuckles. by contrast, as Sonic, I beat him in my first go around in like under a minute without losing a life.
Spoiler You can just hit them with a single spin dash charge while they're still charging their spin dash. Try it out.
