Adding to the above, Classic Sonic's cobalt blue color is closer to the color scheme they've used for him in existing merchandise, some of the old promotional material (the stop-motion JP Sonic 1 commercial) and certain variants of the current Sega logo (primarily in Japan, I think; IIRC the Sega logo used in the West has usually had a darker shade of blue that matches Sonic as he appeared in the games as well as the post-Adventure designs). EDIT: Having gotten a better look at the larger size of that retouched Mania artwork of Sonic, they even gave his eyes the subtle brownish tint like in the other Genesis Sonic artwork for the games. Nice attention to detail!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_g-EPqRFe8 20 minutes, fairly recent. Bit of what appears to be a layers glitch at 2:00. Also, like others have mentioned, I don't love how some of the loops' barriers prevent you from going through them backwards. Really hoping the Sonic 2 zone *isn't* Chemical Plant. Had enough of Chemical Plant. Mystic Cave would be great, and is a strong contender. I'd love Aquatic Ruin the most... such a playful and pretty level. Imo it's the best a Sonic game has ever done the water trope, just it was agonisingly small in Sonic 2. But, with all the green from GHZ already, I'm not getting too hopeful for ARZ. Mystic Cave would probably sound great with Tee's work also. Yeah I know this discussion has come and gone but still... Mystic Cave or Aquatic Ruin plz. :D
You know, seeing how the Green Hill miniboss can actually be hit while in "attack mode" makes me think that it would be a lot of fun to try to defeat it with some well-timed instashields... :v: EDIT: Oh my god, the Orbinaut looks more worried as you break its satellites. LMAO. EDIT 2: The new idle animation for the Bubble Shield looks awesome. EDIT 3: ...Perhaps those are barriers for Knuckles' paths? By the way, something I don't think I've mentioned before: I love how they ditched the ear-piercing DAC drums from Sonic 1 even for the Green Hill music. They were by far more grating than nostalgic.
One thing that I would like to see added is some sort of indicator that you've hit a Combi-Ring monitor. Knuckles Chaotix had the icon at the bottom of the screen, but it was sort of intrusive. My idea is changing the Yellow font for Rings in the hud to a light blue (Alternatively you could change the Ring count instead).
Honestly I don't even see the point of that item. It does a thing that doesn't really matter very much. Sure, sometimes you'll save that 50+ rings you need, but more often than not I see it as not really having any impact on the player. Unless they've changed something up significantly, ring collection isn't a strong part of Sonic's gameplay. Fun, but not strong. The combo ring item thing only shines more light on the weak spot really.
Simple. Different color draws attention. It makes sense when you have 0 rings and it blinks with red cause you can die from the next hit. But when you are safe it only draws unnecessary attention and annoys you.
I had the same thought, honestly. The combi-ring being in Mania is more cool because it's such an obscure reference to Chaotix than it is useful as a power up. It's like a less effective shield, and we already have for sheilds in this game. You know what would be good though? Ring time from Generations, whereby approaching enemies would transform them into rings. I imagine that would have but more worth. So anyway, I went ahead and pre-ordered both the PS4 and PC versions of the Collectors Edition. It's a real crying shame that it's seemingly not getting a release outside of North America, especially because it's still only a digital release. But the fact that any kind of physical release and Collectors Edition makes me hopeful for the future. I just don't get why it's North America only. Region exclusives like that (and the Generations Collectors Edition) are always such a big middle finger to an entire site of the fanbase. In this case its especially weird, because there's no need to even produce another version of the game - it's just a download code. Oh well
I just noticed something in this video. At the 12:00 mark, there is a checkpoint so close to the signpost that it just looks redundant and seems strange. We know the Special Stages are accessed by big rings now, otherwise I would have suggested the checkpoints are used for accessing the Special Stage (which would explain the odd placement). Maybe the S3K Bonus stages are back? Or maybe it's just a mistake and I'm reading into it too much. Trash this post if it's already been discussed. [youtube]http://youtu.be/fEfKC4sxTG8?t=12m[/youtube]
Don't know about bonus stages but I'm pretty sure Studiopolis act 1 is going to have a miniboss as well.
If I had to guess, either the level is meant to continue (and they cut it off there for demo purposes) or there's supposed to be a miniboss/boss encounter in that area (which, again, could've been gutted from this demo).
Sonic 2 does this all the time, specifically for accessing special stages. Chances are the same applies here, but for bonus stages instead.
This. Green Hill Act 1 has a mini-boss so I'm sure that Studiopolis Act 1 will have one as well. I guess the signpost is there as a placeholder for the demo.
This particular checkpoint is right by the end of the stage, and it looks much more akin to S3K putting checkpoints before bosses. I think it's more likely that the checkpoint is also there because there's a bus at the end of Studiopolis 1 that's simply not present in the demo.
So, do any of these new Badniks have names yet? That little flying camera-mosquito robot better be called "Shutterbug".
Just to chime in on the barriers in GHZ from the last page, it's due to the game still being in development. I believe Taxman said that somewhere recently.
I was thinking about those earlier. Maybe they were just added to the demo to prevent people from taking too much time exploring at conventions or whatnot. A sort of "move along folks, save some for the fishes" type thing.
