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

I'd be mega impressed if it went that deep.

 

Sonic Mania Day.......My parents did a great job hiding Sonic CD from me. I honestly thought they skipped a year, giving us Sonic Dpinball instead. In sure they saved hundreds of dollarskeepibg that system away from my Genesis. I'll need to refer to my in box Sega guide from Sonic 3 to see if it slipped past me, but I was unaware of Sonic CD until the end of 1994. I didn't even get Sonic & Knuckes. I remember renting it though. Back then, Blockbuster Video was renting Sonic 3 and S&K as a bundle.....meaning my copy of Sonic 3 wasn't needed. The tented game also had all clears all over the place do I saw everything out of order as I was do excited to have mote "Sonic 3" opened up to me. Before renting I had wondered why or want called Sonic 4. I still remember my neighbor/friend showing me the S&K logo for the first time. It was surreal as the only recognized combo was Sonic and Tails!

 

This rumour needs to die.

Sega ALWAYS consider Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles separate games. Sky Sanctuary is not the "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" representation in Generations, it's the "Sonic & Knuckles" representation, as seen in the credits. The reason there's no Sonic 3 level in Generations is that they chose three games from each era. There's no Shadow the Hedgehog level in Generations either, but that doesn't mean they consider Sonic Heroes & Shadow one game.

 

Yea but while Shadow and Heroes are similar to an extent, they're clearly not the same game (also Shadow was a spinoff it wouldn't make sense for that game to be represented). Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are absolutely the same game though. Plus most times when the games are mentioned it's mentioned as a whole.

They did sell Sonic 3 & Knuckles in its combined state on Steam though so that's something anyway. I'm curious. If the mobile Sonic 3 port ever came to be, would it be both games or would there be a Sonic 3 game and a Sonic & Knuckles game. I'd imagine they'd sell the combined game but you never know.

 

Wow, and to think I pre-ordered mine on September 14 last year, making it an 11 month wait!

 

Meanwhile I'm now up to $80AUD sitting on a Switch version pre-order at EB Games without actually knowing if Australia will be getting any kind of physical release yet. :v:

 

Welp, Aaron said on today's livestream that they will not be showing the Special Stage any time soon. He did hint that the clues are out there...to which I am clueless.

 

As long as it's not another fucking half pipe I'd say we're good

 

Could be referring to the "Blue Spheres" screenshot in one of the promo photographs that everyone dismissed a while back?

 

That, plus:

1. The special stages are accessed by giant rings across the zones ala S3&K

2. Taxman and Stealth showed off a fully re-vamped Blue Sphere complete with new mechanics along with their pitched prototype of S3&K before Mania was announced and I doubt that kind of work would be allowed to go to waste

 

Well...

1. Bonus Stages are also accessed by lamp posts

2. In Sonic & Knuckles, a throwback to the Sonic 1 special stages was included as one of these bonus stages

Hence, it's not inconceivable that the blue spheres stage we saw was actually a bonus stage intended as a throw back to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, rather than the new special stage.

An aside - Tax and Stealth have each independently come up with quite a few Special Stage variants across various projects.

 

That's true; I'm not saying Blue Sphere is a surefire thing, but it the evidence (that teaser image of the team next to a screen playing Blue Sphere) certainly points heavily towards it.

Though I wouldn't be opposed to them giving Sonic CD's another pass since even the HD remake still had the original's issue with depth perception.

 

Taxman or Stealth already said that we haven't seen the special stage yet when the blue sphere shot was posted.

 

This. The half pipe has been way too over abused.

 

What if the Special Stages played like Sonic Spinball? It would be fun to see that kind of gameplay with more traditional graphics and music.

I'm not too thrilled about the Bonus Stages returning - in Sonic 3 & Knuckles the ring requirement to enter them was way too low, they could drag on too long (except the gumball stage) and they were far too generous with how many rings, lives and shields they gave out.

Sure, you could just ignore them, but that's beside the point! They shouldn't have been game breaking to begin with!

 

and then it turns out Mania has every special stage, including half-pipes
But in all seriousness, what was this blue sphere post?

 

I don't know, I liked them. When I first played S3K, I admit there was a learning curve to the game. Those easy extra lives meant not having to start all the way over in the beginning of Angel Island again. Nowadays, sure, we're all seasoned veterans and don't particularly need them, but I think they're important for beginners as far as having a helping hand.

 

They were also important to when you would promise your friends when you get a game over they would get a turn :P

I would make sure to have 30 rings at the first checkpoint of Angel Island and get the slot machine level. Learned early on that the trick was to get over 30 in the slot machine itself then you would just need 1 of the rings that were sitting just outside of it and it would give you a continue. I farmed those so I never had to give up the controller :P

 

This. They said we hadn't seen it in direct response to that shot surfacing.

 

Oh yea, that was the post alright.