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

PlayStation and Xbox usually post the best-selling digital games for each month. But that's all they are--monthly sales. In most cases, digital games that debut to the top are just that--"just another game"--and they usually drop to a significantly lower place, if not disappear from the charts completely. There's also a site called PSNProfiles that has the little "card" details of pretty much every PSN member. You can use that as a metric to determine how many people purchased the game as well.

I think the important sales metrics for Mania in the context of its digital download status is more on whatever evergreen / shelf life the game has. If it gets GTA-esque legs and continues to show up in the charts well after its initial release, that should be enough to tell Sega they have something genuinely special on their hands. We've kinda seen this effect already with Sonic Mega Collection (Plus) compilation and Heroes--those titles continued to shift units in Sega's IR reports years after their release; which is pretty much unheard of for most Sonic games.

With that said, sales metrics are a good indicator too. If Mania managed to crack a million at least some few weeks, or even days after its release, that would be incredible. For comparison's sake, the only other sales metric we have for a non-mobile digital game is Sonic 4: Episode I, which cleared one million downloads across five platforms approximately a year after its release.

Aside from sales, I've also been wondering about Mania's reviews as well. Taxman's 2011 Sonic CD remake performed great across the board.

Metacritic / GameRankings:

iOS: 93 / 88%
360: 82 / 83%
PS3 80 / 78%

The iOS version of Sonic CD is notable for being the highest-scoring Sonic game overall on Metacritic, and was the second-highest scoring iOS game of that year on the site (losing the top spot to World of Goo). On GameRankings, it's the second-highest scoring Sonic game on the site with at least five reviews (only beaten by the original Genesis release of Sonic 3).

 

Re: The earlier discussion on certain classic zones

>Labyrinth
While the slow, blocky platforming would be completely out of place in any of the sequels (which is why I can't see it being in Mania despite some circumstantial evidence), it's fits well in the first game and is hardly the worst zone. Marble and Spring Yard both have more glaring and irritating flaws. I even have more criticisms of Star Light than Labyrinth, though it makes up for it in other areas.

>Marble Garden and Carnival Night
It actually baffles me that people dislike these zones. I've always found them to be among the strongest in S3K, along with Hydrocity, IceCap, Mushroom Hill and Lava Reef. The only significant flaws are the walls and floors that need spinning tops to break, and the GODDAMN BARREL.

>Sandopolis
Act 1 is boring. Act 2 is great. Why people think it's the other way around is beyond me.

 

So we know about Knuckles exclusive routes in Mania, but what are the odds that Tails has his own routes too? With Knuckles they explained it in world by his lower jump height and strength blocking off or expanding his layout options, but Tails has the same basic stats as Sonic. Any route Sonic has access to Tails does too. They would have to alter the layout slightly to force/funnel Tails into it, but I really hope they do have at least one path. We've never had a section that was built around Tails flight ability in a way that challenged players. All previous paths were optional and only provides extra rings or monitors, and I don't believe any Special Stage Rings were Tails exclusive.

 

While option, the Tails path in the beginning of Marble Garden 2 meets this criteria.

 

There's a big ring in MGZ1 that's supposed to be Tails-exclusive (you can reach it without glitches as Sonic alone, but it takes some tricky manoeuvring with the spinning tops).

There's a Tails-exclusive path in CNZ1 that leads to a big ring, but Sonic can access it from the other side.

At the start of Launch Base Zone, the spinny elevator thing takes Tails to a different place than it takes Sonic or Knuckles. There's a big ring there that's supposed to be Tails-exclusive, but Knuckles and Super Sonic can reach it with excessive backtracking. As a result of that spinny elevator thing, there's a small section of the level that can be accessed by Sonic or Knuckles, but not by Tails.

So although there wasn't much in the way of Sonic-only paths and Tails-only big rings, they were certainly intended even in S3K.

 

I'd love to see a Tails only path that takes advantage of his shorter height. One where if Sonic or Knuckles attempted entering, it would crush them.

 

In GHZ2 Mania, there's a breakable wall that's solid at the bottom. That means that's it's blocked off to Tails, but Sonic can still reach under the right circumstances (i.e. He has a fire shield). And Knuckles can obviously reach it any time.

With the drop dash could be possible to make some Sonic only paths, if we ignore the fact that Sonic himself wLon't be able to use them if he has an elemental shield on. I'm just thinking of the tunnels in stages like Ice Cap and Hill Top - you would roll around a loop and open a path in the ground on descent. IIRC jumping doesn't let you break the path open. Using the drop dash on such ground could open a route for Sonic that the other two wouldn't be able to reach.

Otherwise I'm not sure what could be done without making things too circumstantial. Maybe another option would be some kind of narrow gap that can only be gotten through by rolling, but it would be placed at the top of a steep hill so a spindash from the ground wouldn't get you up the slope. Sonic would be able to get under by using a drop dash at the top of the hill. It might make for some pretty obtuse and messy level design though. Same goes for any routes that would require an elemental shield.

 

Wasn't there that one section in GHZ2 where they tried flying Sonic through a gap with spikes with Tails and Sonic got hit? maybe if there was holes like that with spikes below them, meaning Tails can go in them easily but Sonic or Knuckles would have to take damage to do so?

 

Thinking about it more, it could be as easy as coming out of a different tube or gimmick than the other characters. It might not flow the best, but using that way you could force 4 different level paths for all 3, plus Sonic & Tails together, forcing the player to use tails fight together to proceed.

 

Reading NeoGAF today, a recent Sonic thread on whether Sonic 1 is better than Super Mario World and the love for Mania is astounding. For years that place has been so negative about Sonic, and so many of the posts are acting like Mania is the Second Coming and could possibly even top Sonic 3K (doubt it will, but expect it might come close!).

Really pleasant to see that everyone's so excited for the game. There's love for Mania everywhere. Hopefully the positive buzz will translate in to stellar sales.

Just over a month and a half left!

 

Sonic 4 did a shitty version of that with Metal Sonic and not Tails for some reason.

 

I have no idea why Sonic 4 didn't have Tails from the get-go. One of the big oversights in a game full of them.

 

Most likely due to an essential homing attack, which is another flaw.

 

Not even Sonic Rush (which I enjoyed TBH, but in retrospect it introduced a lot to Sonic that should've been left in the Rush series) saw fit to do that. There's no need for a homing attack in 2D gameplay and the fact that Dimps forgot that is asinine.

 

Probably next month I'll pre-order the PS4 version.

 

Sonic Rush has a prototype of the homing attack if you press the 'R-button' near an enemy, though.

 

Insert mandatory WHAAAAAAAT here.

 

I came across this new article/interview with Takashi Iizuka. They preview Forces/Mania in the article, before the interview, and prefer Mania. The following quote Iizuka is interesting albeit probably not surprising:

"GC: What do you do about elements in Sonic Forces which older fans might not like but kids will? Sonic's friends, for example. The goal in the demo level is to find Shadow. And, really… I don't want to find Shadow. I'd prefer he stayed lost.
TI: [laughs] In the past two decades Sonic games have been trying to target a broader audience from kids to adults. And Forces has that same idea, so that means a wider range of characters that we know children like. Even if other fans may not be quite as keen.
But for Mania it's kind of like a new approach. To target specifically 2D fans. So we don't know whether it'll be accepted positively in the market. We'll find out after the game's released, and we can figure out the direction of future titles after seeing the reaction".

Man, I hope this sells beyond our wildest dreams. We need to promote it to regular people when it comes out. :v:/>

 

There's one bit in that article that says "there's more Mode 7 style special effects than the original games used to manage". What does this mean? It is referring to a Sonic CD-like special stage, or am I saying something stupid?

 

I think there's a better chance that it's referring to sprite scaling/rotation overall effects than it probably is referring to the special stages which probably haven't been shown to the press.

But then again, Giant Bomb revealed what one of the bosses are even though THAT hasn't been shown to the public either, so who knows.