Sonic Mania Plus announced. Physical release, Mighty & Ray!

[Specineff]

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/201 ... haracters/

-Artbook

-Holographic slip cover.

-Megadrive/Genesis sleeve.

-Remixed Zones.

-Four-player mode

-Mighty and Ray are back from Segasonic.

-PS4, Switch, Xbone.

-30 bucks.

-Summer 2018.

[Durandal]

-Mighty and Ray are back from Segasonic.

who

[Jonny2x4]

The two extra player characters from the Sonic arcade game that used trackball controls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzsdBMg8eOA

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWvAKSBSM-8

Cartoon shorts coming too

[JBC]

Really glad to see Mighty & Ray again. Will probably get the Switch version this time.

[BrianC]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

[soprano1]

Ha ha, after the bullshit optimization failures and bad publicity with Denuvo on the PC version, they probably just went "Fuck it, consoles only this time".

[Sumez]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

The Chaotix team of annoyin furries have been in countless other Sonic games since then.

[JBC]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

The Chaotix team of annoyin furries have been in countless other Sonic games since then.

You take it back! Charmy is cool man. Charmy is cool!

[BrianC]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

The Chaotix team of annoyin furries have been in countless other Sonic games since then.

Mighty hasn't and Ray hasn't been in a game since segasonic.

[ZellSF]

Ha ha, after the bullshit optimization failures and bad publicity with Denuvo on the PC version, they probably just went "Fuck it, consoles only this time".

They might just be trying another deluded way of dealing with PC piracy: delayed releases.

[soprano1]

They might just be trying another deluded way of dealing with PC piracy: delayed releases.

Deluded is a nice way of putting it.

[FRO]

I held out buying it digitally because I hoped at some point there'd be a physical release. Good things come to those who wait!

[FabulousVioletGuy]

If there's a PC version, hopefully this time it doesn't come with harmful anti-consumer DRMalware, the reason I never purchased it in the first place.

[Dale]

Ha ha, after the bullshit optimization failures and bad publicity with Denuvo on the PC version, they probably just went "Fuck it, consoles only this time".

Damn these problems we created. We'll show them no pc release.

[BulletMagnet]

IIRC owners of the "original" Sonic Mania get the extra stuff via a free update.

[Zcvvhyhc]

I enjoyed Sonic Mania so much. I just hope it's going to be released on PC as well. Hoped for Amy of Cream as characters though.

[mycophobia]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

I remember them from the Knuckles comic

[pandaphantasm]

I absolutely love Sonic Mania and the augmented release made me drool with excitement because I, too, was under the impression that...

IIRC owners of the "original" Sonic Mania get the extra stuff via a free update.

But unfortunately...

While not quite the full sequel announcement we’ve been hoping for, the game is getting a physical retail re-launch under the name Sonic Mania Plus, and the new content will be available as paid DLC for anyone who already owns the game.

Boooooo!

(Also: Hello! This is my first post on here. Feels like it's been centuries since I've posted on an actual message board. Damn you social media!)

[BrianC]

I guess nobody wants to mention Knuckles Chaotix?

I remember them from the Knuckles comic

Mighty was refered to as a character from the arcade game, despite how he was also in Chaotix. At least nobody called him "not Sonic".

[BulletMagnet]

But unfortunately...

Ugh, seems you're right...that is kind of a dick move, hopefully it's cheap at least.

[soprano1]

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/01/so ... ns-sequel/
Interview from Famitsu.

[Sumez]

Why did I think the physical version wouldn't come out until August? Apparently it's due next week. And it's super cheap, too. I think this might be my first Switch purchase.

[Sumez]

Just quickly got through the first three zones last night. Not really enamored with the game or anything so far.

Is it like ridiculously overrated, or will I eventually buy into it? I absolutely love the original Sonic games, though mostly Sonic 3, and this does feel like the exact same thing again.
However, that's where the issues arise - playing a new Sonic game made with the exact same design philosophy makes me realise that maybe those people who claim that "sonic was always broken" are right after all? Maybe the reason I enjoy Sonic 3 so much is that I've played it enough to know the stages well enough to not be bothered by all the bullshit? At least that gives me hope that a few more playthroughs will make me appreciate it more.

Sonic Mania, despite being released 23 years later, plenty of time to reflect on all the things the game could have done better, seems to repeat every single dumb descision in the original games. Traps that will punish you for going fast, enemies that break the flow of the game, and bosses where it's impossible to discern what you can actually touch without getting hit. And just like in the old games, you kind of let it slide because it's impossible to die in the game anyway. You just pick single ring back up, and you are golden. Hell, it even repeats huge sections of level design directly from all of the zones that it revisits. I came here to play a sequel, not a remake.

Sonic Mania of course does deserve praise for being the first 2D Sonic game in 23 years to actually understand what 2D Sonic should play like, and I do enjoy revisiting the bright, fun and colorful atmosphere that is admittedly the sole thing that makes me appreciate Sonic 3 in the first place.

[mycophobia]

Mania's original zones are some of the best in the series imo, a shame there's only like four of them. I can't really consider it a sequel to 3 as some others do.

[M.Knight]

Traps that will punish you for going fast, enemies that break the flow of the game, and bosses where it's impossible to discern what you can actually touch without getting hit. And just like in the old games, you kind of let it slide because it's impossible to die in the game anyway. You just pick single ring back up, and you are golden.

I tried the game a bit at a convention and that sums up my experience with it. Admittedly, I've never played the Sonic series that much and have mostly been on the Mario Bros side, but the few times I tried a Sonic game, I found the stop&go pacing and level design to be irritating. Either the level plays automatically for you or you have to move much more slowly to defeat the enemies and clear the platforming challenges. And the bosses are meh.

[BIL]

I have a frustrated attraction to their nice bouncy handling, but my issue with the old Sonics (mostly the first two) is they make me work for something I don't care about. I'm not skullfucking a dangerous boss so hard my dick explodes out the back of his head as the screaming crowd is showered in bone chips and brain matter, or shredding zako at such pace hell itself keels over and pukes the overload, or nailing life/death leaps that'd make Philippe Petit shit his briefs in weeping terror. I'm not even battling for survival against cruel odds. I'm child-minding some furry cunt who can't die though interchangeable stop/start clutterboxes and wishing I was reading Sonichu instead. I get that they smooth out with experience, and you can import a bit of do/die danger in the process, but it's not enough yield for an inherently toxic brute gamer like me.

I'd rather replay Klonoa and cry like a bitch at the ending. 3; Every time!

Does this pull the camera back a bit? I was almost gonna get Sonic CD but just... couldn't... do it! RRRAAH! (read that last bit like Snake in MGS1 when you try making him hit Grey Fox with a rocket! also don't get me wrong, I am EXCEEDINGLY grateful for the series and its success - I shudder at how many immortal classics might not've been, sans the funding it provided!)

[null1024]

I came here to play a sequel, not a remake.

Sonic Mania of course does deserve praise for being the first 2D Sonic game in 23 years to actually understand what 2D Sonic should play like, and I do enjoy revisiting the bright, fun and colorful atmosphere that is admittedly the sole thing that makes me appreciate Sonic 3 in the first place.

Honestly, you're about a year too late on this one. The game was visibly rushed at release, and Plus only fixes a handful of things. The game was originally advertised as being a "remixed" version of some classic stages [shit, the original pitch was incredibly unambitious compared to what we got].
Most of the praise is because it actually gets what made oldschool Sonic work right. It doesn't really rock the boat at all. It's more of what you loved, but with better graphics and sound, like a 1995 release that never was. And it deserves the praise for that.

As for Sonic was never good... nah, that's still bullshit.
Mania also doesn't have a single stage that has as much "what the fuck why did I get hit" as say, S3's Marble Garden.

also, I liked a lot of the remixed stages -- there's almost none of the original layout left in the Sonic CD stage remakes [good], Oil Ocean is also wildly different and dramatically better than in S2
of all the stages, I'm only kinda annoyed at GHZ [we've actually had way too much GHZ, that was a wasted slot], CPZ [it's not that much fun], Hydrocity [ah, let's take the famously fast water stage and slow it the fuck down, blah], and Mirage Saloon 1 [it's just Sky Chase, and that shit'd put me to sleep, but at least Encore mode fixes that one]

Does this pull the camera back a bit? I was almost gonna get Sonic CD but just... couldn't... do it! RRRAAH! (read that last bit like Snake in MGS1 when you try making him hit Grey Fox with a rocket! also don't get me wrong, I am EXCEEDINGLY grateful for the series and its success - I shudder at how many immortal classics might not've been, sans the funding it provided!)

No. Hell, I'm still kinda annoyed that the game doesn't use CD's camera, where it adjusts to the side when you're going fast [shit, the CD remake doesn't use it if you aren't using the original Sonic CD spindash].
as an aside, don't actually play CD, the stage design is designed to stop you from keeping speed for more than a few seconds at a time [because otherwise, you'd actually be able to trigger the time warps, fucking hell]

and you're really looking up the wrong series, Sonic doesn't have anything to offer someone like you unless you somehow get into speedrunning and feel like trying to beat the best

The Sonic series [and a good bit of Sonic Team's design philosophy, see NiGHTS for another clear example] is to make shit that's easy to get through on a basic level, but you're really chasing after better times/ranks/scores.
really, every single Sonic Team game ever follows this

There was an interview regarding Sonic 1 that I recall reading a while ago where one of them compared playing Sonic to F-1 racing, where yeah, any idiot could do a lap around the course at ordinary highway speed, but you had to really learn the lines and go through if you wanted a proper time.

It would be nice if the only official way to do time attack wasn't Sonic Jam and its occasional hints of slowdown [or frequent slowdown if you're playing Sonic 2] until the mobile ports, though. CD always had it available right out the gate, but CD's got dumb levels.
Otherwise, you were stuck with level select to chase after each stage.

S1 at least has one of the easiest level selects ever [up, down, left, right, a+start], so you really can just pick up and play any stage and go at it, but S2's is fucking annoying [slowly input some long ass set of numbers in sound test]. S3 without locking on S&K is is nearly impossible [did it once in my life, there's spots where it deliberately doesn't read input when you have to put it in, and before S&K, people would actually do bullshit like a cartswap with S2 with the machine on since the RAM flag for level select was the same], and then S&K's is easy and relatively quick, but you have to go in the level and do it on a specific object [swinging vines in AIZ if you're playing S3&K, the pulley in MHZ if you're playing S&K alone].
an all-clear save in any of the S3 games lets you start at any Zone, but not each Act

tl;dr:
camera's the same but widescreen, you're probably not gonna like Sonic if you don't get into time-attack, BIL

[BIL]

Thanks for your usual considered response null. This and vanilla Rockman are two big sidescrolling series I keep bouncing off of, despite them having isolated things I really like. After like five years of herculean effort I just about figured out the latter, so I hold out some hope!

and you're really looking up the wrong series, Sonic doesn't have anything to offer someone like you unless you somehow get into speedrunning and feel like trying to beat the best

Not that I'd assume I could make the game look that damn good, but it's shame Sonic got mothballed on Saturn. That sort of bounce with Assault Suit Leynos 2's zooming camera sounds alright. (sometimes I wonder if it's my wizened 35yo balls killing the mojo, but I don't think I'm quite that geriatric just yet... I'm definitely a bit more cameraphobic than the norm, Story of Thor's relentless screen edge-riding gives me literal headaches)

[mycophobia]

There was an interview regarding Sonic 1 that I recall reading a while ago where one of them compared playing Sonic to F-1 racing, where yeah, any idiot could do a lap around the course at ordinary highway speed, but you had to really learn the lines and go through if you wanted a proper time.

I like what Megaplay Sonic 1 did, which was give you a really strict time limit for each act meaning you effectively had to speedrun the game to survive.