Sonic Mania is a 2D platformer game for PS4, XBONE, Switch and PC was developed by PagodaWest Games and Headcannon, while being published by SEGA. It was digitally released in year Summer 2017, while getting physically released in next summer 2018 as "Sonic Mania Plus" with additional content in the game, artbook and reversible game cover.
I was hoping SEGA to make another great Sonic titles for future gaming since I got really disappointed with hearing such titles like Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyrics which had so many piss-poor reception from fans and critics, while I did give a chance with games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generation which brings a huge justice to Sonic franchise.
Due to negativity reception of some previous titles, SEGA and the developers had decided to work on classic 2D style title similar to earlier Sonic titles for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive, so we have Sonic Mania had finally make a return of the classic form for the series. The reaction to the game announcement had gain positive overall for its classic roots which could lead to a renaissance of Sonic series as the game finally got released for the modern game consoles and PCs, it became well received title for its 2D gameplay style, presentation, level design, music and being faithfulness to the early Sonic games were praised as being one of the best Sonic games of 2017 and it had sold over one million copies worldwide across all platforms.
As the fan of the Sonic franchises, I got really excited to play another classic Sonic game as I finally got the game physically for my PS4 for £16 from Argos. After beating a game for a weeks, I was very super satisfied with the whole game had turned out quite amazing to see how Christian Whitehead, a lead developer and programmer who previously worked on enhanced ports of earlier Sonic titles for PCs, Consoles and Mobile devices, did a fabulous job of making this game so much fun to play which really adds my nostalgia of good old 16-bit gaming days.
This game has original 2D gameplay, polish looking graphics, upbeat soundtrack, and additional features to this game. Sonic Mania is definitely a fan tribute to past Sonic titles which is very close to fan-made game that are normally featured on the ROM Hacking community where you can able to download and play any of their awesome hacked or fan remade version of Sonic titles on particular emulators which really enhances the new experience that the fan community did such an innovative job that inspires SEGA's developers to make a wicked 2D Sonic game again like Sonic Mania has to offer.
So without go further do, let's start review.
Presentation
The game starts out with cool looking title screen just like the earlier Sonic titles, so moving on with the story.
The story in the game starts out at the following the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic and Tails receive a powerful energy reading from Angel Island and board their biplane to investigate until they discovered Dr. Robotnik's elite groups known as EggRobos had retained a magical gemstone called the Phantom Ruby which leads them becoming the Hard Boiled Heavies, while sending Sonic and Tails through places they have previously visited from the past as they set off their mission to prevent Dr. Robotnik from using the ruby's power for evil.
I got to say the story in the game is somewhat simple as it only shows 30 seconds of opening cutscene which is not that complicated to understand because this game doesn't really need to add proper complex story to make the story elements sounds good, so this is what the game meant to be like that doesn't really need cheesy dialogue, weird storyplot and poor voice cast from the 3D Sonic titles as the story in this game is just absolutely fine the way it should be.
You can also watch 5 cool animated short mini-series called Sonic Mania Adventures on YouTube channel which depicts Sonic's return to his world following the events of Sonic Forces, teaming up with his friends to prevent Eggman and Metal Sonic from collecting the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald.
Going back to this game, it features your favourite playable heroes on the series such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna from the earlier Sonic titles, while the plus edition added 2 new playable characters from the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog such as Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Squirrel which I never actually heard of these characters back then, but I think it's sounded pretty cool to have them on this game since Ray the Squirrel haven't been appeared on every Sonic titles, while Mighty the Armadillo did however become last playable character in 1995's Knuckles Chaotix for SEGA 32X.
I really liked Dr. Robotnik as the main villain of whole Sonic titles which he loves causing many trouble and being obsessed with chaos emeralds, while I also liked the other villains in the game such as Fang the Sniper, Bean the Dynamite, and Bark the Polar Bear are making an appearance in the Mirage Saloon Zone as boss characters which I finding it a great choice for this game.
The presentation is looking just like the classic Sonic titles as you expect. The level environments is looking so much colourful and detailed for every levels as the game features 8 remixed zones from the classic Sonic titles such as Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, Flying Battery Zone, Stardust Speedway Zone, Hydrocity Zone, Oil Ocean Zone, Lava Reef Zone, Metallic Madness Zone which is completely a remade of the original stages that expands the newer elements and recycled ideas from past Sonic titles meaning that all the stages are being extended to make it more bigger level design, while this game introducing 4 brand new zones on this game such as Studiopolis Zone, Press Garden Zone, Mirage Saloon Zone, and Titanic Monarch Zone are also great addition that brings a fantastic concept to this game.
What really baffled me the most was there are some of my favourites stages from classic Sonic titles such as Marble Zone, Casino Night Zone and Ice Cap Zone are the greatest stage zones of all Sonic game that are missing in this game which is kinda shame that I really wanted to see these stages included in Sonic Mania to gain our gaming nostalgia of 16-bit days.
Overall, it has classic style level presentation, memorable characters and nice short cutscenes.
Gameplay
The plus version game featured mania mode, encore mode, time attack mode, and competition mode.
On mania mode, you can select any of playable characters such as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, and Ray. It plays on 2D side-scrolling perspective as your goal is to beat the two acts of certain zones including boss battles and you are also required to collect 7 chaos emeralds by completing special stages to reveal true ending.
Each of playable characters has different abilities like most of them including Sonic uses spindash, while others such as Tails has ability to fly and swim, Knuckles has ability to glide and climb walls, Mighty uses his hammer drop, and Ray uses air glide which really benefits the 2D gameplay mechanics.
Most of the levels had filled with hazardous areas, smaller enemies and couple of dead ends in which you are required to avoid enemy's projectiles and falling off the stage, while you can attack the enemies by jumping on them to kill. There are item box that comes in useful which gives you ability to perform any of these cool things like Power Sneakers which makes you run high speed, Invincibility to make you invincible for 10 seconds, and different types of Shield to protect you from projectiles for one hit. You will need to collect rings which acts as the character's health, but getting hit by the enemies or any hazardous can lead you to lose many of rings in which you can still collecting many remaining rings before it starts disappear in next 5 seconds.
I got to say that controlling the characters in the game is very good for its movement which is very close to earlier SEGA Genesis/Megadrive title, so I see no signs of any input delays and clumsiness in this game meaning that the game had smooth controls and has great use of mechanics which makes the playability more responsive and playable.
The level design in the game is looking spectacular for its multiple paths meaning that it's easier to explore the whole levels to search for secrets and it's great for smaller puzzle aspects which increases the fun factor of the game. My favourite part of the level was Metallic Madness Zone where you can able to jump off the seesaws from foreground into a second layer of Zone geometry in the background, granting the player extra platforming segments which I finding it look awesome. Another segmants that I also liked was getting rid of smokey area and jumping into submarine in Oil Ocean Zone, riding with Tornado plane in Mirage Saloon Zone, and walking on top of the magnetic surface in Flying Battery Zone are also pretty good that adds newer elements to this game.
I finding the boss battles in each zones are quite entertaining to play because of the overall challenge and epic action that makes the game worth playing, so you have really cool boss segmants such as Eggman's huge ass robot, Mean Bean Machine battle, Helicopter segmants, Metal Sonic battle, and many more to fight with that giving us a most epic boss battles in gaming history.
You can also discover secrets such as a huge gold ring which takes you to special stage which is similar to Sonic CD as it plays on 3D perspective. Instead of attacking UFOs like on Sonic CD, your goal is to collect all 7 chaos emeralds by chasing UFO before time runs out so you will need to collect blue bouncy balls to extend your speed and rings to increase time limits. Once you have 7 chaos emeralds, you will now become Super Sonic by activating with 50 rings which makes him super powerful Hedgehog throughout the stages. So far I really liked this special stage for its challenge because everytime you make lot of mistake and not able to gain chaos emeralds then you are able to get used with the special stages at the end once you finally grab chaos emeralds from the UFOs which really adds the overall fun of the game.
There are another bonus stage where you will need over 35 rings before jumping into checkpoint which will accessed you to blue Spheres stages from Sonic 3 where you will need to collect all medals by beating all the blue spheres stage with all remaining blue ones without having to touch the red ones. Having to collecting all medals which will unlock your style abilities from Sonic CD and Sonic 3, and having Knuckles as secondary partner which replaces Tails during the in-game levels. To tell you the truth, I'm not so good at the blue spheres stages as I finding it incredibility impossible to beat which took me while to beat all the stages as possible to gain all the gold medals, but that just me because I know lot of you enjoyed this bonus stage doesn't mean its kinda bad at the same time because I'm still grateful to play with this bonus stage featured in this game.
The bonus stage that I really liked the most was the pinball stage in encore mode where you need to collect remaining characters and items which I finding it quite straightforward because it's just a simple pinball stage just to grab what you need in the game.
You can also enjoy another game modes such as encore mode is just another remixes of mania mode with entirely new areas and different object placements where you get to play as all characters while teaming up in two party. The time attack mode is just a quick practice on each zones where you had to beat the certain of records, while competition mode has 4-player battle where you and your friends had to race each other in split-screen gameplay.
Overall, it has great classic 2D gameplay, cool level zones, entertaining boss battles, fun game mode, and has good special stage.
Graphics
The graphics in the game is absolutely top-notch which is just like the good old 16-bit days. It has amazing character's sprites with smooth looking animation and personalities. I find the level environments are very colourful and detailed in every zones with cleaner textures on the walls and surfaces, awesome parallax scrolling on the background environments just ran so smoothly, and the special effects in the game is also pretty good as I really liked to look at fiery lava shoots out from the pit in Lava Reef Zone, the water animation in Hydrocity Zone is quite good with great use of transparency, and I love how the whole level of Oil Ocean Zone goes fully smoky which is excellent to enhanced the game overall.
I also liked the look of the 3D style graphics in special stage in which I felt it has more of the SEGA Saturn vibes to it due to stage design choices and 3D character's animation.
I got to say that it's definitely by far one of the best looking classic game that developers had ever produced which really fits the game very well for classic style platformer genres.
Overall, it has smooth animation, colourful environments, awesome use of parallax scrolling and cool special effects.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack is by far the best part of the game as the music combines with the style of Sonic CD and Sonic 3 to fit perfectly for 16-bit era. Most of the music in each zones from older Sonic games had been rearranged with mixed between classics and upbeating style genres which is a nice remade of all original soundtracks. It was been composed by Tee Lopes did a fabulous job of remixing some of the great soundtracks of classic Sonic titles, while some of them are newer on some stages which are also sounds great in the game.
The game does retain the same sound effects from classic Sonic games which are still sounds great for most of the level in the game.
Overall, it has fantastic remixed originals soundtracks and retains classic sound effects from older Sonic games.
Special Features
The physical copy of the game comes with nicely made holographic slipcase, reversible game cover which resembles SEGA Genesis/Megadrive game cover, 32 page of artbook, and packed with all completed content including 2 new characters and encore mode. The game does have unlockable stuff such as sound test known as D.A Garden, Blue Sphere stage, and Mean Bean Machine battle.
Another coolest features in the game was the debug mode where you can able to use debug program to have fun messing around the game, while you can also use cheat codes to access level select which is awesome.
Overall, it has amazing physical bundle packed with all additional contents and unlockable stuff in the game.
Advantages
Great presentation
Memorable characters
Classic style gameplay
Epic boss battles
Fun special stages
Colourful graphics
Fantastic remixed original soundtrack
Physical copy packed with all additional contents
Unlockable stuff
Disadvantages
No platinum trophies (WTF!)
Some favourite stages are missing in the game (such as Marble Zone, Casino Night Zone and Ice Cap Zone)
Final Verdict
Presentation 8.5/10 - classic style level presentation, memorable characters and nice short cutscenes.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - great classic 2D gameplay, cool level zones, entertaining boss battles, fun game mode, and has good special stage.
Graphics 9/10 - smooth animation, colourful environments, awesome use of parallax scrolling and cool special effects.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic remixed originals soundtracks and retains classic sound effects from older Sonic games.
Special Features 9/10 - has amazing physical bundle packed with all additional contents and unlockable stuff in the game.
Overall
8.5/10 - Sonic Mania Plus is definitely a best Sonic game of this generation. I'm very glad that SEGA and developers went back to the classic roots to give this game a fairer chance. It brings me so much nostalgia that how much I love that blue hedgehog had given me such a wonderful memories back then.
This game packed with amazing 12 zones, entertaining boss fights, quality gameplay and graphics, replay values, and many more has to offer that the fan of the series will be very pleased to see how this game had turns out to become another successful 2D platformer for Sonic series.
Despite the series did get lot of bad reputation due to piss-poor reception of some Sonic titles in mid-2000s, this game deserves much credit because I really enjoyed the game and I'm very glad that I've picked up physically are worth for my video game collection, so if you're the fan of the Sonic franchise or those who likes playing platformer genres then pick this game up and have fun playing this awesome title.
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