*This week we'll be reviewing the one you've all been waiting for...
Sonic MANIA.
Can it live up to the hype?*
Hype indeed Violet.
Now this is how a Sonic game is meant to be played.
*Although maybe with some overscan borders.*
and from the go, this feels, very, very much like a Sonic game.
Granted, it IS a Sonic game, but you know the score.
We've been through more games than Henry the Eighth had wives, and some of these games
truly deserved beheading.
Sonic Mania is a different kettle of fish, and Sonic popping out of his hole, a short
animation and the menu music set the scene.
Now, like the rest of this game's score, this the type of music I'd have left playing from
my Mega drive with pride, perhaps blaring out of my room so loud I could hear it whilst
eating dinner, and in fact this whole game captures the trendy as fried beans image that
Sonic epitomised in the 90s.
Not that blabbering, hot dog eating chump from later games, he just made me feel sick.
Sonic was always best when he couldn't speak.
His gestures conveyed all the information we needed... and it's good to see they remain
here in Sonic Mania.
In fact, they've even been improved.. although I do prefer the laid back Sonic 2, he's like,
whatever mate, I'll just chill here.
It's the same when he looks up, in earlier games, he doesn't even flinch, whereas Mania
Sonic is all like, you want me to look up?
Peering through the menus like a hungry rat, the options of the game present themselves,
including the ability to change the visual style of the game... wait a minute...
Sharp CRT style visuals on a CRT screen....
Oooohhhhh, yeah, now that's what I'm talking about..
ALL OF THE CRT.
Alright, that's probably a bit too much, standard screen mode is fine whilst playing through
a 1990s television.
But on a modern screen, I do rather like the sharp CRT mode, so that's probably what I'll
stick with for the majority of this review.
If you're not an interlaced fan, then there are a gazillion other Sonic Mania videos on
Youtube, so you're probably best heading to one of those.
Now there are two things I expect from a Sonic game to make it worthwhile.
The first is momentum, impulse, velocity, whatever you wish to call it.
This impetus is what the original games were packed with.
When done correctly, Sonic should feel like a pinball game, requiring nothing but the
odd, precise flick from the player... hence why Sonic Spinball worked so well..
Even on the Master System!
When done incorrectly Sonic feels like Sonic 4.
A sludgy, barricade encountering affair, that felt fit only for that hot dog idiot.
Thankfully, Sonic Mania is packed to the brim with the stuff.
It's overflowing with forward motion... alright, sometimes mixed with an effortless backward
motion.
Every crevice of the game carries you blissfully through the air, even on stages where you
might not necessarily expect it, and it feels marvelous.
Sonic is the kind of game which a 4 year old could play, and look like they knew what they
were doing, and paired with my skill level, that's essentially what's happening right
here.
My second expectation from a Sonic game is free will, without getting into the philosophical
nature of that.
The original games usually presented a variety of interconnected paths, allowing you to take
easier high routes, if you could tackle the more precise jumping, or more trudging low
routes, but which were often littered with secrets to make up for your fall.
Again, Mania is littered with multiple branching and interconnected routes.
Something I found particularly useful on the Flying Battery Zone, because for some reason,
I always need to switch my thumb stick direction to the direction Sonic is going, and when
that means accommodating his movements after being forced in different directions from
a spring, the game counts that as attempting to slow down...
OH, it's very counter intuitive.
But the choice is absolutely sublime, and shows that this is way more than a fan game.
To be fair though, all you've got to do is look at the credits screen to confirm this
is way more than a fan game.... although Christian Whitehead (aka The Taxman), did start with
creating the fan game Retro Sonic way back in 2008.
Sega's tactic of hiring this clearly talented chap, rather than issuing Nintendo-like lawsuits
was clearly a strong card.
And yes, those credits are still rolling.
But in conjunction with these essential mechanics, we have a compendium of features which make
this a smile inducing game.
Tails is back.
He's as dense as ever, but he's also quite useful at times, and retains the ability for
a second player to grab a pad and offer some human intelligence to proceedings.
We've also got Knuckles, along with his own levels, but I'm not going to go into too much
detail here, because I'm more about THE FEELS, than the details.. in this case at least.
And feel I do, because we have a variety of incredibly well executed nostalgic levels.
Which although done many times in the past, actually works well this time.
The tighter mechanics actually add to that wistful feeling, bringing an aspect of "new"
which we all encountered when playing Sonic for the first time in 1991...
Nostalgia isn't all about blind repetition, it's about evoking those same feelings.
For instance I'm sure these blocks were more forgiving in the first game, but the frustration
of finding this out, is the same as I felt when playing the original game...
So, BRAVO!
There's always 2 versions of me which need pleasing when it comes to a Sonic game.
A nostalgic me, and a gameplay me.
Thankfully the familiarity here ticks the nostalgia box, whilst the gameplay box is
kept more than pleased with tonnes of new features, new routes, tweaks to the music,
the controls, that new attack and of course, the plethora of brand new zones.
Interlaced elegantly between more familiar scenery, these levels keep intrigue turned
up high, especially with the bosses which seem to litter the end of every act.
But thankfully, the difficulty of these bosses is pitched tremendously well.
Rather than getting harder, each seems to just be drastically different, requiring a
different approach and keeping you on your toes.
This was done with previous Sonic games, but it's on a whole new level here.
We've even got to beat Robotnik's Mean Bean machine at one point.
And there's an absolute shaft full of other content, all with incredible attention to
detail, *I love how you can burn those troublesome spiked loggs for instance* *and that you can't
walk off the edge of these spikes anymore* *And that you can see further in front of
you with the widescreen aspect ratio*.
*We've got obstacles which seem familiar, yet hold enough difference to be exciting*,
We've got the familiar special zones, we have bonus rounds which sniff of subtle familiarity,
and we have a 2 player versus mode which makes me want to lick my Sonic 2 cartridge with
a glistening tongue of youthful memories.
We've even got secrets and extras which hark back to the cheats of the original game, such
as being able to swap the sprites around and explore the level maps in debug mode.
I remember playing Sonic for the first time on my Mega Drive, and it wasn't just being
a great game which made Sonic memorable.
It was the feeling of holding the cutting edge of gaming in my hands and watching these
dazzling, fast paced graphics fly about.
I guess, as well as a great game, it was a thing of pride for Mega Drive owners.
Perhaps a smug satisfaction over those childish 8 bit owners...
OH HOW WE LAUGHED.
Hardware progression has essentially made that feeling a relic of the past now, but
I've always been disappointed that Sega didn't take Sonic down the same route as Mario, with
ever more enhanced platform variants, getting the most out of each new system.
It's one factor which made me cautious of Sonic Mania, because although the game looked
good.
It's still based on graphics of the past.
It feels like it's perhaps the Sonic which should have appeared on the Saturn or the
Dreamcast.
In fact, I believe the engine, was designed to appear somewhere between the Mega Drive
and Saturn graphics standard.
Thankfully none of that matters though, because it works.
It works beautifully.
90's Sonic in HD looks glorious, even when you smash it back into a by-gone era of indistinct
definition on a 90s CRT.
Sonic Mania is a labour of love.
From these TVs, reminiscent of the 90s Sega Adverts to
Mega Drive power light introduction.
It's something we don't often associate with the Sonic franchise anymore, but hopefully
a sign of better things to come.
I won't sit here and tell you there's 13 zones.
I won't tell you all about the glitches which have been found so far, some of which being
quite funny.
I won't tell you about how much of a pain in the backside it was to relocate my Xbox
ONE to film it on this CRT, because once you play Sonic Mania, nothing else matters in
your life anymore, there are no problems, everything makes sense.
It's bloomin' beautiful.
Remember to eat.
Oh, and, he's still called Robotnik, ok?
Thanks for watching.
More videos here.
Methods of helping me under that.
Have a great evening!
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