Topic: Sonic Mania Physical Release For PS4 (All Current Gen Systems?)

Opening to Sonic Mania. Gorgeously animated, I must say.

@KratosMD The pre reviews ive seen are mostly ten out of tens.

To be fair I wrote them both and was going to make a blag review website to make sure I win.

I read 4pm GMT tomorrow the embargo lifts, reported on another site. Not sure that's correct mind you.

And I'm in the 85+ Metacritic score boat :') although that might be pushing it. Still, it just can't go below 80!

@KratosMD Ahh happy days haha. It's nice to be right occasionally :')

@KratosMD not all the reviews are in and I can see this dropping into the early 80s when alls said and done which wont be a win in that case. Someone gave it a 60 on metacritic. I think its about time the lowest and highest scores on every review are discounted. Im sure there purposely scored to gain click throughs, both stupid high reviews on bang average games or weird low scores way out of kilter. If someones reviewing this who isnt an old fan they are doing the wrong reviews, @quintumply got it spot on in his review.

Im not a big fan of sonic and knuckles, much preferring sonic 2 if im honest so its a bitter sweet review as far as level design goes but I cant wait.

@themcnoisy Sonic 2 is actually my personal favourite! I've played it the most of any Sonic game. But Sonic Mania is so full of love and has genuinely great level design - I don't think you'll be disappointed. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks

Played it as soon as it unlocked last night, and played it more today. Haven't beaten it yet, as I'm stuck on Oil Ocean of all the zones.

Is that zone a favorite of fans? Because I didn't really care for it in Sonic 2, and am kinda surprised it returns here. Right now though, I hate the boss of act 2. It's giving me more hassle than I'd like to admit. I'm taking a small break because of how many times I've died to it already.

Otherwise, I'm enjoying it so far. I'm not really finding it better or worse than the originals though. It's about the same quality to me.

So from what I see this is just a remake of Sonic 2, I already own Sonic 2 so what's the point in me getting this?

@Tasuki look harder or take a punt and spend the equivalent of a large (edit: make that a medium actually!) pizza to find out for yourself, or do neither I guess!

Done a few zones tonight, loving it. It's gorgeous, sounds brilliant and feels super to play. The new zones are cool.

Very happy with it!

I love it! even more than I expected - and the level of challenge is just perfect. Hard but not too hard.
p.s.The new bonus stages are my jam!

@Tasuki its not, of the 4 zones ive played so far only chemical plant is from sonic 2. The games brilliant I thought you would be all over this.

@feena Im not into the sonic 3 orb collecting, im purposely dodging the stars when they appear such a lame sub game and goes on too long. The ufo catching is more my bag, but again for sub games they go on for ages.

@themcnoisy The orb collecting is a bit better than the UFO catching IMO. But it's a bummer they dont have the Sonic 2 half pipe runs.

I'm not too fussed about doing special stages at the moment, I'll be doing plenty of runs to get everything!

I loved Press Garden!

@kyleforrester87 Press Garden is the one I liked the least for now, but the second stage looks beautiful!. The remixed Fly Battery zone is amazing, though I found the boss a little bit too pesky. I won't keep blabbing because I feel like getting to see what old zones made it into the game is part of the fun...I am really really liking this.

p.s. I somehow finished one of those sphere collecting bonus levels and it gave me a medal and a new ability for Sonic. So I guess we have to complete them ;_;

@themcnoisy Honestly I have never been a big fan of the Sonic games, which is odd considering that Sonic 2 was packed in with my Genesis and I do have Sonic CD as well. They ain't bad but for me they aren't great either. I can take them or leave them. And honestly if I get the itch to play a Sonic game I will fire up the Genesis and play a few levels of that.

@Feena Yeah Act 2 of Press Garden looks so cool.

@Feena I really enjoy the UFO chase, though I'm having trouble with the third emerald. Blue Sphere is pretty fun too, even if I stink at it.

@kyleforrester87 I'm honestly glad the half-pipe didn't return. I tried to get the emeralds in Sonic 2 last year, and found it incredibly frustrating. If Tails didn't enter with you or at least didn't grab rings, I wouldn't hate it so much.

Wow what a game, from the clever remakes of classic levels and the amazing new ones and I can't tell you how happy the boss of Chemical Plant made me. I really enjoy the bonus stages too but I do prefer the half pipe to the spheres but the ufo catcher is fun. Overall a fantastic Sonic game and the best one for 23 years 😃 not only capturing the look of the originals but most importantly the physics are spot on. Can't wait for a sequel or similar work on Streets of Rage

@kyleforrester87 yeah me neither, ive noticed the trophies are all a bit rubbish. Get all silver in the mini games, all gold etc sod that. Theres like 30 of them, no way will i ever get that the orb collecting takes longer than the levels. We need some half pipes in our lives.

@dermeister oil ocean was one of the worst from sonic 2!

I feel some of the levels mash up previous games design. So in flying battery you have parts of other levels from previous games like launch base zone and wing fortress zone with similar layouts as well as for the most part flying battery. Its really well done. Casino night zone played a part in one of the earlier levels too although the level was called something else.

@themcnoisy I agree that the trophies aren't very good. I don't really care about trophies, but it's still a shame they didn't get a bit more creative with them, and the lack of a platinum is definitely odd.

I also agree with @DerMeister about Sonic 2's half pipe special stages. Getting chaos emeralds in that game is far too difficult. Tails is supposed to help but, because he moves and jumps a fraction of a second later than you do, he often will hit bombs, and your ring total takes a knock as well. You effectively have to play as both characters, in a sense, if you've any hope of getting all 7.

I said in my review that Sonic Mania's UFO catching special stages are probably the best special stages in the classic style games, and I stand by that. The rules make total sense, you don't have Tails to worry about, and (for me at least) they're more fun than any of the previous emerald-gathering stages. If the controls were tighter, I'd strip out the "probably" and say they're straight up the best.

As far as Oil Ocean is concerned - it was one of my least favourite zones in Sonic 2. I was definitely surprised to see it in Mania! From Sonic 2 I was expecting to see Casino Night or Mystic Cave, but I actually like what they did with Oil Ocean.

i was jaw dropped to see oil ocean zone, i really like the tactics to the first boss battle and the second one drove me nuts. very impressed with it