"Sonic Mania is the highest-rated new Sonic game in 15 years. Thank you all so much for being part of this journey with us," reads a rather proud-sounding post penned by the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account. The recently released retro-styled platformer currently sits at a metascore of 86 over on Metacritic, but does all of this really come as much of a surprise?
Ever since it was revealed, there's been a positive buzz surrounding Sonic Mania, and that positivity has carried through all the way to its eventual release. Of course, Mania isn't the only Sonic game hovering around at the moment. Barring any delays, Sonic Forces is due out later this year, although based on what we've seen of that one so far, we'd be shocked if it ended up anywhere near an 86 on Metacritic.
Are you hoping that the success of Sonic Mania will impact SEGA's treatment of the franchise going forward? Watch that blue blur go in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 20
Hopefully publishers and developers really take note of the success that Crash Bandicoot and now Sonic Mania are seeing.
If these franchises hadn't been butchered countless times by taking them in silly directions, they'd have stayed at the top just like Mario has continued to do for the past 20 years.
I guess the likes of Sonic Forces target a different, younger audience but still I fail to imagine anyone playing something like Sonic Unleashed or Crash of the Titans and going "yep, this is what makes Sonic/Crash great".
@roe Slow moving Mario was always going to translate into 3D easier than Sonic would, and you can't really blame Sega for trying to drag its mascot into the third dimension.
It's a shame it's taken so long to realise that Sonic just doesn't work if it isn't in 2D.
Pay heed Sega. Sonic has been mishandled far too many times
@kyleforrester87 for me, the bigger problem is that Sonic team have constantly felt the need to add stupid gimmicks and characters (read warehog, shadow, silver, etc etc). The classic sections in Sonic unleashed, and all of Sonic generations were brill. Somehow I lack faith in what they are trying to do with Sonic forces
Played a bit last night and was pretty impressed. I love the way the classic zones start out with a very familiar act and then mix it up for the second act.
Great game.
It's very good indeed and sprinkled with classy touches - I also liked Generations a lot, though.
@kyleforrester87 I don't blame them for making Sonic 3D at all and I actually like a lot of the 3D games, including the Adventures and the couple of Wii ones. They kept the franchise steady with the likes of Sonic Advance as well so I'm not too mad about that. What I'm "mad" about is rubbish stuff like the werehog sections, Sonic Boom and, seemingly, everything we know about Sonic Forces so far.
Like I said, I guess my point is more extended to the games like Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong Country etc. It's no surprise at all that as soon as those games are properly taken back to the root of what made them good, they get great reviews and sell well.
N. Sane Trilogy, DKC Returns/Tropical Freeze and Sonic Mania are so clearly better than games like Mind Over Mutant, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Shadow the Hedgehog that it really baffles me that we had to suffer so many bad games for well over a decade.
At least we finally seem to be back on track with mascot platformers being good again.
Highest in 15 years? Meaning that what beats it? Sonic Adventure 2? If so, that's a travesty... That game is such overrated garbage.
@roe It's really funny how many classic franchises of the 80's and 90's strayed from what made them great and then were stuck in a limbo of mediocrity (and sometimes downright awfulness) for so long. Donkey Kong, Crash, Sonic, Mega Man and Spyro all come to mind. Then, when the companies behind them take them back to their roots, they get all kinds of critical acclaim. It makes me wonder if the developers of these franchises will take note of this and keep these games true to their origins or if they'll get into a cycle of returning to origins, straying from the roots, and then returning again. With that said, I bet we'll be seeing a Spyro remastered trilogy very soon. I also wish we'd see more Mega Man games.
@Giygas_95 Not many people agree with me on this, but Mario has had it fairly bad too. The endless mediocre spin-offs and soulless main titles like the NSMB games hurt his image a lot.
@PotatoTheG No you're absolutely right. I just forgot about those. I'm so glad the NSMB series seems to have ended before it became an annual thing like CoD or Assassin's Creed (which by the way, is AC still an annual franchise?). Now when a new Mario game comes out it's actually a big occasion and the games look fresh.
If there's one thing I can give Nintendo props for, it's recognizing when certain of their franchises are becoming stale and just stepping back and taking a new approach to things.
Sonic going back to its roots was a good thing. I hope there will be a Mania 2 someday. As for Sonic forces, I can only hope it doesn't suck.
Nostalgia The Video Game: Starring Sonic is positively received, no surprises here.
@Rob_230 Totally agree. Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Colors were all great experiences because they focused strictly on running as Sonic (minus the wherehog of course, which I didn't even mind too much) and rewarded you more speed for learning the stages and being precise with your platforming. Sonic Lost World (never played it because I didn't enjoy the demo) apparently did this too, just on a slower scale.
It's funny because I was super hyped for when Sonic Forces was first announced... but with all of the focus on 2D Sonic and the custom character, plus the super linear stages we've seen so far, I'm very cautious about picking it up. At least Sonic Mania is turning out well!
@roe @Rob_230 You guys pretty much hit the nail on the head for me. I know the general consensus says 3D Sonic is terrible, but aside from '06 and Shadow, I've always thought that a decent portion of the games were good, or having potential otherwise. What dragged them down was unnecessary gimmicks and experimentation, something I hope gets done with after Forces. Did they really need to change it up after Generations? Did Unleashed need to have beat-em-up gameplay? Did Adventure need FISHING?
I don't really know what to make of Forces (doesn't help there isn't too much gameplay), but I do like how it appears to be going back to what worked for 3D Sonic.
Just 15 years? Sonic never transitioned well into 3D due to Sega never having a clear vision of what to do. It didn't help that Nintendo basically perfected it first go with Mario64 but they focused on just being a good Mario game. Where as with Sonic they seemed too concerned with introducing pointless extra characters and splitting their focus. Sonic Adventure 2 was potentially very good but you spend too much time walking in a mech as Tails or gliding aimlessly as Knuckles hoping that the emerald flashes on the screen.
Sonic Mania has stripped away 20 years of nonsense to reveal the true beauty of the Sonic games and hopefully will be used as the launch pad for things to come
Sonic mania needs a zoom out button.
@wiggleronacid @DerMeister
Ha. To my shame. I have copies of Sonic Colours on bot Wii and Ds sat unplayed. But Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure (plus the gba games were great) - just 2d fun with no gimmicks!
That is my concern with forces. I thought when it was announced 'brilliant, a spiritual sequel to generations' which nailed the feel of Sonic in a 3d plane for me. But then this character creation business came up and it just felt like a massive facepalm, and Sega repeating their mistakes all over again. I hope I am wrong.
The worst part for me is that Sonic is the IP they focus the most on and the games are subpar.
And this is part fan made and old levels so Sega still can't nail it.
I'm hoping that the success of sonic mania will impact sega's treatment of their franchise's going forward. I want to see some of their popular but forgotten (by sega) IP's getting a new lease of life with as much love put into it as sonic mania has had.
New streets of rage, new shining force!
Finished sonic mania last night currently having fun replaying it, took me back to my childhood
Tap here to load 20 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...