Sonic Mania

With two Sonic games coming out this year, Sega starts off strong with Sonic Mania, essentially a love letter to the Genesis titles made by fan-game creator Christian Whitehead and using his Retro Engine. Basically, this game is what Sonic 4 Part 1 and 2, which were average games at best, should be.

The first thing I have to say is the level design is superb. They provide a nice balance between platforming and speed, and even with levels that were simply reused themes, such as Green Hill Zone, have some sort of twist. Controls are also nice and responsive (as far as gameplay is concerned) and works well with either single or duo Joy-Con play. The graphics also receive an upgrade from the Genesis. In fact, I could go as far as to say it's more like a 32x, maybe Saturn, game, and the animation is pretty fluid and bouncy. In the special stages, it goes into an Emerald Stage, which is chasing an UFO to catch get the Emerald, goes into a Saturn like style, which keeps use with the classic aesthetic the game has.

If there are some issues I have, they're small, but they are noticeable. First of all, this is the Switch version I'm reviewing, and these problems seem to be exclusive for the platform. Also, from what research I've did, the port to Switch was done by Tantalus Media, who were responsible for many licensed games, though they do port jobs such as Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD, Zombi (which is basically Zombi U for PS4, Xbox One, and PC), and the soon to be release Rime for Switch, so I can't blame the main devs themselves, and I can only imagine the company will do a better job with Switch games in the future. Anyway, one of these two issues is that the special stages, which I'm sure isn't that demanding on the Switch, does drop frames. They're not big dips like 60 fps all the way to 15 fps. It just drops down to the 50s for a second and that's it, and that's if you experience it. Another, more noticeable issue is that the Home and Screenshot buttons have a delay. Yeah, you heard that right. These two buttons have a delay on the Nintendo Switch, and sometimes, they don't even work. Again, they're not gamebreaking bugs, easily overlooked even, but it's kind of disappointing that they exist. They should be fixed whenever they release a patch though.

Simply put, this game is a love letter to the classic games of the Genesis, and whatever system you want it for, it's a must have, and even with the Switch version's problems, it's still the version I recommend getting, if you have one. It's simply that much of a blast, even without Blast Processing.

UPDATE: Due to a recent patch that was FINALLY delivered. Not only did they fix the Home button issue, but they added a separate button for Super Form, which is now X instead of tapping jump twice, so no accidental transformations.

(Review based on Steam PC version) After the mediocre two-episode "Sonic 4" I was more tempered with Sonic Mania. Even though Mania looked to be taking a few more pages from the classics on the Genesis era I still went in largely skeptical and a bit blase about it if only for the fact this looked to be another heavy embankment on nostalgia more than trying anything really new. Returning levels had been done and not done well prior and I was mostly set up for an average experience. Still the development team lead by Christian Whitehead who helped port many classics and made a name for himself in the ROM hacking community did give me some encouragement.

After three plays of Mania (Sonic+Tails, Tails, and Knuckles) I can say it's a worthy callback to the classics made by the hardest of hard core fans getting a sense more what made the originals good and not relying heavily on nostalgia. Besides Sonic 1-3&K we have homages and little hints towards every game in Sonic's long history. Sounds and nods to even the 8Bit Sonic games, Sonic CD, Genesis era games, a little of the 3D era and even Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine are all represented here and it works. Sporting new level aesthetics and character animations add extra touches and magic, such as lighting the oil on fire with a flame shield! Brilliant! Designs are like the classics (though let's not dig up the trivial "Waah Sonic has Green Eyes" nonsense) controls are like the classics everything is tightly focused and well polished as games that came before it.

The music is better replicating the old 16bit soundtracks, better than Sonic 4's bland midi synth. Tee Lopes makes fantastic new tracks and great remixes of old stages too, but nothing musically will ever beat Sonic 3 & Knuckles but this comes pretty close. Still I didn't care for the mini boss music or the renditions of Stardust Speedway, which was based mostly on the Japan tracks which personally I found inferior to the U.S. Mixes and to the original. The original stages shine brightly and my praises there. My personal favorite has to be Lava Reef Zone 2 with the added guitars.

The game's fault lies in the fact it had to go back to old stages again, 60% of the game is remade old stages. The stages do have many new added gimmicks and aesthetics to shake it up, more original stages. The ideas are there and whether by over cautiousness or executive meddling to much of this game is the old with a new coat of paint. Nevertheless I didn't find them boring or uninteresting so there is that.

Mysteriously, moves like the Insta-Shield from Sonic 3 are absent from the main game. They are in the game but they're unlockables if you collect all the medals and only works in the No-Save game. This begs the question as to why something that should be in theory a standard move is behind an unlock wall and only in the No-Save game. There's also the super-peel out from CD though I didn't miss that much, I hardly used it in CD beyond the need to time jump but it's a fan favorite so I feel it should have been included.

Sonic Mania is terrific even though it relies heavily on the old to give us something new it still finds ways to innovate the old without reinventing the wheel.

Ever since I heard of this game being advertised I was hopeful. It promised a return to the bliss of early 2D sonic games. It also brings the style of those games and brings it into the present day with a mixture of revamped classic stages and new original stages as well. The game design is 2D platforming brilliance with a perfect difficulty spike and an incredible soundtrack.

The graphics are crisp and vibrant with tight controls. It everything I ever wanted from a 2D Sonic game and I'll be playing it for a very long time. Thanks Christian Whitehead for making 2D Sonic awesome again!

While this game is great for the nostalgia, the main game is over way too soon, which all the extra 'modes' just replaying the same game over again which different attributes of extra characters. I was very disappointed to not see the ability to play the original games (Sonic 1, 2, 3) or even a full iteration of the Mean Bean Machine. Being able to play through all the original games, not just this remake of a few chosen levels (No Marble Garden Zone?!?) would have added a lot of replayability and kept me playing for weeks, not for days. Great idea for a PS4 release, just not enough content.

I will start of by saying I am not a fan of sonic the hedgehog. The series has always had a lot of misses for me which is why I never got into it like many other people did. But I won't say the series as a whole is bad far from it. There are games In the series I really like such as Sonic 2, 3&Knuckles, Generations, Mania (which is what I reviewing right now), Rush, Unleashed, All stars racing Transformed, Sonic CD, Colors, Advance 1, Pocket adventure and sonic Riders which is a guilty pleasure of mine. This is one of the best games in the series that's not even made by Sonic Team. The people who made this did a fantastic job with it's soundtrack, visuals, controls, Content, level design, gameplay, and everything that makes an excellent 2D platformer. It's also full of refences to other games in the series which is great for long time fans and even to non sonic fans like myself. It has the save system from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, The ability to play as five characters if you download the DLC which is worth it by the way. The games bonus stages are fun as hell and the levels themselves are fast and well designed. It's basically like 3 & Knuckles but with more expanded on it. It's also one of the more challenging games in the series as well as having fun boss fights and some of them are creative. I may not be into sonic like a lot of other people are but I won't lie in saying that this game is amazing and is worth any gamers time/money.