Just be warned: there are a lot of different and unique stages, so if you intend to 100% the game you'll be playing for quite a while.īoss fights have also been overhauled, with each area having boss fights that excel both in the graphics and gameplay departments. While these tokens don’t do anything in game itself, if you grab enough of them you’ll unlock some secrets in the main menu. In Sonic Mania, anytime you have over 30 rings and pass a checkpoint, a blue stage's special stage will unlock, allowing you to try and finish it in order to acquire a special token. Not that the blue sphere special stages have gone anywhere. It’s nifty, and hard at times, but these special stages are easily better than the blue sphere ones from past titles. Gaining speed all the time, you must catch up to the UFO holding the chaos emerald, while at the same time gathering rings in order to keep the stage going and avoiding traps. To gain a chaos emerald you must navigate a race track in full 3D, with Sonic’s 3D avatar being a throwback to the Sega Mega Drive/PS1 era. Speaking of secret stages, it’s certainly nice to get something new on this front in Sonic Mania. Secret areas are also rarely found unless you go out of your way to look for them, and even then can be difficult to locate in some instances, but they're absolute joy to behold once you actually find the secret entrance. For a game that's all about speed, I found myself consistently slowing down in order to actually explore the stages to their fullest. The sheer size of stages is also admirable throughout. The two approaches combine to create one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in years. It makes for a lovely audio experience, but things really step up a notch in act two, where the development team decided to add their own unique take to the score for each zone. The music in the first act of each zone, for example, will sound very familiar, albeit with the soundtrack modernised by the use of real instruments. This formula of playing up to your nostalgia while at the same time mixing in new elements makes for an addictive gaming experience, but carries on into other aspects of the game too. In the chemical plant zone, for example, act two injects different coloured goo into liquids, making them more or less bouncy. Make your way to act two of each zone and everything becomes fully remixed, with Christian Whitehead and co creating their very own take on an otherwise classic environment. The improved music, sprites, and crisp presentation all help to trick you into thinking this is exactly what you played 20 years ago, but it’s all a (welcome) trick.Įvery stage follows this same formula: you're first introduced to familiar elements from a zone you recall from years past, but then as the stage goes on you increasingly begin to notice new and strange elements that you've never encountered before. From here you make your way through an eerily familiar setting, with elements of Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3 all being mashed together to create something that's both new but at the same time incredibly nostalgic. It then teleports Sonic & co to the first gameplay stage, which is of course the Green Hill Zone. Sonic Mania begins with a short intro in which a machine digs up a crystal that can seemingly control time and space. Sonic Mania thankfully manages to rejuvenate the down-trodden 90s mascot and brings him back with an absolute splash, delivering one of the most nostalgic and fantastically refreshing experiences of the last few years. This is unsurprising, if not unexpected Sonic was a product of the 2D mascot era and has been struggling find its feet in the modern gaming world.ĭon’t get me wrong, I don’t mind and in some cases actively enjoy a variety of the recent Sonic titles, but they definitely don’t scratch the same itch that Sonic once did. I think it goes without saying, but the Sonic of recent years has turned into a hollow shell of what he once was. By VGChartz Staff, posted on 19 August 2017 / 9,545 Views
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