Sonic Mania - AntDude

so this sonic plush has seen better days I've used it before and it's supposed to make the sonic 3d blast Sega sound but now [Music] the time has finally arrived the hype train has reached its destination Sonic mania has finally arrived now I had a bit of a unique perspective on mania particularly when it first got announced back at Sonic's 25th anniversary party which was haw-haw boy that that was a trip I gotta say when the initial trailer for this game was revealed I actually wasn't all that hyped listen I've played more than my fair share of rom hacks and fan games out there Sega announcing that they're publishing one of them all of a sudden initially didn't piqued my interest Capcom sort of did a similar thing a couple years back and that wasn't really all that great so I was skeptical but hoo boy was I ever wrong I think many of you have a very solid understanding of the people behind Sonic mania of course there's Cristian Whitehead the guy known for the excellent remasters of Sonic 1 2 and CD of which 1 & 2 still haven't had consoles yet in black but he is also responsible for some of his own fan games with a custom engine that he built that showed off super smooth animation he also worked with Simon Tom Lee who went by the name stealth on those classic remasters but even he has his own share of fan games such as being the first person to program knuckles into Sonic the Hedgehog 1 he made a legitimately playable version of Sonic 1 on Game Boy Advance and of course there's sonic megamix one of the most ambitious sonic hacks yet and he is now the founder of headcanon boom there it is those are just two of some of the more well known guys on the team but bottom line here the tagline for sonic mania is buy the mania for the mania and man that really couldn't be any more accurate now I'm not gonna waste your time going over Sonic's dark past you've all heard that story like a million times at this point but I will say this initial lack of hype aside I haven't been this excited for a Sonic game since the story is super simplistic but it works after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles dr. Robotnik and his crew of egg robos are back on Angel Island to get access to the mysterious phantom Ruby and by doing so they thrust Sonic Tails and Knuckles to different locales both familiar and new to the heroes along with transforming those robots into the new hard-boiled heavies at oh man these guys are great I love the idea of taking a basic enemy and just beefing them up and the egg Robo is such a perfect template for more evil robots and well that's it go Adventure evil doctor does a thing go I am by no means saying Sonic should never have a story but for a game of this style just show me the thing I'm chasing and let me chase it the awesome animated in-game cutscenes are just a sweet bonus and before we really get into the thick of things warning spoilers will be shown here you could argue that a Sonic game has nothing worth putting a spoiler tag on but I will be showing every zone in the game and more so you've been warned you good okay here we go oh my god this game is so much fun anyway first and foremost and this is very important the game is simply fun to play that momentum based gameplay that you remember Sonic 4 is here combined with the returning elemental shields which have a few extra uses this time around and thanks to the new drop - ability Sonic is more enjoyable to control than ever before and along with that you have tails who can fly and the knuckles who can not only glide but also bust through Falls each character here can give you an entirely different adventure hell knuckles has an entire act completely to himself and speaking of the levels the game has a total of twelve different zones and eight of them are returning from the early games and while that does sort of sound like a bad thing only a third of the zones are new it turned out to actually be pretty cool the level designs and the gimmicks within each individual act are excellent like for example the first zone is Green Hill because damnit of course it is and the first act is a bit of an amalgamation of the first two acts of green hill from the original game but then act 2 introduces a zipline mechanic that permeates throughout the entire level and this is a bit of a recurring trend throughout there returning levels they rely heavily on ideas that made those levels interesting in the first place but they have no problem whatsoever throwing in some new stuff at you at a moment's notice like next up is chemical plant which is awesome enough on its own but then you throw in sticky platforms Hilux lifts and syringes that turn the once poisonous liquid into bouncing gel and it becomes legendary the developers simply picked a really good chunk of classic levels even when it comes to some more out of left field choices like lava reef and oil ocean I mean really what if oil ocean suddenly burst into flames it not only makes sense within the levels theme but it's also a throwback to both Angel Island zone and sand awfully stone man you guys are geniuses naturally when it comes to creating new acts from existing zones especially when they're done really really well the fanboy and all of us wants every single one of them to be covered that same thing happened with generations and I mean hey a new take on star light would have been awesome but you know what I'll take what I can get what's really sweet though is seeing elements from unused sones sneak their way into other levels like those chicken robots that were from wink 4 Triss hey you know what throw them into flying battery now and heavy magician transforming into being bark and Fang you really can't ask for anything cooler well you could also ask for ray the flying squirrel but hey semantics stuff like this is the ultimate fanservice without feeling forced which is something that the sonic franchise hasn't really tackled before well not in a particularly good way at the very least fun fact regarding fanservice if you remember that classic 25th anniversary party you may remember a light buzzing that haunted every online watcher throughout basically the entire stream well one should beat the boss in studio Ellis Act - oh god of all the things to reference and while we're on the topic of studio Ellis I'm doing a pretty good job with these transitions by the way the new zones here are definitely the most exciting moments of the game all four of them feature excellent combinations of unique gimmicks settings that are bright and filled to the brim with colors and really great music I mean seriously a blossom garden that doubles as a newspaper printing location why that that's so cool literally am i right it really sucks that there are only four of them in this game but you know what that's what mania two is for right please and man even the bosses are really good every single act has one and normally that would sound dreadful but they're also unique and fun whether it's egg men or Robotnik - whatever in one of his machines some random robot or one of the hard-boiled heavies these are easily some of the best fights to ever be featured in a classic Sonic game and the chemical plant act - boss being a round of mean bean machine oh you you guys are geniuses some of them are far too easy to defeat if you just decide to brute-force it and on why wouldn't you but really that's how classic sound it was in the first place it's all about going fast if you get hurt along the way whatever the game looks fantastic as well with an excellent use of colors and absolutely stellar animations just just look at this and the soundtrack my god we really didn't deserve a soundtrack this good T Lopes is a master of his craft I would talk about which track is my favorite but then I would just talk about the entire thing everything from the title screen to the end credits is beautiful from start to finish and he'll you know what while we're at it shout outs to hyper potions Tyson Heath and whoever else contributed to the game's opening both musically and graphically that goes for that pre-order trailer as well just fantastic stuff all around and then of course if you manage to find one of the giant rings in any of the zones you jump into one of the new special stages that are easily the best of the series has seen yet with an awesome blend of both Sonic CD special stages and Sonic ARS graphics making for an awesome aesthetic they're fun they're challenging I just wish there were more of them 7 is definitely not enough and then if you're run past the checkpoint and those little stars pop up boom it's the returning blue spheres bonus stage that are just as challenging as ever but there's no emeralds to collect from these now instead you get a medal for either completing the stage outright or doing so with all of the Rings collected and by collecting enough you get a few extra rewards like Sonic's abilities from CD + 3 & Knuckles a music test a debug mode which you're not really debugging anything it's just hey let's break the game now and without a doubt the most satisfying reward of the bunch and a knuckles mode where you play through the entire adventure with knuckles by your side even if your knuckles oh my god this is so good oh and what happens when you beat the game with both knuckles and knuckles oh well thankfully before everything blows up knuckles saves you so that's good this is a knuckles trio it's knuckles & knuckles & knuckles that romhack became reality they got a Time Attack mode with a quick restart which is just that's super nice of them as well as a two-player competition mode looking as stupid ugly stretched as it was back in Sonic 2 there's extra maps of blue spheres with brand new mechanics a simple game of poyo poyo that you can play with a buddy ultimately there is quite a lot of content to dive into here again most importantly though you got knuckles & knuckles mode I cannot believe you guys don't know you all are genius okay okay okay I know I'm sounding like a bit of a broken record right now I'm definitely deep into fanboy mode but you gotta forgive me here this is the most fun I've had with a Sonic game in a very long time sadly though there are a couple of disappointing things one of my favorite parts of Sonic 3 were the transitions between zones it gave an extra bit of scale to the game's world and it was just cool to see in general and this does happen again in Sonic mania but not for every zone it's honestly pretty jarring going from seeing flying battery appear on the TV in studio poulos - then just transitioning from the depths of hydra city to the tornado / mirage saloon it's quite a weird inconsistency and I'm sorry but the endings are pretty disappointing you get a couple of really small animated stills with lighting effects on top of them boom credits the classics had some nifty in-game cutscenes and hell if we're gonna use Sonic CD as a base those credits had a super cool montage and after an opening animation that is one of the greatest sonic things I have ever seen can you really blame me for having those expectations the final boss is pretty damn sweet though and again I know I'm deep into fanboy mode here but that's all I got sonic mania is a damn good package all around and for only 20 bucks that's a steal mania is a reminder of why I of zest with classic sonic games when I was a kid fun momentum based gameplay in bright and vibrant worlds with awesome music to back it up and no filler to be found I do of course wish there was more original content here but manias gonna do pretty well for sega who knows what the future holds well forces comes out later this year so I guess I guess we do know what the future holds its forces sonic mania is special it is only going to do good things for the franchise going forward and it may be a bit too early to say this but this is definitely one of the best sonic games ever made at least in terms of the classic stuff this game was developed by fans for fans but this is not a mere fan game this is special and I want to give a sincere thank you to everybody on the development team for finally answering Sonic fans wishes after so long when Sega themselves simply wouldn't biggest Thank You going to tee Lopes because oh my god man your musical skills are insane so please please just one final request from some random guy in the Internet just let sonic forces be good I don't want to go back to complaining about Sonic the Hedgehog again no one wants that please [Music]

Channel: AntDude

Views: 795,177

Rating: 4.9412112 out of 5

Keywords: AntDude92, Dude Reviews, Rapid Reviews, Review (Media Genre), Video Review, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, XBOX One, Steam, Sega, Sonic ROM Hacks, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations

Id: P8WNMPtn94Q

Length: 15min 34sec (934 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 20 2017