Sonic the Hedgehog

[Master]

New footage of the Special Stages, Blue Sphere seems to be a checkpoint bonus stage now: Not sure what's going on in Chemical Plant, I'm guessing it's the Time Attack, but I'm not sure why he keep teleporting back to the start every so often.

[GOT4N]

New footage of the Special Stages, Blue Sphere seems to be a checkpoint bonus stage now: Not sure what's going on in Chemical Plant, I'm guessing it's the Time Attack, but I'm not sure why he keep teleporting back to the start every so often.

That's the instant replay feature. It allows restarting from one button.

[Master]

Ah, most handy for time trials indeed.

They've now shown the opening of Sonic Mania, and it's beautiful:

[Rayfist]

The game has been delayed until August 29th for PC users only- but the console versions are still on schedule for August 15th.

I'm pretty damn upset by that, but I'll be sure to nab the Switch version on the 15th if I can. I was planning to get it anyways, despite PC being my main platform.

[Master]

Wait, seriously? Damn. So it releases at the end of the month, a bit inconvenient as I was planning on replaying AM2R over September before Samus Returns arrives, after that I'm back in Uni and won't have as much time for gaming.

EDIT: To rub salt in the wound, it seems that Sonic Mania has released early for some folks, which means spoilers are abound. Mind, it is a 2D platformer, so spoilers are probably not going to be as big a deal, but still, bleh.

[Greeness]

That's unfortunate, well off to the switch version then.

[Rayfist]

Yup, I'll also be trying to get my hands on the Switch version tomorrow, I planned to get it on Switch at some point but I didn't think it'd be this soon. Thanks to the PC delay, that decision has been made a lot faster, hopefully I can end up streaming the PC version at some point though. Best of luck with PC users trying to avoid spoilers for the next two weeks.

after that I'm back in Uni and won't have as much time for gaming.

Same deal with me for college, the game comes out for PC a few days before I head back which was very off putting, I'm glad the console versions are still on schedule.

[Master]

Blimey, Speedrunners have already made some interesting headway into exploiting Sonic Mania:
[youtube]7z1Hjtklq60[/youtube]
[youtube]iny1fuFRhrs[/youtube]

[Hoodcom]

My only complaint is the fact that they didn't release it in physical form, I would have at least expected it out of the collector's edition.

That aside, I did get the collector's edition for the PS4, and wow, that Sonic statue on the Genesis is pretty nifty. As big as my model one Genesis. Primarily the reason I preordered the collector's edition was for this.


Now the game itself I quite enjoyed, and without diving into anything to spoil it, I'll stick to the basics.

The looks of the game, I loved it, especially since I loved the classics in their pixel glory. The CRT scanline mode is such a great touch too, it really looks beautiful.

I also really enjoyed the music for the most part in the game as well.

[Thebananacrafter!]

Mania looks pretty good, i want to get it but i dont have enough dosh to get it rn

[Greeness]

So I fully completed mania with Sonic Tails and Knuckles, and without a doubt it's the best Sonic game we've has in 6 years or so since gens, like everybody I had the blast with the new zones and the old while not as innovative still different enough and fun in their own way, from the bosses I especially got a kick out of the Metal Sonic fight and I bursted out in laughter when I firstly encountered the Mean Bean Boss
So yeah even with me being a bigger fan of the 3d installments and having more nostalgia towards them, I still really enjoyed Mania and am hopeful Forces is going to get the same amout of polish and be as or even more entetaining.

Speaking of Forces: A new tag team mode was revealed, which seems to be like the system in Sonic Heroes without the character handicaps. A new remix of Metal Sonic's US theme was also revealed, and It's pretty good In my opinion.

[Keane]

Sonic Mania is bretty good, the level design is really tight (minus that autistic part with the blocks on Chemical Plant) and in the vast ocean of Sonic 4 and New Super Mario Bros. 2 it's nice to finally have this kind of simple straightforward 2D platforming again without feeling like you're playing some sort mind-numbing bootleg of the originals.

Forces looks at least better than it did in the early announcements, but I'm still not particularly moved by anything they've shown off.

[Rayfist]

Uh... what the hell is up with that new gameplay for Forces? All I see is the boost being overused through out the whole level with VERY little platforming, an issue that plagued boost type Sonic games that looks even worse here. I really want to see much less of this, at least some of the Modern sonic levels in Generations such as crisis city did have some emphasis on platforming, but it looks almost non-existent here. I know Mania is a completely different playing game than the modern Sonic titles, but I can't help but just be all the more disappointed with the way Forces looks after getting something like Mania. I guess after Lost World and the poor reviews it got, Sonic Team wanted to play it safe by sticking with the boost formula, but I really don't think Forces will be that "hot new 3d Sonic game" that we envisioned, just another boost title with very little control. I'll still probably play it though.

[Greeness]

I think it's too early to make judgement calls, however It seems like these are early game levels and I did like how in the later part of the level some Wispons were favored to create shortcuts and extend replay value.

[Master]

Mania's out on PC now, I've been playing it for a bit, and got to unlocking debug mode. I'll have fun messing about with that for sure.

On a more concerning note however, it's been revealed that the game has Denuvo DRM. I'm not sure what that entails, last time I had any interest in a DRM fiasco was with Spore and SecuROM, but it appears that folks are not very impressed with how Sega seems to have put it in sneakily, and only updated Mania's Steam page recently after release.

[Rayfist]

Something worth noting: I streamed the game recently, beat it in 2 and a half hours with all the emeralds, yet I didn't unlock any of the achievements strangely enough.

[Master]

I don't seem to be getting any achievements either. It's weird, I know they must be working for some folks, as their achievement unlocks are showing up in my Steam activity feed.

[Greeness]

This happened to me too, you basically need to restart steam and achivements will work properly.

[Master]

That seems to have done the trick, much obliged, Greeness.

[Rayfist]

The denuvo DRM was definitely a very sneaky move on SEGA's part. Let's hope fans have their voices heard so we don't have to put up with more of this.