Posted by Marcus Sellars follow him on Twitter
Sonic is a beloved character who has been in many video games since the early 90’s, some great and some not so great but which category does Sonic Mania fall into?
Sonic Mania is game made by fans who love the sonic franchise and wanted to make a new Sonic game with callbacks to the originals. The mix of new and old elements of Sonic work perfectly with this title the classic stages and a few new one complement very well. Of course you have the classic Green Hill zone which is probably the most known Sonic zone. New zones include Studiopolis Zone, Mirage Saloon Zone, Press Garden Zone, and Titanic Monarch Zone which are all great editions. My favorite was Studiopolis the music was very catchy and just made me so feel very nostalgic! It wasn’t just that stage that the music was phenomenal it was every stage I played. Each and every zone has its own tune and they are all great.
Talking about great music if you leave your game to the start screen for a while a cut-scene will play. I found myself re-watching the cut-scene they switch between every few tracks. The opening cut-scene of the game is very well edited with a high production value. The full game feels very polished from the character models to the stages. The stages are filled with collectibles and lots of hidden items to find. Exploration is always one thing that I thought the Sonic series lacked just because the point of the game is to go fast. In Mania however I feel like you can explore without hindering your play through. The stages are also really fun there is pipes, springs and much more to use to your advantage, at the end of every stage you have to defeat a boss and this was always the part I looked forward too. The bosses have some great mechanics that you have to use to defeat them and they are very cleverly designed. One of my favorite bosses was the trash compactor it remained me of Star Wars. Another one I thought was interesting would be the Puyo Puyo it was like a mini game.
The controls are very tight which is what you would expect for a Sonic game or any platformer to be honest. The only thing in the full game which was an annoyance was when you go fast stumble into spikes or another deadly trap it seems a little unfair. You have little time to react as when you see the spikes you’ve already hit them. I would have preferred it to have a bit more reaction time because you loose all your rings and are then susceptible to loosing a life if you don’t collect another ring quickly. The graphics in this game are meant to resemble the retro look of the 16 bit SEGA Genesis and they look beautiful. They are full 1080p with the look of 16 bit however so it looks great docked or on the switches handheld at 720p.
If Sonic is to fast you can always change to either Tales or Knuckles who both carry different traits. Tails can fly in the air so if you are struggling you can propel yourself out of danger. Knuckles can walk up walls and glide through the sky. Both these characters are super fun to play as but knuckles is definitely my go to character. Content wise there is so much for the price and with multiplayer mode, Online leader boards and time trials there an endless amount of going fast. Speaking of going fast the opposite happens when you try to access the home page on the Nintendo Switch version it takes up to 30 seconds and has a big input delay. Sega has said they are fixing this glitch but it may take a while for Nintendo to approve the patch. Speaking of delays and timing, its great that you can compete against your friends to get a fast time. There is not much to story but its all about the fun platforming in Sonic Mania so I didn’t feel like i was missing anything. But you do have to go head to head against dr. Eggman in the end to find a mysterious energy source.
In conclusion I don’t see any reason why shouldn’t buy Sonic mania its a superb platformer and a great game for a newcomer to the Sonic franchise.
