Sonic Mania

[Ben Kirkham]

Blah blah blah DRM blah blah Denuvo blah blah. There’s definitely a point to be made there – you should be able to play offline.

But I’ve not heard anyone talk about the game itself yet. I’ve been playing for a couple of days, and I’m really enjoying it. A smart and clever synthesis of the first four games, with a bit of Sonic CD, Sonic 3D and Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine thrown in for good measure. A bit like being 8 years old again!

Opinions?

Topic

[Moonlight]

Meanwhile all my beloved childhood Sonic lore is from the Dreamcast games. Because as far as the 16-bit titles went, I had the games with no manuals and the only supplementary material I ever saw was that one tape of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog my babysitter always brought over.

[tombow]

Am I the only person who has over noticed that level one of Robotniks Mean Bean Machine sounds a little like Wu-Tang’s “protect ya neck”. I wonder if it’s a coincidence 

[Dave]

I picked up Sonic X Shadow Generations. I’ve always liked Sonic Generations, and so far this seems like a nice remaster.

In terms of the main game it’s just a bit of cosmetic polish without changing the underlying fundamentals too much (although apparently they’ve removed the Megadrive console that lets you play Sonic 1 in full! Booo).

But the main draw here is the entirely new Shadow side-game. On first impressions it’s very nice indeed, visually impressive with the usual Generations mix of 3D and pseudo-2D acts for each stage, and an enjoyably melodramatic approach to Shadow and his story without tipping over into full-on edgelord silliness. And they’ve even retconned his story into the background of the original Generations story, which is nice.

(I’ve never loved Shadow as a character but so far this feels more informed by his first appearance in SA2 than anything else, which was probably where he was best.)

Even if this is mainly a cynical marketing exercise ahead of the new movie, it’s nice that we’ve got a whole new set of Generations levels out of it.

[Dave]

And before anyone else does it:

[Warbodog]

I never imagined the characters being fuzzy in the Mega Drive days, they were so shiny.

[Dave]

That’s the movie design, where they have to be a bit more textured to look like they’re part of an otherwise realistic world. In the games they’re still a bit more stylised.

[Moonlight]

Shadow Generations genuinely has the best selection of 3D Sonic levels since the original Sonic Generations. I’m extremely pleased with it.

It also gets huge points for being more 3D than 2D overall which is absolutely not the case with Sonic Generations.

[Nick R]

Prompted by Dave’s post here:

[Moonlight]

I’ve had it modded out for so long I forgot how much I absolutely fucking despise the boost audio filter in OG Gens.

“Hmmm, this soundtrack is great and all, but wouldn’t it be better if I couldn’t hear it?”

[Moonlight]

The British have a lot to answer for.

Actually this could be Australian for all I know. Still blaming you.

[Warbodog]

LOL like we cared about your* shite hedgehog anyway when we had Zool. Sonic who?

* I am aware.

[Warbodog]

My year from Christmas 1993 to Christmas 1994 was mainly spent trying and failing to find an Amiga platformer that was anywhere near as good as Sonic looked before we just got a damned Mega Drive.

[Moonlight]

I have Stockholm Syndrome for the first Bubsy game. It is my life’s mission to beat it in one sitting without using passcodes or save states. Every month for a few months I’ve been making attempts and I recently made it to the final level before I game overed.

This game gets so brutal so fast. I’m amazed as a kid I ever made it over halfway in.

[Technopeasant]

As someone who grew up with DOS shareware games (despite being born in 1994) I should probably stand up for Jazz Jackrabbit, but I honestly was more of an Apogee kid (outside of ZZT).

A little too much a stretch to describe the original Duke Nukem as a mascot platformer though…

[Moonlight]

My beloved childhood PC platformer was 1998’s Speedy Blupi (initially released stateside by eGames as Speedy Eggbert). It’s a pretty basic platformer with charmingly dated pre-rendered sprites, but its main appeal to me was the level editor that let you do everything the main game did. I made so many garbage levels as a little kid with no regard for how they’d play.

The sequel is the same general game but with a lot of new stuff added (and the Dream tileset removed, boo!). There’s also other Blupi games, including an RTS called Planet Blupi that now has an updated open source version that runs better on modern computers.

[Ben Saunders]

Bubsy 3D is so awful, that it makes the fact that the same studio released the excellent Syphon Filter trilogy just three years later all the more impressive.  A tank control third person shooter for the PS1 that was overshadowed somewhat by Metal Gear Solid but holds a very special place in my heart.

[Flap Jack]

Hey now, the British saved the Sonic franchise. Would many people have bought Sonic the Hedgehog 2 if it hadn’t been paired up with Bubsy? I don’t think so.

[Ben Saunders]

Sonic the Hedgehog Who, am I right?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Shitey sprites.

[Dave]

My beloved childhood PC platformer was 1998’s Speedy Blupi

[Nick R]

My year from Christmas 1993 to Christmas 1994 was mainly spent trying and failing to find an Amiga platformer that was anywhere near as good as Sonic looked before we just got a damned Mega Drive.

Amiga owners had Superfrog! What other platformer could anyone possibly need?

[tombow]

anyone remember the Tony the Tiger 2d platform game CD-ROM that came free with Frosties one year in the early 2000s? It was awful, I completed the couple of levels it had, it was like a really repetitive homemade flash game. I haven’t thought about it in years.

[Ben Saunders]

I got the specially made demo level of Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive free in a cereal box in the early-to-mid-2000s, and it remains one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, so tough luck i guess.

[Technopeasant]

I don’t want to ruin your childhood there Dave, but I rather suspect that wasn’t Tony Robinson singing…

I too grew up with Eggbert, and got around the demo only allowing one custom level by just copying the whole game into different folders.

[Moonlight]

Bubsy 3D is so awful, that it makes the fact that the same studio released the excellent Syphon Filter trilogy just three years later all the more impressive.  A tank control third person shooter for the PS1 that was overshadowed somewhat by Metal Gear Solid but holds a very special place in my heart.

I will die on the hill that Bubsy: Fractured Furry Tales (Bubsy 3 for the Atari Jaguar, a 2D game) is less playable than Bubsy 3D.

It started as a port of the original and it exacerbated every problem it had while eliminating any of the charm.

[Dave]

I don’t want to ruin your childhood there Dave, but I rather suspect that wasn’t Tony Robinson singing…

Next you’ll be telling me that Father Blupi isn’t real.

[Moonlight]

Meanwhile all my beloved childhood Sonic lore is from the Dreamcast games. Because as far as the 16-bit titles went, I had the games with no manuals and the only supplementary material I ever saw was that one tape of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog my babysitter always brought over.

Update: I have dug up the manuals for Sonic 1 and 2, along with my long missing Sonic 3D Blast cart and the box for Earthworm Jim.

Turns out I did have the manuals.

[Technopeasant]

On the subject of eGames, this was the closest I have ever come to playing an Earthworm Jim game. 

The haunted house zone was my favorite.

[Flap Jack]

The Uncharted series sure has come a long way.

[Technopeasant]

My ever literal brain was like: they made Crash Bandicoot though…

[RainbowGazelle]

Hah, you losers with your 2 in 1 cartridges. I was rocking this 6 in 1 bad boy. Can’t remember if it came in a box with the console, or loose with it. Certainly don’t have the box now if there was one.

 

[Ian Symes]

A rare (I assume) example of the game being officially referred to as “Sonic 1” on an actual product.

[Dave]

Mega Games I was of course the ultimate compilation. I can still hear that Columns music now.

[Ian Symes]

GOOOOOAL!

[Dave]

A Proustian rush.

GOOOOOAL!

Which in Megadrive-audio was more like “GROOOAAAAGH!”

[RainbowGazelle]

I maintain that the controls for the penalty shootout have never been topped in a football game since.

[Dave]

More evocative audio from Mega Games I:

[Technopeasant]

Before this thread fully rolls on, one more obscure platformer from my childhood.

[Moonlight]

Somebody go back in time and explain to 6 year old me what a wall jump is so I could have gotten stuck very slightly later into this game than I did.

Also tell the composer that this attempt at wacky cartoon music sounds like being stalked by a killer clown at the abandoned theme park after drinking too much cough syrup.
 

I genuinely remember having a nightmare about this game as a kid. It gets so weirdly dark and intense so early.

[Technopeasant]

Oh, all right, one more…

Just found this too: https://trevor-pupkin.itch.io/super-fat-boy

[Moonlight]

I wonder whether I’d be more pleased or annoyed to learn in 2004 that a movie of Sonic Adventure 2 will come out, but I’ll have to wait 20 years to see it.

[Dave]

I got Astro Bot for Christmas, and while it’s hardly a hot take I’m finding it to be a total delight. It’s got the charm and elegance of Mario mixed with the energy and great design of Sonic, and the way it makes the most of the DualSense functionality is genius. And the kids are enjoying it just as much as I am.

[Dave]

We saw Sonic 3 today. It’s ok, a pretty uninspired kids film that’s elevated by a bit of fanservice and by Jim Carrey doing weird late-stage Jim Carrey stuff every 10 minutes. Pretty much what I expected but I won’t be too unhappy if they don’t make any more of these movies.

[Moonlight]

Aside obviously from how it revitalized the franchise as a whole, this entire movie trilogy was 100% worth it just to get scenes of Maria and Shadow hanging out before anything bad happened.

[Ridley]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/sonic-hedgehog-comics-collection-books

[Moonlight]

I got this but I am in a book club reading all of Archie Sonic right now and it is an insane rollercoaster of violently shifting quality I am committed to finishing first.

Knuckles’ dad put him in the microwave as a baby.

[Warbodog]

We’ve been playing the (emulated) Mega Drive games again and it just occurred to me that Emerald Hill might be the same place as Green Hill after it was transformed by the Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic 1 good ending. Hence the name. Just a different part of it.

I also just learned that you can actually jump out of this thing in Launch Base when it starts spinning wildly and don’t have to sit there while it smashes you into a wall like I’ve been doing since 1996. I guess I just enjoyed the ride.

As a kid, I convinced myself that the conspicuous Robotnik appearance in Knuckles’ Flying Battery Zone had been the more customary Eggrobo the first few times I’d played it and that our cartridge must have developed a fault since, which I was always disappointed about. I wasn’t dissuaded from this until I eventually played on an emulator and he was still there.

Why did Robotnik build the interior of the Death Egg to be conveniently navigable by a hedgehog when he and his badniks can fly around anyway?

[Dave]

it just occurred to me that Emerald Hill might be the same place as Green Hill after it was transformed by the Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic 1 good ending. Hence the name. Just a different part of it.

I like that idea, even if teh canons says otherwise. 

[Moonlight]

If you’re emulating 3&K you should check out Sonic 3 Complete as a more customizable package. Or 3 AIR for stuff like widescreen support.

[Warbodog]

Is the Sonic Advance series considered any good? I’m incapable of telling whether or not they’re basically as good minus the originality or nostalgia. They give me the vibe of trashy free Flash games, but the kid’s finding their linear flow easier than Sonic 3’s gargantuan stages. I only have to take the controller for the bosses rather than every ten seconds for a fiendish spikes/crush/spring trap.

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