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

[Niki Hutchinson]

So apparently, there’s a space probe that’s gone up with Sonic’s image put on the side of it. And it’s been called JUICE !!! (Possible a shout out to Satam’s “Gotta Juice it” ?!?!) Either way, it’s on a 8 year mission to Jupiter and it’s going to be orbiting around Ganymede of all places… So what better way to celebrate than with this image !!!

[Warbodog]

I hope it plays the Doomsday Zone music when passing through the asteroid belt.

[Niki Hutchinson]

Well, guess I’m the one to show this off here… New LEGO Sonic sets are on the way !!!  

LEGO Ad for it: https://youtu.be/wfHq1GznyKI

[Jonathan Capps]

Oh fuck, when the boy sees this my wallet is doomed. DOOOOMED

[Dave]

When I see this my wallet is doomed.

[Moonlight]

Bugging Cappsy to let my meme video through. It got blocked as malicious content because the filter has the brains of a cheese sandwich.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

The same thing used to happen to me!

[Jonathan Capps]

The algorithm knows how to identify troublemakers.

[Moonlight]

Redid this with sound effects.

[Moonlight]

Great, he never added the video and now I look like a jackass. I’ll see you in court, m’laddo.

[Dave]

[Jonathan Capps]

Better late than never.

[Moonlight]

Yeah,  but now it’s buried under several newer posts made before it was even there. You’ve failed me, Cappsy. I want your G&T badge and cloche on my desk by tomorrow.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

For what it’s worth, I thought it was a good video.

[Dave]

Yeah,  but now it’s buried under several newer posts made before it was even there.

But by posting to complain about new posts burying it… well, it’s ironic.

[Dave]

Maybe if we just don’t keep posting to make sure we don’t bury it further?

[Dave]

Yes, let’s do that.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

That sounds like a good idea!

[Moonlight]

Tried to make a post raving about the Sonic Adventure soundtrack with five examples, but the firewall killed my post because I never learn my lesson about posting videos.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Moonlight]

I hope you’re pleased with the monster you’ve created by making this thread with someone like me on the forum.

[Moonlight]

Sonic Adventure Music Appreciation Post

 

[Moonlight]

Everybody better appreciate this soundtrack as much as I do or I’m blowing up G&T, and especially Cappsy for taking so long to make this work.

[Dave]

I mean it’s good but it’s no Mystic Cave.

[Moonlight]

Sonic 1 / 2 are pretty evenly tied for best 2D soundtrack. I love me some Masato Nakamura.

Dilapidated Way though might be my favorite music of all time for reasons I cannot adequately explain.

[Warbodog]

Lava Reef Act 1 was the one that got stuck in my head after the recent 2D playthroughs. Though listening back, the “chorus” had grown notably louder and livelier in my mind.

[Dave]

Lava Reef Act 2 in Sonic Mania is really something.

For a bit of a hipster’s choice, I’d also nominate Door Into Summer from Chaotix.

[Jenuall]

1 and 2 are the GOAT but later entries always have some great tracks as well. Flying Battery from &Knuckles is great as well, as is Sky Sanctuary. 

Adventure games have a real mixed bag for me, some great tracks but a bunch of real stinkers too

[Moonlight]

The real hipster’s choice would be pretending Sonic CD isn’t the weakest of the four classic games. For every moment you’re having fun, there’s another moment of weird bullshit with the level design that makes absolutely no sense. Also the bosses are piss easy even by classic Sonic standards, except for Collision Chaos’ infernal pinball table.

[Moonlight]

Adventure games have a real mixed bag for me, some great tracks but a bunch of real stinkers too

I’m 90% sure you’re including Pumpkin Hill in the latter category. I only put up with the Knuckles rap because I was something like 8 when I was first exposed to it. But with SA1 it’s like all winners for me.

[Moonlight]

Oh and I might as well shout out the best thing from Sonic Frontiers, a game that was actually surprisingly good despite its problems. I hope y’all like metalcore because that’s what this is. The boss fight that goes with this song is genuinely some of the best spectacle a Sonic game has ever done and the song is no small part of selling it.

God the guitar solo at 1:43, I want a whole fucking song of that shit. That initial riff is so fucking sick to my metal girl ears.

I’ve been up all night.

[Dave]

The real hipster’s choice would be pretending Sonic CD isn’t the weakest of the four classic games. For every moment you’re having fun, there’s another moment of weird bullshit with the level design that makes absolutely no sense. Also the bosses are piss easy even by classic Sonic standards, except for Collision Chaos’ infernal pinball table.

I’ve never really got the love for Sonic CD. I guess Metal Sonic is cool and the time travel thing is a nice idea but it’s all a bit clunkily executed and the level designs are often frustrating.

[Moonlight]

I’ve also noticed a lot of people who like CD seem to like Sonic 4, and fuck that. Sonic 4 feels like they assembled a team to design a game specifically to annoy the shit out of me. WHEN YOU ROLL DOWN A HILL YOU LOSE SPEED.

[Warbodog]

the four classic games.

Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were distinct releases at the time, if those are what you’re combining. My house lacked Sonic 3 for what felt like much longer than it probably was. (I realised that playing Knuckles first is probably why I was never stumped by the Carnival Night barrel).

And since you’re talking cross-platform already,

(Yeah, they’re worse, but they count).

[Moonlight]

Sonic 3 may have been released in two parts but it was always intended to be one game.

[Dave]

Sonic 3&K is the Back In The Red of the Sonic series. 

[Jenuall]

CD is just a mess of a game.

I like the idea of putting a bit more of a focus on exploration and it does push the balance back toward “actually doing some platforming” when 2 and them 3&K maybe went a bit too much into the “gotta go fast!” side of things. But the execution is poor and actually hunting for the machines to destroy to create a good future is more annoying than it is enjoyable, the giant rings of 3&K and Mania do a much better job.

Also little things like how Sonic has no head bob in his run put me off an inordinate amount! 

[Niki Hutchinson]

Well if were going onto Sonic Songs now… I did this edit of Frontiers, Main Theme to Sonic Prime. https://youtu.be/KW2XEx6R9qM

[Moonlight]

CD is just a mess of a game.
I like the idea of putting a bit more of a focus on exploration and it does push the balance back toward “actually doing some platforming” when 2 and them 3&K maybe went a bit too much into the “gotta go fast!” side of things.

Sonic 2’s speed peaked in Chemical Plant, possibly the single fastest-feeling level in all of 2D Sonic (except something like Hot Crater in Advance 2 but that’s a whole different ballgame), and especially if you’d only played Sonic 1 before I could see it being truly exhilarating in 1992. But besides Chemical Plant I’m not sure what other level you could say leans to much toward speed. 3/K fixed the camera not being able to keep up with Sonic at absolute top speed (Mania and Origins 3&K have since restored this “feature”, and rightly so) and it actually makes 3&K’s fastest moments feel slower than Chemical Plant even in something like Hydrocity Act 2 where there’s some pretty heavy-duty speed going on.

Also, side note, but I need to bitch about this: it’s pronounced Hydro City, not fucking Hydrossity. Yeah, I’m soooo sure the same people who named a level goddamn Genocide City Zone because they didn’t speak English came up with that gross, strained pun that barely scans and only in English. Riiiiight.

[Moonlight]

Side note: I’m currently editing episode 1 of a Sonic radio sitcom I’ve been developing for the past few months, and it’s the culmination of work I’ve been doing that goes back to 2011 (starting when I was barely 15 and didn’t have a clue what I was doing). I used to do abridged series before that became impossible from copyright bullshit.

I’m really happy with the current show, not the least of which because I get significantly more creative freedom (at the expense of visuals), but I’m also hesitant to ever post it here for a bunch of overly critical sitcom nerds if you catch my drift. I’ve never actually had a full-length totally original script of mine produced into a finished product before. It’s always been short-form stuff, or abridged stuff where it’s working from an existing structure, or just TV scripts that are only scripts.

[Warbodog]

it’s pronounced Hydro City, not fucking Hydrossity.

They missed the obvious Hydropolis that would have been nice for the set.

Some kids at school collectively decided to mispronounce ‘Metallix’ and ‘Grimer’ from the comic, the 9-year-old fuckwits.

[Nick R]

Also, side note, but I need to bitch about this: it’s pronounced Hydro City, not fucking Hydrossity. Yeah, I’m soooo sure the same people who named a level goddamn Genocide City Zone because they didn’t speak English came up with that gross, strained pun that barely scans and only in English. Riiiiight.

English puns weren’t completely beyond the Japanese developers: after all, Judy Totoya chose the name “Miles Prower”! But you probably need a bit more fluency in English in order to come up with “Hydrossity/velocity” as an intentional pun.

In my case, it never occurred to me to pronounce it any other way than “Hyde-roe-city”. I think the first time I encountered the “-ossity” version was in Faulerro’s Sonic music with lyrics video for the level (at 0:40):

(I still have his lyrics stuck in my mind every time I hear those levels’ music – especially Labyrinth. AND NOW THE SAME WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.)

[Dave]

I always just assumed everyone sings “It’s Star-Light Zone” to the opening four notes of that level.

[Moonlight]

Faulerro’s Sonic music with lyrics video 

I briefly had him on board for my first abridged series in 2011 (eventually came out across the latter half of 2014 with a different cast) before he quit because I was a stupid kid who didn’t know what I was doing. I’m kinda glad though because the original cast I hired never would have stuck around the way the one I ended up getting has. I still have the same VAs for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and they’re extremely talented. My Sonic VA has actually done professional gigs now. And yet I can still ask for 120 lines for free and get it. That’s pretty sick. 

 (I still have his lyrics stuck in my mind every time I hear those levels’ music – especially Labyrinth. AND NOW THE SAME WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.)

Thanks a lot, I only just got “not to be confused with that film with David Bowie” out of my head when listening to Labyrinth Zone after a decade.

English puns weren’t completely beyond the Japanese developers: after all, Judy Totoya chose the name “Miles Prower”! But you probably need a bit more fluency in English in order to come up with “Hydrossity/velocity” as an intentional pun.

Prower isn’t a word though. It doesn’t have a double-meaning, it’s just a sound-a-like. I also maintain that “Hydrossity” is simply a terrible pun that doesn’t scan.

[Moonlight]

[Dave]

Prower isn’t a word though. It doesn’t have a double-meaning, it’s just a sound-a-like.

I’m sure I remember a book or magazine around the time referring to him as Miles Prowler, which evokes something entirely different. 

[Moonlight]

Tails: I’m sorry for prowling, your honor, but it’s in my blood.

Judge: You can’t just peep in through people’s windows.

Tails: In my defense, I wasn’t trying to see Sonic naked. He stole my leftover stromboli and was eating it in the bath. I wanted to catch him in the act.

Judge: Was it worth it?

Tails: I turned out to be right, so I’m not sure how this constitutes a crime. If anything, Sonic should be in jail for grand theft stromboli.

Sonic (yelling from the seats): You asked me if I wanted it!

Tails: I was just being polite. I didn’t expect you to say yes! Lousy 16-bitch pinball with his bastard-processing…

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

But why did he combine three windows into one?

[Moonlight]

Because he figured by combining bits of Windows 7, 10 and 11 there was a chance of forging a half-decent operating system.

[Moonlight]

So apparently, there’s a space probe that’s gone up with Sonic’s image put on the side of it. And it’s been called JUICE !!! (Possible a shout out to Satam’s “Gotta Juice it” ?!?!)

No, it’s probably a reference to Sonic’s catchphrase “Let’s juice!” from the original American cartoons.

[Author]

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