Sonic Mania

A worthy addition to the series. It doesn't stun, but there's little to complain about beyond a handful of frustrating moments. More than anything, I enjoyed Sonic Mania as a throwback to my childhood.

3.5 stars / Good

Sonic the Hedgehog has never really been a platforming franchise I've been head over heels for, even back in the Genesis era I've always thought that the heavy-momentum focused mechanics and level design were inferior to a Mario or a Donkey Kong which had more precision controls and meticulous level crafting. Still; there's ALWAYS been something about these games that's pulled me back in. Be it interesting premises and level concepts, creative boss battles, and a terrific record in visual and sound design. But it's no secret that things took a turn for the worst when the franchise dove into 3D, the high speed mechanics and linear design just didn't translate into 3D very seamlessly and thus the franchise started to become a punching bag for the industry throughout the 21rst century (despite there being a small handful of decent Sonic games here and there). With Sonic Mania; Sega has basically given up on Team Sonic and 3D platforming to instead hand the reigns over to passionate fans whole wish to re-kindle the best that the classic 2D Sonic games had to offer. I'm happy to say that not only did they succeed in breathing life back into this decayed franchise but they've prolly made the single best Sonic platformer in existence.

Sonic Mania is essentially 50% remixed classic levels from the first four games (Sonic the Hedgehog 1,2,3, as well as Sonic & Knuckles) and 50% brand new content/levels designed to fit in with the classic levels using the retro 8-bit art style and catchy chiptune swagger we all love. They really picked out the cream of the crop as far as retro levels go, and they were remixed in ways that put the original developers to shame. Not only are they made longer and more expansive but there's tons of creative new obstacles and hazards that pretty much make these levels feel brand new. Take the bouncy jelly in the Chemical Plant Zone or the smoke hazard in the second half of Oil Ocean which clouds your vision unless you find and pull switches throughout the level to ventilate the area. I've always use to find the level design in classic sonic games to be a tad bit simplistic and frustrating, especially when poorly placed obstacles would halt your momentum and force you to loose all of your collected rings... But I don't know... I feel like here the developers really refined the formula and went above and beyond the call of duty to design levels that always felt relatively fair and engaging.

Especially with regards to the brand new zones which are all FIRE MA BOIS!!! Studiopolis is this really neat movie set themed zone, you got this western themed zone with a throw back to Sonic 2's Sky Chase Zone. There's also a really robust "factory" zone near the end of the game which in my mind stands above all other factory zones from previous games. Given that this is sort of a compilation style of game the difficulty curve is a bit of a mixed bag, you get a pretty rough spike with the Flying Battery Zone (a terrific zone I might say) which is only the forth zone, but then the game gets pretty easy until you reach like the 10nth zone, which is where the game starts to get really serious again. The thing I loved is that every act of every zone had something totally new for you to experience, moreover the sheer expansiveness of each stage with so many different paths kept me wanting to return to them over and over just to see how things changed depending on which route I took. Sometimes levels would look and play completely different depending on whether you took a higher or lower path, not to mention which character you choose to play as.

Sonic is the fastest and can spin dash in mid air, tails can fly, and Knuckles can climb walls and glide through the air. From what I could tell Knuckles actually has a couple of stages completely unique to him and his move set, the story changes a bit too (not that there's much of a story to begin with). Basically Eggman steals a big crystal and keeps sending you back in time to various different zones. It's all just basic setup for the boss encounters which were a bit of a mix bag I won't lie. There's some throw-backs to classic boss encounters with new twists, completely new surprises coming from Eggman's rag tag team of robot apprentices, as well as one super creative boss encounter in act 2 of the Chemical Plant Zone which I won't spoil for ya'll. But still, there's a small number of boss fights in here that aren't too well designed and/or drag on for far longer than they're welcome to. The worst example of this is with the metal-sonic fight which was a total flop in my opinion.

Like with every Sonic game there's a "true ending" where you're gonna wanna collect all of the hidden emeralds through completing these odd hidden mini games. In these challenges you gotta run around in a pseudo 3D landscape collecting rings and orbs until you chase down a UFO attempting to flee with the emerald... I wasn't a fan of these if we're being honest, the controls were wonky and I just wasn't into the premise. The blue orb collecting game from previous sonic games returns here too as a means for unlocking the game's hidden extras and bonus modes, but again I really don't have any fun playing these shitty mini games lol. It's really the main-game here that you'll be spending most if not all of your time in. I've always had my reservations with the mechanics and level design in these Sonic games but shit; the level design and creativity here is just so impressive that I can excuse the occasional awkwardness with regard to the high speed controls. This is platform poetry ma bois, I'ma be returning to this game for a long time, don't sleep on this if you're even remotely interested in this franchise.