The new ones in Sonic Mania are exciting but more importantly, they’re inventive. The best thing about Sonic Mania is that it addresses one of the weakest aspects of the original games – the boss fights. ![]() It should be very useful in the Time Attack mode, but will require practice to deploy effectively. When Sonic lands, he’ll gain a burst of acceleration and roll off in the direction he’s facing. Sonic has a new move, the Drop Dash, pulled off by pressing and holding the jump button during a jump. ![]() You can play as Sonic and Tails, either of them individually or Knuckles, and all of them have their characteristic abilities – Tails can swim and fly, while Knuckles can glide, climb and access exclusive routes by smashing through walls. If you just want to go fast, that’s fine too, but as in the classic games you’ll have to earn your fast times with practice. Each stage is large and packed with enemies and obstacles, with plenty of scope for exploration – and you’ll need to look around if you’re trying to find the giant rings which allow you to enter the Special Zone. The remaining four are brand new, and range from the film-inspired Studiopolis Zone to the wild west-themed Mirage Saloon Zone. The changes can be quite large – Green Hill Zone gains a network of ziplines and a cavernous background and Oil Ocean Zone gains submarines to explore. In many ways, the remix culture of ROM modders and fangame creators is the perfect fit for Sonic Mania, as the majority of the game’s 12 zones are heavily reworked stages from the classic 16-bit Sonic games. Sega has decided to utilise the talent of fans for Sonic Mania, but it has taken a different approach by simply hiring the cream of the crop to lead a development team. Of course, the problem was that your play experience was dependent on the skill of the designer, so things could be a bit uneven. Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker was a great example of what could be achieved by doing so – by providing the level design tools previously only available to ROM modders, it made a bunch of money and created a YouTube phenomenon. It’s always nice to see game developers embracing the creativity of their fans. ![]() System: PS4 (tested), Xbox One, Switch, PC Developer: Christian Whitehead / Headcannon Games / PagodaWest Games
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