Sonic Mania Review
Boring segment about the wacky history of Sonic the Hedgehog.
...now, SEGA has handed the reigns to the fans, and I've gotta say, this might be the most fun game I've played all year.
When Sonic 4 came out, everyone hated it because it looked awful and played nothing like the classic games it was trying to follow up (and I use "trying" liberally). Sonic Mania does a 180 in the most beautiful way possible. I booted up the collection of Genesis games on the GameCube within the last few months, and I'm glad to say that Mania feels identical to its inspirations. After a botched physics engine in Sonic 4 and a so-so approximation in Generations, Mania takes the step to actually make itself a successor to the classics with a perfectly accurate set of controls and physics. Those 20-some years feel like a blink of an eye.
The game is nothing short of beautiful to look at. While Sonic and friends mostly re-use old sprites, their new animations are expressive and lively. The art strikes a perfect balance between the graphics of old SEGA consoles and modern capabilities. Flavorful sprite rotation, Mode 7-like elements, and low-poly 3D models truly give off the impression that this is a lost Sonic game from the Saturn. Stages glisten with extra detail and bright colors that make each memorable in their own right.
Sonic CD's music provides the inspiration for the tone of the game's soundtrack, and it's a fantastic choice that works perfectly with the fast-paced action. Each zone has two variations on the theme - usually a more a conservative version and then a balls-out crazy rendition. So, for Chemical Plant Act 1, you'll hear an updated but mostly faithful version of the classic song from Sonic 2, but come the second act a version plays that can only be described as radical. Even as someone who has spent a lot of time around remixes of video game tunes, each take is unique, and more importantly, amazingly catchy. Say what you will about the quality of the games, Sonic music has always been consistently amazing. Even still, Mania raises the bar to a seemingly impossible level.
The zones themselves are expertly crafted. There are perhaps the fewest amount of bottomless pits in the series, ever (We've come a long way since the Sonic Advance days!). If you make a mistake and miss a jump, you usually aren't punished with a death. Instead, you fall onto an alternate path that will take you another route through the level. This is great because it a) avoids unfair platforming challenges, b) encourages exploration among and between the many paths to find secrets, and c) removes emphasis from level memorization, instead promoting more focused, reactionary gameplay. You could play through a level many times and have it be a different experience on every re-visit. Every act is larger than one in a typical Sonic game, helping this playstyle a lot.
Individual acts aren't afraid to shake up the mechanics and environments between themselves. For example, Press Garden Act 1 takes place inside a processing plant, and Sonic has to bounce on conveyor belts and jump on disappearing blocks to reach the end. In Act 2, he goes through the exterior, a snowy environment with pink leaves everywhere, and has to freeze himself in a block of ice to reach new areas. Between the variations in music and gameplay, each act feels self-contained, yet fully explored within the game before you run off to the next zone. You'll also see mechanics from other games show up in levels that previously didn't have them, like seeing elements of Marble Garden in Stardust Speedway. It's like the developers made a delicious gumbo out of everything Sonic, then applied it liberally to each course.
Boss fights are where Mania really shines. Every act has one, like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but the scope has ratcheted up significantly. Each has great animation and strategies that need to be learned, and some can be quite challenging. Not to mention, a lot of them twist the player's expectations based on past Sonic games. (Spoilers ahead?) You play the boss of Hydrocity Zone in reverse (it'll make sense). You fight a boss that disguises itself as forgotten, obscure Sonic characters! You play Puyo-Puyo against Dr. Eggman! Then, he flies a capsule machine that spits out tiny versions of old boss battles, that you have to fight while you're also tiny! I associate Genesis games with crazy awesome bosses, and that box is most definitely checked.
While each zone has diverging mechanics, music, and setpieces that are all incredible, I do wish that there were more strictly "original" zones in the game. There are only four of them that are built from scratch entirely. This is a shame because the first three are wonderfully creative, and will definitely be a standout memory for me. While the re-imagined zones, as I said, still stand out from the originals, I would still like to see that ratio adjusted at least slightly. I know I personally would be okay with sacrificing Oil Ocean and Metallic Madness for one additional original zone (seriously, Oil Ocean? WTH?). The whole finale also leaves something to be desired. The final zone, and also the fourth original one, is fairly bland, uses frustrating mechanics from the bonus levels of Sonic 3, and has music that sounds like it was cut from the beta version of Nier: Automata. The final boss is rather easy, the true final boss even more so, and both sets of endings are thoroughly underwhelming.
Still, remember the Meat Circus. A bad ending can be redeemed if the rest of the game is truly stellar, and Sonic Mania is, and I mean this seriously, the best game in the hedgehog's 26-year history. Nearly everything included represents the pinnacle and ideal incarnation of the series. It's a blast to roll your way through loops and bust robots open whether you're a fan of the series or not. At only $20, Sonic Mania is an absolute some closing joke about chaos emeralds idk
