Sonic Mania: How did you find it?

[Saelune]

I havent played it, but uh...I dunno. People acting like its an original masterpiece for...being a remake of the old Sonics?

Even Arin of Game Grumps was praising it but it kind of goes against his whole point of what he doesnt like about new Mario games.

Personally, I want more games like Sonic Adventure 2...but better.

Im not paying $20 for it. I have Sonic 1-3 on Steam and on DS. Im good.

(Looking forward to that other one though)

Sonic Mania is Sonic 1-3 but much more and much longer, you don't think it's worth 20? Do all millennials think everything should be free?

Free? No. But Im gonna save my money for the other game instead I think.

Edit: Mario 64 DS did something like that...and it sucked for it.

You liked Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 more than the classics. Explains a lot I guess.

I think Sonic 2 is the best game overrall. But I -like- Sonic Adventure 2 more. SA1 though I liked it...I wont pretend its not full of turds. Big the Cat sucks, Amy is meh, the dialogue is bad the graphics are weird, but SA2 improved ALL of that.

But I also like the freedom and continued replayability of SA2 that Sonic 2 doesnt have. And Chao Gardens. If Sonic Mania had a Chao Garden, Id buy it...

Hell, they should just make a stand-alone Chao Garden game.

 

[dscross]

I havent played it, but uh...I dunno. People acting like its an original masterpiece for...being a remake of the old Sonics?

Even Arin of Game Grumps was praising it but it kind of goes against his whole point of what he doesnt like about new Mario games.

Personally, I want more games like Sonic Adventure 2...but better.

Im not paying $20 for it. I have Sonic 1-3 on Steam and on DS. Im good.

(Looking forward to that other one though)

Sonic Mania is Sonic 1-3 but much more and much longer, you don't think it's worth 20? Do all millennials think everything should be free?

Free? No. But Im gonna save my money for the other game instead I think.

Edit: Mario 64 DS did something like that...and it sucked for it.

You liked Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 more than the classics. Explains a lot I guess.

The issue with sonic is that it has tried so many different styles over the years that its supporters are all mixed up about what sonic is supposed to be and it's hard to keep everyone happy now. That's why they now have to make two separate games to keep everyone on side - lol.

I'm one of the lucky ones that seems to enjoy it in all its forms (except for the obvious).

 

[dscross]

I havent played it, but uh...I dunno. People acting like its an original masterpiece for...being a remake of the old Sonics?

Even Arin of Game Grumps was praising it but it kind of goes against his whole point of what he doesnt like about new Mario games.

Personally, I want more games like Sonic Adventure 2...but better.

Im not paying $20 for it. I have Sonic 1-3 on Steam and on DS. Im good.

(Looking forward to that other one though)

Can I say just throw my hat into the ring and say I genuinely think you should try it? I don't think you'll be disappointed. Honestly. It's class.

 

[Saelune]

I havent played it, but uh...I dunno. People acting like its an original masterpiece for...being a remake of the old Sonics?

Even Arin of Game Grumps was praising it but it kind of goes against his whole point of what he doesnt like about new Mario games.

Personally, I want more games like Sonic Adventure 2...but better.

Im not paying $20 for it. I have Sonic 1-3 on Steam and on DS. Im good.

(Looking forward to that other one though)

Can I say just throw my hat into the ring and say I genuinely think you should try it? I don't think you'll be disappointed. Honestly. It's class.

Im not saying I wont enjoy it. I just wont enjoy spending $20 on it when I have Sonic 1-3 already available to me.

Edit: Also your hat now has to do a bonus stage.

 

[dscross]

I havent played it, but uh...I dunno. People acting like its an original masterpiece for...being a remake of the old Sonics?

Even Arin of Game Grumps was praising it but it kind of goes against his whole point of what he doesnt like about new Mario games.

Personally, I want more games like Sonic Adventure 2...but better.

Im not paying $20 for it. I have Sonic 1-3 on Steam and on DS. Im good.

(Looking forward to that other one though)

Can I say just throw my hat into the ring and say I genuinely think you should try it? I don't think you'll be disappointed. Honestly. It's class.

Im not saying I wont enjoy it. I just wont enjoy spending $20 on it when I have Sonic 1-3 already available to me.

Edit: Also your hat now has to do a bonus stage.

It's not the same as those games though. It feels brand new despite the fact there are old stages in there. Theyve done an excellent job of it. And you had bonus stages in all of them...?

 

[shrekfan246]

And you had bonus stages in all of them...?

Can I just throw my hat into the ring?

Edit: Also your hat now has to do a bonus stage.

I cackled.

What? I'm not nostalgic for Sonic, but I am nostalgic for my old clunker of a TV. Man, I miss that 80kg son of a *****...

Don't blame you.

For all their advantages, modern TVs fair pretty poorly compared to CRTs when it comes to displaying many old consoles. At least not without (modding the console for) RGB/component output, and even then it can still look pretty crummy. That, or using (expensive) external image processors.

All true (my god the Megadrive was not meant to be run on a high-definition screen through a variety of adapters), but it's honestly just 'cause I had that TV for something like 20ish years. Played all my games on it, from NES to Xbox 360, so I'm just... really used to seeing everything with that good ol' CRT fuzz.

Probably explains why I'm not much of a graphics buff, really. 'My god, this picture is so clean and crisp! It looks awful! Where's the fuzz, the lines, the slightly-off coloring? Absolutely disgraceful!'.

Oh, so you're the person who keeps buying all of those 8-bit platformers and retro 3D games that are trying to emulate Playstation-era graphics.

 

[gsilver]

*looks at the OLED TVs at the store*
*remembers the clunky old CRTs that I grew up with*

...I'll take the shiny new TV. Thanks

//secretly wonders why they don't include analog static fuzz in CRT filters. If you had a CRT that wasn't staticy all the time, good for you, but I 'member my TVs being staticy at all times. It looked like absolute crap, but if you want it to be "authentic"...

Oh, and shrink the image down to maybe 20 inches at most. If you want to be representative of old TVs...

//I like Sonic, but most games from the era really haven't held up (I still find Sonic 2 + 3&K fun, but not 1 after Green Hill)

 

[Wrex Brogan]

What? I'm not nostalgic for Sonic, but I am nostalgic for my old clunker of a TV. Man, I miss that 80kg son of a *****...

Don't blame you.

For all their advantages, modern TVs fair pretty poorly compared to CRTs when it comes to displaying many old consoles. At least not without (modding the console for) RGB/component output, and even then it can still look pretty crummy. That, or using (expensive) external image processors.

All true (my god the Megadrive was not meant to be run on a high-definition screen through a variety of adapters), but it's honestly just 'cause I had that TV for something like 20ish years. Played all my games on it, from NES to Xbox 360, so I'm just... really used to seeing everything with that good ol' CRT fuzz.

Probably explains why I'm not much of a graphics buff, really. 'My god, this picture is so clean and crisp! It looks awful! Where's the fuzz, the lines, the slightly-off coloring? Absolutely disgraceful!'.

Oh, so you're the person who keeps buying all of those 8-bit platformers and retro 3D games that are trying to emulate Playstation-era graphics.

Whoa now. 8-bit platformers, maybe, but early Playstation-era is a bit far. I like my shitty low-quality graphics but even I have standards. Polygons of that quality are too hideous to be saved.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I'm liking it save for currently being stuck in the battery zone. Anybody got tips for the spider boss? The whirligig feels like a trap

 

[Wrex Brogan]

I'm liking it save for currently being stuck in the battery zone. Anybody got tips for the spider boss? The whirligig feels like a trap

you have to hit his backside when he isn't touching the ground, otherwise he doesn't go swinging into the spikes - the whirligigs can screw you over if you miss, but if you get the timing right you can nail him 3 times on the same set of spikes.

Also he can't fire if he's not at his max height, so while waiting for spikes you can just jump at him, then let him get up a little when the spikes show up so you can damage him easier.

He's very annoying, took me a few tries to find out just what heights I needed to let him climb so I could damage him/not impale myself on the spikes.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

*looks at the OLED TVs at the store*
*remembers the clunky old CRTs that I grew up with*

...I'll take the shiny new TV. Thanks

It really depends on what you want to do. There are reasons why retro gaming aficionados prefer an otherwise obsolete CRT for old consoles (beside having those authentic scanlines and such).

Most notably, a CRT has no native resolution. It can display an image at any resolution at or below its maximum resolution. Suppose the max resolution of your CRT is 720?576, but your image is 256x224 (i.e. the SNES). Your CRT will produce a 256x224 image. No more, no less.

But, a modern HD TV can do that too, right? Actually, no. Not in the same way. An LCD/Plasma/OLED screen has a native resolution, say 1920?1080. To produce an image smaller than its native resolution, the display would still be using 1920?1080 pixels ? so the display must interpolate (scale) the image to be larger and fill the screen. And it's here that problems can pop up, because the image processor in most HD TVs is honestly not very good, leading to things like artifacting and blurry, blocky images.

Despite all the downsides of a CRT, it can do one thing a modern tv struggles with (without expensive external scalers):
display old games as they were intended to be displayed.

Is that important to most people? Probably not.

 

[shrekfan246]

What? I'm not nostalgic for Sonic, but I am nostalgic for my old clunker of a TV. Man, I miss that 80kg son of a *****...

Don't blame you.

For all their advantages, modern TVs fair pretty poorly compared to CRTs when it comes to displaying many old consoles. At least not without (modding the console for) RGB/component output, and even then it can still look pretty crummy. That, or using (expensive) external image processors.

All true (my god the Megadrive was not meant to be run on a high-definition screen through a variety of adapters), but it's honestly just 'cause I had that TV for something like 20ish years. Played all my games on it, from NES to Xbox 360, so I'm just... really used to seeing everything with that good ol' CRT fuzz.

Probably explains why I'm not much of a graphics buff, really. 'My god, this picture is so clean and crisp! It looks awful! Where's the fuzz, the lines, the slightly-off coloring? Absolutely disgraceful!'.

Oh, so you're the person who keeps buying all of those 8-bit platformers and retro 3D games that are trying to emulate Playstation-era graphics.

Whoa now. 8-bit platformers, maybe, but early Playstation-era is a bit far. I like my shitty low-quality graphics but even I have standards. Polygons of that quality are too hideous to be saved.

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for early 3D graphics. I'm not going to say they look good by today's standards, but I do think that games like Banjo-Kazooie and Final Fantasy IX (prerendered backgrounds are kinda cheating, but whatever) still look fairly good overall. And like, I think the 3D models in the Sonic Mania UFO chase are adorable.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Since the PC version got delayed, my only exposure to it was 10 minutes on a co-worker's switch.

They got the freakin' spindash physics right. I can tap down while on the tail end of a loopdeloop and I'll actually gain speed. That's all I ever wanted back.

...And now I'm considering whether to refund the PC version and just get it for the switch when I get one, or if I should just own it twice. XD

 

[Fappy]

Since the PC version got delayed, my only exposure to it was 10 minutes on a co-worker's switch.

They got the freakin' spindash physics right. I can tap down while on the tail end of a loopdeloop and I'll actually gain speed. That's all I ever wanted back.

...And now I'm considering whether to refund the PC version and just get it for the switch when I get one, or if I should just own it twice. XD

I went ahead and got it for Switch. Runs great and you can play it on the toilet. Not sure what else you could ever need.

It's not like playing a 16-bit game on my PC was going to make any performance/visual difference, so I didn't bother waiting.

 

[Saelune]

What? I'm not nostalgic for Sonic, but I am nostalgic for my old clunker of a TV. Man, I miss that 80kg son of a *****...

Don't blame you.

For all their advantages, modern TVs fair pretty poorly compared to CRTs when it comes to displaying many old consoles. At least not without (modding the console for) RGB/component output, and even then it can still look pretty crummy. That, or using (expensive) external image processors.

All true (my god the Megadrive was not meant to be run on a high-definition screen through a variety of adapters), but it's honestly just 'cause I had that TV for something like 20ish years. Played all my games on it, from NES to Xbox 360, so I'm just... really used to seeing everything with that good ol' CRT fuzz.

Probably explains why I'm not much of a graphics buff, really. 'My god, this picture is so clean and crisp! It looks awful! Where's the fuzz, the lines, the slightly-off coloring? Absolutely disgraceful!'.

Oh, so you're the person who keeps buying all of those 8-bit platformers and retro 3D games that are trying to emulate Playstation-era graphics.

Whoa now. 8-bit platformers, maybe, but early Playstation-era is a bit far. I like my shitty low-quality graphics but even I have standards. Polygons of that quality are too hideous to be saved.

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for early 3D graphics. I'm not going to say they look good by today's standards, but I do think that games like Banjo-Kazooie and Final Fantasy IX (prerendered backgrounds are kinda cheating, but whatever) still look fairly good overall. And like, I think the 3D models in the Sonic Mania UFO chase are adorable.

Cartoony styles have a much longer shelf-life.

 

[Wakey87]

I havn't played a sonic game since the genesis.
So when I heard they were going back to 2D I grabbed that shit up day one and was not disapointed.

It is pretty buggy tho, me and my mate played split screen and in the same game we both managed to get stuck. He got stuck to the wall with no way of freeing himself by a purple moving platform. And I got hit in one of those warp tunnel thingies which caused me to be catapulted across the map untill I hit another tunnel which made my sprite stand up instead of being in a ball, so I had no way of escaping.

Also the drowning music plays when your not actualy drowning in split screen, which then leaves you without music for the rest of the level once you'v exited the water. So yeah, bug fixes would be nice.

[Edit]
Here is the recording

Bottom screen 0:15
Top screen 0:50

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Mixed:

- New bonus stages are fun, but can be brutally hard due to odd collision detection and turning physics.
- The S3&K blue dot bonus stage is a nice reference, but it pops up far too often and ruins the pacing of the acts. I just ignored them after awhile.

Playing through again to get all the unlocks, these have really stood out to me. Some of the last Blue dot stages are unimaginably difficult, simply because they're using things that the mini-game just... wasn't that good at doing. Namely, precision jumping.

And the emerald stages after the 4th one are nuts. Sonic moves like he's drunk when he gets fast enough, and there's no damage immunity for when you get hit so it's super easy to make a chain of mistakes and instantly fail. Gets a little frustrating when you try to correct a turn slightly and end up barreling into spikes and mines.

Whoa now. 8-bit platformers, maybe, but early Playstation-era is a bit far. I like my shitty low-quality graphics but even I have standards. Polygons of that quality are too hideous to be saved.

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for early 3D graphics. I'm not going to say they look good by today's standards, but I do think that games like Banjo-Kazooie and Final Fantasy IX (prerendered backgrounds are kinda cheating, but whatever) still look fairly good overall. And like, I think the 3D models in the Sonic Mania UFO chase are adorable.

I think that largely comes down to style - early 3D FF games and Banjo-Kazooie worked it well since they made it a big part of the games look/charm, but there were a few other games that didn't manage polygons so well - wasn't the keenest on the first Resident Evil because of that, the graphics made it look like I was being attacked by poorly-handled Marionette puppets.

 

[dscross]

I've now completed it a couple of times over. It's great... but now I've let it settle a bit, I think it's way too easy. I wish it was a bit harder.