Sonic Mania (August 15th 2017, Christian Whitehead, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch) - The New Classic

[FriendBot]

29 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

I want a boss in this game where you run on water the whole time, an auto-running boss so you don't sink, I'm sure they could do something creative with that.

I think I saw a prototype boss battle that was like this for Episode III, I think. I think I have the video somewhere, it's really rough around the edges so don't max out the volume and make sure to have your antivirus active. And if it asks for your credit card information, don't give it.

WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!

 

[Ajavalo]

One thing about this image...

Who's piloting that Egg-mobile? Note that Heavy Gunner is hanging on the side. Some people think an Eggrobo will be after Knuckles as in in Sonic 3&K. But it seems more like a generic badnik, like those three flying by themselves. Could we see Eggrobos as regular in-level badniks again?

[FriendBot]

It is an Eggrobo piloting the Eggmobile in that screenshot.

[Salamander]

It does appear to be an Eggrobo actually piloting the chopper (it's clearer if you look below Heavy Gunner's arm) - presumably one, like the other three, under the direct command of Heavy Gunner.  Whether or not this makes Eggrobos into regular enemies again is hard to say; consider that this is the Studiopolis miniboss, yet we haven't seen any Eggrobos elsewhere in Studiopolis Act 1.  I'd imagine that they're mostly just going to show up under the command of the Hard-Boiled Heavies, but might show up again as regular enemies somewhere in the endgame.

[Chris Knopps]

27 minutes ago, Soni said:

I think I saw a prototype boss battle that was like this for Episode III, I think. I think I have the video somewhere, it's really rough around the edges so don't max out the volume and make sure to have your antivirus active. And if it asks for your credit card information, don't give it.

WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!

 

Shitty animation but bad @$$ concept. Love the thought of Eggman using his fortress to fire at you.

[Cyrus]

I'm sad we won't be seeing as much hammy Robotnik animations as I thought we would now that he's replaced by the Heavies, unless maybe they're exclusive to Knuckles' levels doing the dirty work for him while he's chasing down Sonic?

[TheOcelot]

16 minutes ago, Cyrus said:

I'm sad we won't be seeing as much hammy Robotnik animations as I thought we would now that he's replaced by the Heavies, unless maybe they're exclusive to Knuckles' levels doing the dirty work for him while he's chasing down Sonic?

My guess is the HBH bosses will only appear as mini-boss fights at the end of act1 and Eggman will appear as the main boss at the end of every act2.

I hope the HBH's aren't just exclusive to Knuckles story. Would mean a lot more work for the devs if they had to come up with separate mini-boss fights for Sonic & Tails story and Knuckles story.

I wonder if he HBH boss fights will only appear in the new zones? Which makes me wonder if all new zones will take place one-after-the-other instead of being mixed in with the re-imagined stages. I guess the former would make more sense as a story plot point.

[expansivelovestories]

57 minutes ago, Ajavalo said:

One thing about this image...

Who's piloting that Egg-mobile? Note that Heavy Gunner is hanging on the side. Some people think an Eggrobo will be after Knuckles as in in Sonic 3&K. But it seems more like a generic badnik, like those three flying by themselves. Could we see Eggrobos as regular in-level badniks again?

Yes; i am finally taking a closer look at this screenshot and it is interesting to note that the launcher is in the hands of the Eggrobo flying out towards the screen; it may be that this is before the actual confrontation occurs? 

Maybe the Eggrobos are delivering the helicopter and launcher and then leave the scene, as far as this write up released yesterday seems to at least kind of describe that the actual action of this boss sequence may be against Heavy Gunner alone.

Studiopolis’ first act boss is Heavy Gunner. Equipped with a rocket launcher, he chases Sonic and Tails down a curving highway while flying in his helicopter. Throughout the fight, Heavy Gunner fires rockets that the duo must deflect back at him to make him lose control of his vehicle and crash.

[Maxtiis]

I'm not the only one who thinks that the Eggrobo closest to the screen looks like it's carrying a boombox am I?

[Chris Knopps]

32 minutes ago, Maxtiis said:

I'm not the only one who thinks that the Eggrobo closest to the screen looks like it's carrying a boombox am I?

"Yo, I'm a Robo, unlike Knuckles I don't chuckle, I'd rather grease my gizmo's."

(Edit)

You think they'll have a signature dance...?

[Psychicmoose103]

I believe that each old level will have and 3 and K style miniboss, where it's just a machine, as seen in green hill, where are no hard-boiled heavies. This leads me to believe, as we see mirage salloon's hard boiled heavy in portraits, and the fact that heavy gunner is in Studiopolis, means that all the new levels will have a hard-boiled heavy member.

[Jango]

Looks like a rocket launcher. And don't worry, the Game Informer article said that the HBH chase SONIC and TAILS down the highway during this boss fight (which hints at it being autorun), so they're not exclusive to Knux

 

 

[Chris Knopps]

It's kinda funny they show Knuckles facing the cops first.

Dudes a rebel. Just needs the right shades...

Fight the power.

[Metal the Mario]

On the subject of short themes/jingles, I wonder why they didn't make a new 1-up theme to go with the other jingles and instead reused the one from Sonic 3. Sonic 4 did the same thing, oddly enough.

[Maxtiis]

44 minutes ago, Jango said:

Looks like a rocket launcher.

 

 

Aw, but that's not nearly as funny.

[Sonictrainer]

On 3/10/2017 at 5:25 PM, SpongicX said:

Was anyone else a bit let down by today's reveal? It felt a little anti climatic. All they really had to show was a recolored minion for Sonic Mania, and a little more of Green Hill Zone? Was this really worth making a tease over last night? I was hoping we'd see more of Project 2017, or more than a few short minutes and images of Sonic Mania. I don't see why they had to make a teaser over something so underwhelming. 

 

 

Still better than Concept Art of a tree stomp and 3 platforms

Man, that was 5 years ago...

[Chris Knopps]

14 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

Still better than Concept Art of a tree stomp and 3 platforms

Man, that was 5 years ago...

Hey, don't knock stump reveals!!

[StaticMania]

That's not really the type of concept art you wanna show in order to induce positive reaction...

 

At best, people will acknowledge that it's good art...but it doesn't tell you about the game. So it's bad, in the bad way.

 

Sonic Mania is surprisingly better than Sonic 4 episode 2 in getting people's positive reaction.

[D.K.]

9 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Still better than Concept Art of a tree stomp and 3 platforms

Man, that was 5 years ago...

Let's not forget this gem.

An entire page of Lost World art dedicated to platforms that don't even appear in the final game. Someone spent development time drawing this, folks.

[Diogenes]

5 hours ago, Depression Kong said:

An entire page of Lost World art dedicated to platforms that don't even appear in the final game. Someone spent development time drawing this, folks.

Well...yeah, that's how concept art works? Not all of it makes it into the final game, because it's for pitching and refining concepts.

[expansivelovestories]

12 hours ago, Maxtiis said:

Aw, but that's not nearly as funny.

I didn't notice the boombox similarity until you mentioned it   It may actually be a visual pun, as far as, rectangular rocket launcher could also be named a boombox?  Many people over the years have mentioned that the badnik designs throughout the Genesis, and also Game Gear, era very often are as whimsical as they are dangerous!   

[Jango]

I gotta say, the Gunner artwork is straight from 94' and I do hope a physical release get a box art with the same art style. This is so damn legit.

[Chris Knopps]

7 hours ago, Depression Kong said:

Let's not forget this gem.

An entire page of Lost World art dedicated to platforms that don't even appear in the final game. Someone spent development time drawing this, folks.

Lost World is confusing from concept to finished product.

In most/all of the concept art seen they use Classic Sonic for whatever reason and they use the Classic Sonic icon for the extra lives. If they wanted the game to revolve Classic Sonic, which the design of the game DOES suit MUCH better than Modern Sonic, they should have just used Classic Sonic instead.

[mikeblastdude]

I know that the team has already mentioned that these are older builds that we're seeing, and they've already worked out a lot of the errors, but I still find it amusing to see little graphical mistakes like this.

[Chris Knopps]

51 minutes ago, mikeblastdude said:

I know that the team has already mentioned that these are older builds that we're seeing, and they've already worked out a lot of the errors, but I still find it amusing to see little graphical mistakes like this.

I've seen clipping going on and stuff too. I hope all of these things are fixed before release. That's one feature from Genesis games I could do without.

Plus they still haven't fixed what goes on when Sonic goes through those loops in reverse. The sprite wigs out.

(Edit)

I saw Tee make this post over on Twitter a few weeks back...

"The team behind #SonicMania are all each other's fans. It's amazing what you can do when you work with individuals you love and respect!"

If that vibe is what makes such a great Sonic game, everyone over in Sonic Team must REALLY hate each other nowadays. lol