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

[TheOcelot]

I'd guess Sonic Team probably told StealthTax to stick to reimaging full zones from the 16-Bit games, but there's no harm in adding small sections of good stage design from the 8-Bit games.

I'd like the other reimagined stages to be almost completely different from the original versions in terms of level design and music. Enough at least to get reactions like this for example; someone sees Sonic Mania being played and notices a stage they've never seen before, they look at it for a while and think "oh this reminds me of a stage from Sonic 2, but hang on a minute it looks so different, but it does have similarities to that Sonic 2 level and yet the level design plays so differently".

In other words it's important the reimagined stages try carve there own identity. They could even change the name of the zone to help distinguish it from the original version.

[The Man On The Inside]

Has it been confirmed anywhere that "re-imagined classics" is strictly limited to just 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis stages? Might be interesting if that's not the case, so we maybe would get to see the Sonic Mania interpretation of a GBA stage, or even an SA1/2 stage  

[expansivelovestories]

It seems like there is a substantial chance that next friday, or otherwise two fridays from today, there will be a new stream!!

I need to find and quote who mentioned that streams are going to happen on fridays soon....

  I do think it will be announced earlier in the week, whichever week it is, where it will be the first official stream..! 

On 9/22/2016 at 0:52 PM, BenderTheBatman said:

Gene said they are looking to do regular twitch streams on Fridays. I like to think it as an improvement over Sonic 4's "concept art Friday"

They can show off bits of new zones and tease us to their heart's content!

^^ here it is!!   

[Badnik Mechanic]

Erm... was this confirmed/mentioned before? 

 

Sonic Mania contains remixes of Levels from Sonic 1, 2, 3... But also. '& Knuckles' & 'Sonic CD'?

[TKD_Tarantino]

2 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

Sonic Mania contains remixes of Levels from Sonic 1, 2, 3... But also. '& Knuckles' & 'Sonic CD'?

I sure hope that is the truth and not a mistake on the part of that Sega employee. That would be absolutely incredible if that were true.

[Badnik Mechanic]

1 minute ago, TKD_Tarantino said:

I sure hope that is the truth and not a mistake on the part of that Sega employee. That would be absolutely incredible if that were true.

She's the producer of the game so I sure as hell hope she's actually aware as to what's in there.

[TKD_Tarantino]

Just now, Mayor D said:

She's the producer of the game so I sure as hell hope she's actually aware as to what's in there.

There've been crazier mistakes haha But either way, that would make this my most anticipated game probably of all time.

[Jango]

Yes, we kinda of being saying this for weeks... Taxman himself spoke on GAF.

[TKD_Tarantino]

Also, does anyone think it's possible that this title will possibly make it's way onto the Wii U or even possibly the Nintendo NX? I know that the now untitled "Sonic 2017" is coming out on NX, but why wouldn't they port this title too?

[Tracker_TD]

8 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

Erm... was this confirmed/mentioned before? 

 

Sonic Mania contains remixes of Levels from Sonic 1, 2, 3... But also. '& Knuckles' & 'Sonic CD'?

Yeah, this was confirmed when the game was announced. Playstation Blog mentioned it: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/07/22/sonic-mania-announced-a-new-2d-adventure-on-ps4/

Tax also specifically stated there'll be levels from both 3 AND & Knuckles on GAF.

[Marcello]

6 hours ago, TKD_Tarantino said:

Also, does anyone think it's possible that this title will possibly make it's way onto the Wii U or even possibly the Nintendo NX? I know that the now untitled "Sonic 2017" is coming out on NX, but why wouldn't they port this title too?

Nintendo probably didn't give the Mania teams NX dev kits.

No chance it's coming to Wii U.

[Jango]

I think the BEST way to make people happy about the more classic zones than new ones, is, besides making aesthetic changes, adding new bosses and gimmicks, is use one of Sonic CD's unused zones, like the infamous R2 or, most likely, Desert Dazzle. It qualifies as a re-imagined classic and a new zone too. I see no real reason for Sonic to return to Little Planet, unless the game's plot involves time travel shenanigans or... Metal Sonic. What if Eggman discovered yet another time control artifact there hidden in this zone? Like burried in the desert. Master Time Stone or an eighth Time Stone even? They just said this week that Mania will have some brand new "item".

[expansivelovestories]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

I think the BEST way to make people happy about the more classic zones than new ones, is, besides making aesthetic changes, adding new bosses and gimmicks, is use one of Sonic CD's unused zones, like the infamous R2 or, most likely, Desert Dazzle. It qualifies as a re-imagined classic and a new zone too. I see no real reason for Sonic to return to Little Planet, unless the game's plot involves time travel shenanigans or... Metal Sonic. What if Eggman discovered yet another time control artifact there hidden in this zone? Like burried in the desert. Master Time Stone or an eighth Time Stone even? They just said this week that Mania will have some brand new "item".

Yes; if there is one constant capability that seems to exist for Eggman it is to travel anywhere.  That is a very good set of thoughts about the potential story, that he is looking for new resources and secrets in places that he overlooked previously; and/or was forced to cease exploration early; in each of the previous stories Sonic arrived quickly enough to disrupt whatever explorations were taking place.  

[Jango]

Also, being unchained, Little Planet won't be as close to the surface as it was in Sonic CD's intro. Sonic will need the Tornado to get there. Also. IF. Sonic... 4.. is canon, Metal Sonic would still be there in Stardust Speedway unfunctional. Seeing how Sonic CD remaster was advertised as part of the "Sonic 4 saga", SEGA is propably considering its connection to the classics.

[Darinian]

All this talk about levels, but what do you think Super Sonic will look like

[FriendBot]

Like Super Sonic?

 

[Indigo Rush]

I'm calling the plot now while the idea is fresh in my head - but the reason that we have so many returning levels and a few new ones is because South Island (1), Westside Island (2) and Angel Island (3K) are connected somehow to the Miracle Planet (CD). and there's probably one or two (new Mania levels) other North or East named islands that feature - I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that these islands are going to fuse together or somehow collapse into one another in alignment with the Miracle Planet, providing the catalyst for the retread of retro levels. But why are these islands connected with the Miracle Planet? Heck if I know. But it's one way to tie the classics together while adding new content, no?

[Jango]

What if the collapse cause time travels on earth (or Mobius, or whatever) and we get to see, a bad (or good) future of -example- Green Hill? Hidrocity? Maybe Hidrocity is a sewer in a bad future.

[Diogenes]

Christ, the last thing I want from this series is more time travel stories. We've already got CD, '06, Gens, and almost certainly '17, that's enough for now.

[TheOcelot]

2 hours ago, Soni said:

Like Super Sonic?

It better be a reimagined version of Super Sonic or fans might complain :V

...couldn't resist

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

I'm calling the plot now while the idea is fresh in my head - but the reason that we have so many returning levels and a few new ones is because South Island (1), Westside Island (2) and Angel Island (3K) are connected somehow to the Miracle Planet (CD). and there's probably one or two (new Mania levels) other North or East named islands that feature - I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that these islands are going to fuse together or somehow collapse into one another in alignment with the Miracle Planet, providing the catalyst for the retread of retro levels. But why are these islands connected with the Miracle Planet? Heck if I know. But it's one way to tie the classics together while adding new content, no?

 

Lets not have an unnecessarily overcomplicated story (and please no time-travel).

"Sonic travels/revisits each island by plane or teleports, something like that. Gets the chaos emeralds and saves the day". Just keep it simple.

[Indigo Rush]

...well I'm sorry for speculating, I guess?

 

[Wraith]

There's gonna be a way the levels connect to eachother and it's absolutely gonna be some crazy shit like warp-holes or something. prepare yourselves for that.

I think personally it's going to be some sort of way for Sonic to jump from place to place instead of time travel. I think you're going back to the zones after some time has passed.

[Cyrus]

Could the Sonic shaped island at the title screen have any relevance to the story and how the levels are connected?

I read someone speculating that Robotnik somehow made the island himself as a front for an evil scheme ala Sonic Colors. That would be an interesting plot; Sonic and company go to this Sonic island and get nostalgic about past adventures and only find out that something's up under all of it, eh?

[Thigolf]

24 minutes ago, Wraith said:

There's gonna be a way the levels connect to eachother and it's absolutely gonna be some crazy shit like warp-holes or something. prepare yourselves for that.

I think personally it's going to be some sort of way for Sonic to jump from place to place instead of time travel. I think you're going back to the zones after some time has passed.

Warping, you say? 

3D BLAST LET'S GOOO

[Salamander]

Sonic 1 and 2 never really gave me the impression that the islands they were set on were important at all; I always regarded it as a throwaway detail.  So long as there are S3&K-style level transitions, it'll be easy to explain how Sonic gets between islands and even to the Little Planet; long-range cannons, teleporters, just plain flying there, lots of options are on the table.

The video pretty much confirms that we're just looking at 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles, and CD.  Even just five classic zones with three or four originals would be bigger than most of the classics, so that's my rough expectation.