Sonic Mania: Version 1.04 and Plus DLC PS4 Leaks (SPOILERS)

[Red Hot Jack]

I think Plus is looking to be meh. There isn't much new content, it's basically an update, a mode with slightly different layout isn't much, 4 player mode that I will likely never play since my friends aren't interested, the only cool things are Mighty and Ray and their gameplay. The package is good I guess, so I'm buying the game for that and because I want it on Switch. But yeah, not much to be excited about, looking a lot more interested in TSR as Sonic of the year, since... well, it's an actual brand new game XD

So those are my 2 cents.

[superman43]

56 minutes ago, Drifting Jack said:

I think Plus is looking to be meh. There isn't much new content, it's basically an update, a mode with slightly different layout isn't much, 4 player mode that I will likely never play since my friends aren't interested, the only cool things are Mighty and Ray and their gameplay. The package is good I guess, so I'm buying the game for that and because I want it on Switch. But yeah, not much to be excited about, looking a lot more interested in TSR as Sonic of the year, since... well, it's an actual brand new game XD

So those are my 2 cents.

You know what ? One year before Mania I wasn´t really interested in it or Forces... or maybe I was interested a little bit in Forces. I wasn´t that interested in Mania even after the leaks came out, but I was interested enough to pre-order. And playing it ? Amazing.

I think that Mania Plus vs. Team Sonic Racing might end up as Mania vs. Forces despite Mania Plus being Mania + small add-on. It still might be more interesting than what we had seen already.

[BlueFlare]

Mania Plus may seem very little or just little extra but I'm still hyped for trying out Ray and Mighty and all the little stuff Encore Mode has to offer. I hope Mania crew gets all the love and support (=money) they deserve.

Don't forget Mania hasn't been out even a year. I guess Mania Plus is meant to be just an update or a definitive version of Mania, not an expansion like 3&K was. 

[superman43]

2 hours ago, BlueFlare said:

Mania Plus may seem very little or just little extra but I'm still hyped for trying out Ray and Mighty and all the little stuff Encore Mode has to offer. I hope Mania crew gets all the love and support (=money) they deserve.

Don't forget Mania hasn't been out even a year. I guess Mania Plus is meant to be just an update or a definitive version of Mania, not an expansion like 3&K was. 

It definitely is. The only thing I hoped would be in the "Encore" levels is some different settings in those sections with heavier platforming. I mean... look at Hydrocity Act 2 in Sonic 3 and in Sonic Mania. Those few sections, that minor details in the stage. But it made a vastly different experience. Those I thought would be unique for Mania Plus "Encore", but sadly, they are not.

And it´s not just Hydrocity. Sections like that are in most of the stages.

[TheOcelot]

 

Also, I uploaded another video yesterday:

Due to the glitched nature of the 1.04 version you always end up choosing Mighty as your partner. In this short video I show how you can select Ray (instead of Mighty) using debug mode.

 

[MainJP]

THEY LOOK SO GOOD!

[Plasme]

Encore mode looks barely changed. Other than Mighty and Ray I'm not really feeling Plus honestly. 

[TheOcelot]

Ray the FONZ 

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm not sure the layout in Encore changes, that's kind of sad honestly, I think they said it's a bit harder. The presentation looks good though.

[Plasme]

Aaron says Mighty and Ray might be Encore mode only.

[TheOcelot]

Here's the finished stream. Encore mode begins at 34:45

As expected there is no lives system for Encore mode. 

You can change your character to a different one (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty or Ray), the AI character following to a different character or both to a different character depending on which item-box you chose.

 

[MainJP]

Quick little gifs.

[Heckboy]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

Aaron says Mighty and Ray might be Encore mode only.

I hope that's not the case, that'd be fucking lame.

[E-122-Psi]

 

On 6/25/2018 at 5:59 PM, Drifting Jack said:

I think Plus is looking to be meh. There isn't much new content, it's basically an update, a mode with slightly different layout isn't much, 4 player mode that I will likely never play since my friends aren't interested, the only cool things are Mighty and Ray and their gameplay. The package is good I guess, so I'm buying the game for that and because I want it on Switch. But yeah, not much to be excited about, looking a lot more interested in TSR as Sonic of the year, since... well, it's an actual brand new game XD

So those are my 2 cents.

It's pretty much just a bit of DLC/patching for the original game, it's pretty impressive valued as such, especially since the first release didn't exactly require much improvement (sure we all personally WANTED more stuff in Mania given it's concept, but what we got was very solid), but yeah, it's not supposed to be a whole new game.

4 player split screen looks impressively smooth by the way.

[MightyRay]

1 hour ago, MainJP said:

Quick little gifs.

This is the cutest stuff I've seen today. Sonic Mania is a fucking blessing and anyone who says otherwise is more than welcome to meet me in the square circle.

This gives me life!

[jgcatindig]

On 2018年6月26日 at 1:59 AM, superman43 said:

You know what ? One year before Mania I wasn´t really interested in it or Forces... or maybe I was interested a little bit in Forces. I wasn´t that interested in Mania even after the leaks came out, but I was interested enough to pre-order. And playing it ? Amazing.

I think that Mania Plus vs. Team Sonic Racing might end up as Mania vs. Forces despite Mania Plus being Mania + small add-on. It still might be more interesting than what we had seen already.

That's what I fear among all this Classic craze.

[MainJP]

5 minutes ago, Parax said:

That’s weird. The screenshots below show Mighty and Ray in what appears to be GHZ from Mania Mode. In which part of the video does he say that, If I may ask?

He said he had to check.

[TheOcelot]

I think Ray and Mighty will definitely be playable in Mania mode (the above screenshots evidences this). Would be an odd omission. Even though their story canonically takes place in Encore mode (which is after the events of Mania mode) I see no reason why they wouldn't make them playable in Mania mode.

It might be that we'll have to beat Encore mode before we can unlock Ray & Mighty for Mania mode.

Confirmed in the stream: If your character dies then you'll switch to your other sole remaining character until you unlock another character again by finding an item-box.

Also, I thought I'd take some screenshots:

 

 

 

Item box on the left (which originally appeared in Sonic 2 multi-player) swaps around your two characters.

Item box on the right (which also first appeared in Sonic 2) swaps both characters randomly to others.

 

Just like in Chaotix this item-box allows you to switch to a different character. It cycles through the characters more quickly than it did in Chaotix:

[Red Hot Jack]

Now I think he meant "Mighty & Ray" will be playable only in Encore Mode. But you can play as Mighty or Ray or any characters in Mania mode, just not together^^

[Sonic Fan J]

So, maybe I'm just reading into it all wrong, but Encore Mode almost seems to look like it's Mania, but with Chaotix's rules minus the Rubber Band gameplay.

[Sonicfan7]

Do we know if Plus has additional achievements/trophies yet? 

[Psychicmoose103]

I really like the mechanics of encore mode.

 

Unlock new characters in life boxes instead of lives.

You can find item boxes to swap both your characters or just the one your playing as

Death results in the loss of the character you died as instead of a life

And, during a boss fight, loss of a character will let you continue the fight as your other characters, a detail I find very cool.

[Red Hot Jack]

Man, I hope people buy Plus, I know they already did that with digital Mania, but I really hope it sells well despite being only a DLC basically. It's the only way to give feedback that we want more Classic games.

"Speak with you wallets" - Aaron Webber, 2018.

[Emerald Chaos]

It looks like Mighty is going to be easy mode for boss fights. His unique ability doesn't look like it does much for him in terms of movement overall, however. That's a bit of a shame. I hoped he'd look more fun.

Ray looks potentially super busted, even more than Tails. His air movement looks to have more freedom than I expected.

[Psychicmoose103]

Ill be honest, Ray and Mighty both seem super good.

I feel like Knuckles needs a serious buff if they want him to be as balanced as the other characters, as honestly, he is easily the worst so far. Mighty's defensive capabilities, while not super good for mobility, give him the ability to absolutely cheese bosses. I believe it was stated that his shell can deflect certain projectiles like the elemental shields as well as spikes. This, along with his ground slam's utility, makes him much stronger than Knuckles. Knuckles also has a lower jump, which seems to make him obviously the worst character. I think Tails is fine still, but not in the same league as ray. While Tails flight is protected from above, and is easy to control, is very slow. 

Even though Ray is very open to attacks in his glide, the fact that he can quickly turn into ball form is very strong. If Ray could somehow go back into gliding after bouncing off an enemy in ball form, he would easily be the most broken character's mobility in general.

TL;DR - Mighty's defensive capabilities and Ray's mobility easily make them 2 of the best characters in the game, surpassing Tails and easily surpassing Knuckles. The only character that still competes with them is Sonic, due to the shield abilities and drop dash.

Here's a little tier list I thought of, if anyone is interested.

A - Sonic, Ray

B - Mighty, Tails

C - Knuckles

What do you all think about the characters, how powerful they are, and what would you do to make Knuckles stronger?

(By the way there is one last thing I would like to add. I would definitely consider Sonic & Tails together S tier. You get Tails flight and sonics speed and shield abilities, its very powerful)