sonic mania - 9/10
sends me into a mania that taxman and stealth made kino and then sega told them to never cook again
another one for the kino pile! the half-star docked, to rip this band-aid off straight away, is just down to me begging for additional original locales. don't get me wrong! these are probably the best iterations of the returning stages, but the original ones are SO GOOD
that said, sonic mania is very much similar to sonic 3 & knuckles, my beloved, in the best possible ways; the levels exude life, with so many different routes and ways to traverse, something that i am even more appreciative of now that ive got the replays of the classics under my belt, and by god if it isn't a return to form. you'd seriously think that 1994-era sonic team had come back to make this, its how crazy of a job evening star did on this game. its so fucking insane to me that we got two of the most crazy talented sonic fan programmers from way back in the day - i remember playing retro sonic on my shitty little toshiba satellite all the time when i was a kid, that and robo blast 2 - and having them deliver a s3&k level of pure kinocity. like holy fucking shit its a complete slam dunk!
obviously, playing them back to back like this somewhat reduces the effect of the anniversary elements of the game, and especially in today's climate, it can be somewhat nauseating to think that you have to go through green hill and chemical plant for the 47th time this week, but you know, the spins that they put on the stages are largely really creative re-contextualizations of what the first acts, which typically draw from the classic layouts, establish - for example, the ziplines in green hill are really fun, or the big bouncy chemical piles in chemical plant, its really lovely! the singular miss in this department is that i wish to god that they did more to differentiate hydrocity. sure, they do a lot that's really neat and cute - i love the use of the sonic 2 8 bit bubble mechanic in theory, but it's super slow, and i really do enjoy the idea of using eggman's mech from the original sonic 3 hydrocity act 2 fight against him, that shit was awesome, but it, too, is a little bit slow on repeats. same with puyo puyo in chemical plant, because i suck at that shit. thats my singular gripe, really, with mania; there's a lot of moments that feel like they're trying to be celebratory rather than new well-designed spins. and of course, that's okay! for an anniversary game, this is a crazy amazing love letter to the franchise, spanning the classic age of sonic for any and all material you can imagine, from chaotix to segasonic to the popcorn shop, even the old slogans, hell, there's even that cute reference in studiopolis act 2 to that horrible harsh noise from the 25th anniversary stream. it's truly respectful and loving of all things sonic, and for that i truly laud it and love it. however, sometimes in the execution, it can feel a touch out of place, or a bit slow. but then, its very hard for me to stay objective and focused on it being slow when... it just puts a huge smile across my face the whole time i'm playing it! its super awesome seeing all of the little callbacks and easter eggs!
and to defend them for a moment, the returning stages are really really good! i personally think that a sonic 3 and knuckles-ified look at green hill, chemical plant, oil ocean, all the sonic 1, 2 and CD stages, is a super interesting idea, because it allows for iteration on the foundations that could have done with bringing up to snuff with the crazily amazing s3&k. which is why the s3&k stages stand out to me a little; whilst they are fun and great and i wouldn't want the game without them or anything, its also just a little bit redundant to me when there's not a whole lot new being done with them due to them already being perfected; take flying battery. they add the new trash piles, and the going in and out of the ship is far more pronounced than previously, but other than that, there's not a lot new here. again, not that there needs to be, the stage was already amazingly good! but it just leaves me craving more, you know? they're not lesser by any stretch of the imagination.
what i will say is that i vastly prefer the experience of the chaos emeralds in s3&k; the new special stages are not my cup of tea, i'm sorry to say. they can still be fun, though! it is super exhilirating to drift and screeech around a corner and just get to the ufo, but at the same time, there's equal times where you'll drift and screeech into a pit because it feels a bit slippery at points. nothing that you can't tighten up with practice, of course, but it can sometimes make it a bit frustrating on account of you having to hunt for more giant rings, which seem to be less plentiful in this game than in sonic 3? that might just be me not having seen them yet, though, to be honest haha
likewise for my 3&k preference, doomsday clears egg reverie, to be honest. doomsday feels so much more climactic, the intensity is high, youve just seen sonic and eggman both jump into space, for one last chase battle, with that hectic, awesome-ass song. egg reverie, you teleport because of the phantom ruby and you're up against effectively a super saiyan hard-boiled heavy and eggman working together in a rather slow-paced boss fight where you can just sorta land and then jump with a rhythm and have it deal with itself. the hype of first getting there and seeing the cutscene filled me with joy, and that song is a banger, i cannot lie, but the actual boss fight itself left me a bit dry, unfortunately.
if this were 2017, and it had just come out, i would have nothing but praise for this game as a true return to form for the classic 2d platformers, after 20 years and so many failed attempts to re-bottle the lightning of the quadrilogy. in 2025, though, im a touch more scathing, and its not the game, its me, admittedly, just because i have grown fatigued with the sonic franchise's recent dependency on revisiting old ideas rather than attempting to devise new ones. but just as i love shadow generations for its explorations of older levels, i love mania for its own takes on old classics, too. just in places, i wish that there was a bit more done, and even better, if evening star had just been given full reign to make a fully original game.
haha yeah imagine a beautiful mania 2 with an amazing art style.
sniff.
but i dont wanna be pessimistic or negative to cap this off! all in all, mania is a wonderful game, arguably the definitive classic sonic experience if you have to pick just one of the games to play, and an amazingly good platformer and sonic game all-around. i personally will stick to my guns on 3&k being my absolute favorite, but fuck if this doesn't get damn close. it'll probably flip-flop depending on the day, to be honest, its too close for me to call. i love this game just about as much as 3&k, to be honest, its just those little hairs in my beautiful minestrone that are making me question it. like its a wonderful bowl! just i wish the hairs weren't there.
