It's unironically good!
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During Sonic's 25th Anniversary last year, Sega decided in their infinite wisdom decided to announce two Sonic games to celebrate his then 25th birthday. The catch? They wouldn't release until the following year. Instead, his birthday was celebrated with the release of another Sonic Boom game, and the less said about that franchise the better.
I'm sure that as most of you know, I'm a fan of the franchise, but I'm probably the first to call out the series for its recent mistakes. I'm not in love with any of the games in particular, but I can acknowledge a good game when I see one, and Sonic hasn't had a good game in a long, long time. But lo and behold, we have Sonic Mania, the first of the two 2017 Sonic games and it's one developed by fans for fans, or "By the Mania, for the Mania" as the developers call it. It's a remix of several classic Sonic levels with some new twists and turns, but most importantly, is it actually a good game?
Well fear not my friends. Not only is it a good Sonic game, it's actually a good game in general. In fact, I kind of love this game!
Here's the thing, I went into this game with very little hype of expectation. I was interested in seeing just how the game held up, but by the time I was nearly an hour into it, I was in love with it. I loved the stages, I loved the music, I loved the little added features, there was just so much to love that I had to figure out whether or not I should just gush over the game for this entire review, or actually try to be professional and talk about the good and bad points of the game...
Screw it, imma gush over this!
There are a total of 12 stages, each with two Acts, and there are about 8 stages that are recycled from previous Sonic games like Sonic CD, Sonic & Knuckles, etc. If it's a classic 2D Sonic game, it's here in some shape or form. The 4 new stages are all homages to previous levels in the franchise, but they all have their distinct flairs that make each of them stand out. So with about 24 stages in total, the game is bursting with classic Sonic goodness.
But it gets even better! From the beginning, you're allowed to play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and each of them plays exactly as you remember them! Sonic can run super fast, Tails can fly, which leads to more exploration and an "easy mode" of sorts, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls, making it even easier to find secrets in levels. And there are a ton of secrets around, but we'll get to that. There's good reason to play through the game with each of these characters, especially as Knuckles gets a few exclusive Acts for him to go through.
At the end of every Act is a boss to tackle. Yes you heard me right, Act instead of Stage. So we have a grand total of 24 bosses to fight with one secret boss for people that have completed the campaign 100%. None of the bosses are too difficult, but they're so much fun to go up against. The Egg Emperor, the final boss of Sonic 2, is the second boss of the freaking game, and you'll have plenty of bouts that are just as memorable, like a fight with Robotnik that turns into a game of Mean Bean Machine, a fight where you take control of his mech, and numerous fights against the new antagonists of the game, the Hard Boiled Heavies.
The Hard Boiled Heavies are five mechs that have been morphed by the power of a mysterious jewel called the Phantom Ruby. The Phantom Ruby is able to distort time and space more than the Chaos Emeralds, and Robotnik has gotten a hold of this terribly powerful jewel. So the five Hard Boiled Heavies are guarding the Ruby, stooping your progress, and easily give the best boss battles in the game. Their fights are way more than your average "hit enemy until they die" pattern. Some you'll have to chase down, counter, stun, or time your jumps perfectly to damage them. This would sound difficult, but the mechanics are so solid that it's never a problem.
Sonic controls like a dream here. His jumps are accurate, and you'll never die because you lost control of him or had a bad camera angle. You're on him the whole time and when you die, it's your own fault. But you won't be dying all that much. Sonic Mania is an easy game, and the only times you'll really get Game Overs are towards the end of the game when the levels are designed to be harder, so you can't fault the game for that. The only thing I could really fault the game on is for not including a Boss Rush mode to fight against all 25 bosses in a row for maximum challenge.
And then you have the special stages. My lord, these special stages are fantastic. First you have the Blue Orb minigame from Sonic 3 where you have to go around a globe collecting blue orbs and rings. If you get all of the blue orbs, you get a Silver Medal. If you get all of the Rings, you get a Gold Medal. What do these medals do? Well they unlock a whole host of goodies for the player! You get classic Sonic moves to use, a sound test, a working version of Mean Bean Machine to play, a debug mode, and most amazingly of all, Knuckles & Knuckles mode! Wanna play a campaign with Knuckles teaming up with Knuckles to save the world? Of course you do! You can't save during it and if you win Knuckles can come and save Knuckles and Knuckles and you'll get a super amazing cutscene as a bonus and why are you still listening to me GO PLAY THIS GAME.
The other special mode where you can get Chaos Emeralds is a racing minigame you get from jumping into hidden giant rings in stages. You jump in, and you're whisked away to a racetrack where you have to catch a UFO that has a Chaos Emerald. You're timed, but rings can boost your time, and collecting blue orbs will make you go faster. There are tons of shortcuts to take, obstacles to watch out for, and pits to fall into, but I'm shocked when I say that this was probably my favorite mode in the entire game. There were seven tracks, sure, but each track had its own little challenge and you felt so incredible when you finally conquered each challenge.
The actual game will take you about 5-6 hours to play through for your first time, but believe me, you'll want to play through even more just to get all of the Chaos Emeralds and play through with all of the characters. I've never replayed a game as much as Sonic Mania in such a short amount of time. I mean, sometimes I'll go and replay my favorite tracks in a music game, but I've never played through a game three times in a row in such a short amount of time.
This is the kind of passion that you don't see in games anymore. I mean, there are some games that are 100% fun to play, but you rarely see a game that a group of developers have been so much love and attention into to make it the best possible game it could be. It's almost like Undertale in that regard. Toby Fox put in time, effort, care, and love into Undertale, and the same can be said for Christian Whitehead, Headcannon Games, and everyone else that contributed to this project. We don't get games like this anymore is what I'm getting at.
True story; back when I was a kid, I always wanted to write a perfect video game plot. I wanted to write up a huge group of papers that detailed a game's story, its mechanics, is level design, and how certain items, abilities, and whatnot worked. Of course, I had no idea how to actually make that game, and I still don't, but when I play Sonic Mania, I'm just filled with that desired to create the perfect video game. And in all fairness, no jokes about it, this may just be one of the best 2D platformers ever made. I wouldn't joke about something like this, I'm not the kind of person that would unabashedly praise a game because I like it. It's been over two weeks and through multiple playthroughs, I can safely say that yeah, Sonic Mania is probably one of the best platformers ever created and easily the best Sonic game ever made. I wish I was joking about all of this.
And do you wanna know the best part about it? Sonic Mania is only $20. It's on Steam, it's on Xbox One, it's on PS4, it's on Switch, there is no excuse not to own Sonic Mania. You can say you don't like platformers, but I can guarantee you that there will be at least one thing in Sonic Mania that will put a huge, stupid looking grin on your face. You can say you don't like Sonic, and you'd be right to say so, but I can't think of a better reason to own this game than to see just what a good, modern Sonic game looks like.
We've just gotten confirmation that Sonic Forces will launch on November 7th, and if fan theories are correct, it may have a strong connection to Sonic Mania due to the Phantom Ruby. But regardless of whether or not it's a good game, which is up in the air given that the team that made Sonic Mania is not included and that it has a lot of 3D aspects and Deviantart characters, I MEAN, character creation aspects, it can't possibly diminish how good Sonic Mania actually is. I love it from my very soul, and if you want a game that is just the definition of the words "video game", give Sonic Mania a go this instant.
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