Okay, so now I've 100% Sonic Mania (All Characters, Levels, Chaos Emeralds, Medals, and all that bollocks) I can now reveal my final verdict.
Sonic Mania - One of the best, if not; the best Sonic game I've played for years since the 90's. It's definitely worthy of being a successor and being a launch pad to evolve from the original classics. It can definitely progress onto a sequel in where it can further expand and generate some original concepts in terms of story and level design.
The extras are really fun to play. The "Sonic 2 Competition Mode" is an absolute blast to play, and even with the screen crunch, it doesn't affect the quality of the screen at all. With much more available stages to play, it definitely thrashes Sonic 2 & 3's 2P modes by longshot. Time Attack is great fun as well and adds so much replayability.
The music just blows my ears off my head, and even gives me goosebumps at times. It's so amazing and its very memorable. With some of the remastered tracks having slight or major instrumental and tempo changes, it makes it sound a lot nicer than the originals (Though they were always good as well).
Given the fact that this is a simple story in which the Phantom Ruby manipulates dimensions and sends Sonic & Co. to different parts of the timelines and dimensions (Parts of the story could have been explained better), I will forgive the 70:30 level roster ratio on this one occasion, seeing as the level design and gimmicks are relatively original and the transitions from stages were pretty smooth. The 70:30 level roster ratio for the most part, was my biggest gripe for this game. Though not entirely Christian Whitehead's fault.
The difficulty spike in boss fights can be rather obnoxious at times. You have the Death Egg Robot in GHZ which is a good first challenge and retains that steady flow, but when you get to something like Flying Battery it picks up very quick, and then it calms down until Oil Ocean... Oil Ocean's main boss as Knuckles can fuck right off. It's the only time in this game I've ever got a Game Over, yet on the Egg Reverie boss I only died twice.
Titanic Monarch Act 2 is a major pacebreaker in terms of level design. It's almost as if it's purposely designed to drastically change the gameplay from being a fast paced platformer, to being a "survival in a maze" kind of level. I get vibes from "The Great Maze from Super Smash Bros Brawl's SSE mode", but to a lesser extent.
The ending was a bit underwhelming, and didn't feel like you saved the world entirely. Though theories suggest this ending is how this version of Classic Sonic gets warped into the Modern dimension/timeline where Sonic Forces will then take place.
I think if a sequel to Mania is followed. There needs to be the following:
Much higher ratio of original stages. If not that, 100% original stage concepts and throwback stages being unlockables.
- Even difficulty curve the further you progress in the game.
- Return of Sonic 3 bonus stages.
- Online 2P Competition Mode.
- CobaltBW also mentioned this; but freshen Knuckles' campaign mode. It has so much potential, but kind of felt rushed compared to the main campaign.
- Better handling in Special Stages. Although I got used to it eventually, it can feel stiff and clunky from time to time.
- Different button commands for Super transformations and other secondary abilities if implemented, not having to be forced upon to use them.
Overall, it's an amazing experience in which we've waited for a long time, and the series has needed something like this for Sonic's comeback. I like how the game's design focuses on not just only Speed & Platforming, but also revolving around the three characters without breaking the original formula. That to me, is how Classic Sonic should be done. Along with so many features to replay, I'll be playing this for a long time. I will look forward to seeing how it progresses from here onwards.
Final Rating - 9/10
