This settles it once and for all 2D > 3D.
Sonic Mania Plus is the
truest example of a modern classic, it feels
exactly like the old, classic Genesis Sonic games and looks like them too. The most intriguing thing about this game is that it wasn't developed by Sonic Team, but rather by a team of fans that earned their chops by producing hacks for the original games, then developing official ports of said original games and culminating with Sonic Mania, a completely original new game
endorsed by Sega themselves. This is
the Sonic game for scorned fans, for people that longed for a return to Sonic's golden years.
The game is more meaty than what you'd expect. The main game is made up of 12 zones with 2 stages each, as well as a
secret final stage if you manage to nab all 8 Chaos Emerald by finding the hidden 3-D rings that take you to a
bonus runner stage in which you must catch a flying UFO. These 12 zones are a mix of
remade old stages from Sonic 1-3 as well as
beautiful and creative new zones. The whole game should take you about 3 hours to complete. If that
wasn't enough, the game can be played as Sonic, Tails, Sonic & Tails, Knuckles, Ray or Mighty, each character having a little something that makes him
different from the others. Sonic can perform a new Drop Dash, being able to come out of a jump into a spin dash, Tails can fly, Knuckles can air-dive and climb walls, Ray can glide and Mighty is the "I win" character, get a ground pound and
invulnerability as long as he is turned into a ball(Spin dashing or jumping). There are not a whole lot of character exclusive areas, but each stage has a
ton of alternate paths and routes, and considering each character has slightly different abilities... I'd call it a win. Finally, there's an Encore mode, which changes stages a bit,
but only a bit, however, it adds a new ending and drops the life system entirely, now instead of lives you rescue every playable character and you play as a pair, being able to switch between both at any time. If you die, you'll play as the next rescued character on your roster until you've got none left. It's a nice twist on the formula, so even if stages weren't changed too much, you get an entirely new way to play the game, one that has you,
potentially, playing as all characters. Lastly, there's a set of multiplayer mini-games.
Gameplay is classic Sonic at its
best. Full disclosure, while I've played every Sonic game... I've always been more of a Mario fan, and the only classic Sonic I've ever beaten is 1. Regardless, if you like Sonic's brand of running and jumping you'll
love this game. A few stages have very light puzzle-like segments, but nothing too taxing, just find the correct bumper to jump on or figure out how to reach enough speed to clear a wall. Every stage ends with a boss, and they are pretty simple too figure out too, well, most of them. I had a bit of trouble with a few bosses, but no hurdle was too high. All in all, I think the game offers an
adequate challenge. The game runs on the classic lives system, as long as you have lives left, if you die, you'll pick up from the last checkpoint you touched, run out of lives and it's back to the start of the level.
As you
should know, Sonic runs on rings. As long as you've got at least one ring, if you tough an enemy or an enemy hits you, you'll survive the hit but lose
all your rings, although you are given a short window of time to try collect a
few of them back before they disappear. Get hit
without a ring and you die. If you manage to retain at least 50 rings when you get to a checkpoint, you can jump into it to trigger a classic blue-orb catching mini-game, and it's in your best interest to try to win these, because you'll get medals that will unlock little bonuses, like Sonic's Sonic CD abilities, the Debug Mode and the 'and Knuckles' mode that let's you play as Sonic & Knuckles.
The game is
absolutely beautiful. Every new sprite and every new animation made for this game are nothing short of amazing, featuring some very smooth animation. It's incredible how they managed to make such tiny sprites look so
GOOD. The music too is brilliant, it's very jazzy and it certainly adds to the experience. As I played through the game it transported me back into the 90's, which is incredible since I skipped the SNES and GENESIS during said era, going straight from NES to N64. That said, as good as the game looks, a few stages were so detailed that it was hard to
distinguish if parts of the environment could harm me or not, like the moving flowers on the flying Desert stage, as well as a set of crates on,
I think, Studiopolis Zone, which I wasn't sure if they were part of the background or not. None of these few confusing spots actually resulted in me dying or getting hit, so it's not a big issue, but I think they could have done a better job with color-depth and detail to make it more obvious, which is kind of a
necessity when your game is based on speed, I think.
Now then, taking into account that I love Mario and am
somewhat indifferent to Sonic.... I felt like a few stages
dragged on for too long. Hell, I feel like the entire game might be a bit too long, although this one might be on me since I decided to finish the game in one sitting, and once I
started to feel a bit bored I still soldiered on. Still, other retro games of similar length, like Ninja Warriors or the faux-retro Shovel Knight and Blazing Chrome didn't
tire me so soon. On the other hand, people that actually enjoy Sonic get a game that plays just exactly how they like it that also lasts a
fair amount. Not to mention, a ton of added replay value thanks to multiple playable characters and the
multiple routes per stage.
So... here's the thing with Sonic Mania Plus, it's a game that so closely
mimics the older games that old fans of the hedgehog will absolutely adore it, but it also means that it won't make Sonic any new fans. I can
appreciate the game for what it is, an amazing throwback to the classic series, but since I've never been too much of a fan of this speedier, looser take on the platform genre... it didn't completely win me over. I liked my time with the game, but I'm not sure if I'll be coming back any time soon. Still, what really matters is that fans of the Blue Hedgehog will get exactly what they want and then some.
7.5 out of 10
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