Sonic Mania

I’ve never really been into Sonic, though I’ve always harbored a mild interest in eventually getting into the franchise—despite knowing its history of many missteps and few hits, not to mention a rather bizarre community I’d prefer to keep at arm's length. With its reputation as the best classic 2D Sonic iteration ever made, Sonic Mania seemed like the perfect entry point. And, well... at first glance, it looks like an explosion of charm and creativity wrapped in a golden package of nostalgia. It’s a vibrant game. The music is wonderful. It certainly captures all the fun and joy of classic 90s platformers. But unfortunately, it didn't do enough to win me over. Much like most of my past experiences with the series, Mania seems to suffer from highly weird design; it tries to balance lightning speed movement with precision platforming, essentially resulting in a very incongruous experience. The game—and everything about it—wants me to speed through without thinking, yet the level design constantly stops me in my tracks—almost inevitably so if I play the way the game seemingly intends. Maintaining a sense of flow seems practically impossible. It’s like doing 200 km/h on an autobahn and suddenly encountering a speed bump, without it resulting in an irreparable disaster. The festival of tinkling second chances that pop out of your character whenever you get hit essentially acts as a band-Aid for this design philosophy. No other platformer lets you get away with that many mistakes. Probably because they knew most of them wouldn't be your fault. Frankly, I can't see how anyone could praise the level design here, as everything feels random and incomprehensible. If you play slowly, you might spot the subtle tricks scattered throughout the incoherent jumble of levels; if you go fast (as intended), however, your chances of understanding what’s happening are slim. Mechanics cycle so rapidly you barely get a whiff of them before they’re swapped out, and most of the time you’re being slingshot in completely random directions, destroying any sense of orientation. You simply go forward and hope you’re going the right way. It is hard to even keep track of the level's obstacles, given that you can pass through them without even noticing. It’s a insane pace, though admittedly it has its merits. Cramming so much into such small levels is truly impressive and, I believe, highly conducive to replayability. That must be why so many people say Sonic works better the more you play it. What initially seems random starts to make sense; subsequent runs deepen your understanding of the levels, and so on. Perhaps there is something to be discovered here that emerges from familiarity. But it’s just not my cup of tea. And it strikes me as far more awkward than it ought to be. Asking for precision in an environment that doesn't lend itself to that sort of thing doesn't seem to fit well. It doesn't work for me as a platformer, a speedrun game, or an elegant sequence of self-contained challenges. But it works for a lot of people. And since I didn't see anything that was obviously broken or not working as it should, I say give it a try at least. Grab it while it's on sale. An hour is more than enough to know whether or not you'll like the game.

it keeps to the original format of the classics almost accuratally