Sonic Mania

too ethnic or not ethnic enough

in seriousness this is a really good example of 90s videogame localizers being less inward looking than is the norm for the medium and actually reaching for a clever name:

(reminder that “blue magic” came from nabokov)

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the good part about playing a 2d game with no dialogue in a time where games don’t come with manuals is that his name is whatever you want it to be

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here’s the line from pale fire

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U made it breh

holy shit I used to post with this kid

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sega revisiting streets of rage like this would be extremely my shit

shoulda hired the streets of rage remake guys tbh

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as someone who was part of that community for a while and followed the development closely for 99999 years I’m gonna have to push back on that one

no idea who would be a better candidate tho

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one of my wife’s old friends is in town for work and we’re having dinner tonight then he’s staying at our place so I’m gonna have sonic depression rather than sonic mania

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i’ve played up to the second boss of the fourth zone

[spoiler]so the formula for the returning zones is that there are bits and pieces here and there that are callbacks to the originals, but there’s lots of new gimmicks and the layouts are both totally huge and enormous. also, the second act of each returning zone has a brand new background, and the few i’ve seen are all really great

i didn’t find a special stage ring till the third zone!

blue spheres stages get you medals, of which there’s loads. if you get all the blue spheres, you get a silver medal, if you perfect the stage you get gold. they unlock stuff. the first things unlocked are time attack and versus modes.

the boss for act 2 of chemical plant zone is something you totally won’t see coming (well i didn’t at least)

the studiopolis zone is full of awesome little details: references to other sega games, other sonic games, old sega advertising slogans, etc., as well as other cool stuff like the huge EGG TV ident on the screens behind you at the start of act 2. and you already know this, but it looks incredible in general.

the special stages are really fun! you’re chasing a ufo, you collect blue spheres to increase your speed and rings to avoid running out of time. it’s an interesting combination of elements from a whole bunch of different games’ special stages

a lot of the bosses have felt like puzzles: you have to figure out how to damage them. maybe sonic bosses wer always like that, but i’ve played all the mega drive sonics through so many times that the puzzle element is long forgotten to me?[/spoiler]

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really enjoying this, also finding it a little harder than expected to find special stages though, up to zone 4 as well

Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy - Sonic 1, 2, 3K -> Colorful 90s fun by an era appropriate wacky tude beast best appreciated by kids who grew up with it

Bulletproof - Sonic Spinball -> like half a change in genre related to action elements but you don’t really think of it as part of the series

The Wedding Singer - Sonic CD -> a slightly more aesthetically pleasant tweaking of the previous formula that doesn’t have the same feel but can be argued to be the best one

Little Nicky - Sonic 3D Blast -> cuz nicky = flicky

Big Daddy - Knuckles Chaotix -> The little dude hanging around the main guy all the time does this no favors

Eight Crazy Nights - Sonic Shuffle -> The bizarre, awkward artstyle and shitty half assed plot really make this miserable

Mr. Deeds - Sonic the Hedgehog for Gameboy Advance -> Maybe the shittiest remake ever made
The Longest Yard - Sonic the Hedgehog in Sega Smashpack -> Only a better remake by comparison

Anger Management, 50 First Dates, Spanglish -> Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes - the characters are 3 dimensional now and they try to be slightly more dramatic than the old ones but it doesn’t really work that well

Don’t Mess with the Zohan -> Sonic Rush -> No wait really trust me it’s better than you think you just have to overlook all the dumb pitfalls

Reign on Me - Shadow the Hedgehog -> Uh, am I supposed to be taking this dude dead seriously now

Jack and Jill - Sonic 06 -> What in gods name

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood -> Every element of this thing seems ill conceived and miserable but somehow still not the worst of the bunch

Click, Bedtime Stories -> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight -> Going into kind of full goofy magic fantasies is kind of interesting but you can’t hide bringing back the same characters over and over again with different costumes

Punch Drunk Love - Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing -> utilized elements of the dude’s appeal for something totally different and elemental to wild success

Grown Ups 1&2 -> Sonic 4 1&2 -> Oh I see what they were going for here but it’s honestly kinda of only surface level like the old stuff and doesn’t really have the same energy

Funny People - Sonic Generations -> This is actually good way to have a psuedo retrospective view of the old stuff but there’s way too many dumb side things going on for it to hold together as a package

Just Go With It, Blended - Unleashed, Colors -> Doesn’t make a completely unpleasant Saturday afternoon if you ignore the dumb parts???

The Cobbler - Sonic Runners -> Why would I want to keep up with all of these terrible characters and plotlines this is barely a thing

Pixels - Olympic Games -> You can’t fool me cause Mario’s here for a second homie

The Ridiculous 6 - Sonic Lost World -> You six outlaw weirdos are trying so hard to entertain me but this is just embarrasing

Hotel Transylvania - Sonic Boom -> This will probably make a much more entertaining tv cartoon

i’m sorry this doesn’t really add up it’s not even linear i mean whatever I regret everythingg

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retrieved one of sleazy’s alltime best posts for the occasion

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holy shit the ice ninja boss at the end of the fifth zone is amazing

Liking this game quite a bit so far, although since I literally just played Sonic 3 the day before, all the bonus stages were like “Damn it I already did all this stuff yesterday”

look intellectually i know it’s true but seeing a credits sequence to a sonic game with @Persona and Kinuko and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and a bunch of dudes from the sonic fangame scene and i forgot sega owns atlus and the people who didn’t make the “official” credits are like Ian James Quartey and it’s like I’m sorry but this game is a fever dream



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It’s literally my dream Sonic game

Like i think ive had this dream before

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i’ve never bought a sonic game, but i think i’m buying this one

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Turns out you can bottle and sell me my childhood.

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