It's excellent however you play, though the portability of the Switch is definitely a strength, with the visuals being right at home on the console's screen. You can also add a couple of CRT-style screen filters, too, which are nice to have. It looks great and runs at a solid 60fps in 1080p on TV or 720p on the portable, with the only exception in terms of a solid framerate being the first 3D Special Stage, oddly. In terms of looks and performance on Nintendo Switch, the porting work of Tantalus - previous credits include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on Wii U - is on point. Even the worst parts are still rather good, but these brief segments feel like bad habits returned, briefly interrupting the blissful dash through the adventure. A couple of stages fall off the 'challenging' category to 'a bit cheap', and we weren't particularly big fans of two auto-scrolling encounters that feel slightly messy to play. Such is the devotion of the developers to the classic Sonic formula that it keeps elements that were actually slightly annoying the first time around. Like the great Sonic games on which it's based, Mania is about 80% fantastic, 15% very good and 5% angry "screw you Sonic" moments, at least for this reviewer. Over the relatively lengthy campaign (for an old-school Sonic game) it all flows together into a rush of extravagant dashes, clever diversions - stages have plenty of alternate routes to find - and tricky areas. These are tricky to find, and will have many going back for additional playthroughs. Each run also has the more important challenge of collecting seven Chaos Emeralds - you can find a giant ring in each stage and play a special stage inspired by Sonic CD in which you 'chase' a UFO on a 3D track. It's pure pixelated joy - speed and occasional chaos makes way for more delicate platforming and special stages, before swerving back to high speed hijinks.Ĭheckpoint special stages (you need 25 rings to activate them) come from Sonic 3, but there are lots of them as the end rewards are medals these medals unlock goodies, but the stages to get them become particularly fiendish as you progress. Clever stages, lovely visuals and tight controls combine for one of the most pleasurable gaming experiences of recent times, a reminder of why Sonic once battled for the ultimate supremacy among gaming mascots and how he made SEGA's name in the mainstream market. However you play, there's a treat in store. Take a Joy-Con each and one player can control Sonic and the other Tails, a great way to share the experience. It's a pleasure tackling the campaign with each and utilising their strengths, but a feature we didn't even clock initially is that this game has the co-op we saw in the past. Tails can fly and swim at will but gets tired, while Knuckles has a neat glide and can climb walls. When starting a save (there are 8 slots per profile) you can have the duo (with you controlling Sonic), or choose to have Sonic, Tails or Knuckles on their own. You can spin dash immediately from a jump, or when you play with Sonic and Tails you can have your cute little fox buddy pick you up for a bit of flying help. Some levels do fantastic things with shadows, exploding glass and clever background effects. Though remixed levels have a major visual enhancement over the source material, for example, all-new stages go further and truly utilise the wonders of modern hardware when applied to pixel art. Over the dozen stages some are also entirely new, and even those that didn't get to play all the originals back in the day - this scribe never had Sonic CD, for example - will likely be able to tell which areas are brand new. The second Acts of each stage are buzzing with creativity, with the developers having fun spinning off and riffing upon the environments in smart ways. Mania isn't simply a greatest hits collection, nor should its appeal be limited to 30-something gamers that lack the speedy reflexes of the past. These go right for the player's sense of nostalgia, but due to the excellence of the source material also serve as delicious 16-bit platforming to those that haven't played the originals. For a decent chunk of the game (particularly 'Act 1' in familiar zones) you're playing levels from the originals that have nevertheless been revamped with additional routes and fun new bosses and twists. At its core Sonic Mania is partly a love-letter to the 'original' games, a remix but also a new experience.
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