Looking At Sonic Mania And Sega’s New Fan Focussed Philosophy

Sonic has been a part of my gaming life from the very beginning. One Christmas in the early 1990s, we got a Sega Mega Drive together with a bunch of games, two of which were Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. You could say I’m a big fan of those original games, though I’ve also liked some of the more recent incarnations. It’s that fervour for the classics of the series that Sonic Mania looks to stoke once more, and I got to play the game at EGX Rezzed.

It’s safe to say that Sega are being incredibly protective of this game, wary of showing off too much before release. Nothing that I saw at Rezzed was new, whether it was on the show floor or behind closed doors, so I’m going to focus less on the gameplay mechanics, since you can see for yourself what it’s like, and look more in-depth at how the current builds felt to play and how the visuals looked.

My first taste of Sonic Mania was Green Hill Zone Act 1 and Studiopolis Zone Act 1, which were available for all to sample, while my later hands on time with a different demo build let me play through Green Hill Zone Act 1 & 2, this time with added Tails. It’s here that I saw for myself things like the zip-lines and how the fire shield now burns the spinning spiked log bridge that eats rings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Of course, you’ve already seen this if you’ve seen the trailers, but it’s somewhat cathartic to finally get one up on that log bridge. As for Tails, he still does his very best to get in the way when the AI is controlling him. Some things never change. However, as I played, I noted the astounding animation quality in Sonic Mania. The way Sonic transitions from walking to running, as well as idle animations and hanging off the edge shows a lot of care and attention, and while I didn’t get much opportunity to test them out with Tails, it’s clear that he’s also seen the same love and care.

Getting a little bit of background to the game’s development, it was explained to me that while Sonic and Tails’ animations are pretty much final, but there wasn’t as much focus on Knuckles before showing him off for the first time. The Knuckles sprites that have been shown may not be the final sprite design, though I’d expect only minor changes would happen if at all.

Each level has many hidden details, such as a secret underground background in Green Hill Zone or the various Easter Eggs hidden throughout Studiopolis Zone. These little touches did everything to bring out the Sega nerd within me, and I caught myself uttering things like, “Isn’t that the name of the bar in Streets of Rage?” They’re blink and you’ll miss them moments for most, but again, they show just how much detail has gone into the design.

As for how it plays, it’s Sonic with a new ability. The momentum feels just like the 16-bit era, so there will be no more wonky slope physics like there were in Sonic 4: Episode 1. Sonic’s new ability – the drop-dash – fits as seamlessly as flying for Tails and gliding for Knuckles ever did, with a minimal amount of time required to work out how it plays.

One of the most interesting things about Sonic Mania’s development is that it’s a sign of Sega opening up their arms and embracing the community of enthusiasts, allowing long time fans of the series take charge of its development instead of fighting against that side of the fanbase. Yet there’s been no such love for other classic Sega franchises, and I’d love to see series such as Streets of Rage afforded the same kind of treatment.

Mentioning this to Sega, the response was very open, that there are some business alignment that would need to be done between Sega of Japan and the other Sega regions for that to happen. This is something that Sega are working on however, and there are signs that Sega are taking the lessons learned from recent Sonic efforts and branching out to be more inclusive.

Not only that, but what stood out for me was a final comment on the matter, saying to keep an eye on Sega’s announcements over the next few months. It was almost as if they were teasing that something I adored as a child would be making a comeback in some capacity. If that is indeed the case, many who played classic games during the Sega Mega Drive’s heyday may be in for a pleasant surprise.

All that we know of right now, though, is Sonic Mania, and it’s easy for me to give it a glowing endorsement. This Sonic game is the real deal for fans of his Mega Drive days. It’ll be released digitally sometime in the summer of 2017 and I for one can’t wait.