Imperfect Game: Sonic Mania

Hello and welcome to Imperfect Game, less of a review blog and more of an exercise in fighting off my Psychosis voices and today I am covering Sonic Mania. Sonic Mania is simply put a modern take on the classic Sonic game formula, you play through several levels spin dashing and jumping across collecting gold rings, power-ups, and even uncovering hidden minigames while trying to complete special stages to collect the famous Chaos Emeralds in this retro-styled 2D platformer. Most Sonic games have the theme of Nature vs. Industry and it shows here as well.

The gameplay is the usual classic Sonic stuff, run fast across loops and jump or spin dash to hurt a wide variety of enemies while navigating a large level at fast speeds. The game’s level design is pretty good, while I don’t know much about the Classic Sonic titles the fast pace came as expected, and the many branching paths of the early zones of Sonic Mania let you truly experience high-speed exploration, It also helps that the levels often give you large stretches of space to truly go fast. The sprite art is both old-school and well polished and the overall cartoon vibe is very well done, They touched up the classic sprites of both Sonic and Tails as well as the reimagined Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zones and the new original Zones like Mirage Saloon and Press Garden Zones.

The Bosses were a bit hit or miss, while there are some good bosses it feels like the developers prioritized quantity over quality. But that's not to say they take away from the main gameplay loop of running and jumping in fact some bosses like the one in Studiopolis act 1 were one of the heavy robots starts shooting rockets at you while you run a seemingly endless stretch while avoiding red missiles but also deflecting the blue missiles back at the blue heavy and his troops. It was so good that the very next act’s boss was a bit of a letdown when I can just abuse the invincibility from being hit to quickly defeat the weather Eggman boss. But most of them tend to look good in their animations so it’s not so bad that some bosses are pushovers. While I am not the best Classic Sonic player I was eventually able to defeat every boss. (except for whatever boss unlocks when you collect every Chaos Emerald, sorry but I can’t be asked to try and complete that herculean task.)

All the levels in this game have their own uniqueness both in terms of what kind of obstacles are in play like spiked wooden poles you have to run across and Chemicals that when injected with green stuff turns the chemical into a giant bounce pad and their visuals like a snowy zone with cherry blossom trees where you fight a ninja robot as the boss and a wild west like desert with giant handguns and water dispensers. My favorite Zone by visual design alone has to be Mirage Saloon, not enough good desert levels out there. The giant pistols that shoot Sonic across the level were a neat addition plus there are the water dispensers that shoot out a water path to run across that were another fun gimmick. The airplane section where Tails flies around the desert while Sonic jumps on enemies and collects rings was a nice distraction from the usual gameplay loop and lastly, the namesake Saloon areas were fun to visit and playthrough. The boss of this zone’s act 1 was a bit boring though with all the waiting I was forced to do while fighting a giant worm robot. But the boss in act 2 at least has the gimmick of being able to transform into other classic sonic characters, while I don’t have nostalgia for the characters being used, this transforming boss was a lovely change from the usual robots this game throws your way.

I think my least favorite zone is Titanic Monarch because of the boring plasma ball gimmick really slowing gameplay down to a halt. Other than that the zone was decent enough for a second to final zone. Plus the added teleportation portals warping you around it was hard both physically and mentally to navigate this zone. Then you have the large bumpers that launch Sonic around that you're supposed to somehow do perfectly to progress. All these gimmicks bog down that zone as a whole when just one of these gimmicks could have been fine on their own. I still powered through this Zone but it really goes to show that even charming gems like this game can make mistakes, but the rest of the game’s great so I forgive the confusing mess that this zone is. Which is a massive shame due to this being one of the final zones in the game.

Inclosing Sonic Mania while not perfect is still a well-polished retro throwback that while at the somewhat pricey 19.99 on Steam is still a decent addition to any retro fan’s collection of games. Its Level design is sound and tested by time and the music sounds great too. The visuals make use of higher frame rates to create extra buttery smooth spirit work both on the characters and their environment. The bosses, while hit or miss for me, will still pose a decent challenge for those looking to dive into classic Sonic games for the first time. While I am not usually drawn to retro-styled games due to their usually punishing nature I did indeed enjoy my time spent with Sonic Mania as it reminds me of my youthful days playing Sonic Advance 3 on my purple Game Boy Advance. While I will shelf this game to focus on reviewing others like it, I can hold the memories (and spare the disk space) of this not-so-retro classic Sonic game in my heart. This has been an Imperfect Game and thanks for reading.