It’s been like 4 years since I’ve played this game…I honestly had a pretty good feeling about this when I booted the game up. Green Hill was actually fun. There were neat little secrets and controlling sonic was a lot of fun. But it didn’t last. Not long after hitting Chemical Plant zone I immediately realized the problem. You know as I said before Sonic can be quite a bit of fun to control…When the game lets me actually do it! Sonic really wants to show you how fast he is huh?
Because he sure does like ripping away control from the player just to do it! It barely feels like 10 seconds pass without the game feeling the need to bounce me off some sort of spring or send me through some sort of speed booster. It borderline comes off like the devs don’t trust the player to actually be good enough at a video game to handle Sonic’s physics. It was honestly a little crushing when I realized this. I was really hoping to be proved wrong. I wanted to like Sonic Mania. I really did. But the farther and further I got into the game the worse and worse it got. By Stardust Speedway I was so fucking bored that I wanted to quit right then and there. But for the sake of the experiment and in the smallest of small hopes that things would improve I pressed on. Little annoyances kept piling on and admittedly I started getting a headache towards the end of the game which got so bad I actually had to quit for a few hours halfway through the final zone. Although I can’t blame the game for that. That was more I barely ate that day and was basically playing video games for 8 hours with barely any rest because of the Megaman X playthrough I did right before it.
It’s not even like the game’s hard. It’s actually so forgiving that when I died due to a bottomless pit that one time I was actually shocked because every other pit I fell down just led to a lower section of the stage. Honestly most of my deaths besides like, the one time I died to the final boss felt like bullshit. Namely Oil Ocean and Metallic Madness where the game spit me out in just the right way that I’d get crushed by something a few times rendering the Ring System pointless and speaking of that…I actually don’t really have a problem with it. Part of me wishes it wasn’t here due to it trivializing bosses but in the levels themselves it’s perfectly fine.
I’ve always been told Sonic games suck on the first playthrough but get better the more you play them. I’m not going to say anything like “But if I didn’t like it the first time why should I do it again” because I’ve ignored that rule several times with games like Megaman Zero and the original Devil May Cry which I didn’t enjoy either of those at first but after taking time away from them and coming back with an open mind and restarting I quickly realized that all I needed to enjoy those games was to git gud. It was the difficulty and beginner’s traps that was turning me off. But I don’t think that’s the problem in this case. It’s the systems themselves that annoy me. It also doesn’t help that I’ve played another sonic game. Sonic CD 9 times and didn’t like it a single time I played it. Although that’s a far worse game then Mania so grain of salt I guess.
I know if I played again I could find all the special stages and get Super Sonic but Sonic’s problem is that it kinda plays itself 75% of the time so
A. good luck getting to the special stages even if I knew where they were due to getting shot around without any input from me. Seriously I have way more direct control in a turn based JRPG then this and B. I’d just be making a criminally easy game even easier. Speed as the reward loses its luster when it’s just handed out for free like this. No amount of level memorization will change this and if the actual reward is just being able to play the fucking game then why should I bother? I’ve been told Classic Sonic’s greatest strength is the non linear level design but I can’t even enjoy that because once again I barely have control of the guy.
I really wish I could like Sonic and not be the weirdo in the room. Mania has a lot to love about it. All the creativity, love, and passion poured into it is obvious to anyone. The bosses while I find most of them boring, have interesting themes and ideas to them and the music is incredible.But I just can’t enjoy it.
Do I think Sonic games are bad? I don’t even know at this point. Are they not for me without question. I’ve tried over and over and over again and it just never clicked. I also unlike a lot of people I know didn’t grow up with Sonic. I have little if any nostalgic attachment to him. I played his games a bit in high school both classic and the Adventure games but he really didn’t form the core gaming memories. Do I think people who like Sonic games are nostalgia blind. I’d like to think not. But I don’t know any more. It’s not even that I have absurdly high standards. I actually kinda like the first Megaman for christ’s sake.
I guess that’s really all there was to it. Almost disappointed
Because he sure does like ripping away control from the player just to do it! It barely feels like 10 seconds pass without the game feeling the need to bounce me off some sort of spring or send me through some sort of speed booster. It borderline comes off like the devs don’t trust the player to actually be good enough at a video game to handle Sonic’s physics. It was honestly a little crushing when I realized this. I was really hoping to be proved wrong. I wanted to like Sonic Mania. I really did. But the farther and further I got into the game the worse and worse it got. By Stardust Speedway I was so fucking bored that I wanted to quit right then and there. But for the sake of the experiment and in the smallest of small hopes that things would improve I pressed on. Little annoyances kept piling on and admittedly I started getting a headache towards the end of the game which got so bad I actually had to quit for a few hours halfway through the final zone. Although I can’t blame the game for that. That was more I barely ate that day and was basically playing video games for 8 hours with barely any rest because of the Megaman X playthrough I did right before it.
It’s not even like the game’s hard. It’s actually so forgiving that when I died due to a bottomless pit that one time I was actually shocked because every other pit I fell down just led to a lower section of the stage. Honestly most of my deaths besides like, the one time I died to the final boss felt like bullshit. Namely Oil Ocean and Metallic Madness where the game spit me out in just the right way that I’d get crushed by something a few times rendering the Ring System pointless and speaking of that…I actually don’t really have a problem with it. Part of me wishes it wasn’t here due to it trivializing bosses but in the levels themselves it’s perfectly fine.
I’ve always been told Sonic games suck on the first playthrough but get better the more you play them. I’m not going to say anything like “But if I didn’t like it the first time why should I do it again” because I’ve ignored that rule several times with games like Megaman Zero and the original Devil May Cry which I didn’t enjoy either of those at first but after taking time away from them and coming back with an open mind and restarting I quickly realized that all I needed to enjoy those games was to git gud. It was the difficulty and beginner’s traps that was turning me off. But I don’t think that’s the problem in this case. It’s the systems themselves that annoy me. It also doesn’t help that I’ve played another sonic game. Sonic CD 9 times and didn’t like it a single time I played it. Although that’s a far worse game then Mania so grain of salt I guess.
I know if I played again I could find all the special stages and get Super Sonic but Sonic’s problem is that it kinda plays itself 75% of the time so
A. good luck getting to the special stages even if I knew where they were due to getting shot around without any input from me. Seriously I have way more direct control in a turn based JRPG then this and B. I’d just be making a criminally easy game even easier. Speed as the reward loses its luster when it’s just handed out for free like this. No amount of level memorization will change this and if the actual reward is just being able to play the fucking game then why should I bother? I’ve been told Classic Sonic’s greatest strength is the non linear level design but I can’t even enjoy that because once again I barely have control of the guy.
I really wish I could like Sonic and not be the weirdo in the room. Mania has a lot to love about it. All the creativity, love, and passion poured into it is obvious to anyone. The bosses while I find most of them boring, have interesting themes and ideas to them and the music is incredible.But I just can’t enjoy it.
Do I think Sonic games are bad? I don’t even know at this point. Are they not for me without question. I’ve tried over and over and over again and it just never clicked. I also unlike a lot of people I know didn’t grow up with Sonic. I have little if any nostalgic attachment to him. I played his games a bit in high school both classic and the Adventure games but he really didn’t form the core gaming memories. Do I think people who like Sonic games are nostalgia blind. I’d like to think not. But I don’t know any more. It’s not even that I have absurdly high standards. I actually kinda like the first Megaman for christ’s sake.
I guess that’s really all there was to it. Almost disappointed
2 Comments
True. Just wish I was able to appreciate it the same way they do is all.
Berfison
1 year ago