Sonic and the Fallen is amazing Sonic Fan game for it's original art style, soundtrack, cutscenes, story, and transitions.
The game has a total of 9 stages with 2 acts within them, with act 1 being a standard level get from point A to point B fighting a miniboss and later by crossing the goal sign, and act 2 being getting from Point A to Point B but you fight a boss at the end like in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles and push the container button to release animals.
The stages are as follows:
1. Sapphire Sights - Grasslands and Temple pieces with a bluish tint
2. Tropical Tracks - Tropical that is combine with a highway, color looks mostly like a mix of Greenhills with a highway combined
3. Discount District - a classic stylized city center that sort of looks like a combination of a classic looking Metropolis zone from Sonic Heroes/Free Riders combined with Studiopolis zone in Sonic Mania. Containing grinding rails as well, which is a treat to see in a classic styled Sonic game
4. Bubble Blossom - Combination of aspects of Marble Zone in terms of the green grass purple terrain with the background having rain with farmlands and windmills. It also has aspects of Aquatic Ruins and Hyrdocity with having an underwater area, making the stage have a transitional aspect of land and water which is really cool, and is really awesome with it's rain aesthetic.
5. Frozen Fountain - Snowy Tree and Industrial Area sort of combining White Acropolis Zone from 06 and Icecap Zone from Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.
6.Gusty Green House - Best way I can describe this zone is sort of a fusion of Mushroom Hill from Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Specifically from the 2nd Half Sonic and Knuckles) and Press Garden Zone from Sonic Mania with a color aspects of blues, greens, and yellows.
7. Carnival Crater - Sort of a Combination of Lava Reef Zone from Sonic and Knuckles and Asteroid Coaster from Sonic Colors with music that would probably fit an turnbase RPG boss than it would a Sonic stage. The stage features aspects of lava and even has rollercoasters to traverse the stage.
8. Raspberry Rivers - combines aspects of Green Hills Zone from Sonic Mania's version with aspects of Aquatic Ruins with this nice Sunset hue/filter/aesthetic.
9. Thunder Turbine - Combines Aspects of Sky Fortress Zone from Sonic 4 Episode 2 in terms of level design, with aspects of level design and esthetic from Flying Battery from Sonic 3 and Knuckles and later in Act 2 has more aesthetics from Metallic Madness from Sonic Mania's style with a blush hue.
The game's gameplay style is your standard Sonic run featuring his classic spindash from Sonic 2 and 3 and Knuckles, with his highspeed Dash from Sonic CD as well. He also has a new drop dash feature which can give you an extra boost as well.
The bosses include:
1. Wheelroach (Giant Purple Roach Badnik, use platforms to avoid it's high speed attacks)
2. Egg Boxer (Eggman Controls a floating machine with a giant white boxing glove that attempts to punch and grab Sonic, if Sonic voids it, he gets a 2 second interval to hit the boxing glove and it will hit Eggman)
3. Big Noise (Giant Green Bird Badnik, attacks from shooting energy attacks from it's bottom, giant lasers as well.)
4. Egg Train (Eggman controls a giant train and uses boxes and explosive barrels that fly out of one of the carts, you use the boxes with springs to get on the top of the train and hit the giant button to cause damage to Robotnik/Eggman)
5. Spiker (Giant Spikey ball Badnik, has a small hit window, requiring Sonic to hit the top of it's head to avoid the spikes)
6. Egg Police Car (Robotnik drives a police car and tries to run Sonic over.)
7. Water Tank (Water tank Badnik that uses water to attack like a fountain, and uses it's twister to attack but also recieves damage when stabile)
8. EggWhale (Eggman controls a robot whale and uses it to bounce around on the stage and shifts between the stable land area and water area. Later takes Sonic underwater and swims around quickly to hurt Sonic and/or keeping him away from the air bubbles to drown him)
9. Ice Saw (uses a buzzsaw to attack and uses side ice cannons to freeze Sonic, the boss' weak point is under it's body)
10. Egg Rotator (Eggman controls a giant carousel similar to that of the final boss of Sonic 4 Episode 2, the Egg Heart, or the Catch Eggman/Egg Claw Boss from Sonic 2, use the sides and archs or the carousel platforms to bounce into Eggman)
11. Giant Mosquito Badnik (uses giant ball energy shots to attack and moves quickly with it's wings side to side)
12. Metal Sonic (now comes with a Red metallic skin, might be a reference of Metal Sonic Kai, uses chest energy shots to attack and uses side dashes and high speed movements)
13. Hat-Man Magician (Weird Badnik that has arms... and uses energy crescent moons to attack... it's very weird and doesn't fit)
14. Egg Big Hands (Sort of an evolution of Egg Boxer with 2 hands and except you damage each hands and destroy them individudally, you then fall down and having to use the direct of gravity downward to attack the body of the Big Hands)
15. Giant Butterfly Badnik (uses the wrecking ball at the end of it's body from the Egg Wrecker of Sonic 1, this is a moving boss meaning you run the entire time while the screen scrolls. )
16. EggTree (Egg Tree has a leaf protection that later exposes the true body after being hit and finally allowing you to get a hit in, so essentially you have to use platforms to attack Eggman at high altitude, and later hit him again, so 10 hits)
17. Egg Electicity (Ball of Metal that attacks by electric balls that move quickly to power these side generators that will expose the bosses weakspot and allow you to get a hit in)
18. Super Eggmech (Eggman uses a giant mech body that jumps around, and punches, and jumps at high altitudes to attack to the bottom, this is technically the final boss if you never collect the Chaos Emeralds)
19. Egg Star [True Final Boss] (You fight him as Super Star Sonic and he has a health bar indicated by the big star on it's chest and you have limited number of rings to damage it 25 times. It has 2 health bars, a blue and a red that requires 25 hits in total to defeat the Egg Star. You rings will deplete throughout the fight while idling or avoiding attacks that will cause you to lose rings faster by 5 if you get hit. Attacks like energy balls, aura blasts, missles etc.)
Pros of the Game:
- Level Esthetics are beautiful in artstyle
- Music is really godly for certain tracks:
• Sapphire Sights Act 1- Over the Horizon
• Sapphire Sights Act 2 - Free in the Marina
• Discount Districts Act 1- Synesthesia
• Bubble Blossoms Act 1 - Bridge Over Bubbling Water
• Frozen Fountain Act 1 - Amy it's Cold Outside
• Frozen Fountain Act 2 - Continental Lifts
• Gusty Greenhouse Act 1- Green is the Color
• Vs Metal Sonic - Time Rift Shifts
• Raspberry Rivers Act 1- Rose-Colored Rhythm
• Thunder Turbine Act 1- Don't Look Down
• Thunder Turbine Act 2 - Music to Infiltrate
• Every Boss theme
- The sprite work and animation is top notch and the designs of Sonic and Tails are really beautiful and take inspiration more from the Japanese Sonic CD version of Sonic than the American Version.
- The combination of having the Spindash from Sonic 2/3 & Knuckles/Mania with the HighSpeed Dash from CD is amazing and flows well when switching between the 2. The inclusion of the bounce dash was a nice addition as it gives a quick boost when you're about to land from a jump.
- The designs of the bosses are really unique in terms of the Eggman bosses and have unique ways of defeating them in terms of their gymics.
Cons:
-Tails shoes are blue for an odd and no good reason, I get wanting to make your designs original in terms of sprite work but don't really understand why the shoe colors are different.
- While the esthetics and art design of the Acts are nice, the designs of the levels themselves can really halt the progress of speed, making it feel more so like Sonic CD and less Sonic 2, the developer seemed to have wanted to do a perfect blend of 2 and CD but ended up mostly doing what CD did where it halted speed and focused more on exploration.
- Some Music Tracks don't fit a Sonic game acts and feel more like they would work in a Persona game, a Pokemon game, or Metroid game:
• Tropical Tracks Act 1- One Way Lane [Boss theme for a Persona 1,2 Innocent Sin, or 2 Eternal Punishment Boss]
• Tropical Tracks Act 2- Sundown Fever [City theme for a Pokemon city]
• Bubble Blossom Act 2 - Confetti Canon to Paradise [Beach theme/Overworld for a Pokemon or Persona Game]
• Discount Districts Act 2- Sonic's Last Night in Town [Bar theme for a Persona game or JRPG Game]
• Gusty Greenhouse Act 2- Life in a Greenhouse [Vendor theme for Persona or a Theme that plays before a boss fight, or a Palace theme for Persona 5]
• Carnival Crater Act 1- This Keg is a Circus [Sounds like a theme that would play in Metroid during a fight against Kraid or when in the magma areas.]
• Carnival Crater Act 2- Forged in the Fire [Sounds like a Boss theme for Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment]
• Raspberry River Act 2 - Shatter Mural [Persona 1 or Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment]
I had a great time overall playing this game on my Steam Deck and it ran perfectly and was a treat to playthrough. While it has some issues with what I listed above, I think for the most part it's a great fangame that I highly recommend to any Sonic fan looking for something in a similar inspired way to Mania.
The game has a total of 9 stages with 2 acts within them, with act 1 being a standard level get from point A to point B fighting a miniboss and later by crossing the goal sign, and act 2 being getting from Point A to Point B but you fight a boss at the end like in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles and push the container button to release animals.
The stages are as follows:
1. Sapphire Sights - Grasslands and Temple pieces with a bluish tint
2. Tropical Tracks - Tropical that is combine with a highway, color looks mostly like a mix of Greenhills with a highway combined
3. Discount District - a classic stylized city center that sort of looks like a combination of a classic looking Metropolis zone from Sonic Heroes/Free Riders combined with Studiopolis zone in Sonic Mania. Containing grinding rails as well, which is a treat to see in a classic styled Sonic game
4. Bubble Blossom - Combination of aspects of Marble Zone in terms of the green grass purple terrain with the background having rain with farmlands and windmills. It also has aspects of Aquatic Ruins and Hyrdocity with having an underwater area, making the stage have a transitional aspect of land and water which is really cool, and is really awesome with it's rain aesthetic.
5. Frozen Fountain - Snowy Tree and Industrial Area sort of combining White Acropolis Zone from 06 and Icecap Zone from Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.
6.Gusty Green House - Best way I can describe this zone is sort of a fusion of Mushroom Hill from Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Specifically from the 2nd Half Sonic and Knuckles) and Press Garden Zone from Sonic Mania with a color aspects of blues, greens, and yellows.
7. Carnival Crater - Sort of a Combination of Lava Reef Zone from Sonic and Knuckles and Asteroid Coaster from Sonic Colors with music that would probably fit an turnbase RPG boss than it would a Sonic stage. The stage features aspects of lava and even has rollercoasters to traverse the stage.
8. Raspberry Rivers - combines aspects of Green Hills Zone from Sonic Mania's version with aspects of Aquatic Ruins with this nice Sunset hue/filter/aesthetic.
9. Thunder Turbine - Combines Aspects of Sky Fortress Zone from Sonic 4 Episode 2 in terms of level design, with aspects of level design and esthetic from Flying Battery from Sonic 3 and Knuckles and later in Act 2 has more aesthetics from Metallic Madness from Sonic Mania's style with a blush hue.
The game's gameplay style is your standard Sonic run featuring his classic spindash from Sonic 2 and 3 and Knuckles, with his highspeed Dash from Sonic CD as well. He also has a new drop dash feature which can give you an extra boost as well.
The bosses include:
1. Wheelroach (Giant Purple Roach Badnik, use platforms to avoid it's high speed attacks)
2. Egg Boxer (Eggman Controls a floating machine with a giant white boxing glove that attempts to punch and grab Sonic, if Sonic voids it, he gets a 2 second interval to hit the boxing glove and it will hit Eggman)
3. Big Noise (Giant Green Bird Badnik, attacks from shooting energy attacks from it's bottom, giant lasers as well.)
4. Egg Train (Eggman controls a giant train and uses boxes and explosive barrels that fly out of one of the carts, you use the boxes with springs to get on the top of the train and hit the giant button to cause damage to Robotnik/Eggman)
5. Spiker (Giant Spikey ball Badnik, has a small hit window, requiring Sonic to hit the top of it's head to avoid the spikes)
6. Egg Police Car (Robotnik drives a police car and tries to run Sonic over.)
7. Water Tank (Water tank Badnik that uses water to attack like a fountain, and uses it's twister to attack but also recieves damage when stabile)
8. EggWhale (Eggman controls a robot whale and uses it to bounce around on the stage and shifts between the stable land area and water area. Later takes Sonic underwater and swims around quickly to hurt Sonic and/or keeping him away from the air bubbles to drown him)
9. Ice Saw (uses a buzzsaw to attack and uses side ice cannons to freeze Sonic, the boss' weak point is under it's body)
10. Egg Rotator (Eggman controls a giant carousel similar to that of the final boss of Sonic 4 Episode 2, the Egg Heart, or the Catch Eggman/Egg Claw Boss from Sonic 2, use the sides and archs or the carousel platforms to bounce into Eggman)
11. Giant Mosquito Badnik (uses giant ball energy shots to attack and moves quickly with it's wings side to side)
12. Metal Sonic (now comes with a Red metallic skin, might be a reference of Metal Sonic Kai, uses chest energy shots to attack and uses side dashes and high speed movements)
13. Hat-Man Magician (Weird Badnik that has arms... and uses energy crescent moons to attack... it's very weird and doesn't fit)
14. Egg Big Hands (Sort of an evolution of Egg Boxer with 2 hands and except you damage each hands and destroy them individudally, you then fall down and having to use the direct of gravity downward to attack the body of the Big Hands)
15. Giant Butterfly Badnik (uses the wrecking ball at the end of it's body from the Egg Wrecker of Sonic 1, this is a moving boss meaning you run the entire time while the screen scrolls. )
16. EggTree (Egg Tree has a leaf protection that later exposes the true body after being hit and finally allowing you to get a hit in, so essentially you have to use platforms to attack Eggman at high altitude, and later hit him again, so 10 hits)
17. Egg Electicity (Ball of Metal that attacks by electric balls that move quickly to power these side generators that will expose the bosses weakspot and allow you to get a hit in)
18. Super Eggmech (Eggman uses a giant mech body that jumps around, and punches, and jumps at high altitudes to attack to the bottom, this is technically the final boss if you never collect the Chaos Emeralds)
19. Egg Star [True Final Boss] (You fight him as Super Star Sonic and he has a health bar indicated by the big star on it's chest and you have limited number of rings to damage it 25 times. It has 2 health bars, a blue and a red that requires 25 hits in total to defeat the Egg Star. You rings will deplete throughout the fight while idling or avoiding attacks that will cause you to lose rings faster by 5 if you get hit. Attacks like energy balls, aura blasts, missles etc.)
Pros of the Game:
- Level Esthetics are beautiful in artstyle
- Music is really godly for certain tracks:
• Sapphire Sights Act 1- Over the Horizon
• Sapphire Sights Act 2 - Free in the Marina
• Discount Districts Act 1- Synesthesia
• Bubble Blossoms Act 1 - Bridge Over Bubbling Water
• Frozen Fountain Act 1 - Amy it's Cold Outside
• Frozen Fountain Act 2 - Continental Lifts
• Gusty Greenhouse Act 1- Green is the Color
• Vs Metal Sonic - Time Rift Shifts
• Raspberry Rivers Act 1- Rose-Colored Rhythm
• Thunder Turbine Act 1- Don't Look Down
• Thunder Turbine Act 2 - Music to Infiltrate
• Every Boss theme
- The sprite work and animation is top notch and the designs of Sonic and Tails are really beautiful and take inspiration more from the Japanese Sonic CD version of Sonic than the American Version.
- The combination of having the Spindash from Sonic 2/3 & Knuckles/Mania with the HighSpeed Dash from CD is amazing and flows well when switching between the 2. The inclusion of the bounce dash was a nice addition as it gives a quick boost when you're about to land from a jump.
- The designs of the bosses are really unique in terms of the Eggman bosses and have unique ways of defeating them in terms of their gymics.
Cons:
-Tails shoes are blue for an odd and no good reason, I get wanting to make your designs original in terms of sprite work but don't really understand why the shoe colors are different.
- While the esthetics and art design of the Acts are nice, the designs of the levels themselves can really halt the progress of speed, making it feel more so like Sonic CD and less Sonic 2, the developer seemed to have wanted to do a perfect blend of 2 and CD but ended up mostly doing what CD did where it halted speed and focused more on exploration.
- Some Music Tracks don't fit a Sonic game acts and feel more like they would work in a Persona game, a Pokemon game, or Metroid game:
• Tropical Tracks Act 1- One Way Lane [Boss theme for a Persona 1,2 Innocent Sin, or 2 Eternal Punishment Boss]
• Tropical Tracks Act 2- Sundown Fever [City theme for a Pokemon city]
• Bubble Blossom Act 2 - Confetti Canon to Paradise [Beach theme/Overworld for a Pokemon or Persona Game]
• Discount Districts Act 2- Sonic's Last Night in Town [Bar theme for a Persona game or JRPG Game]
• Gusty Greenhouse Act 2- Life in a Greenhouse [Vendor theme for Persona or a Theme that plays before a boss fight, or a Palace theme for Persona 5]
• Carnival Crater Act 1- This Keg is a Circus [Sounds like a theme that would play in Metroid during a fight against Kraid or when in the magma areas.]
• Carnival Crater Act 2- Forged in the Fire [Sounds like a Boss theme for Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment]
• Raspberry River Act 2 - Shatter Mural [Persona 1 or Persona 2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment]
I had a great time overall playing this game on my Steam Deck and it ran perfectly and was a treat to playthrough. While it has some issues with what I listed above, I think for the most part it's a great fangame that I highly recommend to any Sonic fan looking for something in a similar inspired way to Mania.