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Sonic Mania

My ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Weekend

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Here is a little secret about entertainment: if something is good, people are usually going to find it and make it a success.

I’ve stayed away from buying a “Sonic the Hedgehog” game for all my life, but one recent weekend, I decided to purchase “Sonic Forces” and “Sonic Mania” for Nintendo Switch.

I’ve always played “Sonic” in a friend’s dorm room or at an arcade when I was younger, but I never bought a “Sonic” game; and I had a Sega when I was a teenager. All weekend long, I went back-and-forth playing the two Sonic games. I played “Sonic Mania” a little more because I like the retro look and feel to it.

The main thing that I’ve always enjoyed about “Sonic” games is the speed. I’m not the greatest at collecting tokens, however, I’ll get through each stage in a speedy fashion. When I land on some spikes and lose all my tokens, I’m never fazed by it. My focus is always trying to get to the end of the stage. I’m always trying to break my previous record; my time is my focus.

Before buying the games, my last interaction with “Sonic the Hedgehog” was the first film, back in 2020. I tried watching “Sonic the Hedgehog” with Jim Carrey; I got about an hour in, and said to myself, “This movie wasn’t made for me.” I hear kids love the film franchise. Worldwide, both films made $725 million combined. A third film is in the works for 2024.

When I went into my Sonic cave for the weekend, I couldn’t stop playing, I was enjoying myself so much. Yes, the game is hugely popular and iconic, but the game play, like the original “Super Mario Bros.,” is still thrilling and engaging.

And, like “Mario,” there are many iterations of “Sonic” to come. In the future, I may buy a third “Sonic” game.

image source: Ausretrogamer



Lego Sonic Mania – Green Hill Zone: Vote Now

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Whoa, on the back of the cool Lego Sega Classic Arcade Machines idea we shared with you last week comes the Lego Ideas based on Sonic The Hedgehog!

Titled Sonic Mania – Green Hill Zone, you can show your support for this set on the Lego Ideas site right now!

This Lego Ideas set includes:

  • “Classic” Sonic the Hedgehog minifigure, with additional “running blur” build
  • Dr Eggman, Motobug and three Flickies as brick-built figures
  • Green Hill Zone “Spring & Palm Tree” and “Loop & Extra Life” modules
  • Egg Robot mech
  • Phantom Ruby and Ring accessories
  • 612 pieces, with 11 new prints (excluding minifigure).

If you still need convincing to support this awesome Lego set idea, here are a few play features to tickle your fancy:

  • Connect the Green Hill Zone modules together to design your own set pieces, mimicking the power of the Phantom Ruby warping the world!
  • Use the “Spring & Palm Tree” module to launch Sonic and his Flicky friends into the air, using the Technic lever to move the spring!
  • Use the Sonic the Hedgehog minifigure to run through the environment, collecting the ring and Extra Life (representing this being Sonic’s second try after his virtual journey through LEGO Dimensions!)
  • Dr Eggman can sit inside the Egg Robot mech, which can pose with its articulated arms and legs.
  • Use the handle on the end of the Egg Robot’s arms to extend its hands and use the drill attack on its enemies!
  • The Motobug can catch Sonic by surprise, making him lose his ring!
  • Have Sonic and Eggman fight for the Phantom Ruby!

image source: Lego Ideas – Sonic Mania

 

Sonic Mania Plus – Nintendo Switch Review

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Imagine it’s 1992 and someone said to you, “Sonic The Hedgehog will end up on a Nintendo console and it will kick ass”. Your immediate reaction would have been a hefty scoff followed up with telling the peep espousing such absurdity to seek medical advice!

Well, it’s 2018 and Sega’s blue mascot has appeared on many a Nintendo systems, some hits and some misses. Thankfully, Sonic Mania Plus has hit the bulls-eye on the the Nintendo Switch. Seriously, this game is something else – it feels, dare we say, at home on the Switch.

In a nutshell, Sonic Mania Plus is a greatest hits collection and a love-letter to the original Sonic games with a healthy dose of remixed action coupled with new experiences to hook you right in. The game, for the most part, has you playing levels from the originals that have been revamped with additional routes and fun new bosses and twists. Make no bones about it, this package goes right for the player’s sense of 16-bit platforming nostalgia, which there is plenty.

The visuals are nothing short of gorgeous running at a solid 60 fps (docked at 1080p or 720p in handheld mode). Coupled with the visuals is the awesomely cool and funky soundtrack by Tee Lopes. Of course a good looking and funky sounding game doesn’t get too far if its controls aren’t up to standard. Luckily the development team rounded out the package with tight and responsive controls, with the weighting of jumps and game tempo being nigh on perfect. To be honest, we are running out of superlatives to use for this game. The whole package comes together so well that you get an immediate sense of satisfaction as soon as you press play – it is that damn good!

So what’s with the Plus you ask? Well, a few things. For starters, this release introduces two new playable characters, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Both characters have their own unique talents which make them play differently from the rest of the characters. Plus also provides not two, but four-player simultaneous racing action through the campaign levels, splitting the TV into quadrants, a la Mari Kart 64 style.

Oh yeah, the physical Sonic Mania Plus edition also comes with a 32-page art book. The emphasis on this companion piece is on the production artwork – very cool indeed. Another pretty cool surprise is the reversible cover that looks like a late-era Mega Drive game. We had to reverse our cover immediately to give us that 16-bit feels.

If you have been holding onto your Sega Mega Drive to just play Sonic The Hedgehog games, the good news is you can now either pack it away or get rid of it! Sonic’s new home is on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s brilliant.

We don’t usually provide scores for our reviews, but if we did, this would be a solid gold 9.99/10! Sonic Mania Plus on the Nintendo Switch should be an insta-buy!

Buy Sonic Mania Plus here.

Disclosure: Sonic Mania Plus [Nintendo Switch] was kindly provided by Five Star Games for this review.

 

PAX Aus Panel: Blast from the Past – How Yesterday’s Heroes Became Today’s Icons

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ausretrogamer.com Editor-in-Chief, Alex Boz, had the privilege of being a panelist on GameSpot’s ‘Blast From The Past: How Yesterday’s Heroes Became Today’s Icons’ panel at PAX Aus 2017.

The panel discussed the obvious gaming icons, Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic and what exactly makes them and other well known characters so timeless and appealing to every generation of gamers.

There is some chat about Sonic Mania by Christian Whitehead which leads to a discussion in what (forgotten) gaming characters should make a return to our consoles – watch for Alex’s choice towards the end of the video!


source: GameSpot @ PAX Aus 2017

The Panelists await their questions!

Alex The Comeback Kidd!