Sonic Mania updated to include level transitions for all stages & other new touches

[Nanashrew]

Being able to turn off the time is a godsend. And I do agree with Spyder_Monkey on this being the only Sonic game where I have ever died due to a time out. The levels are incredibly long, then you have to fight bosses with long wait periods before you can attack again (unless you're super Sonic), or you're fighting a boss you can only attack indirectly, like hitting into spikes on walls to actually do damage which is waiting much longer. There was never enough time to even explore a level like in previous games.

 

[Mezentine]

This is rad but also that is not the fight that needed revamping. The Octopus is still a ridiculous pain in the ass, wish they'd looked at that instead

 

[cervanky]

This is rad but also that is not the fight that needed revamping. The Octopus is still a ridiculous pain in the ass, wish they'd looked at that instead

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They might still. They promised fixes for the bosses in general and since this update was released unfinished and prematurely, I wouldn't be surprised if they do change that.

 

[RagnarokX]

This is rad but also that is not the fight that needed revamping. The Octopus is still a ridiculous pain in the ass, wish they'd looked at that instead

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Nah, the Metal Sonic fight needed work because it felt unfinished. The Octopus boss looks fine and works fine; people just need to not be so impatient fighting it. The bosses that need revamping the most are Heavy Rider and Egg Reverie.

 

[Bakercat]

I just checked a stream.

Hydrocity -> Mirage Saloon transition: Sonic/Tails is the same as Knuckles. They walk to the right and suddenly they're on the Tornado in the desert.

Lava Reef -> Metallic Madness transition: When Sonic/Tails walk onto the rocket ship you fight Heavy Rider on, before the fight starts the rocket ship launches. You fight Heavy Rider as Little Planet slowly gets closer in the background. When the Heavy Rider is defeated, Sonic/Tails turn around and look at Little Planet. Metallic Madness then begins as normal with no intro transition.

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It's possible that this update isn't complete and they're still adding full transitions. If it's complete it's also possible they are doing some translations before others and just taking their time over updates. The hydro one seems to me like a placeholder translation until they fully finish it for the update, but who knows.

 

[RecRoulette]

HOLY SHIT THAT NEW BOSS FIGHT

 

[Inuhanyou]

PLEASE TAKE OUT THE SHITTY ENDING THAT REFERENCES SONIC FORCES PLZ

How likely is it that they will do it? :(

 

[Weiss]

UPDATE: 04.) Someone shared you can disable the time limit for stages from the options menu in this update as well.

Oh thank God.

 

[MrPanic]

These changes are definitely neat, but unless they change the OOZ boss fight I doubt I'll reinstall the game. I thoroughly loved the game the first time through, but every run after I hit a complete wall when facing that thing to the point it negated all the fun I had before and eventually made me delete the game never wanting to play it again. Never had a game just completely ruined for me just because of a single boss before, really hope they'll do something about it eventually.

 

[Jonneh]

Updating Metal Sonic means so much. That was my the only low point of the game for me, it didn't make sense given everything the game had taught you up until that point.

 

[evilromero]

PLEASE TAKE OUT THE SHITTY ENDING THAT REFERENCES SONIC FORCES PLZ

How likely is it that they will do it? :(

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I second this. Classic/Mania should be its own thing. Silly of them to try and even tie the games together.

 

[Professor Beef]

The Octopus boss looks fine and works fine; people just need to not be so impatient fighting it.

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Glad someone finally said it.

 

[Deleted member 3815]

I'd hardly call the timer a criticism, but you do you.

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I was acting thinking along the line of getting rid of the Tornado stage in act one of Saloon zone in favour for a proper stage, the Tornado stages have never been fun and yet they still keep appearing in the Sonic series unimproved from its debut in Sonic 2.

I also would have liked an option to turn off the mid stages bosses, I feel that they ruin the flow of the game.

Being able to turn off the time is a godsend. And I do agree with Spyder_Monkey on this being the only Sonic game where I have ever died due to a time out. The levels are incredibly long, then you have to fight bosses with long wait periods before you can attack again (unless you're super Sonic), or you're fighting a boss you can only attack indirectly, like hitting into spikes on walls to actually do damage which is waiting much longer. There was never enough time to even explore a level like in previous games.

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Exactly and the developers themselves knew this when they reset the timer for Titanic Monarch act 2 boss.

There was a reason why Sonic Team did away with the time up limit and it's because it's pointless and cheap as Sonic dies for no reason other than because the player were too slow.

The bosses that need revamping the most are Heavy Rider and Egg Reverie.

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I feel the Press garden act 2 boss also need one as well, I can't quite get its pattern down without getting frozen.

Updating Metal Sonic means so much. That was my the only low point of the game for me, it didn't make sense given everything the game had taught you up until that point.

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Well they learnt from the best as remember the infamous barrel in Sonic 3 & Knuckles? ;p

 

[shaneo632]

New save/checkpoint system would be great while they're at it.

 

[RecRoulette]

PLEASE TAKE OUT THE SHITTY ENDING THAT REFERENCES SONIC FORCES PLZ

How likely is it that they will do it? :(

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Do you want them to take out the final boss song too?

 

[RecRoulette]

Seems that I'm one of the few who actually liked the original versions last phase of that boss. New one is kind of neat in that it seems to be a sort of combination of S&K's penultimate boss and S2's final -- it does look like it would feel less exhilarating to play though.
Maybe my bias is showing but I feel so used to the fighting the original phase on the main campaign after nearly 8 months(!), hope there's an option to play the original somewhere. Neat if is a test for encore mode like someone here said.

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Spoiler

 

[RagnarokX]

Here's a map I made when I tried to make sense of things:

 

[Inuhanyou]

Do you want them to take out the final boss song too?

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whatever they have to do my friend, IDC. i am an extreme OCD kind of guy, and having that excellent game be 'incomplete' without finishing forces...just nooooooooooo

 

[Pineconn]

The boss that needs to be changed is Oil Ocean Act 1. It's dreadfully easy to kill before it attacks, but if you fail to do so, you'll get launched into a ceiling of spikes that's initially off screen. Hidden (potential) insta-death is... bad design.

 

[MondoMega]

Most of the tiny flaws I had with the game are going to be addressed with this update (missing transitions, super sonic animations, unused Tails CPZ animation, competition mode screen stretching, etc) which personally makes me so happy. While the game will be even better than before, there are still some things that I would love to see (or not see, in some cases):

• Allow us to choose if we want the regular Super Sonic theme, normal stage music or sped-up stage music.
• Add in the missing stages in Competition Mode. There is a mod that adds in most reasonable stages, with the only exceptions being FBZ2, HCZ1 and MMZ1. These are all due to errors that could easily be fixed by the actual Mania team, so I would love to see ALL regular stages be included.
• Allow us to play Special Stages and Blue Spheres stages from the Extras menu. While there is a Blue Spheres option in the actual game, you can only play random levels. I want to ability to choose from any of the 32 main game levels and any of the bonus levels too. There is no excuse for not being able to replay the Special Stages though.
• Expand Egg Reverie Zone. Based on data-mining, it seems like the HBH re-fights from the TMZ Act 2 boss were meant to appear in Egg Reverie Zone, so it would be nice to see them properly implemented (and allow you to actually fight them all without having to purposely suck at the Phantom Egg fight).
• Don't change the checkpoint or save system at all. A Game Over is meant to be a learning experience, and removing all punishment from getting one, or even making it less strict would entirely ruin the point. But if people really want the game to be easier, then I have a different suggestion:
• Add in Easy Mode, inspired by the mode of the same name from Sonic Jam. In Easy Mode, each Zone only has one act, act layouts are changed to make it easier for the player and bosses are weaker, only taking half the hits they usually would. The Time Limit is permanently disabled and the player cannot access Special Stages or collect Chaos Emeralds.
• I would suggest a Hard Mode in addition to Easy Mode, but since we know pretty much nothing about Encore Mode it may scratch that itch for people who have played through the game tens of times already (like myself).

Some of these are smaller than others (and I would be fine without an expanded Egg Reverie) but I hope we see most of these addressed when the full update hits.

 

[Professor Beef]

Those last few bullet points are amazing suggestions.

 

[Ubiblu]

Thank fuck they changed that wholly dreadful and unintuitive piece of shit boss fight. God that ruined my otherwise fantastic playthrough. Great decision devs!

 

[sibarraz]

Why would they change the metal sonic fight? it was one of the best bosses in the games

 

[Danthrax]

Nah, the Metal Sonic fight needed work because it felt unfinished. The Octopus boss looks fine and works fine; people just need to not be so impatient fighting it. The bosses that need revamping the most are Heavy Rider and Egg Reverie.

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maybe people were impatient because they were worried about running out of time

at least that's now fixed

These changes are definitely neat, but unless they change the OOZ boss fight I doubt I'll reinstall the game. I thoroughly loved the game the first time through, but every run after I hit a complete wall when facing that thing to the point it negated all the fun I had before and eventually made me delete the game never wanting to play it again. Never had a game just completely ruined for me just because of a single boss before, really hope they'll do something about it eventually.

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Weird, I've had the same experience. I beat the OOZ2 boss on my first try when I first ran through Mania, but on my second playthrough I've been completely halted by it. It's impossible for me to beat now. A lot of bosses in Mania are too hard and it really taints the experience for me. It sucks because I love the music, the levels, the animation, the callbacks ... but the boss (and special stage) difficulty ruin it for me.

 

[Kouriozan]

Never died due to time limit, finished the game 4 times with all emeralds and all characters solo + Sonic and Tails.
There was one time I was close to it though, nearing 8 mins.

 

[mute]

I'm curious to play through that new revamped boss fight. The annoying part came before where the changes were made, what came after was fun.

 

[NuclearCake]

Am i missing something here or did they really just replace a boss fight that was there originally? I get that the new fight is better but this is kind of messed up. If there is no way to access the original fight.

 

[RockmanBN]

Never died due to time limit, finished the game 4 times with all emeralds and all characters solo + Sonic and Tails.
There was one time I was close to it though, nearing 8 mins.

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Timed out only once in Act 2 of Flying Battery because I spent too long looking for secret rings.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

Is it out on switch yet?

 

[Madison]

New level transitions, more characters, boss fixes and extra content could make Sonic Mania a perfect game.

 

[RockmanBN]

Am i missing something here or did they really just replace a boss fight that was there originally? I get that the new fight is better but this is kind of messed up. If there is no way to access the original fight.

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The one they replaced was almost impsossible to die to because if you get hit, you and your rings fall back to the spiked wall chasing you. Before your invincibility ends, you collect the rings bouncing by the wall.

 

[goldenpp73]

They need to replace blue sphere with something else once you finish them all. No motivation to do the bonus stages now.

 

[Deleted member 3815]

the player cannot access Special Stages or collect Chaos Emeralds.

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I don't agree with that part as again the Sonic Advance series had an easy option, which removed some enemies and reduced the hits of bosses from 8 to 6 and had an option to disable the timer and allowed players to access the special stages and collect the Chaos Emeralds.

There's no need for that kinda of restriction at all as easy mode still doesn't automatically give the player access to the Special stages nor does it grant them the Chaos Emeralds. They would still have to put in the work.

Why would they change the metal sonic fight? it was one of the best bosses in the games

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Because the original version was bad as it was easy to destroy the little hedgehog and they wouldn't always hit Metal Sonic, plus as someone pointed out the game did a poor job in teaching the player what they had to do.

 

[Cup O' Tea?]

That's awesome. I'm glad they added them for all stages because it really makes the game's presentation feel more seamless.

 

[Not]

Is this patch an automatic update in the Switch version?

 

[Danthrax]

Am i missing something here or did they really just replace a boss fight that was there originally? I get that the new fight is better but this is kind of messed up. If there is no way to access the original fight.

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They removed the third part of the Metal Sonic fight and made a new part in its place. The entire boss fight wasn't replaced.

Is it out on switch yet?

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The update was retracted so it wasn't meant to come out yet.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

They removed the third part of the Metal Sonic fight and made a new part in its place. The entire boss fight wasn't replaced.




The update was retracted so it wasn't meant to come out yet.

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Ah i see..... thx!
Welp can't wait to see it release later then all sounds good especially the boss revamp and stage transitions. Last part will make the game feel connected properly.

 

[MondoMega]

I don't agree with that part as again the Sonic Advance series had an easy option, which removed some enemies and reduced the hits of bosses from 8 to 6 and had an option to disable the timer and allowed players to access the special stages and collect the Chaos Emeralds.

There's no need for that kinda of restriction at all as easy mode still doesn't automatically give the player access to the Special stages nor does it grant them the Chaos Emeralds. They would still have to put in the work.



Because the original version was bad as it was easy to destroy the little hedgehog and they wouldn't always hit Metal Sonic, plus as someone pointed out the game did a poor job in teaching the player what they had to do.

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Fair enough, but my personal idealogy for an easy mode (not just for this game but for any game) would be to make the player feel like they are missing out on part of the experience and make them want to play the game on the normal difficulty that the game was made for. Excluding levels and denying access to the super transformation does just that.

That isn't the only reason I included that little note though. Since the game would essentially be half the length, it would be harder for players to get all of the Chaos Emeralds in the first place, as they have less oppurtunities to do so. If you're even playing the easy mode in the first place, you probably wouldn't end up finding enough special rings, let alone beat them before your 12 level play through is over.

Also, the Metal Sonic phase you described in the second part of your post isn't even the part they changed. That bit is still the same.

 

[Dakkon]

The real problem here is that none of the modern digital distribution platforms allow consumers to install downgrade their games to an earlier version, even for fully offline single-player games like Sonic Mania. This is a huge issue.

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Actually Steam has this functionality built in, but it's up to the developers themselves to allow the consumers to use it that way.

Here's an example from Crusader King's 2:

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Actually Steam has this functionality built in, but it's up to the developers themselves to allow the consumers to use it that way.

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But old builds aren't "beta programs", they're old builds. That developer is hijacking the beta system for something it was never intended for. I'd call it clever use of an existing system for a novel purpose, not "built in functionality".

If the functionality was actually built in, more developers would use it, especially if it was enabled by default, as it really should be.

 

[Mindman]

Did they make the Oil Ocean boss easier?

 

[Harmony Friends]

[map]

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I'm pretty sure Mirage Saloon is on the Sonic 2 island, with Oil Ocean just off the coast of that.
The reason they have the Tornado and therefore can fly to Mirage Saloon is because Hydrocity leads back into Angel Island, where the Tornado was left at the beginning of the game.
This is supported by the background/boss switcheroo in Hydrocity - Act 1 has S3K Act 2's background and a variant of its boss, and vice versa. Especially the background thing - I don't see any reason why they'd go out of their way to do that unless they were intending to imply that the characters are going "backwards", leading back to Angel Island, and therefore, the Tornado that starts the next stage.

 

[MondoMega]

I'm pretty sure Mirage Saloon is on the Sonic 2 island, with Oil Ocean just off the coast of that.
The reason they have the Tornado and therefore can fly to Mirage Saloon is because Hydrocity leads back into Angel Island, where the Tornado was left at the beginning of the game.
This is supported by the background/boss switcheroo in Hydrocity - Act 1 has S3K Act 2's background and a variant of its boss, and vice versa. Especially the background thing - I don't see any reason why they'd go out of their way to do that unless they were intending to imply that the characters are going "backwards", leading back to Angel Island, and therefore, the Tornado that starts the next stage.

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Yep, I definitely agree with this. To go along with this, I think that the transition in he leaked update is unfinished, and that the final version will include a proper cutscene of Sonic/Tails and Knuckles meeting up in Angel Island Zone, hoping on the Tornado and flying off.

The main reason I think the transition is unfinished is that it's the only one that requires the player's actual inputs to progress. It's pretty clear that the movement path isn't scripted yet.

 

[Zubz]

Man, I wish I hadn't had that spoiled.

Still, I actually liked the original phase of that boss fight. And agreed that it should've been the damn octopus they touched up. But I doubt this is everything in Plus. I'm very excited to see the full release! I wonder if this leak is going to move the release schedule up.

 

[Meowmixez]

I love this development team .

 

[RagnarokX]

I'm pretty sure Mirage Saloon is on the Sonic 2 island, with Oil Ocean just off the coast of that.
The reason they have the Tornado and therefore can fly to Mirage Saloon is because Hydrocity leads back into Angel Island, where the Tornado was left at the beginning of the game.
This is supported by the background/boss switcheroo in Hydrocity - Act 1 has S3K Act 2's background and a variant of its boss, and vice versa. Especially the background thing - I don't see any reason why they'd go out of their way to do that unless they were intending to imply that the characters are going "backwards", leading back to Angel Island, and therefore, the Tornado that starts the next stage.

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Oil Ocean is in the ocean, so assuming it's the same place from Sonic 2 and not a new oil rig that just looks the same Angel Island could have landed in the water nearbye or it could have been moved over there. That's why I put Angel Island near Westside Island. It makes more sense for it to be near Angel Island and Mirage Saloon to be there since that's where Little Planet is and that works better than them taking a detour from Angel Island all the way back to Westside Island for no reason just to go back to Angel Island.

They leave Hydrocity, grab the Tornado, and attempt to fly back to Little Planet, but get shot down as they fly over Angel Island's desert. They head to the nearest Eggman base and hitch a ride to Eggman's space port, which he's built in Hidden Palace Zone, where they get on a rocket bound for Little Planet.

Hopefully they add a small scene of them returning to the Tornado in Angel Island Zone and taking off.

 

[louisacommie]

I second this. Classic/Mania should be its own thing. Silly of them to try and even tie the games together.

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I wish we could do a redevelopment of forces with the resources that went to classic sonic given to modern and the avatar.

 

[Sagadego17]

I wish we could do a redevelopment of forces with the resources that went to classic sonic given to modern and the avatar.

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that would mean if sonic team gave a shit.

 

[louisacommie]

that would mean if sonic team gave a shit.

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Also wouldn't help the controls that were based on lost world and the level design philosophy.

 

[Yukinari]

PLEASE TAKE OUT THE SHITTY ENDING THAT REFERENCES SONIC FORCES PLZ

How likely is it that they will do it? :(

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Its so funny to me that Sega was so sure that Classic Sonic would only be for generations and yet here he is being thrown into other games with no reason.

Ontop of that, retconning generations by saying hes no longer a past version of sonic but hes from another dimension. Fuck off sonic team.