But aside from the blistering speed and excellent platforming
design, Sonic Mania comes with a lot of details that are sure to
make any gamer smile. The team have put together a fantastic
soundtrack, one that I am seriously debating on purchasing
because of just how incredible it is to experience.
And since this is classic Sonic, you are going to be taking on a lot
of bosses that are looking to stop you from saving the animal
world. These boss battles come in many forms, and while not all
of them are going to test you to your limits, or be all that
impressive, the majority of them are top-notch. You even get
references to other Sonic titles like the boss battle that has you
play a puzzle game in the form of Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean
machine.
Graphically, Sonic Boom is simply a delight. The 16-bit styled
graphics are sharp, colorful, and help set a pretty amazing mood
for each distinctive zone. And as the game progresses you are
going to be introduced to all new zones for the series that simply
blow everything that came before them in the Sonic world away.
But all is not perfect in this new Sonic adventure. Even though
this is a 16-bit inspired game running on modern consoles, the
game sometimes deals with some really strange slowdown when
things get a bit busy. Sure, this sort of thing happened back in the
early 90s, but you’d think the PS4 that we reviewed the game on
could be more than enough to handle the games sprite-based
graphics.
Another issue that you are going to face in Sonic Mania is one
that anyone that played the classic 16-bit games will understand:
platforming issues. Now, I know that I said the platforming was
great earlier, and it is, but that’s in terms of design; In terms of
execution Sonic feels a little more loose than I would like.
This make traversing the stages a bit harder, especially
when making tricky and precise jumps. There where
times where I had to redo a section five times or more just
to nail a jump, or series of jumps. It’s by no means a game
killer, but it is a nagging point against the game. Then
again, this was an issue that we all complained about back
on the elementary school playground.
In the end, what Sonic Mania does right far exceeds
anything the game might have going against it. You get a
ton of new features and gameplay mechanics that make
Sonic Mania feel like an entirely new game while still
holding onto everything that made it, well, so darn
unique.
After years and years of less than stellar Sonic the
hedgehog video games, it’s really comforting that the blue
blur is back to the roots that made him special, and that
the core of what Sonic was back in the early 90s stills
works so beautifully today. -J.Luis
27
GAMBIT | SEPT/OCT | 2017