Sonic Mania is exactly the game Sega needed to make. It captures everything fans loved about the blue hedgehog, removing the 3D platforming, werewolf transformations and superfluous characters aimed at children. It’s simple, fast-paced and has everything a fan of the series would want. I’ve been playing for a bit now and I’ve created a list of tips and tricks you can use to beat Dr. Eggman and his posse of bots.
It’s Really Hard- Sonic Mania isn’t like a lot of modern video games. There’s no difficulty to set, everyone’s playing the exact same game. That means the developers had to make a challenging game, one that will frustrate new players to the genre. If you’ve never controlled Sonic before, getting through the first few levels could be a nightmare. I’m a millennial who never had a Sega Genesis, but played through the original titles on emulators in high school. Even with hours of practice in speedy combat, there was still quite the learning curve for me.
Avoid Losing Your Progress- If you lose all your lives, you have to start back at the beginning of the zone. It doesn’t matter that you got through the first act, losing all your lives throws you right back to the start. Making those three lives last can be tricky, so it’s super important that you get extra lives. A box with Sonic’s face on it will give you +1 life, while Eggman’s dirty mug will make you lose all your coins. Unlike in Mario games, where lives are plentiful and restarting isn’t that gruesome, Sonic doesn’t fuck around.
Collect All The Coins- My favorite part of the Sonic franchise is the coin-collecting mechanic. Take damage, and all your newly-acquired bling drops off your body like skin off a molting snake. Collect 100 of the suckers and you get a free life, the most useful resource in the whole game. There’s nothing more aggravating than having 95 coins and dropping on an enemy or spike, and then the universe washes them all away. Hold onto your coins, there are no mushrooms in Green Hill Zone.
Drop Dash- Sonic Mania is exactly like every old Sega Genesis classic, with just one minor tweak. The Drop Dash is Sonic’s new ability, which allows him to go straight into a spin ball from the air. It’s extremely useful for climbing up walls, gaining enough speed to get over a hurdle or just to kill some enemies on the ground. It’s useful to have, but you might not notice its existence for the first few levels. It doesn’t come in handy until later in the game, when you’ll need it to clear obstacles and ice blocks.
Minigames- Like every Sonic game of the era, there are plenty of minigames to waste your time with. There’s the classic “run around, collecting blue balls and avoiding the red ones” that will give you nightmares, and then there’s catch the UFO. You run around in a 3D vector world, collecting blue orbs to reach max speed. Coins you collect increases the timer, giving you enough of a chance to collect enough orbs to reach mach 3. Once you do, you’ll be able to catch up to the UFO holding onto a Chaos Emerald. You can’t go past mach 3, if you do collect enough orbs to fill up the gauge a fourth time, you just get bonus points. This mode takes some practice, but it’s really fun once you get it down.
Have Fun- It’s not Sonic 06’, enjoy the fact that Sega didn’t fuck this one up.
