The Games We Played: Sonic Mania
[TRANSCRIPT]
Sonic Mania is an incredible achievement. It’s a game I looked forward to since its announcement, and one that I had total faith in knowing the team behind it. It’s smooth, modern, and has great boss fights and a few surprises that I appreciated.
At the same time, Sonic Mania never exceeded my expectations. It gave me exactly what I expected, and in a lot of ways, what I wanted. But If you’ve known me for any length of time you might have picked up that i-am-a-big-Sonic-Fan. And part of that meant that I’ve frequently revisited older titles, probably hundreds of times. So playing Mania in the same year, and seeing so many returning zones, gave me a sense of over-familiarity.
I mean, how many times am I going to have to play Green Hill Zone again? Or Chemical Plant? Sonic games are already built on iterations on certain aesthetics, but having stages repeat the same locations, and even the same beats, meant that almost half of Sonic Mania felt like something I’d done before. It feels strange to be on the other side of the fence, feeling cool about about a Sonic game others are so hot on.