Kirby's Rainbow Resort

Well hey, a new Sonic game was released that plays like the old games on the Genesis! I've been having a ton of fun with it, recorded a whole 19 episodes for a Let's Play, but even after all that I've still been doing another playthrough daily. I figured I'd see if anyone around here was having a good time with it as well.

I intend to get it for a friend for their birthday, since they really liked the old Genesis games. I saw a bunch of negative reviews on Steam, but after looking further into them, they were almost exclusively about the DRM bundled into the game. From what I hear, the game itself is pretty great.

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It's like taking a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time, it just doesn't make sense.
~MrRigger2

To live is to be happy.

Yeah, the internet flipped its collective @$#^ over the Denuvo DRM. I'm not the kind of person who really gives enough of a damn though, so yeah, the game itself is great. Gorgeous, a great soundtrack, memorable bosses, and it's classic Sonic.

What I like about it, besides the fact that it's classic Sonic (which was well overdue), is that in spite of the game being mostly old zones, there's a bunch of new gimmicks in almost every level. Most of the acts for remixed zones feel like they could have easily passed as new zones entirely. It also does some things objectively better than the older Sonics, such as Special Stages not being an absolute headache, Sonic and Tails allowing Player 1 to control Tails' flight, and the drop dash is a brilliant mechanic for Sonic's moveset.

I only wish that Knuckles' campaign was more fleshed out and there was a better split between old zones and new. As nice as some of the older stages are, most of the brand new ones beat them by a landslide. I mean, wow, Press Garden. Also, it would have been nice to see the return of Amy's gameplay from Sonic Advance 1, or maybe Cream and her floating death companion. At the very least, I'm hoping this game will act as a launch pad for classic Sonic titles in the future, ones which would hopefully play less conservatively than Mania -- considering the overall reception from fans and critics, this seems highly likely.

Yeah, the fact that Knuckles only gets a select few areas to himself throughout the game is something of a letdown, at least we have Knuckles & Knuckles mode.

I feel like if there were ever to be a Sonic Mania 2, they'd have to have a game full of new zones exclusively, and maybe bring in Amy or Cream as you mentioned, or perhaps some of the Chaotix would be reasonable characters given their 32X game. Plenty of different 2D playstyles to work with, lots of potential for a future game.

From what I've read in passing, the abundance of old zones was an executive decision outside of Taxman/Pagoda West's control. But after seeing how many new and remixed gimmicks were utilized in the old zones (never mind all of the NEW levels), it's pretty obvious that they could have pulled off a completely original campaign just fine. If a successor were to be issued out, the team most likely would have more creative freedom to do this.

I really like sonic mania! It was a nice breath of fresh air from all the bad ones. But I really didn't like Oil Ocean. Why did they choose to add that one? Out of all the other levels they chose Oil Ocean? But It's still one of my fav games from last year.

also i really think its one of the only games that REALLY belong on the switch

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