![]() This love letter to 16-bit Sonic is full of brilliant nods and winks, but more importantly, is full of the high speed, high octane gameplay that we have always associated with the very best Sonic the Hedgehog video games.įrom a visual perspective, the genius of Sonic Mania is that it looks just how you remember Sonic games looking rather than how they actually did at the time. A game by fans for fans if you will – it shows too. With SEGA busy at work on the triple-A budgeted Sonic Forces (which actually looks pretty decent), a team of Sonic fans headed up by Christian ‘Taxman’ Whitehead have combined to create what is in many respects, the ultimate ‘fan’ game. So, what’s the difference? Why have SEGA finally got it right this time? Well, that’s the thing isn’t it – this wasn’t actually made by SEGA. A combination of remastered classic stages and all new levels, this is the Sonic game that fans have been waiting for. Sonic Mania though, that doesn’t have those problems this looks like a 2D Sonic game should, and above all else, it plays and feels like a Sonic game should. ![]() It certainly looked the part, but as soon as you picked up the controller and felt that odd sense of inertia, you knew something was wrong. Sure, SEGA did release Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but, well, we all know what happened there. ![]() Still, as good as Sonic Generations and Sonic Colours might have been (yes, there is a ‘u’ in ‘Colours’), what the majority of Sonic fans have really been waiting for is a fully-fledged follow up to the classic 2D Mega Drive era of games. ![]() If you haven’t had the chance to try OutRun 2 (one of the greatest racers ever made), Afterburner Climax or SEGA Rally Online, you really should give them a bash as each are home to that little bit of blue sky SEGA magic, something that is so often missing from an industry that is moving towards a boringly predictable games as service-driven future. Then there is SEGA – again, there has been a lot of drivel, but last generations’ largely unheeded spate of arcade classics on PS3 and 360 proved a brief but utterly magnificent return to form. The recent Sonic karting games too, despite being oddly overlooked by many are, in my opinion at least, the best kart racers that don’t have Mario behind the wheel (yes, they are much better than Crash Team racing). Of course, many with tell you that it has been nothing but doom and gloom since the Mega Drive era, but despite an array of absolute stinkers (so many stinkers), there have been fleeting signs of life Sonic Generations was a largely brilliant game, as was its predecessor, Sonic Colours. The fact that both he and (to an extent) SEGA remain popular today is testament to just how beloved they were in their prime. Sure, they have been present in the most literal sense of the word, but come on, when was the last time that SEGA was truly the SEGA of old? And what of poor Sonic? Once a genuine contender to Mario’s crown, the blue blur has been mismanaged to the point of self-parody. Both the mascot and the company that I grew up with have been conspicuous by their absence for many years. It’s hard being a SEGA fan……and even harder being a Sonic fan.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |