You can only have two out at any given time, but item boxes and death will mean you're constantly swapping between the different members of the cast. At this point you can tag between the two at any time with a button press - and then as you explore you'll be able to add the other characters to your roster. You'll start out playing as Sonic, but quickly you'll pick up either Mighty or Ray. In this new mode you don't have lives - instead, you have characters. There's also a new special mode, but the big difference is in how life and death works in Encore mode. Encore Mode remixes the same levels, adding new areas, obstacles and a generally ramped-up difficulty alongside some visual tweaks, often changing the time of day a level takes place in. The new characters are fine in the old levels, but they come into their own when played in Encore Mode, a new expansion exclusive to Plus. The game just feels great to play, nailing the Mega Drive physics while using the extra power available to augment the experience with the odd 3D effect here and there, or simply with a volume of things happening on screen at once that never would've been possible on the old hardware. That's the same great game and the same mix of remixed classics and all-new zones. Mighty and Ray can be used in the original dozen Sonic Mania zones as with the others. The closest analogy comes from Sonic's greatest rival - Ray's gliding works just like a sped-up version of the cape power up from Super Mario World. Ray, as a flying squirrel, can glide - but unlike Knuckles' glide Ray can gain momentum in a dive and then pull up to gain height again. Mighty has a ground pound that can slam through stuff below him in the same way Knuckles can punch through things in front of him. Both follow the 2D Sonic school of design, so both have a few unique properties that change how levels play, while the new remixed levels in Plus feature new paths that can only be reached with their unique powers. But this is the joy - they're not rubbish. I know what you're thinking - groan, ugh - new rubbish friends for Sonic. Mighty would later reappear in Knuckles Chaotix, but that game wasn't too successful - and when Chaotix later showed up again, Mighty was absent. Both are deep cuts, having debuted in an obscure, mostly Japan-only arcade game from 1993. New to Plus are two new characters: Ray the Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo. The game gets its name from the maniacal obsession this team has for the Sonic franchise - and that passion seeps through every pore of both the original Mania and the Plus additions. After years reverse engineering older Sonic games and creating their own fan games, these fans got the chance to make the official Sonic 4 they always dreamed of. Sonic Mania's big unique selling point, I think, comes thanks to its creators. The retail version is a neat little package, but better still is that if you own the original digital release you can pick up the new content for just $5. Thus we get Sonic Mania Plus, an expanded, enhanced version of the game that's also going to be available in stores in a special edition with an art book and a reversible, throw-back Mega Drive/Genesis cover artwork. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Sega's next step isn't too surprising, then: return to the developers and ask them to expand the game with an eye towards DLC and a physical release. The original release was amazing, and it appears it was a bit of a wake-up call for Sega: what was obviously a side project compared to the big budget 3D Sonic Forces ended up the best-reviewed Sonic game in fifteen years and ultimately went on to sell millions. Sonic Mania's Plus expansion doesn't bring quite as much new as you'd hope, but it's still the definitive version of a modern classic.īack in August of last year I described the original digital-only release of Sonic Mania as " a must-play love letter to Sega's finest" - and that's a statement I happily stand by.
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