If you like the way the original Sonic games play, your only decision when it comes to Sonic Mania shouldn't be whether or not it's worth buying, but rather, if you'll play it with or without the classic
CRT scanlines enabled.
Not exact matches
But only by playing on a
CRT TV or UltraHDMI N64 (with the
scanline effect turned on) will you truly be able to enjoy the vibrancy and detail of the stage backgrounds.
The SNES Classic offers a couple different display modes:
CRT mode which has
scanlines, 4 × 3 which is the default option, and Pixel Perfect.
CRT filter adds
scanlines while 4:3 locks you into that classic TV gaming feel.
By default the games are emulated with a slight smoothing filter applied, to take the rough edges off the pixels that would have been smoothed out by
CRT televisions of old, but you can also run them with «pixel perfect» emulation if you choose, or else apply a slightly heavy - handed
CRT filter for some real
scanline goodness.
To that end, all the bugs, zips, graphical glitches and hard - coded slowdown are all included, as well as screen size options and filters designed for catering to your personal preferences regarding
scanlines and nostalgic
CRT TV pixelation and burn blur.
CRT filter is a really nice inclusion as it dulls the crispness of the image and colours, as well as adding in
scanlines, thereby helping to replicate the feel of playing on the original hardware three decades ago.
My only disappointment was an absence of display options; filters and
scanlines and a
CRT / monitor effect would have given this a classic look.
That being said, players do have three options for how the SNES Classic's video feed is output: 4:3, which is a slightly wider view than SNES games were originally output at; «Pixel Perfect,» which shows the pixels in perfect squares and doesn't distort the view and «
CRT Filter,» which adds retro
scanlines to the 4:3 picture.
You can switch between standard, «
CRT filter» (with
scanlines!)