«If we can end the year with that same
sort of feeling, why, you will have done a really good job, and so will the president and so will we; and we can step back and let the teachers and the school boards and the states have this new
era of innovation.»
- for Sonic's 25th anniversary last year, Iizuka received a task to deliver some
sort of product - the target was «dormant fans» who used to play the SEGA Genesis, but haven't really played any games since - Iizuka met Christian Whitehead, which lead to the creation
of Sonic Mania - there was talk
of another port, but Iizuka thought fans would desire something new from the old games - this is the first time Iizuka partnered with a team
of devs spread across various countries - Iizuka said this team had a greater passion to create - this was in comparison to companies that set decisions on a pre-determined schedule (in meetings, etc)- the team had so many features they still wanted to add after the beta version was complete - since there were only a few spots with text that needed to be localized, they could bring the game to more places quicker - the game has Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish support - the Studiopolis stage is included due to receiving the most requests from the Sonic Mania development team - Iizuka actually considered reducing the amount
of stages at one point in order to meet the development schedule - Sonic Mania doesn't really have much in the way
of cut content like scrapped stages - since Sonic Mania was only distributed digitally, the team was able to continue working very close leading up to launch - this let them put in practically all ideas, and there are currently no plans for DLC - Iizuka recommended Flying Battery Zone for inclusion becaues he likes the music - he also likes when the player goes inside and outside the ship - Iizuka likes Mirage Saloon because the stage structure will be different depending on the player character chosen - Puyo Puyo gameplay was added because there was a Puyo Puyo game released in the west for the SEGA Genesis - this game was originally called «Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine», and the team thought it would make a fun boss battle - Iizuka didn't have plans to feature Blue Sphere in the special stages - the Blue Sphere special stages were brought over to Mania as a test, but ended up staying for the final game - the team
felt the need to continuously connect stages from various
eras, which is doe with the Phantom Ruby story - for Sonic Mania, it was decided that the technological limit would be set at SEGA CD, - this is higher than the Genesis but lower than Saturn - in creating a SEGA CD - grade special stage, they would intentionally make SEGA CD - grade polygons
The score, by HyperDuck SoundWorks, has a
sort of «Sega Saturn plus»
feel to it, taking the synthy sounds
of 32 - bit systems and updating them for the modern
era.
Sure, you're clearly trying hard to be edgy in a very»90s
sort of way, but isn't it fitting that a game trying to recapture the brisk pace and high skill ceiling
of classic arena shooters should
feel a little bit like it's stuck in a different
era?