This is the portfolio of a
player we would be celebrating if he were on the Padres or Brewers — maybe without the same HOURS OF DEREK JETER COVERAGE, but somewhere
in that Tony Gwynn sweet
spot, where everyone can appreciate him on several
different levels.
With the mix up of having pellets
in different spots, the game doesn't have to rely on the usual four ghosts chasing the
player, but can add new hazards such as a long train of ghosts growing as you run through the map.
- 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
player is tasked with running through
different episodes of a season of a fake show, collecting stars based on preset conditions shown before the race, usually boiling down to one star for finishing the race, two stars for finishing
in a top
spot, and three stars for winning or nearly winning, depending on the event.