rev up the sonic cycle: Sonic Mania

[Zero Kirby]

Y'know honestly CD had mostly clumsy levels, and while I enjoyed playing it as a kid because "WHOA IT'S SONIC ON MY PC" trying to play it nowadays is akin to pulling teeth at times, it's thoroughly unenjoyable once you get through Palmtree Panic.

The time-travel mechanic forced a focus on speed in order to time-travel, but the level design didn't seem built around it very solidly. And I know, the idea is that you have to "platform good" in order to maintain the speed, like a traditional Sonic game, but then in the Mandatory Sonic Water Level they stick two springs facing each other in a small enclosed area just to make it possible to time-travel in a level that otherwise impedes Sonic's speed by design. It's counter-intuitive, and the water level should've never seen the light of day because of that. It's rather telling how short those levels are in comparison to every other one in the game.

And Wacky Workbench is just atrocious. One of the absolute worst levels in any Sonic game ever made period.

It's a shame, because the run-fast-time-travel-change-the-future mechanic was really cool and ahead of its time, at least in terms of action games, it just might've been too far ahead of its time and wasn't properly realized. Symbolic of the SEGA CD as a whole, really...

Either way, I knew Mania would have a level from CD, and I knew it'd be Stardust Speedway, because that's the one everyone remembers and it has the best music.