Sonic Mania review

Sonic Mania review (PS4 version)



Sonic Mania is a blast in the past that just falls just short of pure excellence

Playing the old Sonic Mega Drive games brings back fond childhood memories, I used to play them to death before and after school, and it is no lie that Sonic 2 is my favourite game of all time. But I still had my doubts about Sonic Mania when it was first revealed, was going back to the past really the way forward for the franchise? So I kind of kept my eye away from the game until its release, and having completed it I can safely say that it was a worthwhile endeavour. Sonic Mania is a very good game, but it's not without some flaws.

The game is headed up by Christian Whitehead, who created the successful Sonic mobile games, it's best described as a semi greatest hits, with eight levels taken from the original classic 2D Sonic games and four new ones built from scratch.

Aside from a few deviations, Mania plays like a traditional Sonic game, you have to get from point A to B with familiar tropes such as robot enemies, high loops, plenty of speed dash, and inventive boss battles.

The levels are wonderfully colourful and vibrant, and set on numerous themes. We have the Green Hill Zone of course, arguably THE classic Sonic level. It's also the only one that is particularly linear, because all of the levels branch out far more than I expected, which not only notches up the difficulty level but it also means that the game doesn't just rely on pushing the right button as you speed from one end of the level to the other.

My favourite level is the Mirage Saloon, a wild west themed level that hasn't been done in a Sonic game before, it also helps that it has the best music. It's one of the four new levels, all of which are surprisingly better than the remix levels, it might be because they are brand new but not only they do have a visual oomph, they also introduce innovative ideas that change up the gameplay formula in surprisingly subtle ways. One of the best examples of this is in the Metallic Madness level, where at various points Sonic changes from the foreground to the background.

Studiopolis is another of the impressive new levels, it's kind of reminiscent of the Carnival Night Zone in Sonic 3. The least impressive of the new levels is the very last one, Titanic Monarch, seeing as it is the last in the game it's the hardest of the lot, and one in which the new ideas added don't quite gel as well.

However, as fun as the levels are there were times when the enemies don't mesh well with the design. On most levels there will be at least one moment when you'll waltz right into an enemy that you were either too slow to see on the screen or its colour design simply clashed with the background. But these are just minor gripes.

There is one negative I find almost unforgiving, and that's the boss battles, which are inconsistent in difficulty and rather frustrating. Smart but challenging boss fights have always been a staple of the franchise, each new boss would require a different strategy to beat them. In Mania it is almost impossible to beat bosses without getting hit and losing your rings, and beating them requires as much luck as skill.

They are much easier on repeated playthroughs, but on first encounters some of the frustrations with the boss fights were nigh on close to game breaking and certainly infuriating. Why for the life of me they decided to put bosses at the end of both part one and two of the levels is beyond me.

Special stages include the Blue Sphere from Sonic 3, which is challenging but fun. Completing these stages will get you a chaos emerald, if you get all 7 you'll be able to play as Super Sonic. But believe me it will take multiple goes before you get the hang of them. The other special stage requires you to chase after a UFO under a time limited challenge, which I didn't play much because it was a bit dull.

**

Graphics wise it is nothing more than a souped up 16 bit era game, but this doesn't take away from the heart of the experience, in many respects it gives it a powerful charm and a sense of timelessness. The game does have new animations that were not in the classic Sonic games, they don't change anything but it gives Sonic a bit more character and updates the power up visuals in a nice way.

**

With numerous sittings I think I completed the game in the 3-5 hour mark, it might have even be a bit more, I can't be certain. But it does have plenty of replay value with the inclusion of a multiplayer (which I haven't played admittedly), and the choice of not just playing as Sonic but with Knuckles and Tails too. The levels are slightly different if you play as knuckles.


**

This was a hard game to give a final score on, I loved it for the most part and it gets better on repeated playthroughs. You'll want to keep coming back to master the levels, the bosses become a bit more forgivable, and the soundtrack is brilliant and chimes perfectly with what we expect from an old Sonic game.

But I would have liked to have seen more original levels because they are the best that the game has to offer, and as a lifelong fan of the franchise I think the choice of the old levels they've remixed is a bit dubious. I personally would have chosen differently.

But with such a low price tag (£15.99 in the UK) I would recommend this game in a heartbeat, for those who have never played a Sonic game, there's no better chance to get stuck in. And for fans of the franchise this is a no brainer.

8/10
 

Annabelle Creation: review

Director: David Sandberg
Running time: 109 minutes


An entertaining and occasionally clever horror flick that doesn't conjure up much that's new


Annabelle Creation is a prequel to the first Annabelle and Conjuring movies, the plot is centred on a group of girls and a nun who move into an isolated house from a closed down orphanage. They share their new home with doll maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (Miranda Otto), whose daughter tragically died in a roadside accident twelve years earlier. It's when one of the children find a hidden doll by the name of Annabelle that things don't quite go to plan.

To be honest there's not a lot that's particularly original in this movie, much of the themes of religion, isolation and scary dolls are staples of the horror genre. But much like the Conjuring movies, there are moments of tension which build up masterfully to only then deceive you by going in a direction that is often unexpected.

It's very clever bait and switch, but the payoff is sometimes mixed, the jump scares caught me by surprise but do feel a little bit cheap on occasion. It doesn't thankfully rely on jump scares as much as most horror movies tend to do these days.

While the story might follow the same old tropes we have seen before, the performances really shine through, Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson play the two child leads, Janice and Linda, perfectly. Child actors can often be a thorn in horror movies, they are either annoying or just unconvincing. But they made the characters sympathetic and believable, we feel their dread as they go through their supernatural ordeal, and uncover the mysteries of Annabelle.

Another thing worth mentioning is the good use of its setting, while there is nothing about the house's design that stood out from anything else of the genre. It's shot in a way that makes it peculiarly unnerving and menacing, but homely nevertheless. A place that's lived in rather than just a plot device for the characters.

But, as I said, there is not much here that's new, it's a little bit jack of all trades but the master of nothing. And while the plot's central mystery unfolds rather well, the actual origin story of Annabelle is not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. It's kind of predictable and ultimately a wasted opportunity.  

I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the genre, and for those who liked the previous Conjuring movies. There is an abundance of scares and intrigue here, even if it follows a direction we have already seen.

Verdict: 3/5

I just don't find superheroes that interesting

I have to confess that i have never been the biggest comic book fan, I have at various times collected 'The Astonishing Spider-Man' and the 'Batman Legends' series that you can get here in Britain. And I do have a vast graphic novel collection, some of my favourites include The Crow and some Hellboy editions, amongst others.

Of all the superheroes it’s Spider-Man and Batman that interest me the most, Spider- Man because he is one of the few superheroes who is remotely relatable beneath the suit. And the idea of Batman is fascinating, a protector who works in the shadows and who brings down the worst of the criminal underworld that exists in most societies. Even if he is a bit of a sociopath who happens to be a billionaire.

The movies are entertaining for the most part, and worthy of a cinema watch, although I am beginning to find them less and less surprising with each passing release.

So why don’t I find superheroes interesting?

Well, as I eluded to in my first paragraph, very few of them are relatable and most have a superiority that I find uncomfortable with. Most are either super genius billionaires, military fighters, monarchic leaders, or simply powerful because they happen to be special.

Let’s take a look at the Avengers team, Captain America is effectively a super soldier, Iron Man is a super genius billionaire, Thor is a god, Hulk is another Scientist who happens to have anger issues, Black Panther is a king. Of course Ant-Man is just a down on his luck thief, but if you look at the bulk of superheroes, they follow a trend of being socially powerful people.

Even Wonder Woman is of monarchical birth, and trained to basically be a skilled killer.

**

Which brings me to my other point, superheroes work within their own view of the world. For example Batman is someone who takes justice into his own hands by using violence, not thinking of the social circumstances of why he exists in the first place.

I of course understand that not all superheroes are like this, and within these fictional black and white worlds they exist in, real evil needs to be stopped.

But I still find so few superheroes particularly interesting, as I said, one of the few that I do find interesting is Spider-Man. Of course the character is a bit of a bully towards his villains, and he too is a talented scientist. But at least Peter Parker is relatable, he lives in New York and his story arcs are far more small world compared with most superheroes.

**

Am I putting too much expectations on characters that shouldn’t be taken too seriously, and who were originally created to amuse little children? Likely.

But with the continuing influx superhero related media from movies to video games, never ceasing to end, it just disappoints me that interesting fictional characters are a bit of a rarity these days. Modern heroes seem to be powerful and that’s it, there aren’t any Luke Skywalker’s created any more. A genuine hero who went from being being zero to hero to save the day, whose journey was filled with mistakes and learning. But despite all his eventual power we knew he was a good guy who succeeded.

In today’s world we either get all powerful characters, the chosen one, or just the anti-hero who wouldn't be that different from the villains in other circumstances. And from my point of view that’s so disappointing, because the world could do with some fictional heroes we can identify with.