I Played Sonic Mania & Frontiers For the MUSIC

[@MarcoMeatball]

Sorry for the sound balancing issue. Especially in mania the sound is just a bit too low!

[@Gollybone]

No worries. Is there separate volume control for SFX? The balance is reasonable outside of the music and commentary being dominated by jumps and collisions.

[@unlimited971]

Dont worry. We still vibing.

[@thealandude9146]

is there a place where we can see the full footage of this video?

[@MarcoMeatball]

@@thealandude9146 nope I filmed on my own and we super cut it ❤️

[@BlurBlizzard]

Calling the stages forgettable was on point. They were kinda just slapped together as a safety net for people that didn't like the open world

[@edaraujo2169]

"I didn't knew there was a variation on the green hill zone" My dear boy, you have so much to learn...

[@unlimited971]

Dbza cell about to burst voice?

[@harryenchiladas8826]

I love that the cinematic starts off with a serious aura, then starts off with the happy birthday song, with hearts, rainbows, and confetti in a gloomy atmosphere.

[@samuellajeunesse2521]

As much as I wanna celebrate Sonic's birthday, having it as a first time Sonic Frontiers experience is really odd

[@ChazEevee]

agreed, hilarious that it's on by default. Sonic gets stranded - alone - and it's like HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 😂

[@samuellajeunesse2521]

Editor sneaking in that iconic Sonic Unleashed werehog scream at the Sonic Frontiers intro cutscene, I hear you

[@spooderman320]

no that happens in the game

[@JamieCodeCraft]

@samuellajeunesse2521 I'm a huge Sonic fan but never got around to playing frontiers, I was completely taken aback for a moment thinking that they used that sound for the intro cutscene. 😭

[@spooderman320]

@@JamieCodeCraft They did

[@leo0six]

having the birthday dlc enabled completely ruins the vibe of the game for a first playthrough, idk why the game would even enable it by default

[@What.I.said.was.]

Facts

[@duduvec5971]

It's so funny to see but if it happened to me i'd be fumming lol

[@jeluenhayo2410]

Yep. I dunno who was the genius that decided to do it, wow.

[@the_shortski6053]

Yeah, I didn't realise that it did that. Also, the random switching music. They probably enabled it by default when the update happened so it was immediately available but didn't consider those who might have just started after the updates.

[@STEELSWORD77]

It is pretty annoying but I understand why they did it. they just want people to know it Sonic birthday.

[@diogodifrente4283]

The fact that you try to go to the higher path already puts you leagues above game grumps omg

[@reggielacey2235]

Who cares. Doesn't mean anything

[@diogodifrente4283]

@@reggielacey2235 You are probably 10 so you wont understand but like. If you see them playing sonic specifically, you will know why shampoo bottles have instructions on them XD

[@shed8548]

@@reggielacey2235 it means he understands basic level design

[@azulesmalls5514]

Seeing Marco play this game makes his complaints with the game make sense in hindsight. On stream he was complaining about the Jukebox, but I didn't realize the game shoves it down your throat on a first time play through not letting you experience the game without it first. I also didn't know that they activate the "Birthday mode" as default and don't even bother checking if it's actually Sonic's Birthday before activating it automatically.

[@liviekumori]

Everyone likes to gush about Frontier's boss themes, but the islands movement themes are also so beautiful, Starfall island theme got me ascending

[@Milo_751]

Imo the island movements are a bit meh and very forgettable, With the exception of "Second Wind Sonic Mvt." from the DLC

[@ZayIvory7]

Especially Rhea Island's escalation.

[@liviekumori]

@@Milo_751 To me Amy's Mvt was the best one, surprisingly

[@sap9255]

The funky music is from sonic CD. It's one of the classic sonic games. I've never played frontiers so when I heard it on your channel I was so excited to hear it lol

[@prism182]

for sonic frontiers really unfortunant that the birthday DLC and Jukebox are enabled by default -_- you can disable them in the options lol, but yea those arent supposed to be there lol

[@Jargonfox]

50:52 "That's a little easy" at Ashura, that was great haha, seen sooo many players struggle with Ashura, for a few it was like the most difficult thing so it was interesting to see how it was no problem for you

[@DannyPotato]

Commenting to bring this up because I actually laughed at how easy he made that look.

[@MyStellarSpace]

Sonic Gens didn't ruin you, it really feels like most Frontiers tracks are more made for ambience and to go through one place to the next, not exactly something to hum often

[@4g3nt06]

It's just like what Nintendo did for BotW

[@MyStellarSpace]

@@4g3nt06 Yeah just like that

[@Taidower]

Honestly, its so funny how Marco's first three Sonic games have ALL shown off Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant... its something. I hope he gives Frontiers another chance. Its such a melancholic game that actually works to show off the characters and their current characterr development stages.

[@thenonexistinghero]

I was honestly a bit disappointed with Frontiers. Sonic is all about good movement and adding RPG-leveling mechanics to movement means that you have put up with trash movement at first. And even maxed out the movement is still not that great and still worse than basically any 3D Sonic. The put a lot of effort into creating an open world and that was pretty nice, but what they should've started with is to create movement that feels good in 3D and good level design (I think most of the regular levels are pretty lackluster as well. Both in terms of level design and in terms of music. Also not as good as the stages they're based on).

[@AxylPup_]

@@thenonexistingheroliterally just have full rings and proper settings -_- i think you haven’t played the game without default settings

[@dudegal]

​@@AxylPup_ I've actually played around with the settings a bunch after I got the game and no matter what I did sonic just didn't feel fun to control. Haven't touched the game since.

[@thenonexistinghero]

@@AxylPup_ Dude diving into settings is ALWAYS the first thing I do. I have played it with the proper settings and it's still very mediocre in terms of feel at its best (besides the fact that it's really the developer's job to make sure it feels right instead of making the player fiddle for like an hour with it to make it workable). Sonic Frontiers is just way overrated. It's just an okay game, but definitely not a comeback for 3D Sonic.

[@MischieviousJirachi]

​​@@thenonexistinghero But it is a comeback for 3D Sonic? Regardless of how you feel about the game, it was a comeback because it was _successful_ . Didn't matter if you thought it was the greatest thing alive either. I don't even think the game is that good, but to say it's not a comeback just cuz of that is kinda ignorant

[@Circl3s]

Sonic Mania was challenging for me as well (the final stage took me like 30 tries lmao), but the music is AWESOME and the spritework is BEAUTIFUL. I hope you play more!

[@polyrhythmz2620]

Omg you made my day with Mania. Thank you! It's SUCH a fantastic love letter to 2D Sonic

[@jureigeeksoutoccasionally]

Movements 5 though 7 of Kronos island’s music is insane, I love it

[@MidToddler]

Settings actually matter a ton in this game btw especially if you want to listen to the music at its best! What you're playing now is how the game was on launch, but if you want, there are many newer options in the settings that make the game feel "better", like carrying your momentum, and more importantly for you, un-warping the music in cyberspace when boosting.

[@TruBluBlur]

So awesome to see you enjoying these titles as well! Frontiers is definitely a different feel than any other Sonic game, but it has its own appeal. Honestly, it's worth playing just for the sake of all the Titan fights! They all have that same metal band preforming, which was amazing! The vocalist is Kellin Quinn, from the band Sleeping with Sirens. Also, yeah, Sonic mania is definitely harder, lol, I hope ur ready for it to ramp up! You haven't gotten to the TRULY hard levels yet! Don't worry though, they're still VERY fun, and have fantastic music! Another interesting thing worth mentioning; every single sonic game you've played so far has based its identity on previous games, rather than having its own. Mania is almost the same concept as Generations, with Sonic time traveling to levels from past games, and in Frontiers, Sonic is basically running through digital backups uploaded directly from his memories. I VERY strongly recommend both Sonic Adventure games, they're from around the era of the late N64 and the PS1, and are an interesting combination of the physics based movement concept from the 2D games, set in a 3D environment, almost like a halfway point between the 2 play styles of Generations (though the camera is always in 3D). I will suggest, if you DO decide to play Sonic Adventure 1&2, I definitely recommend the Dreamcast Conversion mod, which fixes a lot of issues from the port, and also restores the visual identity of the original game, which was heavily altered when it was ported. Uhh, also, I realize I keep leaving SUPER long messages, I hope that's not irritating! I just... really love Sonic! Been playing the games for around 30 years now, it wasn't just my childhood, it's been huge for my whole life!

[@SuperEgoNaut]

I support the recommendation of playing Sonic Adventure 1 (a.k.a. "Sonic Adventure DX") and Sonic Adventure 2 ... and yes, definitely play them using the "Dreamcast Conversion" mods for both games if you're playing the PC Steam versions. In their unmodded/vanilla state, the steam versions unfortunately introduce a lot of bad porting issues compared to the Dreamcast originals, which is part of what those "dreamcast conversion" mods are designed to fix.

[@Zen-66700]

He's doing it... he's becoming a Sonic Channel!! (Jk) I hope you also play Sonic Unleashed(Or Listen to the Entire Or Some tid bits of the album) because its by far the most diverse ost (for me atleast) !

[@robertlauncher]

It’s a banger, especially the night music. Battle Theme: I’m about to ruin this entire vibe

[@Zen-66700]

@robertlauncher at first I thought werehog battle theme was fire... not until they bombarded me with it everytime I have to stretch my hands..

[@OPHANEMx]

I'm actually really disappointed with Frontiers just enabling the Sonic Birthday thing on its own. The vibe of the game is entirely different and it ruins the actual music for the areas. Not your fault Marco, and I'm sure other people said it too, but it's frustrating

[@MarcoMeatball]

Ya I was bummed and confused I didn’t realize it was a settings thing either

[@wmvnotmp4]

I never considered how confusing sonic mania would be for someone who's playing it as their first sonic game lol

[@aidenkarma3844]

One of the reasons why generations and classic/mania feels different to you is the way speed is handled. Sonic has a LOT of gameplay formulas, the one in mania is the original 2d formula where speed is treated as a gimmick. You can play the stage at your own pace, or you can learn and get better at the stages which rewards the player with great speed based platforming, appealing to casuals and speed runners. that's why it feels different :) The game just like generations is filled with Easter eggs and references for old fans for example the popcorn machine in studiopolis act 1, the Dr robotniks mean bean machine boss in act 2 of chemical plant and so on. The Classic formula consists of 2 acts (3 in Sonic 1 and CD only) and has a mini boss and a final act boss. You'll see this in almost every classic sonic game. Surprised you found Mania hard when it's probably one of the more easier classic games, perhaps it's because of the lives system and limited checkpoints or maybe you're new to it so it can happen no problem. All sonic games are built on replayability after all. Also some advice: You can hold the jump button in the air for sonic to perform the drop dash, other characters have other abilities and hidden in stages are special stages where you can acquire the chaos emerald for the true ending. As for frontiers... it certainly has a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Highs being the boss fights. It was an experimental game that walked so shadow gens could run (I've watched all 3 livestreams so I know you enjoyed the game) I believe it's a "step in the right direction" game. I wouldn't recommend playing it just yet, perhaps after you've played through a lot of sonic games and gone through a lot of history and then perhaps come back for a revisit, you'll probably hv more incentive to finish it as again, it was the blue print for an amazing shadow game and potentially future games. Anyways, love your sonic stuff ❤

[@zodzecht]

It's funny, every time I see people struggle to play sonic I have to tell myself "Karl... buddy... you have 35 years experience playing these games, give em a break" 😂 Happy to see you dip your toes Marco

[@hacksmash]

22:21 I see what you did there EDITOR!!!!!!! xddddd and I love it

[@thinkabout42]

Yay, I'm super happy you got all the way up to the first titan!

[@dudegal]

Sonic Mania Tips: -Sonic got a new move in this game called the dropdash charge it by holding the jump button when you're in the air -When using the spindash: spam the jump button for a faster more powerfull charge - look around for big rings multiple are hidden in every act (just trust me that they are VERY much worth collecting)

[@Vyloka]

Do not teach this man the drop dash, we tryna get him through the game alive

[@heroicgangster9981]

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONIC! YOU'RE FRIENDS ARE TRAPPED IN CYBERHELL!"

[@bezzu]

I'm so glad you gave both games an actual chance instead of just hopping into them for a couple minutes and I hope you end up finishing both, I am all here for the sonic content and I want to see more episodes of you playing Mania if you feel fine with sharing that haha, same with frontiers, would love to see this be turned into a let's play series and diving into those games' music even deeper, cuz you only heard a little bit from both of those games! Once you're done with them (I'd recommend beating both games before hopping onto another game) then origins and colors are perfect, which you already mentioned own :) Hope your journey continues, you should try Adventure and Adventure 2 in the future once you're done with what you already own, they have kickass soundtracks ;) (esp adv2)

[@Marshadow_Boi]

My first time playing sonic mania was also tough. It took my many attempts and many restarted saves to finally beat my first time. But after you get the hang of it and start replaying the game (I have over 150 hours in the game when it can be beaten in 2.) you will learn to love it.

[@thenonexistinghero]

I thought it was pretty easy, but I've played 2D Sonic for hundreds of hours. Also really not a fan of the 2D sections in any of the 3D game. Even those in Generations and Colors just feel awful to me. And it's not that I only think the movement of the originals is good. The Advance games and Rush games also have an excellent feel for movement. Honestly sucks they basically canned the Mania team. Seems like another case of jealousy to me (which there is no shortage of regarding Sonic development). Superstars copied the movement physics of the classic games, but completely fails in regards to level design and music. I can only wonder just how many years it will be before we will actually get a new good 2D Sonic again since Sega loves to sabotage themselves in this regard.

[@Marshadow_Boi]

@@thenonexistinghero sonic mania was not only my first 2d sonic, but my first real sonic game in general. I had only played the mobile games and random flash games untill then. Edit: And I know for a fact I played the mobile port of sonic cd but at the same time I remember nothing of it. i know i didnt beat it though.

[@thenonexistinghero]

@@Marshadow_Boi The mobile port of Sonic CD (and the version you can also play on most modern consoles & PC) improves on the original quite a bit. The original had a few mechanical issues and being a CD game, traveling to different eras as accompanied by long loading times. It basically fixes whatever issues the game had (it was still good though even before that). For 2D Sonic, I think the essentials are Sonic 1, 2, 3&Knuckles (but also worth playing through separate), CD, Mania, Advance 1, 2 , 3 and Sonic Rush (and maybe Sonic Rush Adventure). Honestly with the Advance and Rush games would get modern versions. Kinda like how Castlevania and Mega Man got collections.

[@yamimarus3550]

@@thenonexistinghero i might be alone in this, but i actually love classic sonics levels in gens. they dont play that much like the classics, but they have a very fun sense of speed to them. it helps to play them more like the rush games, abusing the spindash and trying to jump over large sections of the level. honestly, its kind of like the 2d sonic adventure in that regard? at least for me but like you, i hate the 2d sections in most of the 3d games. i dont like colors or lost world, i dont like modern sonics 2d section in generations, the ones in frontiers were fine (besides cyberspace) but overstayed their welcome. and then forces as a whole was awful. even classic sonics physics were butchered and his level design was terrible unleashed is an exception to this. i feel like the 2d sections in that game still let you maintain a regular pace, whereas a lot of 2d design in other modern sonic games force you to stop and do careful, very basic platforming, with a gameplay style and physics that just dont work with that at all. that infamous part in dragon road is actually a great example of this, but ironically thats a 3d section

[@Vyloka]

Got 400 hours or so in it and going for a speedrun world record soon. Its definitely not as hard as sonic 2 or even 3 but sonics movement has a weirdly high skill ceiling if that makes sense. This game hwoever is super forgiving in general

[@alejandroguerra7561]

Mania is incredible, its so cool to see you play it

[@MS54905]

"how are u supposed to go fast in these levels" by being good at the game lol that's how classic sonic works, u have to master it's physics to understand how to go fast

[@Vyloka]

"Wh- But wheres my boost button?" These 2d games promote some good skill and memorization

[@jonathandias7006]

Bring more Sonic Frontiers Gameplay, i am really having fun watching you

[@infractal5033]

The song listed as Sand Oasis is 'Let the speed mend it' from Sonic and the Secret Rings. Most of the music in that player is from older games. I'd still love to hear you listen to Mephiles' Themes.

[@MadelineJS.2727]

If you need some tips, you can do a thing called Lightspeed dash by pressing the left joystick, that's for places when there's a line of rings that you must follow, sonic will launch automatically towards it (like on the ring line on 34:38), and as a fun fact you can do circles with the cyloop on the floor to get rings you should try doing an infinite with it :DDD

[@deadturret4049]

You can actually use it anywhere in frontiers that has rings, kinda like you could in adventure 2. It gets pretty wonky though.

[@hansgretl1787]

Here's a tip for classic 2D style Sonic: As you likely already noticed, when you touch an enemy while curled up in a ball you defeat the enemy, but if you touch it while not curled up, you'll take a hit. Now the cool thing is that you can tap down while running to curl into a ball. That lets you attack enemies without jumping or having to come to a stop. Curling into a ball also lets you pick up more momentum on downhill slopes, so there is almost never a reason not to curl up. TL;DR always tap down once while you're running to be curled up at all times.

[@bat_8919]

3D Sonic is much more about spectacle with its speed, 2D classic Sonic is a lot of learning the level design and using momentum and stage knowledge to build up speed

[@NotSoGenesiz]

get this man a dose of ouranos island’s ost STAT 🙏🙏

[@user-sn1hi7my7x]

I think Sega should continue to make Future 3D Sonic Games like Frontiers in terms of story. The game is edgier and the overall backstory was really interesting. Not to mention the best 3D Sonic boss fights ever.

[@robertlauncher]

Classic Sonic is all about mastering the ball. You are pinball. Roll down hills to gain speed, jump with the right speed and incline to go flying, beeeee the ball. Almost everything in the environment can be used to fling or speed you up or send you to a new area. Except hazards

[@ichasedacrow2]

sonic frontiers is... a weird one. especially for someone who's just beginning to dip their toes into the franchise. it was basically a "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" ordeal after a decade of mediocre-to-bad sonic games. a lot of fans liked it partly due to ian flynn's writing and characterization, considering the past decade of sonic games had very childish and amateur storytelling/direction. it felt like a breath of fresh air, especially after forces. but in hindsight, and ESPECIALLY after getting shadow generations, it's clear they were under a lot of pressure and their ambitions might've gotten the better of them. they had never done a game like this before and it seems there was probably a lot of confusion, not to mention time crunch. it feels like make-up work, a last desperate attempt to win the fanbase back. and yknow what? they kind of succeeded, which hopefully means better, more polished and consistent sonic games in the future :) (also just a personal opinion, i tend to dislike when tomoya ohtani does the dubstep/edm stuff. typically he's my favorite sonic composer and has been responsible for most of the best sonic music we've heard in the past 18 years. not to say he can't do electronic music, but whenever he goes in the generic edm direction he completely loses me. you're not alone in thinking it lacks "je ne sais quoi")

[@Calcited]

i really hope the next sonic game is just a polished version of Frontiers, knowing SEGA's track record it probably won't be but i hope it at least (lives and) learns from frontiers and Shadow Gens If i remember correctly there was also a drought of sonic content between forces and frontiers so they really had to stick the landing, and they sort of did, the quote ill always remember frontiers by is it's the beta version to a 10/10 sonic game. I remember an article about SEGA being surprised frontiers was selling so well so i'm sure they weren't sure how the game would be received. Shadow generations is more a jog from frontiers putting Sonic back on his feat, The shadow part is great i haven't had the game in my hands to play but shadow cool and awesome and i'm still irrationally mad they didn't make him fight a titan chaos island is right there please shadow vs knight would go CRAZY. I assume it comes bundled with Sonic generations since they didn't have the budget or time for a full game (Shadow gens LOVES radical highway.) Sonic x Shadow is a funny name but imagine if they had the balls to drop the remaster part and just call it shadow the hedgehog 2. I really hope they can stick the landing on a fully original polished game though. Frontiers was good but unpolished, Shadow gens was polished but half a remaster. The pieces are there and i hope i don't have to eat my words (ill make you eat those words!)

[@trevinodude]

Experimentation is, of course, a necessity when creating a whole new style of gameplay for a series, which is one reason why I think Sonic Frontiers is as well regarded as it is. A well written story, and a pretty solid foundation for future Sonic games… it’s almost like a new Sonic 1. Compared to the other Sega Genesis classics, Sonic 1 isn’t all that polished or refined, but still pretty fun in its own right. Shadow Generations shows one evolution of the idea, combining what worked with Frontiers with what worked with the previous boost formula in Generations… still experimental, but a step in the right direction I think. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Frontiers gameplay style continues to evolve.

[@1Synner]

Considering the behind the scenes stuff in regards to the development and production of this game, this really WAS a last ditch hail-mary throw from the team (especially in regards to Kishimoto and his role as a developer and director). I'm just glad it was a success in the grand scheme... It sucks that it got to that point in regards to many of the prior games, but, as a long time Sonic fan, one that had a dream of an open world Sonic game many years ago as a teen, one that was consistently disappointed with each passing game (with rare moments of genuine joy when they did get it right), I ended up satisfied with this title. It's not perfect, it's not my favorite, but when it hits, it hits hard, and I'll remain fond of it for years to come, even if hindsight spotlights the flaws more and more.

[@kenrulei09]

kinda same base team, just in the past sega gave them a real low budget and very low members to work on the ambitious games but after frontiers they got bigger budget/team to help you can tell with animations in shadow gens how it's impacted them.

[@salk-e8346]

ngl I feel kinda cringe for saying this but I love EDM and dubstep and Frontiers really is my cup of tea in that genres

[@ivanalmeida4555]

Something you really should know about classic Sonic that I barely see people doing is that you can tap down when moving to make Sonic roll It sounds so simple but I've seen so many KZbinrs not getting, because in hindsight it's a bit counterintuitive When rolling Sonic is much more heavily affected by gravity and friction, so rolling downhill gives you way more inertia or momentum, and the opposite is true when going uphill So many times in classic Sonic it's actually better to not move Sonic directly but instead hold down and let physics do the heavy work for you I don't wanna sound patronizing, it's just that many people don't realize how essential this move is. Heck, in the first Sonic game there was a strict speed limit when running and only rolling allowed you to bypass it

[@maxximumcawk9653]

I think the reason why the music in this game is so different compared to other sonic games is because they wanted to give the players a sort of "unknown" and somber vibe throughout the game. Because there are some pretty dark themes in this game comparatively to the other sonic games and it's a whole new environment for sonic along with having all his friends going missing, so ig those have to do with why the music for the game is more somber and edgier. The cyberspace music however, some stages still have that unknown vibe to them while others have a more techno vibe to represent cyberspace better. The boss fight music is probably meant to represent how threatening the bosses are and how grandiose they are as well (at least the titans anyways). I can't fully remember all the mini boss music, so idk much about them. Not sure if other people think the same thing, but just wanted to put my opinion on it out there xd. Hope you enjoy the rest of sonic frontiers, because the other bosses are just as good as the first. :)

[@Hynotama]

“What is that over there? It looks like a manta ray.” Just wait till he meets SQUID! I wonder if he’ll get jump scared by the sound effect. 😂

[@chucksuniverse6444]

He meets squid at 1:00:57

[@NicolasMendoula]

Marco is slowly becoming a Sonic gamer

[@TheHammerGuy94]

if you'd like to hear the classical music in sonic frontiers, please turn off the birthday aesthetic. you can hear all the island music movements from every one. turn it back on after you finish the main story.

[@Chris_Pickaxe]

He turns it off after a bit dw

[@TheHammerGuy94]

@@Chris_Pickaxe kek, I didnt watch the entire thing. woops

[@duduvec5971]

3:53 "It's sonic time" and he started soniking

[@mrstrawberry1074]

7:00 It sounds dangerous, but it also sounds like Blood On The Dance Floor by Michael Jackson. Btw, the song's name is Danger On The Dance Floor.

[@deadturret4049]

39:19 "Well its definitely not going to be an S" Its literally the hardest S rank in the entire game. Most people who do manage to clear it do so with less than a second to spare. You basically have to go full speedrunner to pull it off. Frontiers cyberspace stages have only 4 themes but almost all of them are actually re-used level layouts from Sonic Generations, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Adventure 2. The first 2 stages are reusing segments from Windmill Isle from Unleashed, despite looking like Green Hill and Sky Sanctuary

[@TheTolnoc]

Mean Bean Machine was originally an original game title called Puyo Puyo. Another game in the series got localized as Kirby's Avalanche, but they're all Puyo Puyo.

[@trevinodude]

So, just to explain the Mania music mentality. Sonic Mania musically combines elements of the Japanese soundtrack of Sonic CD (namely being largely influenced by House and New Jack Swing styles of music) and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (which was the first game in the series to use more than one version of a song between Acts). Because of this, Mania often used Act 1 remixes to closely resemble the original Sega Genesis classics (when it comes to returning zones) while Act 2 features a more New Jack Swing JP Sonic CD style flair to the music.

[@tojma07]

Super fun seeing you play sonic mania please play more!

[@aneess]

the sudden "look at this ugly ass seagle" killed me 😭

[@prism182]

as a classic sonic fan specificly, this makes me really happy to see, classic sonic games are much more exploritive and momentom based, each zone is made up of anywhere between 1 to 6 acts with bosses sprinkled inbetwean, each act is a giant sprawling maze with hidden seccrates and goodies to find, ofcorse just like the modern games there are your higher and lowet paths but you will also find many winding and intercrossing paths everywhere, with special zones hidden all around (special zones can be found by hitting a checkpoint with a certan amount of rings then jumping into the swirling stars above it, or by finding a giant warp ring somewhere in a zone or at the end of an act if you have enough rings, you may also notace that getting crushed, falling into a pit, or drowning is ALLWAYS instadeath no matter what, last few things i will mention is that the physics are verry much inspired by pinball, most classic games have a level that is literaly a gigantic pinball macine filled with bumpers, springs, and sometimes pinball flipers (in manias case its studiopolis) finaly you will notace that the only other button than moving is JUMP, to use your other abbilities you will ether need to hold mash the A button after jumping, or holding down another button and mashing jump (the spindash can be charged by holding DOWN and mashing JUMP, pressing JUMP 6 times in quick succesion then letting gow of DOWN revs and launches the spindash at its maximum power) classic sonic game is a seemingly simple game on its surface but is buitifly designed and complecated once you get into it, there is more to learn but i will leave the rest for you to figure out on your own >w0

[@son211]

I love that you are experimenting with Sonic, especially Frontiers which is a game that deserves a lot, just a few tips: in the settings you can adjust the camera and the feeling of Sonic's movement to your liking.

[@prism182]

i would love to see your reaction to the video "you have only experianced 25% of sonic 3" By alex yard adventure as it goes deep into the philosophy and game design behind classic sonic and it is GENEOUS alex yard also makes amazing videos on the music theroey behind sonic and i think youd love it >wO

[@Calcited]

is that video good though? i agree about alex yard's analysis of music but i generally saw and agreed with the counterpoints for that video i don't want to watch the 47 minute long video again but the general agreement seems to be that it isn't 'experiencing 25% of sonic 3' and was more a clickbaity title for what is essentially a challenge run of the game From what i skim of the comments too it does go into philosophy but mangles game design to make it's point that you've only experience 25% of sonic 3 since you haven't done a challenge run

[@prism182]

@@Calcited i mean you could look at it that way, and yea i suppose the title can be considerd clickbaity but still i think its a good video heh

[@Nedow40]

I love how he just locks in on the titan fight. Throwing hands, no words, full focus,

[@jonathandias7006]

You can disable the Boost filter on the music of Cyberspace

[@maleficking6556]

What's interesting is a portion of the things referred to on the negative side here (the Birthday cosmetics, the music changer, how random something like the Action Chain Challenge is) comes from the post-game DLC, so stuff like that was meant for people who've already fully played the game. Also 1:00:49 *A CRIME FOR SKIPPING THAT!*

[@manupm9161]

If you want to have some consistent speed in Sonic Mania you should do a "drop dash". It can be done by pressing the jump button in the air (without any shield) and gives you an immediate spin dash that is really helpful to get speed quickly

[@beauslattery6854]

Awesome video ❤

[@UmbraBorealis]

"Why don't you put Green Hill Zone in there?" Because the fans actually COMPLAINED that they re-use Green Hill Zone too much. They started taking more musical risks with Forces too and I really, really love that OST even if it's not signature Sonic stuff in a sense. I love Frontiers for the same reason. I like the difference, I like the shift, I like that Sonic is growing up in a sense an figuring stuff out. As someone who grew up playing Sonic games and hyperfocussed on it a lot it just hits different. The stages are literally mishmashes of Sonic's memories, assets from past games slammed together. If it feels disjointed yeah that makes sense, in a poetic way I think it's fiting to the position Sonic is in both in the game and as a series at the time this game was released. Disjointed only to click together at the end, only to leave more questions for the future. Idk, it's exciting to me.

[@Turai12]

If you're enjoying Sonic, you ought to give freedom planet 2 a try. Franchise started as a Sonic fan game but evolved into something more. Fantastic music and great fun!

[@robertlauncher]

The song you love is Collision Chaos from Sonic CD. It’s extremely catchy, but it does clash with Frontiers’ atmosphere pretty hilariously

[@littleraven89]

The thing about the music in Frontiers is its meant to be more desolate and more ambient. The cool thing they did with it though as the more you clear each island the more it evolves. So much so that they have a lot of movements for each one and they culminate with a more triumphant sounding piece by the end. Its not the same as past Sonic games but it has its own charm. The Cyberspace, Titan and Guardian themes are more in line with what you might normally hear in past games but even still are quite different.

[@thenonexistinghero]

No full version of this? That's a shame... Also, dying is part of the experience if you're not familiar with 2D Sonic. They are 'platformers'. Just holding right or left won't allow you to go faster all the time. There's no shortage of places where you need to slow down and be careful. And the game teaches you a hard lesson in that and rewards you with death if you don't (you can go fast through most of these sections though once you git gud). And the better you get at the games and the better you know the stages, the faster you'll be able to go through them. Sonic games have excellent replay value since they're so easily to pick up & play. Just start, enjoy the music and enjoy the ride.

[@Jabersson]

_Please_ continue Sonic Mania! Words cannot EXPRESS how much you will love Hydro City Zone

[@dariothecat3898]

Loved seeing your experience with Sonic Mania. I actually completed Sonics 1, 2, and 3 entirely. And Mania even caught me off gaurd which says a lot. I also really loved your opinion on "Sonic Frontiers". Feel like the reason they moved away from the vibe music of older games was fans. They played Generations and Forces, which over did the recycling of old nostalgia. SEGA is awesome, but they do have a habit of taking TOO much from fans critiques. Not saying fan critiques are bad. There's just a balancing act of answering fan requests. And re-affirming your own identity gamewise. But absolutely adored seeing you play these games. As well as listen to the music. I'll definitely come back for more. ^^ ❤

[@sonicsean34]

I am very happy you’re exploring different Sonic games as they all have their unique takes (some dislike how experimental Sonic team can get, cos they aren’t really allowed to do other franchises often they tend to do radical things in Sonic games instead) Hopefully, we can get you to try one of the more standard games cos Generations and Mania are celebration games are reuse a lot of classic level themes (even tho layouts are new and music remixed) and the cyber levels in Frontiers are based on old level layouts with theming from like four different styles. I’ve not finished my copy of Frontiers, beat Island 1 and paused my playthru cos I was busy and never got back so need to rectify it but it has some promising ideas even tho it’s rough around the edges for this new “open zone” huh world concept (which I think shadow gens handles much better mechanically even if twh white space is aesthetically limiting) Lots of potential for further games with it! (Especially if they look back at how Sonic Adventure handled its hubs and just expanded those cos I liked those locations) Most importantly don’t get dispirited about taking hits, especially in the 2D games like Mania. The rings are a super forgiving Health system, as long as you have even just one only insta kills like bottomless pits, drowning or getting crushed will kill you (and the 10 min timer in games that have it) when you learn levels you’ll be able to replay and challenge yourself to do it flawlessly and earn momentum for good play (that’s the main difference with classic style sonic, speed is twh reward for playing good, not the goal of how to play, unlike the 3D games, especially after they added the boost move )

[@BluWinter13]

I’ve played this game since launch and I am STILL learning new things. YOU taught me that if you have a bubble shield, you don’t take damage from the dark blue goop in Chemical Plant act 2. 7 years later. Wow.

[@DannyPotato]

Personally I really really enjoyed the cyberspace levels because they had very varied pathways to use while being short enough to be sweet and make me actually feel like replaying them to improve my performance. I also really loved the EDM tracks they accompany it with, it pumped me beyond belief.

[@TheTolnoc]

If you like Flying Battery, you might like some of the music from the Megaman series. It's roughly divided into Megaman, Megaman X, Megaman Zero, Megaman ZX, and Megaman Battle Network.

[@NoramiYuuki]

this is something I've always felt about sonic frontiers when I played it, and you can especially feel it if you're a long-time sonic fan. the music, and to an extent, the world too, feels like it's missing the iconic "sonic flare" to it. the ironic part about all of this? sonic frontiers is the first and only sonic game that does this despite many sonic games trying new ideas and concepts. which is also part of why the game has received a lot of mixed reception. I find it so interesting how even non-long time fans feel the same way tbh. if I may, I would like to recommend "sonic unleashed", be it as a playthrough or a music reaction. I feel that game is the epitome of sonic the hedgehog on many levels.

[@mexicanopdb]

I felt that flying battery pain from back when i was 10 and this game had just came out, so many deaths due to moving blocks and walls...

[@shadixyt]

I've been kinda wondering what someone who is more or less out of the loop of Sonic game lore since the 3D era took off feels and reacts to what goes on in Sonic Frontiers. I've been putting together a script for a video talking about how much the story means to someone who grew up right at the very start of this era (it means a lot, I almost want to say means everything its that special); obviously this comes with the caveat that I have a very biased perspective on this subject. I know its not really some random persons place to suggest something like this but if there was ever a time you'd want to talk about why Frontiers story is going in the directions its going and its plot and feeling is notably more serious, I'd love to have some kind of discussion or open forum about how it feels and lands with someone who missed out on the 3D era's continuity. Regardless I'm really glad that you gave the game a shot!

[@alicemichelle297]

10 minutes in, I'm like "is anyone gonna tell him about the Drop Dash?" xD

[@redskyze]

Robotnik's air base themes seem to always be my favorites. Sky Fortress from 2, and Flying Battery from 3&K (and here), and the Egg Carrier theme from Sonic Adventure are just infinitely hummable for me. The good doctor might always lose, but his musical picks are always wins.

[@Faizan1631]

I've been a Sonic fan for 19 years now, 12 years when Mania released, and I never understood when people were going on about how difficult Mania was, its such a well designed game imo, I was just zipping across every stage and having such a blast playing with only a handful of deaths and no game overs. Now that I see someone new to Sonic play it I completely understand. I think there are some settings to remove lives somewhere and also time overs too but I can't remember where.

[@egxtra]

14:53 - If it hasn't been brought up, the "buzzing" heard here was taken from an infamous livestream event that, among other issues, had this constant droning throughout said stream. 24:42 - "Happy Birthday" (yes, that same song) was put into the public domain around 2015-2016. Prior to that, EVERYONE had to write up their own legally-distinct celebratory birthday song, or pay a hefty fee to the rights holders. I sometimes wonder just how many of these unique songs exist across all media. I can only recall one used in "The Emperor's New Groove" and a more original song in "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" right off the top of my head. 41:35 - Glad you noticed, though in their defense, a lot of people were trying to go for that minimalist delivery that "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" pulled off with their open world setting. The thing about Sonic games, especially classic games, is that the "speed" aspect often just spectacle. Long corridors and loop-de-loops that don't really affect the overall gameplay experience, but just emphasizes how insanely fast Sonic goes from Point A to Point B. Precise platforming, those "slow" moments, is just as iconic to the Sonic experience as the *ZZZZZZOOOOOOOMMMMMM* that the Blue Blur is known more for in the "Modern" era of Sonic games.

[@chiptunepacifist5729]

Having the birthday dlc enabled automatically was really funny 😭 It seems like you really enjoy classic sonic aesthetically and musically. I'd recommend checking out Sonic Origins which is a collection of Sonic 1, 2, 3&k, and sonic cd Sonic colors also has a lot of classic styled themeing while being similar to generations gameplay (but the main remaster for if Sonic Colors Ultimate is very controversial)

[@JamesTheTurnbull]

4:08 I dont blame him for not knowing since its one his first Sonic games, but this made me spat out my drink laughing nonetheless.

[@zonikel----]

DID YOU PRESS SKIP ON THE GREEN CHAOS EMERALD?! HOW DARE YOU!!! xd

[@Preteristboy]

The plot of Sonic Mania is very simple: A strange gem with reality warping properties called the Phantom Ruby crash lands on Knuckles' home island. The robots that dug it up were sent by Eggman to retrieve it for him, but they accidentally activated its powers, transforming them into the Hard-Boiled Heavies and granting them autonomy. Eggman wants the gem for his grand schemes, but the Hard-Boiled Heavies want the gem for themselves. It's a three-way battle for the fate of the world!

[@miles_tails0511]

Excuse me “forgettable”, Kronos island 7 movements is high on my playlist and I never skip the 30 minute track once! It just gives so calming vibes 😌 Also, it made undefeatable shine that much more

[@joech1992]

When you say it's do or die music for the Chemical Plant act 2 Boss, the origin of the music is no joke because it's a remix of the final boss battle of Puyo Puyo(the true version of Mean Bean Machine from Japan). When Puyo Puyo became Mean Bean Machine in the US, this music got moved to the 2 player battle music.

[@TheTolnoc]

Shadow Generations had to fit in to an older game, so they had to hold back a bit on the design.

[@Meshawroo]

I got and played frontiers on release without the special stuff as default which help with the story flow ... i do enjoy the jukebox feature so i get a new thing to collect that i want ... i love fishing in that game ... i got everything but still chill

[@ChazEevee]

those who say you heard a werehog scream at 22:22 - you're hearing things

[@robotron2720]

Sonic mania’s story: Dr. Robotnik locates a mysterious jewel now known as in sonic forces as the phantom ruby which can alter reality. After accidentally activating it some of Robotnik’s minion machines transform and turn on him while also snagging sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in the process. The true ending of this game as well as all the classic sonic games (genesis era) are collecting the chaos emeralds (which can only be collected in special stages by finding a big ring hidden in most stages find all 7 to get super sonic) and stop Robotnik and the hard boiled heavies from destroying reality.

[@Lusius8879]

I think there is certain merit to what you're saying about the island music in Sonic Frontiers... But I don't fully agree with it if I'm being honest. Sonic has his musical identity, true. But an identity is meant to evolve and adapt, especially based on environment and situation. The risk of sticking with 1 identity, is repetition. For you, since Sonic is still new, you crave that strong identity. However for older fans, a lot of the music has moved to the background due to "yeah I've heard this before" syndrome. Contextually it also doesn't work. You played Planet Wisp, a pretty bouncy fun happy song. And it worked really nicely for that specific moment. But you spend a lot of time traversing the islands, so a constant level of that bounciness would tire quickly, not to mention it would actively hurt the music in other stages due to being too similar between the overlord exploration and the sub-stages classical running levels. You also saw how it clashed with the vibe of the island when you had the panning scene. The island music, for all intensive purposes, would not work if it was 1 song at the iconic sonic identity. So you'd either need to rotate songs (which the game already kinda does by giving each island 7 movements; every time you get a chaos emerald, you move up 1 movement) or move away from the identity to fit the game's identity. Similarly if we look at the overworld of Shadow Generations; the hub music there also does not fit the classic sonic identity... but it works, because it fits the game's identity. I think there's a big glaring issue with your Sonic experience, which might be resulting in an unfairly negative view of the changes Sonic Frontiers made (tho I won't say the game isn't without flaws, there's definitely some good points of criticism to be made, of which you definitely covered a few as well). Lets look at your experience so far. You've done 2 song videos guided by your community's recommendations, played Sonic X Shadow Generations, played a bit of Sonic Mania, and a bit of Sonic Frontiers. In this list, Sonic Frontiers is a STRONG outlier. Why? Sonic X Shadow is a celebration game, covering the most popular stages and songs. Sonic Mania is an homage to classic Sonic, being effectively nostalgia bait (tho still a good game) for when Sonic had an extremely 1-dimensional identity. Your videos are recommendation-driven, meaning you get to hear the best-of-the-best and the nostalgiac songs. Sonic Frontiers, meanwhile, is arguably THE most experimental Sonic game there is. So obviously compared to the exposure you've had so far, it will feel VERY out of place and probably a bit underwhelming. I think it would be a lot more interesting to see you try some of the other less-standard Sonic games to then compare it to Sonic Frontiers and see if your opinion still holds, or if you've shifted a bit (either would be fully understandable, but you'd have more of a good foundation to build your opinion off). Here's some more non-standard/non-simple-core Sonic games that you could use to build a bigger opinion on: -Sonic Adventures DX -Sonic Lost World -Sonic Unleashed (you might need an emulator for this one) -Sonic Rush (this one is on DS, so it's harder to get)

[@wanderlustwarrior]

I dunno if anyone has mentioned this yet, or if you realize it in the video, but the default island themes are made up of 7 movements. They set the emotional tone for that specific part in the story, and movement progression is tied to story moments.

[@Naru_kek]

I'd really really really, REALLY recommend re-checking out the latest Star Rail ost. Especially the "Hamonius Choir" ost, the final boss of Penacony that you haven't covered yet. The ost isn't groundbreaking, doesn't revolutionise music but it's one hell of a good ost that's for sure! Very intense, epic, and extremely powerful overall

[@TheFrostedfirefly]

Marco's definitely gotta play through both Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 now...

[@PandamoniumBruu]

The easiest way to describe the music for Flying Battery Act 1 and Act 2 is: 'you're sneaking into a base' and 'you're escaping from the base'

[@VelvetAura]

Yep you're right, that puzzle section is based off of Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which in itself is a clone of Puyo Puyo

[@fiercetatsu6782]

I know you like guilty gear and I just wanna point out there’s 3 new songs that came out a week ago Radiant Dawn (Queen Dizzy theme) Get Over Nightmares (Sin Kiske vs Ky Kiske theme, son vs father lol) Shelter from the rain (arcade mode ending theme 2)

[@I1en3_Pr0ject1]

he listened to one of my recommended song without even knowing😂👍 38:56 Flowing 1-2 that was one of them and 11:34 Hi- Spec Robots go! and that's another 👌

[@DaveMan1K]

With the classic 2D games, keeping your speed up is something that takes time and practice. The original Genesis/Mega Drive stages were much shorter than Mania, which follows the same philosophy.

[@daisyaran2084]

My impression on why they didn't just throw in the 48th new iteration of Green Hill's theme or another version of Sky Sanctuary's theme and stuff for the Cyberspace levels in Frontiers is because many Sonic games in the recent past have relied very heavily on past experiences, arguably to the degree of being a crutch. Despite liking Generations a lot, I really don't care for the Classic Sonic levels purely because it's just kind of more of the same but with different graphics and worse physics, tacked onto the part of the game I actually wanted to play, which was the 3D, Modern Sonic levels; well, at least the parts that actually are 3D, since they couldn't help themselves and kept making the 3D stages have large 2D sections or even just make nearly an entire level 2D anyway despite having an entire other character with which to have that 2D experience. Considering that they wanted to try something new, while still retaining things like past level aesthetics to not completely take people out of the experience of it still being a Sonic game, I think they toed the line as best they could to be honest. One of the more defining aspects of Sonic games that really stick with people is the music, so to just throw in music from the past to overwrite any new feelings that they want people to experience seems like a bad idea if the goal is to try and innovate, and would only serve to reinforce the idea that they can only rely on past games' ideas. Personally, I saw the levels using past aesthetics in a broken, shifting void almost as a way to show us that Sonic's world and his view of things was being forced to change in an internal struggle, while still trying to remain true to his roots. While I get that desire of wanting more of that Sonic Feel, as someone who's been playing these games since I was 2 years old with Adventure on Dreamcast and would LOVE for the Adventure games to get more love, it was still such a nice breath of fresh air to have entirely new music that wasn't just a call back to earlier games, and I think it would have been pretty grating if every Cyberspace level that used the Green Hill or Sky Sanctuary aesthetics also used the exact same music every time, and would cheapen the staying power of the Cyberspace levels as just "more of the same".

[@DaNintendude]

A lot of my problems with Sonic Mania come from classic mechanics that were not updated. Some of my issues actually got patched out in later updates, but I got the game at launch and some stuff drove me mad. Some of the stuff, you haven't encountered yet, but my absolute biggest pet peeve are the crush-deaths. They never feel fair, they're extremely unsatisfying, and it's easy to die over and over again at the same spots because of how cramped they are. The physics can also feel a bit wonky, especially in auto-scroll segments. And the lives/game over system is very frustrating for beginners. I spent hours on Flying Battery when I first got the game. I didn't have fun with Mania until my 3rd or 4th playthrough. I love Sonic Mania but there's those little things that I had to get used to before I could truly appreciate it.