Sonic Mania: Studiopolis Zone (Part 3)
8“Do not mess with The Mouse.” – Industry wisdom.
A video of me rotoscoping my way through Studiopolis Zone.
Ft. Miles Prower, Sonic T. Hedgehog, and Michael Mouse.
You know, I just realize these descriptions are missing one integral part of them, so here it goes.
Studiopolis (also the name of an American post-production studio) Zone is the third level in Sonic Mania. Sonic Mania is a fast-paced 2D platformer that harkens to the glory days of the genre. Like Cuphead! But with less cups and dancing, and more hedgehogs and running. There’s still a dancing egg if you’re into that.
There. Now my description is complete. Some humorous disclaimers/trivia:
1: Yes, Michael (Mike) is THAT mouse. I’m being cheeky.
2: Originally this video was planned to be release this weekend, but given that at the time of uploading it is Valentine’s Day and I am pivoting the “get a girlfriend” joke into a recurring one throughout the playthrough, I figured it would fitting for this video to release now. “Pivoting” is the fancy word all the cool kids are using, right?
With that out of the way, Studiopolis Zone. Here’s a fun fact, the zone was close to not being called this because of the company sharing the name. But it got the greenlight to be used and it became an Easter Egg. I’m guessing your name appearing in a Sonic game is great publicity. I know I didn’t knew about the company beforehand.
From what I see, this level seems to be the favorite among the new ones. Maybe even of the entire game. Personally I have another original Sonic Mania level as my favorite, but that’s neither here or there. The level itself is ok. The level design in Mania is all around great, but it is for this reason that despite this level’s great design, it doesn’t really stands out since some of my favorite old levels got revamped to this level of polish. As for the new levels, this one ranks in 3rd place. This zone if chock full of references, so if you’re interested, read about it in a wiki.
This level reminds me of the mall level in Freedom Planet, probably due to the color palette. I like Freedom Planet’s level more because: 1) The keyboard was a pretty neat secret, 2) I like FP’s level design more in most cases, and 3) The boss battle in FP’s is, like, seven different layers of awesomeness. In fact, both levels have running bosses.
The Heavy Gunner battle is pretty cool. I always liked running bosses. Even if the running is more spectacle than anything else, it kinetic feel it gives the battle is more energy. Shadow’s fight in Sonic Adventure 2 is a favorite of mine, some of the boss battles in Sonic Heroes were pretty cool (too bad about the controls) and Sonic Advance 2 have some of my favorite battles in the series.
The Weather Globe battle is… ok. I feel it exists to make a joke more than anything.
I’m currently pretty swamped with work, I’m getting back into the routine of exercising (for however long that last), so my time has been in a premium lately. Next video will hopefully go out sometime next week. Until then, Raak out!
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