Not many likely bothered with it much, but in some of the classic 16-bit Sonic games (this old man's memory is letting him down and he can't remember which ones) you could play against a buddy in splitscreen. It was a fun idea, albeit the framerate would dive; granted, in those days not many of us minded shoddy performance as much as we do in modern gaming.
In any case, in the name of nostalgia there'll be a Competition Mode in Sonic Mania. The winner in each round is determined by completion time, the number of rings collected and more.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are all playable characters in Sonic Mania’s Competition Mode. Winners are determined by a few factors: clear time, score, number of items acquired, number of rings acquired when clearing the level, and total number of rings acquired throughout the level. Players can adjust the rules of each match by adjusting items in the item boxes and number of rounds that take place.
It looks rather fun, and is yet another nice additional mode for a title that has us full of optimism. Sonic Mania is out on 15th August, so there's not long to wait now.
Comments 49
Must beat Kalmaro. Sounds interesting.
I like the idea, but the stretched screen hurts my soul. Hope there's a toggle option.
So close I can almost taste it.
that looks really fun. never new this was in the old ones. AND should be fun for speedrunners to do in-game races on mah twitch!
There's never a NintendoLife Sonic article without a jab at the series XD
The Sonic 2 multiplayer that this is trying to be like was cool in that it pushed the Genesis to output a sort of primitive 480i... which was pretty cool at the time.
But today, it looks all stretched thin and weird.
A wee bit stretched, which probably could/should have been done slightly differently for modern times, but it's very cool to see this mode return.
I loved this mode in Sonic 2. My friends and I would play it all the time. And I absolutely do not remember any slow down at all in performance. I guess that shows how little we cared about those things back then (of course, I still don't really care).
Pretty cool. Sounds like its offline only but lets be real, the servers would be dead in a few months whether its great or not so its probably for the best.
It's actually squashed not stretched
I'm excited for this game. My local Gamestop only took one single preorder for the collector's edition on Switch! So I missed out on it unless they get a few for release date.
Any time a good game that wants to add local multiplayer ON THE SAME CONSOLE it's a big plus for me. Looking at you Splatoon 2.
Ah yes, remember playing 2P mode in Sonic 2 with my friend around 1994. Good times indeed.
I was hoping it had a Sonic 3 style race mode with tiny looping tracks. Oh well, this is okay as well, I hope the screen squish can be toggled off though...while it is a fun reference to Sonic 2, the squishy screen was one of the reasons I never really liked playing Sonic 2's vs mode in the first place.
Man...that looks gross. Why not just extend the landscape's viewable area, and then slightly shrink it all down, overall to fit the sprite in better? That just looks like crap, visually!
...or you could pick up "Troll and I" instead..... kidding!
That...trailer...looks...awful. its too cropped, or maybe it's just me.
Interesting.
@Angelic_Lapras_King
Actually Sonic Lost World for 3DS has online multiplayer racing and you can still find players online randomly today. Although it can take some minutes for one to show up. And that game isn't nearly as popular as Sonic Mania seems to be.
As far as this video, the countdown voice and goal voice are embarrassing. Glad it'll only be featured in the multiplayer and not the main game.
@Xyphon22 well said
Nice! Don't mind the stretched look much at all. Very happy to see a competitive mode, perfect for a bit of quick fun.
Now THAT is Blast Processing!
Seems fun but like others said the 16:9 split screen looks kinda awkward and the announcer sounds annoying, probably shouldn't even had one in the game.
I remember playing against my brother in Sonic 2 all the time back in the day. It was a really great fun and I don't even remember any slow down. I'll definitely be giving it a shot again when it finally launches (it feels like we've been waiting forever!)
YES!!!
Just when you thought this game couldn't get any better 😃 I used to play split screen all the time on Sonic 2 and I loved every second of it, the frame rate wasn't an issue back then because we didn't k ow any better and it was tied to gameplay so it just slowed down
Looks fun! I can't wait for both this and Sonic Forces! 2017 looks to be an awesome year for Sonic!
Wow, this is awesome. Taxman's Sonic 2 remaster also has a greatly expanded version of that game's versus mode. Looking forward to something similar with proper controls.
@MegaTen FFS.
@MegaTen FFS.
@darien Perhaps, but the lobbies for MD/Genesis games like Sonic 2 and Streets of Rage 2 on PS360 are pretty much dead....and those games require online achievements to 100% so you pretty much have to ask people online if they can grind with you.
Just give me the wireless multiplayer for every game! For me it is the Switches best feature.
Looks great, so excited for this game! Is it the 15th yet??? XD
This game just keeps getting better and better! This mode will be perfect on the Switch.
Goes to show how nostalgia plays tricks on you. I don't remember the framerate dipping in Sonic 2.
@Xyphon22
It honestly wasn't that bad for frames, just when you popped an item open you would sometimes get a slowdown.
Loved the split screen racing back in the day. I don't mind the squish - I'm just glad they made the effort to include the mode.
Wow, I guess I hadn't realized there was split screen built in, bonus.. Surely do miss my old GameGear...
My brother and I always thought slowdown was cool, like it was slow motion without the NES Advantage spamming the pause button. Like others, I don't remember it at all in this mode in Sonic 2, and we played it quite a bit.
@Biff_ARMStrong - Please stop... trolling!(imagine a smiley face emoji in this space as I'm incapable of using emojis)
@electrolite77
Yeah I played splitscreen quite often with friends and can't remember framerate dipping either.
Wow, that countdown announcer is embarrassingly bad. Sounds like what you'd expect from your 14 year old nephew.... "thrEEE, twOOO, OOONE, GOOOOO!"
Mixed feelings about the stretched look. It certainly is nostalgia, but it'd be nice if we could choose perspective. Other thing is while I liked the chaos in Sonic 2 from random items, it'd be nice if they added more options...
Edit - Oh I didn't see the part where they mention choosing items. In that case sounds great
Brings back so many memories of my childhood. I really hope the 2 player competition has online play too.
I didn't know there was multiplayer in the old Sonic games.
I thought it first came in Adventure 2 lol
I hate that the topic of framerate is apparently required to come up in every conversation remotely related to video games these days. Also, I loved the split screen in Sonic 2 (and 3). Also also, I kinda hate that voice. "GOhh!"
God Sonic 2 flash backs, this game it turning out better and better
@Whopper744 In all fairness. Local multiplayer in Splatoon2 is just not possible on the same console, because you don't have a second screen like the WiiU had.
On the WiiU one player had to play on the TV and the other on the gamepad.
But since me and my son both have their own Switch, I had expected that local play mode to still be available so you could practice against eachother 1vs1, but that mode is no longer there. :-/
@MegaTen
Game of the year 2017
It just keeps getting better and better. All we need is a Segata Sanshiro ad for it and a Sonic Jam-style 3D explorable museum and all my nostalgia boxes will be ticked!
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...