Sonic Mania (Zero Punctuation) 

"But this is where the prickly spider of modernity starts to venture from beneath the comfortable toilet seat of nostalgia." 10/10 analogy!

If anyone's wondering, the cryptic clue answer was 'wanker'

That voice crack at 0:42, it's a work of comedy art.

In other woods, he's saying the game is enjoyable, and a definite step in the right direction, but that's almost entirely because they took what good was already achieved several decades ago and cleaned it up. On the other hand, he also is saying that as fun as the game is, it suffers from the now 'out of date' mechanics and drawbacks we've since learned from.

Yahtzee struggling with the 10min time limit? What is this game, the Dark Souls of platformers?

When you want to focus on exploring the levels, always go with tails.

That blue hedgehog he's using cracks me up.

"...the last squeaky fart of a dying manatee" is my new favorite series of words.

"Mom, buy more blue paint, this will be the one!!" Brilliant

"...unless you were in Casino Night Zone and had a compulsive gambling problem." Eeyup...

In the saddest of times Zero Punctuation gives me some good times.

"Oh noes the timer's running out!" >Rushes rest of boss fight, finishes last second. >gets 50,000 points and an extra life.

I thought we knew why games had time limits back then. To keep the player moving towards the end of the level, and if they missed something, they'd have to repeat the cycle, especially Sonic games that tend to be bite size chunklets that you can run through in about an hour. 'Cause stopping to explore is some real pain in the ass-ery, like trying to get up a slope while headed left.

Woah. I suppose the spell is broken. Yahtzee thinks Sonic Mania is annoying. I think Sonic Mania is fun. I actually CAN have a different opinion than a critic! Feels good, man.

3:30 "It's no use!" Says Silver in bossfights in '06

That was an abrupt ending.

Yeah pretty much. This did feel like a big sonic fan game that some how got Sega's "yeah why not let's sell it" However I know this is more at Sega's doing more then anything. Much like Escapist said it's sorta funny how Sega really isn't the one that made this game and how it's very much a fan game being sold under their name.

*My English Teacher:* Make an analogy for this extremely annoying noise! *Me:* It sounds like a man dragging bagpipes across a blackboard. *My English Teacher:* OFF TO GUIDANCE YOU GO!

"Definitely retaining some problems the originals had." (I can't play Sonic games good, and that's it.)

So far this is the most "positive" review of a Sonic game Yahtzee has ever done.

THE POPSICLES AS EGGMANS MUSTACHE! I AM FIGURATIVELY DYING OF LAUGHTER!!! Edit: Jeremy's right. Shame upon me :(

It is almost impossible to run out of time outside of the last level, which resets your time when you reach the boss.

I know he won't read this but this is the first time I've seen Yahtzee hate on a company taking his own advice. He clearly left the old sonic games behind a decade or so ago and thus allowed nostalgia to hide the faults of the old games. I love the old games, warts and all, because at least they were satisfying. I had perfect control of my world and even the lives system couldn't get between me and the fun. I'm enjoying the hell out of sonic mania and my only complaint is that it was clearly built for sonic veterans and not the newcomers. Either that or I'm just good enough to find new and stupid ways to die.

"Was it because adding a digit to the onscreen timer would've been a bridge too far for the genesis processor?" He's not totally wrong there.

Oh cool, a game even Yahztee will li- oh. Nevermind.

"Raw Ken scrambled to enjoy himself". I literally lol'd when I got it.

What I never got was that all these old games were all about getting a high score but you could never save them.

"Eight well-timed thrusts." That's pretty much my sexual stamina capability now. :-(

"By Tails the Fox's implied second butthole..." Can't wait for the R34 of that. There might already be some, but I don't wanna look that up, I'm a good Christian, I swear... Nah.

Is this where we pretend that we didn't enjoy Sonic Mania just because Yahtzee didn't enjoy it?

Jeez, just now I noticed one of Yahtzee's eyes twitching in the logo.

So savage. But at the same time, the detail shows he truly is a sonic veteran. That underwater stage will be with me forever.

"The prickly spider of modernity starts to venture beneath the comfortable toilet seat of nostalgia," might be the greatest analogy every crafted by man.

To me I think the 10 minute timer was a way to ensure that the player would not get stuck in a glitch or just having a too shitty run, because these games aren't coded/designed perfectly. And yes I did get stuck in the floor once...

I love eggmans look in this video

0:29 I think this is going to happen to the sonic movie right now.

As I watched this video, I realized that his complaints about the game were actually reasonable. The reason why Sonic and Mario are liked because of the fact we want to believe that this is what should have been made back then in that awkward time of Sonic Extreme, and Sonic Blast. Now as Sonic Forces (which give or take has notable flaws) compared with Mario Odyssey, we can see how it evolved over time. As Mario became from a platformer that became more of an open world, Sonic became more of reflex and exploring things akin to a carnival ride. That's not a bad thing per-se, I think that Sonic does best when it works well as a carnival ride, but SEGA's experimentation of what the ride can give can work out in a positive and negative manner. The reason why Mario became popular because it played it safe, while Sonic itself is a fangame. He could be an example of want people in indie developers wanted. Something simplistic and then eventually going to their downfall if overreaching their goals. Food for thought.

I've watched you for years Yahtzee, you have the best gaming critic shows on the internet... don't ever change!

It took longer than I should admit to notice robotnik's mustache is orange icepops.

How can Yahtzee make me so excited to watch a rant about a game i've never even heard of? This guy is seriously a comedic genius

As someone who only really enjoyed Sonic 3/& Knuckles and Spinball (I REGRET NOTHING), I found Sonic Mania to be a lot of fun. Still do. There was some sort of kerfuffle about DRM and such which hurt the Steam version of the game on release, but in itself, the game's not bad. Diverse playstyles, nostalgic level design, and some nice attention to detail -- which you're probably going to miss because you're moving at approximately Ludicrous Speed. I'll never be a Sonic fanboy -- Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, and Castlevania already fill my "obsessively nostalgic gaming nerd with no life" quota -- but this game did make me enjoy Sonic again in a way that I haven't since -- well, since I was the original quadrilogy's target demographic. That said, Yahtzee's criticisms are valid. The flaws in the old games do persist here.

How did it take you more than 10:00 minutes to beat a stage

That desperation in "mom, this will be the one!" ChefKiss.gif

I lost my shit at Robotnic's orange creamsicle mustache.

I've been bingeing all of yahtzee's zero punctuation reviews. I'm only at 170 and there's 500+.

*Sonic 1&2&3, Sonic adventure1&2 (The only time 3D sonic worked imo) and Sonic Mania are the best Sonic games.*

"while making the last squealing farts of a dying manatee" Freakin died.

Finally, I found someone who says "Tomah-toh". One of life's mysteries solved.

Yahtzee is officially completely unpleasable when it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog. I didn't even know the OG games had a 10 minute timer until now

Yes the 10 min time limit made me particularly cross... especially with the exploration aspect AND THAT GOD DAMN METAL SONIC FIGHT. Ffs.

0:40 Mom buy more blue paint. THIS WILL BE THE ONE!

Coincidentally this year( 2017) the 17th of September lands on Sunday. Exactly the same date and day of the beginning of operation Market Garden which is where the ' Bridge too far' quote originated.

I wonder if he's gonna like it.

It feels like time limits and exploration were his only real talking points...playing as Tails is a good way to get that exploration in.

11:13 it's like a toddler proud of it's shit on the wall. It's was more like a professional family portrait of a mother and father with their two sons, looking like they're proud of both equally, but in reality, one is in Harvard studying to be a doctor while the other is a janitor cleaning up after the other successful members of society.

Man, can't wait until you reupload this video for Sonic Mania Plus.

Aw, I really like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2

The more this guy manages to say something bad about games this good, the more amazed I get that he didn't have anything bad to say about Undertale.

3:54 every Sonic game in a nutshell.

0:47 Yahtzee, don't DO that! I've already lost enough of my beloved childhood icons and I DON'T need anyone reminding me of how old Dick Van Dyke is (God bless him, though, and may he live to be 150).

I really like Sonic Mania (that's an objective opinion, as I haven't enjoyed a new Sonic game since the 90's) and most of this criticism is totally fair... but some of it is just Bitter Old Yahtzee being Bitter Old Yahtzee.

Sort of getting the feeling from this and previous ZP, that Yahtzee just doesn't like platformers much.

I love how robotnik has 2 popsicles for a mustache

It's called a secret for a reason. Sonic games just made the chaos emeralds hard to find AND get to instead of having an obscure wall that you have to run into with no hint. Plus there are NUMEROUS big rings in the game. Hey at least it's not castlevania 2 where you have to fucking duck at a random ass mountain in FUCKING NOWHERE and the only hint you get in a high drunken man who just got done smoking crack reading a fortune cookie to you.

I feel the noteworthy absence of Sonic Colors mentions. You know that one game that is both undeniably good and completely independent from the classic games. The Sonic Cycle only still exists for people who are eternally pursuing the idealized version of their nostalgic memories, which incidentally are a large portion of the Sonic fans.

"Why is there a timer in a speed running game?" asked the reviewer, while playing a speed running game.

Its been a long time but IIRC the timer was a remnant of the arcade era, Sonic was originally an arcade cabinet, and timers were used to make sure people didn't spend all day in one level so queues of people waiting to play could keep moving. It's basically the same reason most early games on home consoles were ridiculously hard, had high scores, and all had timers. It took the industry awhile to separate the two experiences.

Sonic the Hedgehog: A game about going fast to the right and cursing your controller because the jump button didn't work for the fifth time in a row.

"hold right and occasionally jump"- aw come on now, Yahtzee, that one's objectively wrong.

Very true notice about the time limit! I played fair hundreds of hours in original Sonic games (and emulators, and recent mobile ports) and I never ever died to time limit. However I managed to do that like 3 times already in Sonic Mania. It's also really shame since the levels are even more sprawling than they used to be and have more hard to reach areas. You actually do want to explore the level and try to reach those, but if spend two minutes trying to get to a platform that requires you to do 3 perfect jumps and bounces, suddenly you are on a tight schedule to make it in time to finish.

The way he says "this will be the one" fills me with glee.

Woah that red demon thing in the center of the box art turns a slightly lighter shade of red at 0:27 🤯🤯🤯

I usually don't care for sonic but I thought the game was fun. Regardless of nostalgia I enjoyed it

Ah, I see Yahtzee ascribes to the "The original Sonic games were never really that good anyways" school of thought. How original. While I tend to agree with him on many things, I shouldn't be surprised. If it's possible to not like something, he can almost always find it.

3:48 thank you for accurately articulating exactly why I hate sonic games. If mania is the best iteration of the genre, then I have no reason to ever play another one again

Wow that was surprisingly straightforward... the only thing he found wrong was almost entirely subjective.

eh. it's still pretty good, flaws considered. the giant rings arent THAT out of the way, and theres more stages than chaos emeralds this time. take a little time to go off the main path and you are bound to get 7 chaos emeralds by the halfway point of the game, slightly earlier or slightly later if you suck at them. eh. this review was kinda too nitpicky. sonic mania was great overall.

Ooooooooh Zero Punctuation is 'cause you talk fast

Is it at all weird that I grew up on the Gamecube and DS, never even hearing of sonic until Generations, never actually playing it for two more years, starting with Colors, but this game STILL makes me feel REALLY nostalgic?

I never get tired of that intro

seems like he didnt finish. odd ending :/

youre complaining about the the jump sound effect yatzhee you really are scrapining the barrel here huh

I’m glad you call it a chesterfield

ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND

There's a time limit? I literally had no idea.

So what was this game about again?

I haven’t discovered any major bugs yet, but I found that if u have knuckles glide at the very top of a ledge, he sometimes bounces off of it while still in the gliding pose, in a way that (much like Yahtzee and shooting scientists legs to watch them jiggle) I find cute. Boing! And of course, it’s always a joy to watch Tails desperately try to spawn and keep up with you when zooming around the level (in particular, that part where you get bounced back and forth between satellite dishes seems to make him really freak out).

Oooh Yahtzee, lumping Sonic Adventure in with Sonic 06? Oh you're right, but people don't want to treat those games as bad because they're nostalgia goggles are on too tight.

The only people I've ever heard complain about the 10 minute time limit in classic Sonic games are people who just aren't that good at the game.

I love that much of the complains he has here he also had on the post-ZP stream

Caveat: Sonic was superfast if you lived in the NTSC territories. For us Europeans in PAL/50Hz territories Sonic was fast, but not that fast. Which I guess made it easier to try to find the bonus stages and the emeralds. But when your whole schtick is to run fast with a devil may care attitude, you undermine it by having to stop and do geological surveys looking for hidden passages.

My two cents. The only Sonic game for the Genesis I enjoyed was Sonic 3 & Knuckles because of the large levels that had you explore. Most of the time, the time limit wasn't a problem because the levels in that game were designed with multiple paths that each took roughly the same amount of time to run through. This made the game fun to replay through many times. The only level that truly had a tight time limit was Sandopolis Zone, and I believe this is by design because there is only one path through each act. However, the level layout gave it the illusion of a maze. That being said, the levels were well designed for the hardware limitations provided by the Genesis. The designers found a sweet spot for stage design: large, but allowed plenty of time to explore and reach the end within the time limit. If the stage designers of Sonic Mania wanted large levels, they should have provided more time to allow the player to explore them.

complaing about a 10 minute limit..................OK ,CAN WE ALL GET TO A CONSENSUS OF WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD SONIC GAME??????

If you still think the majority of Sonic fans are furries, just look at how they reacted to Elise kissing Sonic.

I'm a huge Sonic fan, but like, the kind that doesn't even touch post-Dreamcast era games. And your opinion that Mania isn't good unless you like classic Sonic, the general premise of the video, is absolutely right. I love this game, because I love classic Sonic. To me, Mania was game of the year. And I really hope it gets dlc and/or sequel with more emphasis on original levels.

Finally someone who shares my criticisms of this game.

2:56 «Could it be that a popular retro game from the 90s might actually have been more dodgily designed than we thought, and that at the time we were all blinded by lack of alternative and the obfuscating air of '90s 'tude?» Yes. Yes, exactly. That's pretty much the explanation for the entirety of the classic platformer genre. It was time somebody finally realised it. When, 30 years from now, some will be coming to the same conclusion about Dark Souls (good, but annoying and dodgily designed), I'll be there, waiting, in an armchair in the middle of a room with "I told you so" written on every square metre of wallpaper.

Oh god, the comments are a majority of people saying there are no good Sonic games. And while I do agree with Yahtzee on several of his negative points, everybody saying "There are no good Sonic games" is being needlessly opinionated and presenting their opinion as fact. While they had flaws, they were still good games by design. The best? No, but I far preferred playing them to stuff like Mario and Mega Man, in all honesty, and I think that's why I enjoy Sonic Mania. And I wouldn't enjoy Mario or Mario-style games until Crash Bandicoot and Mario 64 (although, Sunshine is better, imo). In reality, a majority of entertainment is the flaws and how you view them and which ones you're able to gloss over. And while, yes, I will admit all the 3D games are hit and miss with people (with two of them being a high majority of it being miss, and most of the others being mixed to negative overall), I cannot for the life of me say that Sonic 1 through Sonic and Knuckles are bad games. Overall, most of the people who dislike them do just that: dislike them. It's nothing to do with them being bad games, it's just that the flaws are far harder to see past for them because they see the flaws as a higher flaw with the game play. Also, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are the least "Hold right to win" of the series. As someone who's played all four quite a bit, I can honestly say I get lost far easier and found just blitzing through the levels far harder by just pushing right in those two. That being said, because I've played all four avidly since I first played them, I can 100% agree with most of Yahtzee's complaints with the originals and with Mania. It won't stop me from enjoying them. In fact, in writing this comment I feel like watching this video has actually helped me appreciate the game even more despite its shortcomings.

These reviews are so great, aside for the fact that they are so short. Wish they were longer

Well, it was interesting to hear criticism of the classic Sonic games that amounted to more than "They're not Mario and therefore they suck." I mean, EPG and ShayMay (kinda) already did that, but it's nice to hear more.