Sonic Mania ranting. You're probably not interested in this, so...

I've been pointing out for a while now that Sonic Mania's level design is an absolute mess, with sprawling levels and no concrete sense of direction when it's trying to be original, followed by wholesale ripping sections of levels out of the source games when it isn't, resulting in some really off-kilter levels that don't look fun to play in the slightest. This is nothing new though, as Taxman and company have consistently shown via their modifications to Sonic 1 and 2 on the mobile ports; sections they added for other characters have such a jarring level design difference that it's obvious that it wasn't in the original game. And then there's Hidden Palace...

One additional thing that came up in response to the sprawling levels is that there are literally sections with checkpoints where both directions are open, but the correct direction is left, and the resulting problems with such a setup. Naturally, if you come back to a checkpoint after dying or going to a bonus stage, you may not remember the direction to go. What's the most likely direction you would go in such a case? Right.

Of course, like all my other complaints about the level design of this game, it gets shrugged off because you should always remember where to go after dying or a bonus stage, because the timeframe between hitting the checkpoint and respawning back at it would certainly be measured in seconds, right?

And just this week, SEGA reveals that the boms stages are... Blue Spheres. Which takes multiple minutes to clear. So much for all those excuses.

I really think Taxman and company don't have a damn clue what they're doing with regards to level design, and the only reason that the game is being so highly praised is because so much of the collective Sonic community still sees them as "fans" and thus incapable of doing wrong.