Sonic Mania Plus arriving to mobile devices via Netflix Games in 2024
In a press release that has surprised Sonic fans, Netflix Games revealed that Sonic Mania Plus would be coming to iOS and Android via the service in 2024.
Exclusive to Netflix Games and on mobile for the first time, experience the ultimate celebration of past and future in Sonic Mania Plus. Multiple playable characters give you the ability to go explosively fast as Sonic, soar as Tails, or power through tough obstacles with Knuckles’ brute strength.
You can relive the Sonic of the past with an exciting new twist on classic zones while fighting against new bosses and Dr. Eggman’s evil robot army. Sonic Mania Plus was developed by Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games in collaboration with Sonic Team. Welcome to Sonic Mania Plus!
decided to upscale the sketches from the page 11 Eggman sketch page from the Sonic Mania Plus art book, since my photo years ago was poor quality. also tried to clean them up the best I can
such a silly and fun cutie for such an evil guy, prancing around, juggling emeralds and posing with em proudly! 🥰💜💕
feel free to download for personal use and reference but these are my scans and took a while to alter individually so-
[ID: an image of the beginning cutscene of Sonic Mania when you play as Tails, and it shows Tails on top of the plane while Sonic is controlling said plane. Top text says "FUCKERS BE LIKE "I DIDNT KNOW SONIC COULD FLY A PLANE" and the bottom text reads "MY BROTHER IN CHRIST IT WAS HIS PLANE IN THE FIRST PLACE". /end id]
The Phantom Ruby is one of the coolest gizmos in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. This post aims to analyze the properties and history it has demonstrated throughout the series.
Powers
The Phantom Ruby is a mysterious object that first came into Sonic’s world after a sudden dimensional breach in the atmosphere, bringing down with it the entirety of Angel Island and sparking interest from several parties. From the get go, this artifact already demonstrated an unprecedented amount of power the likes of which even Eggman sought to replicate (to varying success).
As Tails explains in Sonic Forces, the Phantom Ruby is able to feed false information to the brain and trap its victims in extremely lifelike illusions that can draw from their own thoughts and imagination. This includes Phantom Copies, which can look and act like pre-existing individuals, albeit without "souls."
Perhaps its most interesting property, however, is its ability to react to the sense of being and will of others. Paralleling the Chaos Emeralds' “power enriched by the heart,” it can be said that the Phantom Ruby possesses "power enriched by the mind." This is perhaps better demonstrated in Sonic Mania, where the Hard Boiled Heavies suffer radical changes to their appearance and mannerisms based on the minds of the animals powering them as a result of exposure to the Phantom Ruby.
This trait of the ruby is explored to its extreme in Sonic Channel's Otherworldly Comedy, where Dr. Eggman engulfs the planet in various illusions that reflect the people's own impression of themselves, erasing their memories and having them live out alternate lives and scenarios until then only possible in their dreams. This is done by utilizing a weapon still charged with the aftermath of the Phantom Ruby’s energy. The doctor also uses a modified leftover prototype to power himself up to a form akin to Super Sonic, being able to manifest alternate worlds in a whim and create Phantom Copies of creatures as powerful as Perfect Chaos, seemingly having no limitations in regards to energy consumption like Infinite did, although it's unclear to what extent this prototype was modified.
History
The Phantom Ruby's first chronological appearance, Sonic Mania, has Tails convince Sonic to go and check the unique energy signature detected in Angel Island that caused it to fall to the ocean. Dr. Eggman, who detected that very same signal, has also deployed his elite Eggrobo squad to retrieve its source. The Hard Boiled Heavies, granted new powers and greater freedom of thought by the Phantom Ruby, attempt to escape with it, and thus begins the adventure to prevent the gemstone from falling in the wrong hands.
After Sonic and friends, who are in possession of the seven Chaos Emeralds, wreck Eggman and his Phantom Egg, a mech designed to make use of the Phantom Ruby's energy, the group is taken to what appears to be a dimensional void created by the ruby. There, Super Sonic gets caught in the middle of the conflict between Eggman, riding his Klepto Mobile, and the Phantom King, who at this point has long since betrayed his maker, both fighting to get ahold of the gemstone. In the end, Sonic leaves victorious, being teleported to the future alongside the Phantom Ruby.
In the aftermath of this battle, the Phantom Ruby winds up in front of one of Eggman's facilities. The doctor begins to study it closely, learning how to make use of its abilities after his base is attacked by the Jackal Squad. He performs his first real test on Angel Island, creating copies of Pachacamac's village and Chaos, god of destruction. Seeing it in action, Robotnik deems the jewel even more powerful than the Master Emerald itself.
Beholding the Phantom Ruby's incredible power, Eggman aims to replicate it. In this pursuit, he manufactures various faulty prototypes in Mystic Jungle until he can finally perfect it, gifting the final product to the new leader of his army, Infinite.
Eventually, six months after taking over the world, Eggman orders Infinite to dispose of those prototypes, seeing as he had no need for such liabilities. The jackal does a poor job, however, leaving a few unattended. One in particular, the one he dropped while fighting Silver in Mystic Jungle, is discovered by the Avatar, whose heroism would prove enough to activate it.
At the climax of the Eggman War, Infinite uses his Phantom Ruby's power to summon an illusionary sun above the battlefield, aiming to wipe out all of the resistance. The Avatar manages to dissipate it, however, losing his own prototype in the process. Weakened from spending much of his energy to create that sun, Infinite tries to take on Sonic who, aided by the Avatar, beats the mercenary one final time. This causes him to lose control of his powers and be pulled into the Eggman Empire Fortress' decoy reactor, ultimately being consumed by the original Phantom Ruby.
After Infinite's defeat, Eggman reveals he has incorporated the Phantom Ruby into his new Death Egg Robot, claiming to have surpassed Infinite as the ultimate form. Just as the Phantom Egg before it, however, this mech is destroyed by Sonic, his classic self and the Avatar, ending the war and sending both the Phantom Ruby and Classic Sonic back to the past.
Classic Sonic, returning from the future after aiding the Resistance in winning the war, is still chasing after the Phantom Ruby. The gemstone falls into the hands of Heavy Magician, who uses it to reassemble her fellow Hard Boiled Heavies. Thus, Sonic is forced to go on his earlier adventure again, though this time accompanied by Mighty and Ray as well.
As Eggman's plan once again fails, he is sucked into a Phantom Ruby portal, presumably finding himself stuck in Egg Reverie Zone. This is the original Phantom Ruby's last appearance, leaving its fate ambiguous.
Meanwhile, back in the future, the modern Dr. Eggman has yet to give up on his Phantom Ruby exploits. Seeing as how he still had a weapon charged with Phantom Ruby energy, the doctor decides to put it to good use and begins another world conquering plot. By covering the entire planet with the Phantom Ruby's energy, he used what Tails calls "cognitive frictional energy" to generate extreme amounts of energy from the discrepancy between the world's original reality and the new reality overwriting it. By absorbing this resulting energy, Eggman created his ultimate weapon, the Egg Field, a mech capable of reshaping the world around it to erase all of his past failures.
Sonic manages to destroy the weapon by turning into Super Sonic, forcing Eggman to transform into "Super Eggman" by making use of his modified Phantom Ruby prototype. The doctor attempts to persuade Sonic by arguing that these fake scenarios cause harm to no one, but the hedgehog refutes this by saying that the thoughts of Earth's denizens should not be forced out of their minds, and to do that would be to inflict suffering upon the planet. Eggman also attempts to create a fake world tailored to Sonic's every whim, but he manages to see past it and defeat Robotnik, allowing things to return to normal, even if slowly due to how massive the scale of the illusions were.
Eggman, beneath the wreckage of Eggmanland, contemplates fixing his modified Phantom Ruby prototype and using it once more, but Infinite, who was briefly able to leave the Phantom Ruby during the whole event, snatches it from his hand. Initially seeking revenge, he instead accepts his fate as his body disappears once more, dropping the prototype into the lava.
Conclusion
And that was essentially my write-up of the Phantom Ruby! It's a topic I learned I really like, so I hope this was enjoyable to read.
Now that it's been five years since Sonic Mania PLUS was one of those games that made me cheat digital and earned a bit of help by cutting corners to snag those emeralds in the middle of my Encore Mode playthrough, I'm finally putting this game to rest. Yes, you could say it was developed by the same team who worked hard on a variety of Sonic re-releases such as 1, 2 and CD (the latter of which I currently have on my iPad Pro), but they've already left SEGA to establish Evening Star and collaborate with Private Division while making Penny's Big Breakaway another one way ticket to a colourful 3D platformer world. And I'm one of those lucky customers who plans to check it out next year! Unless there's another sign of a physical release, I'll do it again.
Oh, yeah! Summer's already here, so I guess there's one thing to ask.
The Netflix Games version of the acclaimed title, Sonic Mania Plus, received an early, limited launch in the Philippines, ahead of its scheduled release later this year.