Sonic Mania Plus has had a somewhat mixed reception. To be fair, that’s probably putting it a little generously; some people downright hate it. The game plays well enough; it’s a great homage to the original Sonic games, and there’s a lot to love about its variety bag of mechanics. However, if you’re considering the characters that inhabit the Sonic Mania universe alone, hating the game doesn’t seem like such a stretch. Not everyone can be as charismatic as Sonic the Hedgehog and his oversized sneakers. In fact, some of his squad mates are downright useless. I’ll give you the rundown on the worst characters in the game.
The Worst Characters in Sonic Mania: Miles “Tails” Prower
This is an easy pick. Putting aside how anyone might have felt about Tails from Sonic Adventure 2, he’s an idiot. It’s not just the tail which is basically for show in Sonic Mania; he’s useless normally. It’s the fact that his evolution-given gifts are redundant. As expected, the fox-faced dolt is meant to fly. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly that simple. Controlling Tails feels like trying to funnel a rat out of a room; it’s an experience that involves swearing, crying, and hitting things. Well, in this case, it’s Tails hitting things. He feels so impossible to control that having him and Sonic in the level makes him feel like a waste of pixels. I may like rooting for the sidekick but this is one sidekick that I’d like to kick to the curb.
The Worst Characters in Sonic Mania: Knuckles the Echidna
Don’t even get me started on Knuckles. Originally hyped up as Sonic’s rival, he was soon replaced by Shadow, and for a goddamn reason. Shadow’s edgy aesthetic might be slightly objectionable but at least he commits to a strong look. Knuckles knows only one style — dusty Martian red. He’s always been at odds with the leader of Team Sonic, mainly because he’s a lone wolf who takes no shit. However, that sort of attitude is mechanically unhelpful when it comes to Sonic Mania.
Sure, everyone knows about the poorly hidden secret that is Knuckles mode. Why you’d want to unlock that is beyond me; it’s a double dose of hapless echidna. In the core game itself, he gets the chance to bust through suspicious walls here and there but that’s really it. Tails’ power being flight implies that some skill is required on his part. Whatever Knuckles does can’t exactly be qualified as skill — more like an unhealthy affinity with getting soil in his mouth. If you’re wanting to get a taste of all the different level varieties then it may seem logical to force yourself to work with him. However, there really aren’t any other tangible benefits. Don’t even get me started on how echidnas usually have four heads. You might want to Google that one with Safe Search on.
The Worst Characters in Sonic Mania: Mighty the Armadillo
This is another obvious choice, mainly because of the fact that Mighty is an armadillo. Yes, they’re generally cute to look at. However, have you ever seen an armadillo try to do anything other than waddle aimlessly around in the wild? Not a chance.
If we’re talking combat capabilities here, armadillos are even less endowed than echidnas. The fact that Mighty is the way he is is an absolute affront to nature and to the freaky experimental science that results in superhuman animals. He may have a shell that stops him from getting totally wrecked by dangerous robot enemies, but that’s really the extent of it. There’s absolutely no good reason for him to exist alongside Sonic. Furthermore, there’s something offensive about his mohawk wig (don’t try and tell me it’s not stuck on). It’s a crime against fashion for Mighty to look the way that he does: like an oversized edamame bean in all the wrong colors. Even if we ignore the fact that he’s supposedly beloved to series fans because of some egregious brainwashing, he’s just a less charismatic Sonic.
We’ve listed just a few of the characters in Sonic Mania that have caught our eye for all the wrong reasons. Whether they’re an insult to the natural evolutionary order, or because they add almost nothing mechanically to the game’s experience, they’re on our blacklist. Which Sonic Mania roster members do you think are worthy of being tarred with the same brush? Got a grudge against our speedy son Sonic, or the lukewarm Ray? Let us know in the comments section below.
