It's been a long time since i played Sonic 3. Those Blue balls are so hard.

[Sminky]

The sphere bonus stage, maybe my 30 somthing reflexes are failing me, but i've yet to complete a single one, any adivice?

I also kinda of wish they used the Sonic 2 bonus levels instead (just made better). I'm really rather enjoying this otherwise.

[LilG]

I know the feeling, my 30+ reflex's aren't what they used to be back in the day. Best thing is to memorise the formations /layouts & try to turn as many into rings as possible. I feel mania's version of the stages are much faster than it was in Sonic 3/& knuckles.
I'm a little over halfway in getting the medals. Took a lot of tries.

[Sminky]

Originally posted by LilG:

I know the feeling, my 30+ reflex's aren't what they used to be back in the day. Best thing is to memorise the formations /layouts & try to turn as many into rings as possible. I feel mania's version of the stages are much faster than it was in Sonic 3/& knuckles.
I'm a little over halfway in getting the medals. Took a lot of tries.

is there any actual gameplay reasons to do them as far as unlocks/ extra lives go?

[Chocice75]

Originally posted by Sminky:

is there any actual gameplay reasons to do them as far as unlocks/ extra lives go?

Yes. You unlock DA Garden, Mean Bean & randomized Blue Spheres if you get enough medals.

The special stages themselves require you to catch a UFO while collecting rings (to increase your time remainin) and blue spheres (to increase your speed).

[Sminky]

Originally posted by ChocIce75:

Originally posted by Sminky:

is there any actual gameplay reasons to do them as far as unlocks/ extra lives go?

Yes. You unlock DA Garden, Mean Bean & randomized Blue Spheres if you get enough medals.

The special stages themselves require you to catch a UFO while collecting rings (to increase your time remainin) and blue spheres (to increase your speed).

Boooo i love a bit of Mean Machine, but those blue balls are madening. I'm fine with the UFO stages though. Thanks for your help.

[-|Nur|-]

Don't blame your age, man; if you were fine with those back in the day, it shouldn't be any more difficult today. It's like riding a bike. I'm in a my 30s and had no trouble finishing the blue spheres 100% (i.e., got all the silver & gold coins)

[Sminky]

Originally posted by -|Nur|-:

Don't blame your age, man; if you were fine with those back in the day, it shouldn't be any more difficult today. It's like riding a bike. I'm in a my 30s and had no trouble finishing the blue spheres 100% (i.e., got all the silver & gold coins)

hah, well my reflexs definetly seem slower :) but then i'm Waaayyy back there in the 30's.

[Ness_and_Sonic]

I don't think it's just you. I played it at launch before refunding the game. Blue Sphere played way too fast compared to Sonic 3 and Knuckles on my PC.

[Sminky]

Originally posted by Ness_and_Sonic:

I don't think it's just you. I played it at launch before refunding the game. Blue Sphere played way too fast compared to Sonic 3 and Knuckles on my PC.

hopefully theres a mod to slow it down a bit

[-|Nur|-]

Pretty sure the speed is the same it always was.

[Ness_and_Sonic]

Originally posted by -|Nur|-:

Pretty sure the speed is the same it always was.

There's a way you can test. Sega's Ultimate Genesis/Mega Drive Collection has Sonic 3 and Knuckles. You could use the level select cheat to access the special stages and play them, then play Blue Sphere in Sonic Mania, which has some of the same Blue Sphere stages, if you have any doubts. I'd suggest creating a side by side comparison video of the same blue sphere stages in both games to show everyone.

[KayJay]

The speed is the same, the only difference is that in Mania blue sphere runs at 60 FPS while in Sonic 3 it runs at around 30 FPS but the actual runspeed is the same, it's just that there are twice as much inbetween frames which actually makes it easier to react and not harder. Of course you need to have G-Sync enabled or V-Sync disabled to get similar responsivenes you are used to have from a CRT back in the 90s.

[Man's Best Friend]

The biggest issues I have are the levels that pull tricks on you that if you're not expecting it, you'll either panic and make a wrong turn or miss your turn entirely. Past that, it's just an issue with me giving the game slightly ambiguous input because I was using the analogue stick. Switched to the D pad after a while, so no more problems there.

I'm in my mid 30s too, and so far I've gotten perfect on close to 20, with 3 more that are currently silver.

[Miraglyth]

There are a couple of stages which are practically on rails, and in those the speed-up happens at really inopportune times.

But as an early-30s who played them a bunch on 3&K I still got all of the gold medals before all of the chaos emeralds and before the first completion. I wouldn't say they're any faster, but the doubled frame rate may make them feel that way?

[Cosmotronik]

I think the main difference between the Blue Sphere stages in Mania compared to 3&K is that the speedup in Mania happens far more frequently and the stages are terribly longer. Of the top of my head, the stages in 3&K were far more straight foward than the ones in Mania.

Mid-30s here as well.

[Man's Best Friend]

Some of the later stages really are tricksy little ****s. They will not best me though. I will defeat them.

It is nice that they only have a few active at any given time. That way you can retry them in a somewhat reasonable timeframe rather than having to cycle through all 32, or having them be completely random in selection.