Sonic Mania Plus: Mania Mode Part 1: Green Hill Zone (Ray)

Here is what will be my final primary playthrough of Mania Mode. This time, I’m playing through it as the most obscure character to be playable in this game: Ray the Flying Squirrel! Like Mighty, Ray debuted in an arcade game called SegaSonic the Hedgehog, making them both preceded Tails and Knuckles as Sonic’s allies. However, prior to Mania Plus, this would be Ray’s ONLY playable appearance in the entire franchise’s history. Ray’s appearance in this game is a combination of his cat-tailed appearance in SegaSonic and the blue shoes he gets in his rare appearances in the Archie Comics series, giving him quite a more unique overall color scheme compared to the other playable characters. As a flying squirrel, Ray’s signature ability is the Air Glide, where he uses the flaps under his arms to soar through the air. If you have played Super Mario World, flying this way is almost exactly like flying as Cape Mario! Hold forward to dive, reel back to catch big air! Keep doing this in a timely matter to keep your feet off the ground! However there are some drawbacks. Ray can attack while flying like with Knuckles’ glide. You have to let go of the flying so he’ll back into a ball. He’ll also automatically cancel his flying not only from hitting a wall, but also when you make him fly above the top of the game screen. With that said, A LOT of my Ray run will have me try to fly around several time. Enjoy how much skill AND clumsiness can come from this! ---------- By the way, somehow, at 2:10, after the 1-UP fanfare played, the music started to glitch out, going completely mute. I don't how that happened, but I'm kinda glad I caught this rare moment. Seems to fix itself after I finish the first Special Stage, though.