The Drop Dash is the best part of Sonic Mania

The drop dash in Sonic Mania is the best thing. If you asked me what the smartest game design choice was this year, the drop dash would certainly be up there. It’s just so so good.

Taking a step back, the only ever truly successful addition to sonic’s 2D moveset before this was the spin dash. You all know how good this is. You go from 0 to 100, and all in your enemy destroying rolling state. It’s a fantastic mechanism to get up to speed when things go bad, but it’s also harder to control yourself when using it. Add in a satisfying revving up sound effect and dust, and you’ve just got a brilliant addition. It’s so integral that it’s hard to go back to play Sonic 1 without modding it in, it’s just that good.

Many more successors have tried, and failed, to replicate the spin dash’s success. The super peel out from Sonic CD looked cool, but functionally was too dangerous to use since you didn’t curl into a ball. Most of the time the spin dash was just a better option. The insta shield from Sonic 3 was fun and cool, but limited in functionality and kind of unmemorable. And Sonic 4 tried out the homing attack, but the less I say about Sonic 4, the better.

So it’s basically been decades since Sonic got a proper 2D move expansion, and whooboy, did we ever get one. The drop dash is basically a spindash you can charge up in midair and release once you hit the ground. It’s all about continuing movement, rather than starting it. It’s super fluid and useful throughout the entire game because of this, for starters. Rather than being used for specific enemies, or just to look cool, it’s a move you have to think about when to use, and not just using it when you obviously need. It also plays into Sonic’s whole momentum schtick in a great way, being used entirely to keep him moving.

But what really makes it a great move is that it’s got restrictions and limitations, unlike the insta shield or homing attack. For a starter, it’s a bad idea to use it in tight platforming areas, much like the spin attack. You need to jump yourself to execute it, meaning if you launch off a spring or similar you can’t use it. Plus, when you use it you’ll have a frame of time where you can’t cancel out of it, so you need to consider that loss of control. Finally, it just doesn’t launch you forward as fast as the actual spindash, and doesn’t serve as a complete substitute.

All of this leads to expanding your arsenal in interesting ways, and adds more depth to the game, as opposed to just a flat upgrade with no downsides. The drop dash is a super cool addition to Mania overall. It’s a good clean move that I hope sticks around in games to likely come.