What is Sonic Mania?

After a string of lackluster Sonic releases, SEGA shocked the world with the reveal of Sonic Mania. This Genesis blast from the past combines mastery of Classic Sonic mechanics and level design from the greatest minds in the Sonic fan game and hacking community, with the blessings and supervision of Sonic Team themselves.

Taking the best from Sonic’s Mega Drive days and bringing that to modern audiences, does Sonic Mania deliver? Or is this a bad form of blast processing? After finishing the adventure, I can confidently say this is one of Sonic’s best adventures.

Publisher/Developer: SEGA/Sonic Team, Headcannon/PagodaWest Games, Hyperkinetic Studios
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Price: $19.99 for Digital/Physical, $4.99 for Mania Plus Expansion
Release Date: August 15th, 2017
Reviewed On: PlayStation 4 via PlayStation 5 BC

Phantom Illusions – Premise

• Eggman discovers the Phantom Ruby and uses it to power the Hard Boil Heavies. Sonic and friends work together to save the day, traveling across new and familiar zones.
• Storytelling is done similarly to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where characters act out events rather than using full-on dialogue.
• Some stage/zone transitions aren’t great, but the majority are and do a good job connecting each unique area.

After a stunning animated intro celebrating Sonic and friends returning to classical days, the narrative kicks off with either Sonic & Tails flying to Angel Island or Knuckles waking up from a nap after getting knocked in the head.

The crew encounters the Hard Boiled Heavys, a new band of Eggman robots utilizing the Phantom Ruby. This mysterious gem can distort reality and empower its wielders. Traveling through iconic green hills, dangerous chemical plants, and even revisiting some stardust speedways, the premise is an excuse to revisit iconic areas from Sonic 1 through Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Similar to Sonic 3, Mania has a pantomime storytelling approach, allowing the story to progress during act and zone transitions. This approach works well for the majority of the time, though some transitions (like the one from Hydrocity to Mirage Saloon) feel lackluster. It’s easy to forgive these minor weak points when so much love and care were put into the sprite work during these moments.

My favorite touch transition was when the characters in Chemical Plant Zone, a waterdrop lands on them, and each character has a unique way to dry themselves off.

So while the overall narrative isn’t anything groundbreaking, it’s a beautiful celebration of one of Sonic’s best eras.

Blast Processing – Gameplay

• Classic Sonic 2D platforming returns, with both general controls and game feel near 1-to-1 with the classic Genesis/Mega Drive titles.
• The Drop Dash is a new move for Sonic, allowing him to use a less-powerful version of the Spin Dash to get around faster.

The gameplay is a natural follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD, with Sonic and friends running around at the speed of sound across massive 2D stages with upper, middle, and lower paths to explore.

Controls are simple, with each character having a unique skill. Sonic is the all-rounder, having the ability to use secondary attacks with the Elemental Shields. Meanwhile, Tails can fly in the air, and Knuckles can climb walls and break specific rocks/objects by walking into them.

Sonic has another ability in his tool kit this go around called the Drop Dash. By holding down the jump button in the air, the blue blur can roll at high speed when landing. This can be a fantastic tool, as it can course-correct better than the spin-dash, even though it’s not as fast.

But it’s one thing to have the same controls as the past 2D Sonic games. It’s another thing to have that Genesis feel intact, especially after games like Sonic 4 and Sonic Generations‘ classic stages lack the same momentum physics.

Thankfully, that iconic Genesis feel is completely intact in Sonic Mania, and the level design is gloriously built around those momentum physics in mind.

It’s Prime Time! – Level Design & Stage Gimmicks

• Containing a total of 12 Zones, Sonic Mania takes the blue blur and his friends across familiar and new locations.
• Every level, new and old, features fun platforming mechanics and creative level design that always feels fresh.

Sonic Mania’s twelve zones feel like the perfect combination of the high-speed moments of Sonic 2 and the perfected three-path system of Sonic 3. Zipping through the zones is a complete joy, with maintaining your speed rewarding you with well-hidden elemental shields, lives, and finding those elusive special stage rings.

But blindly speeding forward and accessing a lower pathway isn’t a death nail either, as there is almost always a path to explore.

The best part about this approach is that every level feels special with unique mechanics to keep things fresh, for returning and new zones alike. Bouncing around on jellied chemical bodies of water, setting oceans of oil ablaze with the Flame Shield, and using a bubble to escape watery depths, iconic classic stages have awesome new gimmicks that give them new life.

And that doesn’t even account for the four new zones, each having striking visuals, enjoyable set-pieces, and wonderful gimmicks. Sonic and friends run through them after every two or so returning stages, keeping things fresh for seasoned Sonic veterans.

Unlike Sonic, I Don’t Chuckle – Knuckles Campaign Differences

Carried over from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the adventure is slightly different for the guardian of Angel Island. Knuckles has some extra routes to discover, built using his ability to climb in mind.

In addition, there’s even an exclusive level for Knuckles that Sonic or Tails can’t visit in the main adventure. So, for those wanting that extra replay value, playing as Sonic’s earliest rival is a good time.

The Sign Post – Special Stages

• There are two different kinds of Special Stages.
• The Blue Sphere special stage from Sonic 3 & Knuckles returns, having medals to unlock to grant players abilities for Sonic and other goodies.
• The 3D Special Stage contains Chaos Emeralds, with collecting all seven unlocking super forms usable in-game for all characters, alongside a new final boss.

It wouldn’t be a 2D Sonic adventure without some challenging special stages to overcome, and Sonic Mania offers two styles.

The first is the iconic Blue Sphere stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. They challenge Sonic and friends to collect blue spheres while avoiding touching red ones. Collecting all the blue spheres grants a Gold or Silver medal, which unlocks rewards for the main adventure. Ranging from unlocking a special mini game based on a boss encounter, to various special skills from 3&K and CD, they are a nice reward.

To access these stages, players need to collect over 25 rings and run through the checkpoints, though to collect the elusive Chaos Emeralds, you need to find the hidden giant ring in every act. Finding and jumping through it transports you into a 3D special stage, where you collect Blue Spheres to speed up and rings to extend your time in the stage.

These are genuinely challenging, with the UFO holding the Chaos Emerald getting faster the further you are away from it. But collecting every emerald unlocks your character’s super form, which can be used for both in normal stages and unlocks the real final boss.

A Sonic Champion – Boss Battles

• Varied boss encounters that mix things up in fun ways conclude every stage.

Speaking of boss battles, every act concludes with a boss encounter with one of Eggmans badnicks, one of the Hard Boiled Heavies, and more.

These battles have the same core rule: a boss takes eight hits to defeat. You can take things easy and carefully jump into the weak point during an opening. Or, you can rush through these encounters if you collected a lot of rings leading up to the battle and get a few easy hits in.

And these battles aren’t all the same either, as they are very creative. Iconic battles from past 2D Sonic adventures are given a new spin, with the rematch against Metal Sonic in Stardust Speedway being a real highlight. Meanwhile, battles against the Hard Boil Heavies can be very creative, with Studiopolis’s Act 2 boss taking Sonic Advance 2’s chasing-boss approach and using that in a fun way.

Of course, the major battles against Eggman are a blast, with one of my favorites being a huge homage to one of SEGA’s most iconic puzzle games. In many regards, these are some of the best 2D Sonic bosses in the entire series.

Adding to the Mania – Sonic Mania Plus Expansion

• The $4.99 DLC called ‘Mania Plus’ includes two new characters (Mighty and Ray) and a new Encore Mode.
• Encore Mode adds visual changes to every zone, alongside letting players explore Act 1 of Angel Island Zone from Sonic 3.
• Mighty and Ray have new abilities that differ from Sonic and friends: the former can ground pound and avoid spike damage, while the latter has a new way to fly around stages.

While the main adventure is packed with content, with its main campaign and time trials to overcome after you finish a zone, the mania has an encore.

Releasing a few months after Mania’s launch, Sonic Mania Plus expansion dropped for the price of $4.99 on all platforms. This added in SEGA Sonic the Hedgehog characters Mighty and Ray (each with unique abilities) and the Encore Mode.

This takes the main twelve zones (alongside letting players run through Act 1 of Angel Island Zone and everyone speeding through the Knuckles version of Mirage Saloon Act 1) and adds some new wrinkles to the formula. Instead of traditional lives, players collect characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, or Ray), while stages have slightly remixed level layouts and visual themes.

With Mighty’s ground-pound move and ability to avoid spike damage and Ray’s Super Mario World’s Feather Cape flying, these remixed stages are a welcome way to revisit the main adventure. Though the lack of new zones is a shame, more so considering how well implemented the Angel Island Zone from Sonic 3 was in the Encore’s opening.

Welcome to the Real World – Presentation of Sonic Mania

• Inspired by the beautiful sprite work from the SEGA Saturn, Sonic Mania is a proper sequel to 2D Sonic games from the 90’s.
• Every location is flooded with impressive sprite animations for Sonic and his friends, every zone has a unique vibe and identity with vibrant colors.

Imagine a world where, instead of Sonic never having a proper mainline adventure on the SEGA Saturn, the team behind the Genesis/SEGA CD adventures leveraged that console’s powerful 2D capabilities and made a new 2D Sonic adventure?

That’s what Sonic Mania is through and through, and man, is it stunning. On the surface, it appears to be a ‘slightly better’ looking version of Sonic 2 or Sonic 3, but the more you roll around in Sonic’s 2D landscapes, the more you realize the ambition on display.

Sonic and friends move effortlessly with their rolling and running animations, sprite rotations are crisp, and the landscapes they speed through are gorgeous, no matter what platform you play Mania on. My personal standout stage has to be Studiopolis.

Being the headline stage in all the marketing, the vivid, almost overwhelming colors suck you into the TV-filled land of Studiopolis. And rolling into Act 2, where Eggman’s face blows up on a huge TV before transitioning into the proper stage, was a major wow moment for the skillful sprite art on display.

And for those retro purists, the game features a few CRT visual filter options. When playing on PlayStation 4 Pro or PS5 specifically, seeing those filters applied to the game’s razor-sharp 4K output is glorious.

To Be This Good, Takes AGES – Soundtrack & Audio

Amazing art direction and sprite work isn’t all Mania nails, with the masterful work from Tee Lopes and SEGA’s Sound Team teaming up to create a killer retro mixtape.

Leveraging the idea of CD-quality audio that Sonic CD used to great effect, every music track uses a wide variety of instruments while still retaining that iconic melody that most Sonic tracks provide. Returning Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 stages feels more alive with the CD-quality instrumentation.

The transformation that some Sonic CD zones underwent with their new remixes touched the soul. Stardust Speedway Act 1’s zenlike vibes fit the nature-taking-over vibe the stage explores, while both Metallic Madness tracks are literal rap battles between Sonic (Act 1) and Eggman (Act 2). Easily the audio highlight of the adventure.

But don’t overlook the game’s original themes, as they are major standouts, too. My favorites are Mirage Saloon Act 2 and Press Garden Act 2.

The former nails those western vibes, while the latter feels like a lost Shinobi stage theme.

With the AGES – Accessibility Options & Settings

Considering the game’s simple control scheme, Sonic Mania doesn’t offer much in the way of accessibility settings. This is a shame, as one of the biggest issues newcomers to 2D Sonic face is the inability to look ahead fast enough when incoming badniks, spikes, and the like are in the way.

An option to feature a pulled-back camera (as in the original release of Sonic CD) would’ve been welcome.

Closing Thoughts on Sonic Mania

While I grew up mainly enjoying Sonic’s 3D adventures, I have an immense amount of respect for Sonic’s origins. These tried-and-true classic games are iconic, beloved, and hold up to the test of time. Sonic Mania not only highlights that, but adds new, welcomed elements to the formula.

In many respects, Sonic Mania represents the franchise finally reflecting on its roots and proudly showing the world Classic Sonic has a place in the modern era.

This was reviewed using a copy purchased by the reviewer.