Amongst the doom and gloom that often surrounds the Sonic franchise, there always seems to
be that one persistent opinion that Sonic was never good.
That even in his Genesis days, Sonic just wasn’t fun.
I’ve never believed that, and it’s not nostalgia talking.
Going back and playing those games is always a good time and Sonic Mania reinforces that
even more.
Like Mega Man 9 and 10 before, Mania represents a return to Sonic’s roots.
Indeed, while Sonic Team remains focused on bringing Sonic Forces to the finish line for
release later this year, Sonic Mania has been brought to us by Sonic fan-game community
superstars Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games in collaboration with
SEGA of America.
And considering Sonic Mania’s electrifyingly positive reception upon its initial reveal,
it’s fair to say Whitehead and his colleagues have had their work cut out for them as they
seek to deliver on the enormous potential promised by a game that many of us older Sonic
fans never thought would exist.
The question is though, is that enough to stand out from what has come before?
The gameplay itself is a complete blast from the the past and a massive return to form
for the blue hedgehog.
As soon as I started running in Green Hill Zone, I felt right at home.
The jumping, the dashing, the momentum of Sonic’s movements; it all feels just like
it did on the Genesis classics.
It was impossible to keep the smile off of my face as I slipped back into my old groove
and explored what was new about Mania.
As far as what Sonic can do, it’s pretty much the same as before.
He can spin dash as well as use the special abilities of the Elemental Shields.
The Fire Shield performs a quick dash forward as well as protects from lava.
The Electric Shield pulls in nearby rings, allows Sonic to do a double jump, and protects
him from electricity.
And finally, the Bubble Shield allows you to bounce higher into the air and prevents
drowning.
And as much as I love Sonic’s new Drop Dash move in theory, I wish the game gave you more
reasons to use it outside of going as fast as possible in Time Attack mode.
Make no mistake — the Drop Dash is going to make Sonic Mania speed runs way past cool
to watch, and elegantly introducing a new gameplay element into a tried-and-true formula
is no mean feat, but I constantly had to force myself to even remember to use it during the
course of regular gameplay.
There’s also one area in the game where accidentally doing a Drop Dash leads to an
unavoidable instant death, which is an unfortunate oversight.
Overall, I would have liked to see a few levels incorporate exclusive routes for Sonic necessitating
the use of the Drop Dash, and I hope to see this move’s utility expanded upon in a possible
sequel.
I felt the same about the Drop Dash as well as it never really became a factor for me.
Meanwhile, nothing’s really changed about Tails or Knuckles.
Tails can still fly for a short time and damage enemies with his twin tails; Knuckles can’t
jump as high but can glide and climb.
All three are a lot of fun to use, but I did find myself having to adjust to Knuckles’
sudden stops when coming out of a glide.
What makes these three so fun to play though is the level design itself.
The stages feel big with plenty to see while you’re speeding through it all.
I have always enjoyed the explorative side of Sonic games.and I was overjoyed to see
it in full force in Mania.
There are so many paths to take, secrets to find, special stage rings to discover, and
even specialized areas for each character.
I was having so much fun searching for everything I could that I sometimes forgot about the
10 minute time limit.
Every Zone is stuffed with thought and care as far as the legacy of the series.
But I don’t think you even need to be a Sonic fan to appreciate it.
The level design is that good.
So we’ve established that Sonic Mania’s gameplay and its related physics are faithful
to the original games, but does that gameplay hold up in a modern context?
Well, of course it does.
Fun never goes out of style.
Indeed, the best levels from the original games take you on momentum-fueled rollercoaster
rides separated by slower-paced, more thoughtful sections that demand careful platforming.
It’s a constant push and pull between the player and the game; a little work for a gratifying,
high-speed reward.
While the original games are usually judged by how well and how often they do this, Sonic
Mania does it constantly.
It’s abundantly clear that Christian Whitehead and his colleagues in the development trenches
have a very nuanced understanding of what exactly it is that has endeared the classic
Sonic games to so many.
They know precisely how to design the kinds of playgrounds Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles
need in order for players to thrive, be challenged, and enjoy the unique release that comes from
blasting through a high-speed section following a bout of tricky platforming.
Sonic Mania perfectly strikes this subtle design balance between speed and platforming
in nearly every single one of its 24 stages, resulting in a shockingly consistent, entertaining
ride from start to finish.
This aspect also makes up for one of its weaknesses, there’s only 4 original Zones compared to
8 returning ones.
But those 4 are so well made and could easily become fan favorites.
From Mirage Saloon’s western aesthetic to the Easter Egg-filled Studiopolis Zone to
the two stages I don’t want to spoil, each one brings something a little new but still
familiar to the Sonic world.
And I want more of it.
I want to see the creativity on display here expanded to a whole cavalcade of new ideas.
I know they’re capable of it because the returning stages are just as good.
However, it’s very important to note that in terms of gameplay, every single returning
level has been partially or fully redesigned, especially for each classic zone’s Act 2,
which more heavily remixes that level’s elements in ways never seen before, with gorgeous
new backgrounds and gimmicks that more fully explore the concepts of each returning zone.
Absolutely.
Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Flying Battery, Stardust Speedway, and Oil Ocean may all be
back, but that doesn’t mean they’re exactly as they were before.
Act 1 of each stage hues closer to their original incarnations while still offering up some
unique aspects of their own.
But as you said, it’s always Act 2 where things are cut loose and new ideas are shown.
Sometimes they’re completely different like the bounce goo in Chemical Plant while other
times ideas from other stages are implemented like using light switches to clear noxious
smoke away in Oil Ocean, similar to how ghosts were kept away in Sand Ocean.
It’s that level of care that becomes apparent very quickly and helped make the game incredibly
replayable.
Also, I’ll be covering the soundtrack more detail later on, but Sonic Mania very wisely
takes a page from Sonic 3’s playbook by having Act 1 and Act 2 of each zone punctuated
by very different takes on the same overall theme, further differentiating the acts and
helping each returning zone feel incredibly new, all things considered.
I’ve already played the full campaign with all 3 characters and the levels are so intricately
designed that I still haven’t seen it all.
This is a game that feels so familiar yet holds surprises at every turn.
And I still want to keep playing it just as I did with Sonic 2, 3, & Knuckles.
Likewise, the bosses in the game are just as fun.
Some are simple while others are quite intricate and they too are filled with callbacks, references,
and pure fan service.
They play with expectations so much that I found myself squealing with delight in some
cases.
I really do think that these are some of the best bosses in the series history.
I know exactly which fight you’re referring to when you talk about how the boss fights
play with your expectations, and yeah, that was AWESOME!
However, for all of its many high points, Sonic Mania does have some minor gameplay
issues to consider.
I’ve run into a number of minor bugs during my time with the game, such as the music suddenly
cutting out during gameplay or the act clear music suddenly playing during the middle of
a stage.
These have all been one-time bugs and fixing them is as easy as quitting and restarting
the game, and it’s important to stress that these issues are rare in my experience, but
they do exist.
I encountered those same sound bugs as well.
Likewise, the music failed to load entirely and I was left with just sound effects, even
in the Special Stage.
Exiting the stage and returning did fix my problem, but then another time a power-up
song stayed on even after the effect had ended.
But again, these were only ever one-off occurrences so it’s a minor quibble at best.
Finally, this is getting a little granular, but the natural transitions between zones
that became such a beloved aspect of Sonic 3 & Knuckles are implemented kind of inconsistently
and half-heartedly here.
Some zones do transition naturally, showing how one zone leads into the next, but the
majority of zones do not have any such sequences, with zone transitions disappearing almost
entirely in the second half of the game.
This isn’t that big a deal in a vacuum, but it’s puzzling and a bit of a letdown
to see Sonic Mania treat this popular aspect of Sonic 3 & Knuckles as kind of an afterthought
or a half-step.
To be fair, though, the basic setup of Sonic Mania’s story — which takes place after
Sonic 3 & Knuckles and seems to involve Eggman using what appears to be one of Sonic CD’s
Time Stones to cause all sorts of time and space mayhem — makes coming up with natural
zone transitions particularly difficult, so the relative lack of them in Mania is somewhat
understandable.
This is just the main game though as there still the Special and Bonus Stages.
If you can find one of the large Special Rings hidden through the levels, you’ll be taken
to the new Special Stage in order to earn one of the seven Chaos Emeralds.
They’re essentially a combination of the Special Stages from Sonic CD and Sonic Heroes,
where you chase down a UFO while gaining speed and collecting rings to stay in the game.
While they can be tricky at first, I eventually got into a rhythm and found them to be a fair
yet fun challenge.
And by my 2nd playthrough, I was able to quickly and easily collect them all.
I know exactly what you mean.
I thought the special stages were a little tricky at first, but I found them to be a
blast overall and by the time I had reached my second playthrough, I had all seven Chaos
Emeralds in hand by the time I reached the third zone.
Practice really does make perfect in this case!
However, to my dismay, practice does not make perfect when it comes to Blue Sphere, the
returning Special Stage from Sonic 3, which features heavily in Sonic Mania as the Bonus
Stage.
Blue Sphere otherwise plays the same as it did in Sonic 3 & Knuckles where a player has
to run through all the blue orbs on the board in order to complete it.
Yellow orbs cause Sonic to be launched forward while red orbs end the bonus immediately.
Making it even more challenging is the fact that every blue sphere you pass through immediately
becomes red.
What makes this challenge bearable though is how it’s implemented in the game as your
progress in completing them is tracked across all playthroughs.
Sonic Mania packs in a ton of supplemental and extra content for dedicated fans to unlock.
The Time Attack and split-screen Competition Mode, which basically plays like the competitive
mode from Sonic 2, become available after you first beat the game, and you can unlock
a wealth of extras that can only be described as pure fanservice by earning medals in the
game’s 32 Blue Sphere courses.
It’s worth doing though, as that fanservice adds to the game’s replayability and offers
up all sorts of new goodies.
None of them are huge on their own, but they come together to create a fantastic overall
package.
The game also looks gorgeous.
Every level pops with color and imagination, giving the sense that this is what a 32-bit
2D Sonic would’ve looked like.
The animation is also incredibly fluid and filled with personality while never showing
even a hint of slowdown.
Again, it’s a credit to the artistry of Mania’s developers.
Let me elaborate a bit on that “32-bit” aspect.
Sonic Mania truly looks the part of a lost 2D Sonic game for the SEGA Saturn.
This means multiple layers of parallax scrolling, lots of snappy rotating sprite effects, and
a lo-fi 3D presentation for the special stages, Indeed, Sonic Mania isn’t just another old-school
revival looking to cash in on nostalgia with a retro presentation — it’s retro in a
very specific, loving way, finally addressing a 32-bit gap in Sonic’s history that fans
have been waiting to see filled since the mid-‘90s.
These qualities also extend to Sonic Mania’s absolutely stunning soundtrack, which comes
by way of Tee Lopes, another popular figurehead in the Sonic fan community known for his killer
remixes of classic Sonic tunes.
Lopes takes a fair bit of inspiration from Sonic CD’s Japanese and European soundtracks
for his work here in Mania, and that would be special enough on its own, but Mania’s
music as a whole is actually more like a glorious fusion of NiGHTS, Jet Set Radio, and the Saturn
version of Sonic 3D Blast — a true 32-bit miracle soundtrack that’s equal parts electronic
and funk, delivered with all the chunky bass and rich synthesizers a SEGA Saturn could
have mustered back in the day.
I had high expectations for this soundtrack prior to Mania’s release, and to say that
Lopes has delivered spectacularly would be an understatement.
What he said.
No seriously, from the original songs to remixes of the classics, every track is fantastic.
There are so many musical references to be found and the sheer variety of the song genres
ensured that they would never get old.
From the smooth jazz of Starlight Speedway Act 1 to a kind of country hip-hop fusion
in Mirage Saloon, every song is near perfection.The sound design is exactly as you’d remember
as well, excellently emulating the past.
This is sheer auditory brilliance.
Sonic Mania is a wonderful send-up to the hedgehog’s Genesis era and slots in so well
with those games.
There is no doubt in my mind that it’ll be considered a classic.
I simply love it.
Even with such a large ratio of old to new stages, the old Zones felt different from
what they were before.
Mania manages to carve out its own identity despite this hurdle, and I look forward to
whatever this team does next.
Even if you prefer Sonic’s 3D outings, I feel like this game is worth your time.
And if you love his 2D offerings, there‘s no reason not to pick this up.
It is simply that good.
“Dreams Come True” is the name of the music duo that produced the soundtracks for
Sonic 1 and 2, which is a bit romantic when you consider that Sonic Mania has been billed
by many long-suffering Sonic fans as a literal dream come true.
Sonic Mania’s all-important development mantra — “by the Mania, for the Mania”
— shines through in every last pixel and the love, passion, and thoughtful consideration
that went into creating it is clearly evident.
It isn’t perfect, but I love it.
As Sonic fans themselves, Christian Whitehead, Simon Thomley, Tee Lopes, and the rest of
Sonic Mania’s sterling development team have crafted a true return to form for Classic
Sonic that washes away the stain left by Sonic 4 and reminds us all that, before the third
dimension happened, Sonic was always good.
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