There are also a few sections where things could be a bit more polished, given that what Sonic Mania ostensibly aims to offer is the most refined version of the series’ Genesis-style gameplay. That’s what makes this more of a nitpick than anything else it’s not exactly a bad thing that the new stuff is so good that it makes me want more of it. And for crying out loud, with Green Hill Zone making an appearance in just about every new Sonic game at this point, is anyone really nostalgic for it anymore? That, and I couldn’t help but wonder what a whole new project’s worth of material would look like from these developers. I suppose that’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but the reliance on nostalgia in all of gaming is getting a little old at this point. It’s why I described Mania above as more of a “greatest hits” with some new additions, rather than a sequel to the previous games. If I have one complaint about the offerings as a whole, it’s that – as well-selected and polished as the old material is – it still makes up far more of the total gameplay than I thought it would. I particularly enjoyed one where Sonic is forced to fight him, Mean Bean Machine-style, in a round of that game’s fast-paced puzzle gameplay. All of the boss battles have been given a creative makeover, too while the fights against the Act 1 baddies are neat little affairs, it’s the big Eggman/Robotnik fights closing out each round that are really fun and impressive. More importantly, they’re an absolute blast to play, representing some of the most inspired level design the series has seen in a long, long time. Thanks to highly inspired art direction, stages like Studiopolis and Press Garden are visually stunning despite taking their inspiration from games originally made over two decades ago (just check out the newspapers being printed off en masse in the background of the latter stage, and you’ll know what I mean).Įach of these stages is also an inspired maze of interconnected paths, loop-the-loops and level gimmicks (such as giant popcorn machines and extending director chairs in Studiopolis) that wouldn’t have felt at all out of place in a proper Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (you know, rather than what we actually got). The real excitement though, as far as I’m concerned, comes from the new material. The bonus stages from those two games – the dizzying “get blue spheres” minigame and the pseudo-3D “catch the UFO” one – been repurposed here as well. The old stuff is tried-and-true, from Sonic CD’s Stardust Speedway to the Hydrocity Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and each has been polished up and bolstered from the original.
The result is Sonic Mania, a sort of “greatest hits” collection of the blue hedgehog’s best early stuff combined with a number of new stages, boss battles, and other little twists.
Having noted the atrocious reception of the vast majority of Sonic’s latter-day career, Sega has done what few other studios seem willing to do (I mean, just try to imagine a company like Nintendo doing something like this): handed the reins to talented fangamers who know a thing or two about recreating the Blue Blur’s heyday.