Mirage Saloon Zone

Mirage Saloon Zone (ミラージュサルーン) is the eighth Zone for Sonic Mania.

Overview
This Zone takes place in a vast desert, filled with cacti and huge mountains in the distance. Act 2 of the Zone features multiple saloon-like indoor areas filled with large, piano-like platforms.

Gameplay
The Mirage Saloon Zone features gimmick mechanics reminiscent of western play. These include seltzer bottles to guide paths, a pistol to launch the player to new heights, piano keys that the player can bounce on, and the return of the pinball gimmick.

When this Zone is played as Knuckles, the Mirage Saloon Zone takes on a different Zone configuration compared to that of Sonic and Tails'.

Trivia

 * The overall aesthetic of Mirage Saloon Zone is identical to the scrapped Desert Dazzle that was intended to be featured in the 2011 re-release of Sonic CD. Christian Whitehead later confirmed that Desert Dazzle was the inspiration for the Zone. Both levels also seem to bear similarities to Dust Hill Zone, another scrapped Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
 * This Zone contains multiple references to the rest of the Sonic series:
 * Multiple wanted posters of Fang the Sniper, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite can be seen in the background. This trio of characters originally appeared on wanted posters at City Escape in Sonic Generations.
 * The "EG" Eggman symbol previously seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 appears on multiple objects in the Zone, much like it did on the popcorn machine gimmicks at Studiopolis Zone.
 * The gun-like launchers use the same design as the guns wielded by the Eggrobos in Sonic & Knuckles.
 * The piano key gimmicks that can launch the player like springs were similar to those featured at Music Plant in Sonic Advance 2.
 * The Roller Badniks that appear throughout the level have a color scheme similar to Mighty the Armadillo. Similarly, an unnamed eagle-like Badnik has the same color scheme as Wave the Swallow.