Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania (ソニックマニア) is a side-scrolling platformer video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise which acts as a celebration of the Sonic series' 25th anniversary. The game follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna as they try to keep Dr. Eggman and his Hard Boiled Heavies from harnessing a mysterious new energy source.

Sonic Mania was developed by Christian Whitehead, who had previously worked on enhanced ports of early Sonic games, with the aid of Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, who were chosen for their work in the Sonic fangame community, and was published by Sega. The game emulates the gameplay and 2D sprite animation of the original Sega Genesis Sonic games, and serves, along with Sonic Forces, as a “continuation” of Sonic’s 25th anniversary. The game was announced on 22 July 2016 and released on 15 August 2017 for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on 29 August 2017 for PC.

Development
Sonic Mania began development in 2015, as Sonic Team wanted to make a new 2D Sonic game that was not a remake. The game was first announced during a presentation held by Sega at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con with a debut trailer. The development team includes Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley, who have previously developed enhanced and newer ports for other Sonic titles. Tee Lopes, a YouTube user who has done many remixes of the music tracks from the Sonic franchise, was chosen to compose the music for the game. PagodaWest Games members Jared Kasl and Tom Fry, who had also worked on a fan-made HD remake of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, both worked on the game's level design and visuals.

According to Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Mania was a “passion project” that “was born out of our fans’ love of the classic Sonic 2D platform games.” He added, “This type of collaboration is a first for Sega and we hope everyone will be both surprised and delighted by this title.” When developing the art for the game, the general rule was to be above the level of Genesis, but under the level of Saturn. Christian Whitehead also added that the game will be longer than Sonic Generations. Later, on the official Sonic Twitch stream, Iizuka stated that Sonic Mania will have more classic levels than new levels. The day after that, Christian Whitehead explained to fans on Twitter that it was Sonic Team’s wish to celebrate the classic titles in Sonic Mania, but this time in a "new and exciting way".

Briefly after the game's announcement, the game developer company Renegade Kid offered to port the game over to the Nintendo 3DS. However, on 29 August 2016, Renegade Kid announced that the studio would be closed and split to two separate companies: Atooi & Infitizmo,  thus a Nintendo 3DS port seemingly unlikely.

On 12 January 2017, it was announced the game would also be released for the Nintendo Switch, with Tantalus Media helping to port it. SXSW 2017 would also announce that they would be hosting a second Sonic panel for this year’s event, set to reveal news about the upcoming Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces.

A Nintendo Dream Magazine from Japan featured Sonic Mania, but the information included was revealed months ago and also confirms that Sonic Mania will feature multiplayer. On the week before 10 March 2017, Sega held a demo at their San Francisco's office to reveal more information about the game. Although the demo went well, Tails was noted to be glitchy to play. On the Sonic panel of SXSW, the game has been delayed later in the year.

During the E3 interview that Dengeki Online set with lizuka, he confirmed that Sonic Mania is going to have more stages than any Classic Sonic game before it. On 23 June 2017, the official Sonic Twitter account announced the Sonic Mania vinyl album that would be released in cooperation with Data Discs. The pre-orders for the album were stated to be available 18 July 2017.

During the Sonic the Hedgehog panel at San Diego Comic Con 2017, it was confirmed that Sonic Mania ' s code name while in development in early 2016 was "Sonic Discovery". Iizuka conceptualized the title of the game after first seeing the demo of the game with a fully functioning Studiopolis Zone and took a white board and wrote Sonic 1, 2, 3, Knuckles and CD, forming the catchphrase "By the Mania, for the Mania". During the event, it was also confirmed that Sonic Mania's length was comparable to that of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Christian Whitehead also revealed that he came up with the Hard Boiled Heavies after imagining Eggman entering a state of depression after Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and instead of going after Sonic he would merely lounge at home in his pajamas and that the abandoned Egg-Robos would go "a little mad." After thinking about this concept, the term came into being.

The Special Stages for Sonic Mania were also revealed, combining the Blue Sphere concept from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the open layout and UFOs of the Sonic the Hedgehog CD Special Stages, as well as inspiration from the 3D gameplay from the scrapped Sonic Saturn. The theme music of these stages is named "Dimension Heist". Sonic Mania was also confirmed to have an opening animation similar to that of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, animated by Tyson Hesse, which would be revealed on 14 August 2017, a day before the game releases. However, the opening animation ended up being released on 10 August 2017, possibly in response to the early leaks of the game on the internet.

The PC version of Sonic Mania was delayed to 29 August 2017 for optimization. Those who pre-ordered the game on Steam were compensated with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, including those who ordered the Collector's Edition. Should the buyer already have a copy of the game, they will receive a giftable version. The game supports the PlayStation 4 Pro's enhanced features, outputting at native 4K resolution.

On 15 August 2017, Christian Whitehead‏ confirmed on his Twitter account that there are some bugs on the game that are addressed and are going to be fixed.

Plot
After Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower saved Angel Island, a sudden dimensional breach occurs in the atmosphere, causing a unique energy wave signature to appear on Angel Island. While he and Sonic are relaxing, Tails picks up this odd energy reading. Despite not being the Chaos Emeralds, this reading is remarkably powerful, and Tails convinces Sonic to investigate it with him. Sonic and Tails thus head to Angel Island in the Tornado. However, Dr. Eggman, having discovered the dimensional breach, has detected this energy signature too. Realizing it could be a source of unspeakable power, Eggman immediately dispatches his elite robot minions―a group of five elite Egg-Robos known as the Hard Boiled Heavies―to retrieve it.

Sonic and Tails arrive on Angel Island just as the Hard Boiled Heavies excavate the source of the signal, a mysterious gemstone known as the "Phantom Ruby", from the ground. As they did so, space-time suddenly warped around them, with Sonic, Tails, the Hard Boiled Heavies, and Knuckles, who was relaxing nearby, getting caught in the warp. The group gets catapulted to the Green Hill Zone, where it is revealed that the Phantom Ruby's power has transformed the Hard Boiled Heavies into more powerful Egg-Robos and granted them free will. As the Hard Boiled Heavies rush to get away from the three, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles join forces to stop them. However, they are too late to prevent Eggman from stealing the gemstone from the now-rebellious Heavies, which he promptly uses to sent Sonic and co. away. Not set back by this, Sonic and his friends continue to pursue Eggman to keep him from using the gemstone's power for evil, clashing with him and the members of the Hard Boiled Heavies along the way.

Sonic and his friends eventually discover that Eggman has used the Phantom Ruby to restore the ruined future version of Little Planet. They board Eggman's enormous robot, the Titanic Monarch, and defeat Eggman and the Hard Boiled Heavies. If the player has not gathered all seven Chaos Emeralds for Sonic by then, Sonic and crew escape the mechanized Little Planet before it vanishes. If all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected while playing as Sonic however, he and Eggman get pulled into a weird space by the Phantom Ruby upon Eggman's defeat. There, the Phantom King (a modified version of the Hard Boiled Heavies' leader, the Heavy King), steals the Phantom Ruby from Eggman, giving himself access to incredible power; Eggman attacks the Heavy King in his Klepto Mobile to reclaim it however. Caught in the middle, Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and defeats both Eggman and the Phantom King during their struggle for the Phantom Ruby.

After the battle, the Phantom Ruby reacts to the Chaos Emeralds before pulling itself and Sonic into a special warp. Outside, Tails and Knuckles watch with a smile as the mechanized Little Planet vanishes in a flash that shows Sonic smiling at them. Meanwhile, Sonic is heading towards places unknown.

Gameplay
Emulating the style of the original Sonic Sega Mega Drive games, Sonic Mania is a 2D sprite-based side-scrolling platform game with Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna as playable characters.

The main playthrough of the game takes place in "Mania Mode", upon which a playable character is selected. The goal is to race to the end of each Act of in a series of Zones (a level in the game) within ten minutes; take too long, and the player will receive a Time Over. The game's levels consist of remixed Zones from past games, such as Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, and new Zones as well. The Zones have multiple routes to the goal and secret locations to be discovered by the player. There are also alternate routes that only certain playable characters can reach. Certain characters may also have certain unique aspects about their stories, such as Mirage Saloon Zone Act 1 and Lava Reef Act 2's boss.

In gameplay, the series' collectible Rings can be found everywhere. Like in previous games, they act as a for of health for the playable characters: as long as the player holds at least one, they will be protected from damage. Touching Badniks or obstacles like spikes inflicts damage. If a character gets damaged, they will drop all their Rings, though some can be recollected before they disappear. Taking damage without any Rings will cost the player a try. A character will also lose a try if they spend too long underwater without replenishing their air supply or fall into a bottomless pit. Losing a try makes the player start from the last Star Post they passed in an Act, or from the beginning of the Act if they have not passed any Checkpoints.

All playable characters have the standard Spin Jump, Spin Attack and Spin Dash moveset. There are also unique maneuvers for each character; Sonic is able to use the Drop Dash, a move introduced in Sonic Mania, which allows the player to instantly dash into a Spin Dash upon landing from a jump; Tails can fly and swim; and Knuckles can glide and climb walls. Like in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, there is also a mode where the player can choose a second playable character to follow the lead character. One such mode for example allows Tails to follow Sonic and provide local cooperative play between two players (with Player 1 controlling Sonic and Player 2 controlling Tails). If Tails takes damage, he does not lose Rings. Tails can also fly while holding Sonic. With this, the player can reach areas that is hard for Sonic to reach on his own.

The game also features the return of classic Monitor power-ups like the Power Sneakers, Invincible, Super Ring and a modified Hyper Ring. The Shields also returns, including the elemental shield variants from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. In a feature new to Sonic Mania, being equipped with an elemental shield can have effects in the traversal of the level (such as burning away the rotating spiked bridges in Green Hill Zone with the Flame Shield or being attracted to the magnetic ceilings with the Thunder Shield in Flying Battery Zone).

Beside the main storyline, the player can also collect the Chaos Emeralds: by entering one of the Giant Rings hidden throughout the Acts, the player can enter a Special Stage and obtain a Chaos Emerald by completing it. Collecting all seven Emeralds and completing the final Zone with Sonic will the game's good cinematic ending. Bonus Stages from early games also return, which are accessed by entering a Star Circle that appears when the player passes a Star Post while carrying a minimum of twenty-five Rings; completing Bonus Stages will award the player with medallions that unlock new features in the game.

Controls
* Following abilities become available after unlocking them by collecting a certain number of Medallions from Bonus Stages. Each one of two abilities can only be chosen and used during the No Save Mode.

Items

 * Air Bubbles
 * Chaos Emeralds
 * Giant Rings
 * Little Planet flowers
 * Metal Sonic Projector
 * Monitors
 * Aqua Shield
 * Eggman Mark
 * Flame Shield
 * Hyper Ring
 * Invincibility
 * Player Swap (Competition only)
 * Power Sneakers
 * Random (Competition only)
 * Shield
 * Super Ring
 * Thunder Shield
 * Rings
 * Robot teleporter
 * Sphere
 * Star Circle
 * UFO

Playable characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Super Sonic
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Super Tails
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Super Knuckles

Non-playable characters

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Animals
 * Becky
 * Cucky
 * Flicky
 * Locky
 * Pocky
 * Pecky
 * Picky
 * Rocky
 * Ricky
 * Tocky
 * Wocky
 * Micky
 * Jimmy
 * Bean the Dynamite
 * Bark the Polar Bear
 * Fang the Sniper
 * Amy Rose

Bosses
{|
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

Act 1

 * DD Wrecker
 * Amoeba Droid
 * Heavy Gunner
 * Big Squeeze
 * Shiver Saw
 * Hotaru Hi-Watt
 * Dive Eggman
 * Uber Caterkiller
 * Meter Droid
 * Driller Droid
 * Egg Pistons mk.II
 * Crimson Eye
 * style="vertical-align: top;" |

Act 2

 * Death Egg Robot
 * Mean Bean Machine
 * Weather Globe
 * Spider Mobile
 * Heavy Shinobi
 * Metal Sonic
 * Laundro Mobile
 * Heavy Magician
 * Mega Octus
 * Heavy Rider (Sonic/Tails only)
 * Heavy King (Knuckles only)
 * Gachapandora
 * Phantom Egg and the Phantom Heavies
 * Klepto Mobile and Phantom King
 * }

Zones
Sonic Mania consists of thirteen Zones (eight remastered, five original), each one divided into two parts (referred to as "Acts"). At the end of each Act, the player takes part in a boss battle; "mini-bosses" are fought at the end of Act 1 and the main bosses are fought at the end of Act 2. To enter the final Zone, the player must have gathered the seven Chaos Emeralds and then clear the Titanic Monarch Zone as Sonic. The Zones in their order are:
 * 1) Green Hill Zone
 * 2) Chemical Plant Zone
 * 3) Studiopolis Zone
 * 4) Flying Battery Zone
 * 5) Press Garden Zone
 * 6) Stardust Speedway Zone
 * 7) Hydrocity Zone
 * 8) Mirage Saloon Zone
 * 9) Oil Ocean Zone
 * 10) Lava Reef Zone
 * 11) Metallic Madness Zone
 * 12) Titanic Monarch Zone
 * 13) Egg Reverie Zone

Special Stages
Special Stages are extra levels where the players can collect the Chaos Emeralds. These Stages can be accessed through hidden Giant Rings in the Acts. In each Special Stage, the playable character enters a three-dimensional open course akin to the Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog CD. The objective is to catch up to the sole UFO in this level, all while avoiding hazards and staying within the course's borders, and obtain the Chaos Emerald the UFO has within the time limit. If the timer runs out or if the player falls off the track, the stage will end but can be retried infinitely. Spread out across the stages are Spheres that make the playable character run faster and Rings that increase the game's time limit.

Bonus Stages
Bonus Stages are special areas where the player can earn bonuses. They become available when jumping into the Star Circle that appears if a Star Post is passed when carrying at least twenty-five Rings. Sonic Mania's bonus stages play the same as the Special Stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as well as the secret "Blue Sphere" bonus game that could be played by connecting a Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge to Sonic & Knuckles. Here, the player must run across a spherical planet. To succeed, the player must collect blue spheres and Rings whilst avoiding the red spheres (with the blue spheres turning into red spheres when collected; boxing a group of blue spheres inside a perimeter of red spheres will turn all the spheres in the box into Rings). Collecting all Rings on the board will result in a "Perfect" and the stage will end either when the player hits a red sphere or collects every blue sphere. The longer the player stays in the stage, the more it will speed up, thus increasing the difficulty.

Silver Medallions are awarded to players who complete a Bonus Stage, while a Gold Medallion is awarded to those who manage to collect all the blue spheres and Rings in a Bonus Stage.

The Silver Medallions unlock content in the main game, such as Sonic's Insta-Shield and Super Peel Out, the new "& Knuckles" mode, which adds an AI Knuckles to aid the player (which works like Tails), or the Debug Mode. However, these are only usable in no-save mode. The Silver Medallions are also used to unlock content in the Extras portion of the menu, like Sound Test or the "Mean Bean" minigame against the computer or another player, as seen in Chemical Plant Zone Act 2's boss. The gold medalions do not unlock anything but an achivement.

Competition
Competition is the multiplayer component of Sonic Mania. This mode features a split-screen where two players can race each other to the end of a shared Act from Mania Mode, similar to those of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

In Competition, the player who selects this mode becomes Player 1, leaving the other player to be Player 2. When using Competition, the players selects one of the three playable characters in the game (both players may choose the same character) before setting the game rules. These rules include: Before a race, the players choose which Zone and Act to race through; the Zones available depend on how far the player has gotten in Mania Mode. After each round, the players select a new Act. When initiated, the race will begin with Player 1 at the top of the screen and Player 2 at the bottom, and will follow two rules: At the end of an Act, the players will be graded out from five criteria: Time, Ring count at the end of the Act, their Total Ring count (including Rings they lost), and the amount of Monitors broken. The player that wins the most of out these five criteria takes the round, and the player who wins the most out of everything is the winner.
 * Items: Decides the item release patterns for Monitors during the Act. This setting includes the options "Fixed" (the chosen Act retains its original power-ups), "Teleporters Only" (every monitor in the Act is replaced with the Player Swap power-up), and "Random" (every monitor in the Act is replaced with the Random power-up).
 * Match Length: Decides the number of rounds the players go through.
 * 1) Once a player reaches the goal, the other player has sixty seconds to complete the Act, or forfeit to a Time Over.
 * 2) If both players get a Time Over, the round will be declared a draw.

Time Attack
Time Attack allows players to replay previously cleared Acts with the goal of getting the fastest record possible. Acts in Time Attack feature unique Goal Plates that are used for starting and ending the Acts. They also feature no bosses or Star Posts, and the "Time Elapsed" counter serves as a timer. As a new feature for the Time Attack in the Sonic series, players can restart an Act seamlessly at any point with the "Quick Restart" function.

When using Time Attack, the players select a character and then the Zone and Act to race through; the Zones available depend on how far the player has gotten in Mania Mode. The challenge starts when the player passes the Start Marker and ends when passing the Goal Marker. Upon completing an Act, the player is graded based on their time, and their score; an additional "Cool Bonus" is added if the player clears an Act without sustaining damage. Once the Acts are completed, the game saves and records the player's time, which can be compared to those on a personal list of best time logs. If Sonic Mania is connected to the internet, the game also automatically uploads the players' time record to an online leaderboard after they pass the Goal Marker.

Options
Options is the settings menu for Sonic Mania which holds the following options:
 * Video: Various video settings can be changed here:
 * PC:
 * Screen filter: Choose a screen filter.
 * Window Size: Choose a Window Size in non-full screen mode.
 * Window Border: Display or hide the window border.
 * Full Screen: Choose a resolution size.
 * VSync: Turn VSync ON/OFF.
 * Triple Buffering': Turn triple buffering ON/OFF
 * PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Switch:
 * Clean: Displays a soft gamescreen.
 * CRT-Sharp: Displays sharp on a cathode ray tube TV.
 * CRT-Soft: Display soft on a cathode ray tube TV.
 * None: No screen filter.
 * Sound: Set the volumes separately for "Music" and "SFX".
 * Controls: Shows the controller diagram and basic commands. On the PC version, the player can change the key assignments here. Conversely, the player can restore the key assignments to default here with the "Default" function.
 * Language: Change the language of the messages to be displayed between "English", "Français" (French), "Italiano" (Italian), "Deutsch" (German), "Español" (Spanish) and "日本語" (Japanese).

Extras

 * Blue Sphere
 * Mean Bean
 * D.A. Garden

Minimum

 * 186MB of free space

Promotion
When the game was set to be released in Summer 2017, Sonic the Hedgehog's official twitter account posted a poll on 8 September 2016, relating to the release of the Collector's Edition of the game. On 13 September 2016, Amazon leaked a pre-order offer of the Sonic Mania: Collector’s Edition for the PC. The Collector's Edition consists of a Sega Genesis-styled package, a 12" Classic Sonic Statue standing on a Sega Genesis that plays the "Sega" chant when turned on, a metallic collector’s card and a Genesis cartridge-like cast with a golden Ring. The Collector's Edition was later announced for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (and eventually, the Nintendo Switch ) as well, albeit exclusively for North America. The Collector's Edition has also become available to be pre-ordered on Europe countries since 17 October 2016. To promote the Collector's Edition, Sega released a retro-styled informerical (see below) based on an American informercial of Sonic 2 featuring former Sonic the Hedgehog series art director Kazuyuki Hoshino and social media manager Aaron Webber.

In September 2016, Sega began selling official T-shirts through Amazon US until 30 September. These included Studiopolis Zone-based shirts and “Triple Theat” t-shirts with icons of the game’s three playable characters. Originally, the Studiopolis and Triple Threat shirts with the Sonic Mania logo printed on them were available on Amazon UK before their listings were removed. It was announced that 26 boxes of the Collector's Edition were signed by Sonic Team personally.

A vinyl LP featuring tracks from the soundtrack will be published by the music label Data Discs. The album will be a single LP packaged in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with UV spot varnish, featuring new artwork exclusive to its release, along with a printed inner sleeve featuring an array of characters from the game. The release also includes a download code of the album in both lossy and lossless formats. The album will be available in three formats: 180g Classic Black, 180g Classic Blue and a 180g Limited Edition that will only be exclusive to Data Discs' official website. The albums will ship in September 2017.

Attendees of the Sonic Mania panel at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con received a promotional instruction manual for the game.

Pre-release
Sonic Mania ' s announcement was met with praise, with Andrew Goldfarb of IGN saying that Sonic Mania had him excited for the series again, in a way that did not happen with Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Alex Donaldson of VG24/7 agreed, saying that Sonic Mania was the sequel he had wanted for over 20 years. Donaldson also appreciated Sega's choice of development team, calling them "the right guys for the job", and praised the game's visuals, music, and the inclusion of obscure Sonic and Sega lore. Jack Hamnett of Twinfinite praised the game's attention to detail and how faithful it felt to the original games, saying that it had the potential to return the series to its "former glory".

Despite having initial doubts due to the normally mediocre reception of the series in recent years, Nick Robinson of Polygon called Sonic Mania a "revelatory moment" for him after playing a preview of the game, saying it was his most anticipated game of 2017. Robinson also praised Sega's choice to hand the game's development off to fans of the series, stating that Sega's own previous attempts to make a classic style side-scrolling Sonic games, such as with Sonic Advance and Sonic the Hedgehog 4, never felt "quite right" to him.

Sonic Mania 's booth at E3 received multiple nominations and awards: "Best of E3 2017" from Twinfinite and from IGN, "Approved" by Kinda Funny, the "Most Likely to Inspire a Completion Run" award from Curse Network, a "Best in Show" nomination from GameInformer and from UOL Jogos and an "E3 Choice" game award nomination from Momocon.

Post-release
Following its release on the consoles, Sonic Mania received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It became the highest-rated Sonic game in fifteen years, and was declared by several reviewers as among the best Sonic games and one of best 2D platformers in the genre. EGM commended it as "one of the purest and most enjoyable Sonic games" and expressed excitement for the future: "The question isn’t if this experiment in reviving classic Sonic was successful or not—the question is what happens next." IGN wrote that Mania "truly is the classic throwback longtime series fans have been clamoring for," but also recommended it for people new to the franchise." Nintendo World Report agreed, saying that "fans of classic Sonic must buy this game, but the excellent level design, music, and graphics will please all people who enjoy a well-thought-out sidescroller." Waypoint compared the game favorably to Donkey Kong Country Returns, describing it as "a game that knows what was fun about its 90s inspirations, and brings that to the table alongside strong platforming fundamentals." Nintendo Life felt that Mania represented "a true return to form" for the series, and that it was a contender as the best Sonic game.

Reviewers praised the game's attention to detail to its source material. Game Informer wrote that its gameplay was "nearly indistinguishable from its Genesis predecessors, but with added moves and extra polish." Easy Allies wrote that the game emulated the original games "exceptionally", commenting that "running, jumping, and spin dashing all work exactly as well as you would hope." Twinfinite commending the developers for "[filling] every crevice of Sonic Mania with nostalgic references and [accomplishing] this without beating fans over the head with it." Metro, the the British newspaper, wrote that the game was "filled with fanservice" and summarized it as "sort of school project gone wild, something enthusiastic kids have made while the teacher was away and which far surpasses anything they were actually supposed to be doing."

Reviewers also praised to the level design. Hardcore Gamer wrote that the remixed versions of older stages felt fresh while staying true to the originals. GameInformer wrote that the new stages matched the quality of the stages form early Sonic games, writing that they "successfully capture the spirit of what made the original games so great. The A.V. Club praised the levels as the game's high point: "There’s so much going on in each level, so many secrets and one-off novelties, that I didn’t mind getting game overs and having to start again." Venture Beat praised the replayability of the levels: "branching paths make multiple playthroughs feel fresh, since you can still discover new areas of a stage even after beating it several times."

The graphics and soundtrack attracted wide acclaim. USGamer described the graphics as "[the] pinnacle of the perpetually running hedgehog's pixel-embellished career," while COG Connected wrote that "although pixelated 2D graphics are inherently nostalgic, I’m not convinced that the older Sonic games ever looked quite this good." Cubed3 described the levels as stylish and vibrant: "There is actual lore to the entire game if you stop and look, and that is owed to the brilliant visuals that have a story to tell." GameSpot praised the animations and detail as superior to the original games, writing that they "add an extra layer of personality to the iconic characters that's a joy to see in motion". PlayStation Country wrote that composer Tee Lopes "absolutely nails" the music, comparing it positively to the soundtracks from Sonic CD and the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast. EGM wrote that the soundtrack was "completely fantastic and fitting—and somehow feeling nostalgic and totally fresh both at the same time."

Polygon cited frustrations with the controls and enemy placement as examples of Sonic Mania's dedication to the original games to a fault. AppTrigger wrote that "Sonic Mania brings Sonic and friends back to the series’ 2D roots successfully but also reminds us of many of the issues with early 90s 2D platformers." VideoGamer.com felt the game relied too much on nostalgia, and wrote of the small number of original stages and minimal innovation. It concluded that the game was "a really, really, good proof of concept" that the development team could expand in the future.

After a day of its release, the Nintendo Switch version of the game could top the best seller charts "in most regions", specifically in the UK and US regions and was placed as Nintendo Switch's sixth best seller in Japan.

The PC version received criticism for its implementation of Denuvo DRM, which some thought to be the real reason behind the two week launch delay. In addition, the game was unable to be played if not connected to the internet on launch day, which Sega stated was a bug unrelated to Denuvo, releasing a patch the following day that fixed it.

Trivia

 * This is the first Sonic video game to be released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
 * It is also the first Sonic video game in the series to output at 4K resolution.
 * The island seen on the title screen of the game is shaped like Sonic's head.
 * The color palette of the cover art, including the logo primarily consists of mainly shades of blues, orange and reds in correspondence to the main protagonist characters in the game; Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.
 * The trailer music featured in the debut trailer is called "Checkpoint," composed and arranged by Nitro Fun and Hyper Potions.
 * This is the second Sonic game to feature the playable character spins vertically when jumping on a Spring since Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
 * After completing an Act, Sonic will perform a short hop before doing the traditional index finger waving pose. The hopping animation originated from an early victory pose seen in pre-release screenshots of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), but was later unused in the final release. Sonic and Tails' final poses are based on existing artwork themselves, while Knuckles' seems to be based either on his pose from the pose he displays on the title menu for Sonic & Knuckles or an official artwork from Knuckles' Chaotix.
 * Sonic shaking himself dry in the intro for Chemical Plant Zone is reminiscent of him doing the same thing when he emerged from the water in the intro to Toxic Caves in Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball.
 * The mock infomercial video of the Sonic Mania's Collector's Edition is a reference to the humorous television infomercial for a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 console bundle that debuted back in 1993. The fake "suggested price" of $6,231,991 seen in the infomercial is a reference to the North American release date for the original Sonic the Hedgehog (June 23, 1991).
 * This marked the third time a Sonic game featured an animated opening cutscene, the other two being in Sonic the Hedgehog CD and Sonic Riders.
 * The art style for the pre-order trailer and the opening animation is very similar to the opening and ending animated scenes of Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
 * The idea for the animated scenes in the trailer was by Aaron Webber.
 * Additionally, the animation was done by Tyson Hesse in co-operation with animators Anthony Holden and Mariel Cartwright to help him meet the deadline.
 * At the beginning of the trailer as Sonic is being drawn to life, he was given bunny ears but they were quickly erased. This is in reference as to how one of Sonic's original designs was a rabbit.
 * The buttons shown in the elevator that Sonic, Tails and Knuckles stand in are "1", "2", "3", "K" and "M", standing for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Mania itself.
 * If the player lets the opening animation play twice, the second time it will have different music and sound effects.
 * The title music for Sonic Mania has the exact same notes as the main melody of the music for Panic Puppet Zone Act 1 from the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast.
 * The cool bonus counted at the end of the level is in reference to the Sega Saturn's "This is COOL" slogan that was printed on its Skeleton and Derby models. It is also in reference to the Sega Saturn's Cool Pad controller.
 * The main menu has features similar to Sonic R in terms of showcasing graphics whenever an option is toggled over.
 * Toggling the "options" will showcase a sprite of the Sega Saturn gamepad.
 * The "& Knuckles" mode is a reference to a popular internet meme based around Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. People add the "& Knuckles" found on the title screen of the game to other images, often adding many other bizarre images in the process. The meme is widely popular among fans of the series.
 * When you unlock the mode, the quote is "Knock Knock! & Knuckles mode has been unlocked!" This references another Knuckles-based meme, "Knock, Knock, it's Knuckles," which is part of the lyrics to his theme song in Sonic Adventure, "Unknown from M.E."
 * The music played during the secret ending of a "Knuckles & Knuckles" playthrough is a remix of "This Horizon" from Knuckles' Chaotix.
 * During the credits, someone is credited Alex "The Kidd" Solverston. This is a reference to the nickname he was given by fans on the official Sonic livestream and SEGA's original mascot, Alex Kidd.
 * The bad ending features Dr. Eggman juggling the Chaos Emeralds that were not collected. This is a reference to the bad ending of the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * When piloting the Tornado, Tails can be seen wearing a flight helmet that heavily resembles the one that appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
 * If Sonic is piloting the Tornado, he can be seen wearing the Goggles from an unused powerup from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991).

Videos
Debut Trailer = Japanese Trailer = Nintendo Switch Trailer = Pre-Order Trailer = Japanese Pre-Order Trailer = Launch Trailer = Collector's Edition Infomercial = Behind the Scenes of Infomercial = Title Screen Music = Competition Mode First Look = Accolades Trailer =