Bonus Stage (Sonic Mania)


 * For Bonus Stages in general, see here.

Bonus Stages in Sonic Mania are special areas that the player can visit separate from the main game. Bonus Stages can be entered by passing a Star Post when carrying the necessary number of rings, which will create a Star Circle above the post. Jumping into this will take the player to the Bonus Stage.

Overview
Bonus Stages in Sonic Mania take place on the surface of a spherical planet that is dotted with several objects. The ground pattern is a checkerboard-esque design that changes color with each stage.

Gameplay
The Bonus Stage plays identically to the Special Stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, as well as the secret bonus game "Blue Sphere" that can be accessed when connecting a Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge to a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge.

Upon starting, the player character is placed onto the spherical planet at a standing start. Pressing forward begins the character moving and once moving, the character will run continuously. The character will always travel along the lines that divide the checkerboard pattern on the ground, turning at 90-degree angles. Being spheres, the stages will wrap around as the character moves across them (meaning eventually, if the character walks in one direction without turning, they will eventually return to the place that they originally came from). The only ability the character has in these stages is jumping, which will send them forward the distance of one square (or two spheres).

The words "Get Blue Spheres" will appear when the stage starts, which summarizes the central objective. Spread across the globe are several objects, most crucially being the blue spheres. Collecting all the blue spheres is the primary goal of the player. Whenever a blue sphere is touched, the counter in the upper left will decrease and the blue sphere will become a red sphere. Touching any red sphere will take the player out of the stage immediately, which is considered failure.

Other spheres that the player may encounter include white spheres with red stars and yellow spheres. The white spheres with red stars act as bumpers, causing the character to run in the opposite direction from which it was hit. The yellow spheres vault the character forward a distance of five spheres.

Rings also appear on the stage. They act as a supplementary goal to collecting the blue spheres. Collecting every possible Ring will result in a "Perfect" for the stage. Like the versions of the stages that appear in Blue Sphere, the Ring counter decreases with each Ring collected, similar to the sphere counter (and unlike the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles Special Stage, which instead displayed a running total). Rings can either appear in the open or can be made to appear by enclosing at least one blue sphere inside a perimeter of red spheres. Doing so will transform the entire group of spheres into Rings.

The longer the player takes to complete the Bonus Stage, the speed at which the character runs will increase (as will the music), which raises the danger of encountering a red sphere.