Why Sonic Mania (PC/PS4/Switch/XbOne, 2017) is My *Second* Favorite Sonic Game

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

Last October, I reviewed Sonic Generations, which I considered my favorite Sonic game. A little before that, I reviewed Sonic Colors, which I stated was in my Top 3. So, you know my #1 and #3 choices, but what’s my #2?

SegaSonic Popcorn Shop, obviously.

Background and History

In 2015, Sonic Team sort of commissioned the development of an entirely new 2D Sonic game from Christian Whitehead, the same developer who helped create the 2011 port of Sonic CD as well as the mobile ports of Sonic 1 and 2 (the same ones that would be used in Sonic Origins). 

Whitehead developed a prototype over the span of a few months, which got approval from Takashi Iizuka, who also suggested to “remix” some of the classic level themes and coined the name of “Sonic Mania” which ended up sticking. 

The game’s development team would also encompass Headcannon, a company run by Simon “Stealth” Thomley, who had experience with various Sonic fan games and ROM hacks, and PagodaWest, founded by Jared Kasl and Tom Fry, who had previous experience developing “Sonic 2 HD”, an HD fan remake of Sonic 2 - which I remember being in development when I was 11 years old, but the project got canceled due to some keylogger shit, then brought back up a couple years later and… well I’m not too sure of the current state of the game. The Facebook page for it seems to have been deleted and PW’s social media pages haven’t posted since 2018 so, not sure what’s going on with the state of things but, I mean, still cool.

Anyway, the game was developed in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the franchise, building upon Sonic 3 & Knuckles with a mix of remixed classic stages and new stages. Tyson Hesse, an artist for the Archie comics, was chosen to create animated intros and outros for the game, and the soundtrack was largely composed by Tee Lopes, with the game’s opening theme being composed by Hyper Potions.

The game was announced at Sonic’s 25th Anniversary Show at San Diego ComicCon alongside ‘Project Sonic 2017’ which would later come to be known as Sonic Forces. 

The show was… kind of handled unprofessionally, the audio consistently had an annoying “buzz” and they showed the Sonic Mania trailer three times (also they talked about Totino’s Stuffed Nachos which looked so damn good but I could never find them for my life in any store I went to), but the trailer did seem to come out to positive reception. 

The game was originally set to release in Spring of 2017 for PS4, Xbox One and PC (with a Switch port being announced a few months after the console was revealed), but ended up getting delayed to August 15 of said year… and then the PC release got delayed a couple more weeks from there on the 29th to improve optimization. By that I mean, they added Denuvo DRM. How lovely.

Regardless, Sonic Mania received acclaim from both critics and fans alike. The game became the highest rated Sonic game since Adventure 2 (the last Sonic game before Sega left the console market), with many even regarding it as the best Sonic game of all time. A year later, the game’s ‘Encore DLC’ released alongside a physical copy of the game branded as ‘Sonic Mania Plus’, which even furthered the game’s high ratings to being the best since the classic games.

Personal Experiences

Whereas I was sort of lukewarm with the announcement and lead-up of the Boom games, I remember watching the Sonic 25th Anniversary Show when this game got announced. Although, again, the show itself was poorly handled, I did think Sonic Mania looked really good. It definitely looked like a true revival of the classic games, and was definitely among the games I was most excited for to release in 2017. I was sort of hoping for a Generations follow-up going into the announcement, but since that seemed to be hinted at towards the end of the show (which of course became Forces), I was satisfied. 2017 looked like a good year to be a Sonic fan - admittedly I was a tad more interested in Forces at first since I had recently found out how much I really loved the Boost formula and, well, that’s another story for how that turned out, but I was still definitely interested in Sonic Mania.

Since Sonic Mania was to launch in Spring for what I would correctly assume to be for $20, I figured I would ask for a Steam card for Easter and buy the game then. Unfortunately, well, that didn’t happen - the game was pushed back to August. I still decided to get a Steam card for Easter, and instead picked up Night in the Woods - which, I mean, I don’t regret since that ended up becoming my second favorite game of all time - but I remained excited for Mania to come out. 

Granted, I didn’t get to play the game right away. Not just because of the 2-week delay of the PC port, but also because, well, I didn’t have the money, and I didn’t end up getting the game until November, when a friend bought me the game on Steam - so thank you friend. I haven’t talked to you in years but it was still a nice gesture.

And, well, I really liked the game - so much so that I actually reviewed it on my Tumblr blog after I had taken a long hiatus from writing game reviews at the time and declared it my new favorite Sonic game. In the long run, I did end up giving that edge to Generations - and I will explain why that was later - but Sonic Mania remained among my top favorites.

When I got my Nintendo Switch in 2019, I decided to buy the physical Plus version for said system a few months later, since it felt like a nice fit for the system and I wanted to play it portably. I also bought it for the Xbox One on sale when I got that system. Which I think paints the picture that I really liked the game. So, I think that enough was said on that point, so let’s continue.

Story

Following the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles (allegedly after the time split that occurred in Generations), Sonic and Tails return to Angel Island after a dimensional breach causes a strange energy wave - where they find Robotnik has dispatched a group of EggRobos called the ‘Hard-Boiled Heavies’ to locate the source of the signal as the ‘Phantom Ruby’. This is stolen by Robotnik, and a time warp caused by the Ruby sends Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the Heavies back to Green Hill Zone, thus starting the game.

As you would probably expect, this game follows in-line with Sonic 3 & Knuckles’ style of storytelling in which all the characters are silent, and the story is rather told through in-game character animations and cutscenes. It definitely really helps Sonic Mania sell itself as a successor to the classic games and it is very fun seeing all the little character animations throughout the game especially as levels transition into each other - for example, each character having a reaction at the start of Chemical Plant when a drop falls on them.

And admittedly the story itself isn’t anything too spectacular, even compared to Sonic 3 & Knuckles itself - there’s not really much in the way of building upon lore or character development - but it’s a fun enough story with how it really feels like the personality of each character is captured without dialogue. The Hard Boiled Heavies are introduced in this game, and they make for surprisingly fun characters even without dialogue - especially in the bosses you face against them throughout the game.

Slight spoiler alert, but it’s also worth mentioning too that if you obtain all the Chaos Emeralds, the story ends with Sonic being transported by the Phantom Ruby to another dimension. And, well, that leads into the next modern Sonic game. But that’s more of a topic for the next review.

What I also like though is that the game also has a few animated cutscenes - particularly for the intro and outro, with the latter somewhat changing based on what character you play as or whether or not you complete all the Special Stages. The animation was done by Tyson Hesse, who previously worked as an artist for the Archie comics and after this would go on to not only create more 2D promotional animations for Sonic Mania as well as future releases (including cutscenes for Origins), but also became the lead artist for Sonic’s model in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie after… well, you probably know. 

Once again though, the animations look really good, and really does a good job of displaying the characters’ personalities solely through movement. After the game was released, too, a mini-series of Youtube animations would be released under the title of “Sonic Mania Adventures”, allowing for even more Sonic Mania-related animations, and if you haven’t checked that out, I would definitely recommend doing so.

Presentation

Although the game was somewhat marketed as a Genesis-style game (at least as far as the reversible cover on the physical ‘Plus’ versions replicating the Genesis style covers), the developers had intended to go for a “Saturn” vibe with this game. And if you played it, you can definitely tell as, in a lot of ways, Sonic Mania feels like what would happen if instead of jumping on the 3D train, Sega had just created a new 2D game for the Saturn.

Graphically, this game contains a mix of a pixel art style with polygonal assets. The sprites and environments build upon the Genesis style with a generally higher color palette, more character animations, and higher resolution sprites. On the other hand, however, certain assets - particularly the background in the Metal Sonic boss in Stardust Speedway, as well as the ‘Special Stage’ rings - use a more polygonal look reminiscent of early 3D games. The special stages themselves use polygonal models for Sonic and the UFO with things like the blue spheres and rings being pre-rendered sprites and the backgrounds, again, using the pixel art style - sort of feeling like a mix of Sonic CD, Knuckles’ Chaotix and 3D Blast Saturn’s special stages in terms of style. 

The result is that the game visually is very faithful to the Saturn art style. I have talked about in the past that I do find a lot of charm in Saturn/PS1-era style polygon graphics, particularly with games like Sonic R, and I really like seeing Sonic Mania combining that with an enhanced pixel-style. And with the colorful levels and sprites, Sonic Mania manages to be a really nice looking game, especially as a successor to the classic games. The added sprite animations add even more personality to the characters with a good amount of fluidity.

The soundtrack is also really good. Granted, like Generations, it is mostly comprised of remixed themes, but those remixes still sound really good on top of the original themes. I would say my favorite tracks in the game include Dimensional Heist (the Special Stage theme), Stardust Speedway Act 1, Knuckles’ version of Mirage Saloon Act 1, Metal Sonic’s theme, Studiopolis Zone, and Hyper Potion’s ‘Friends’ (the intro theme). But, I mean, the entire soundtrack is just a banger all around.

Gameplay

I want to preface this by saying that, if you know the Sonic series, this isn’t necessarily the first attempt at making a successor to the classic style. Even as far back as 2001, there was Sonic Advance, which provided a modernization of said style with elements of Sonic Adventure, and since then there were also both episodes of Sonic 4, and classic Sonic in Generations.

I bring this up since it sort of goes into the question of what Mania does differently to stand out among those attempts. And on that note, while I did enjoy the Advance games and classic Sonic in Generations, Sonic Mania was the attempt that, in my opinion, nails the feeling of the classic formula almost 1:1 - both in terms of presentation and in gameplay.

The controls, for one, basically feel spot-on coming from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I have heard there are some minor differences in the physics which can be attributed to the Retro Engine, but at the same time, the difference isn’t really noticeable. Though, there is one major addition to Sonic’s moveset here - that being Sonic’s Drop Dash - a somewhat similar ability to the Spin Dash where by holding the jump button, Sonic will perform a slight boost of speed when landing. This ability has also made its way into Forces’ Classic gameplay and the SEGA AGES and Origins ports of the classic games. Though this can also be swapped out with the 3&K Insta-Shield and CD Super Peel-Out by choosing those respective control styles in the game’s options.

Admittedly I didn’t really take much advantage of the Drop Dash initially - in fact, to be honest, I didn’t even know it was even there until about a year or two after I first played the game - but I do find going back to this game, it is a really nice addition to Sonic’s moveset and does provide some speedrunning potential. 

Of course, Tails and Knuckles reappear with their abilities from Sonic 3 & Knuckles if you want to play as them to further explore the stages. If you have the ‘Plus’ version or Encore DLC though, you also unlock the ability to play as Mighty and Ray from SegaSonic the Hedgehog - a really nice gesture to one of the more obscure Sonic titles. 

I didn’t find Mighty to necessarily be a particularly fun character to play as over the others - he does have a cool hammer drop ability but otherwise he doesn’t really offer anything else new to the table, but Ray I definitely enjoyed playing as here and there. He has the ability to fly in a different way to both Tails and Knuckles, actually feeling similar to the ‘Cape Feature’ power-up in Super Mario World if I had to make a comparison. 

I do wish Amy Rose was made playable - especially after trying some of the ROMhacks of the classic games it would have been interesting to see her playable in Mania with a playstyle similar to the Advance games, but I guess that’s something modders have picked up on.

Regardless, at the end of the day, Mania does a good job of replicating the feeling of the classic games’ controls, allowing new abilities for Sonic in addition to returning abilities for Tails and Knuckles and giving new playable characters in the Plus version with Ray and Mighty.

One thing I have hinted at a lot here though is replayability, and that leads me to something else about Mania’s gameplay. Replay value has always been a core tenet and appeal of Sonic’s game design, and in the case of the classic games, this was done through expansive level design containing alternate pathways and allowing for both exploration and speedrunning. Granted, each of the classic games did this somewhat differently - Sonic 1 was more focused on platforming, Sonic 2 on speed, Sonic CD on exploration itself and Sonic 3 & Knuckles attempting a balance - but this generally remained consistent in those games. 

When it came to the classic trilogy, 3 & Knuckles is often regarded as having the best balance of platforming, speed and exploration, but for as much as I liked 3 & Knuckles, I did slightly disagree with this, as I sort of felt like in a lot of cases, 3&K did feel like it slowed down every so often, especially with levels such as Marble Garden and Sandopolis.

I bring that up because, in my opinion, Mania actually manages to nail the balance in a way I really like. In a lot of ways, Mania keeps up with the more 3&K style of exploration, but I feel like Mania’s levels are also designed in a way that doesn’t make the level design feel outright pace-breaking especially when playing through this game the first time. The game does slow down from time to time (particularly in Sonic and Tails’ Mirage Saloon Act 1), but for the most part I feel like this game manages to keep a more consistent fast pace a la Sonic 2, while keeping the overall scope of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

As such, Sonic Mania brings the best of all worlds in terms of classic Sonic game design, and this is only helped further by the other playable characters, and really helps make Mania more replayable and unique on every playthrough. Once again, I’m still finding things about Sonic Mania that I didn’t really notice the first time, and I feel more compelled to replay and explore the stages while utilizing the control of the characters.

A common criticism I often see of Sonic Mania is that the game mostly reuses level themes from classic games - only 4 of the 12 zones in this game utilize original themes. And I do understand the criticism - in a way it sort of feels like a limitation on the game’s overall creativity even with what the game’s ‘original’ levels offer. 

But it didn’t exactly bother me much when I first played it, and it still doesn’t bother me much now, since in a lot of ways, the game does manage to do new things with the level themes and design. Obviously, as I have gotten at, the levels are designed mostly from scratch and have a lot of replay value in terms of both speedrunning and exploration, but you’ll also find new ideas sprinkled into the classic level themes. 

A big example of this is Chemical Plant, in which you can change the color of the chemical “pools” and gain the ability to bounce on them, with the height being determined by the color of those pools. So while Sonic Mania might not have too much in terms of completely original level themes, the expansive level design and new concepts integrated with those themes still do a good job of making them feel unique and adding a new twist to them. On top of this, if you buy the Encore DLC or have the Plus version, these stages are further remixed with new color palettes and alternations to the level design.

On the note of exploration, special stages obviously reappear here as I’ve mentioned, and how you get into them is similar to Sonic 3 & Knuckles - find giant rings throughout the levels that will transport you to the special stages, which I think are solid and unique. 

Each of them has you take control of the character chasing after a UFO holding the emerald, and they have you pick up blue spheres to increase your speed up to 3 levels with a bonus burst of speed from there, while also trying to pick up as many rings as you can to increase the amount of time. You lose the special stages by either running out of time or falling off the course, and you win by catching up to the UFO. 

The special stages are definitely intense and challenging - the fifth and sixth ones especially being fairly difficult - but mastering them does feel really good. And once you collect all seven of the emeralds, you unlock the Super form of the character you play as - from there, just grab 50 rings, jump and press the Y button to become god. That said, there’s a ‘true’ last boss that can only be unlocked if you obtain all the emeralds *and* are playing as Sonic - which, I know that’s just for story context, but it was a little annoying after grabbing all the emeralds as Tails the first time and not knowing that I was supposed to play as Sonic.

On top of those though, Sonic 3’s ‘Blue Sphere’ stages also make a reappearance in the form of bonus stages that can be accessed by activating a checkpoint with 25 rings and jumping into the sparkly halo that forms above. Obviously these don’t allow you to obtain emeralds, but you can use them to collect up to 32 medallions that come in silver or gold depending on whether or not you perfect the stages. These allow you to unlock extra features and modes - such as the ‘& Knuckles’ mode and Debug mode for the regular gameplay, as well as a dedicated Blue Sphere and Mean Bean mode. I’m not quite sure if obtaining the gold medallions makes a difference for unlocking things as opposed to just collecting the silver medallions other than just for the sake of completion, but it’s still a nice little feature to have.

Admittedly though, one slight criticism I have against this game is that the bosses are… kind of a mixed bag overall. Which I guess in all fairness is the case for 90% of Sonic games, but this game in particular has some of the most creative, unique bosses… mixed in some fairly dull ones. 

On the creative side, you have Chemical Plant’s Act 2 boss which turns into a short game of Mean Bean machine which, I mean, is amazing, as well as Green Hill Act 2’s boss which has you find the Death Egg Robot early in the game, as I also enjoyed this game’s take on the Metal Sonic boss and the different Hard Boiled Heavy bosses.

But on the other end, especially in the case of the Act 1 bosses, some of the bosses just kind of feel like those “wait for thing to happen and get a chance to hit” bosses such as Flying Battery Act 1’s boss. It wasn’t quite as much of an issue as Sonic Rush, and the bosses still felt pretty fast to beat, but at the same time some of the bosses just didn’t feel as interesting or creative as others. There’s also Flying Battery Act 2’s boss which I swear has a weird hitbox.

The ‘true’ final boss in Egg Reverie Zone especially feels pretty lame. Basically it just feels like fighting two enemies with predictable attack patterns and going for an opening - which you have to hit each one eight times, making the boss just feel kind of repetitive.

Ultimately I don’t think Mania has the worst bosses ever, even when it comes to the lowest points in the game, but I think it’s more of an issue with how dull some of them are compared to others. Other than that, I don’t have too much else to say.

I mean, apparently there was an easter egg that was patched out that uses a voice clip from videogamedunkey by inputting a series of directions while holding one of the Hydrocity hooks, then using a booster. Which is honestly pretty funny and I have no idea how that got into the game in the first place, but amazing regardless.

Conclusion

Sonic Mania in my opinion definitely serves as a great successor to the classic games - building upon what made them so great in terms of level design and control, all bundled with really good presentation reminiscent of a 2D Saturn game, and ultimately just being a creative, fun time with a lot of passion and love for the franchise’s history behind it. Through and through, it manages to be a really good experience overall as a successor to the classic games and a tribute to retro gaming in general.

That said, when it comes to talking about my favorite Sonic game, between this and Sonic Generations… I still have to give the slight edge to the latter. While Mania is still really good, I don’t really feel like it necessarily offers quite as much of a unique experience. Yes, it still builds upon and improves the classic formula, but it doesn’t feel different enough to where I feel like I would be missing out on much if I swapped it out with any of the other classic games. In comparison, while there are other Boost games, none of them have quite the same feeling as Generations when it comes to both 2D and 3D gameplay, and as such, Generations still feels like a more unique experience overall.

But Sonic Mania still manages a solid second place, and is still a game I would recommend - even as just your first Sonic game. It truly does offer an experience that allows you to understand what the classic games were about and what made them so appealing, and pays tribute to the past while having it’s own spin on it. And if you haven’t played it, I’d definitely recommend doing so, whether you enjoy the classic Sonic games, enjoy retro gaming in general, or even just want a really good 2D platformer.