Sonic hasn’t had a good time as of late. Many of his games have been lacking and the fans have been divided. There were many who felt Sonic belonged in the past……and others took inspiration from that idea. Sega had worked with indie developers on ports and remasters of the original Sonic games in the last few years. These games were well received, and thus an idea was born, a new game would be made from a remix of classic levels with new ideas and content. The result is Sonic Mania, a game that returned to the past and proved why we fell in love with Sonic.
Sonic Mania is a beautiful tribute to the original games, and serves as a what if? type game, for what kind of Sonic we may have seen on the 32x or Sega Saturn. New ideas such as the drop dash are brought in and they fit wonderfully with the gameplay The new stages and content feel right at home in a Sonic game, and I have to give a lot of credit to the developers for doing this so well. In addition, the games pays homage to various Sega and Sonic games in a variety of ways, from small shoutouts, to a major point that I will not mention due to spoilers. The game definitely keeps things fresh and changes things at the right pace.
There are some issues, namely the Switch version has some delay when interacting with the home button and share button, and there are some bugs that still managed to seep through. It can get annoying but I have not personally noticed anything gamebreaking just yet.
One thing I must comment on is how the game has so much replayability to it, just playing the stages gives you many ways to progress but Playing as a different character really does change things up, especially if you play as Knuckles. It adds a lot to the game, and makes me want to keep playing and experience more. From the boss battles, to the levels, there is great music and animation. The tunes in this game are great and just give you an immersive feeling.
Sonic Mania is a Sonic game that just feels right, even with the bugs. It is a well made game and looks great, and has the right mix of nostalgia and new. It really does help remind people why Sonic became an icon. This is the best Sonic game made in years and I hope Sega continues this. You should definitely check this out.
This game was reviews on the Nintendo Switch.