Sonic Mania feeds off nostalgia, but crucially, it isn’t owned by it. I never thought I’d write a positive review of a Sonic game again, but here we are. And anyway, it’s such a relentlessly fast-paced game that getting back to where you were takes no time at all. But for me this brings an enjoyable tension to those moments when I’m down to my last life and fighting a boss. Some have complained about the archaic save system, which forces you start a zone from scratch if you lose all your lives. But in light of how perfectly it captures the spirit of Sonic’s golden years, these inconsistencies are easy to forgive. A few of the bosses are just plain frustrating, and in certain zones the flow of the level feels off. Like with most Sonic games, these are both fun and incredibly frustrating.But while I’d consider Sonic 2 to be an almost perfect game, Sonic Mania does have some notable dips in quality. These have you control Sonic in a 3D space, chasing a UFO while collecting blue orbs for speed and rings to restore the draining time limit. Chaos emeralds are also featured in Sonic Mania and can be collected through newly created special stages.
I ended up finishing Sonic Mania in a day with over ten lives, but if I wasn’t so familiar with Sonic and how he plays, Sonic Mania would’ve taken me much longer to complete. By the game’s final level, I had no idea where I was going. Similar to Sonic CD, a few of the stages can also become a bit confusing. Some of the stages do suffer from an overabundance of mechanics, however, along with a few straight-up annoying design choices like springs that go directly into an enemy of spike pit. The stages I remembered clearly were simple because I knew the majority of the gimmicks I’d be up against. Stage gimmicks are taken from a number of different games and implemented into Sonic Mania’s levels along with never-seen-before traps. The difficulty of Sonic Mania can vary depending on how well you know the series. I was surprised to find that this is one of the harder Sonic games in the series. The moment I learned of this new move, it became the most natural way to approach nearly any situation. By pressing and holding the jump button again while in the air, Sonic can build up speed and blast off in a ball the moment he hits the ground. Sonic’s new ability, the drop dash, is amazing.
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are all playable in this game with the latter two featuring their abilities from Sonic 3 and Knuckles. The story is told in a similar way to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, featuring short, voiceless cutscenes in-between stages. In Sonic Mania, Sonic is up against not only Dr Eggman but also a new group of robots he’s created known as the Hard-Boiled Heavies. The game also features a brand new story, picking up after the events of Sonic 3. Designed to look and play identically to the Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis, Sonic Mania features popular stages from Sonic’s side-scrolling past with new additions and remixed songs while also introducing brand new stages. Developed as a part of Sonic’s 25 th anniversary, Sonic Mania celebrates nearly everything from the hedgehog’s early days.