Sonic Mania has finally made what various arms of Sega, including the official Sonic Team staff, haven't pulled off for decades: a great old-school Sonic game. That's a monumental thing in and of itself, considering how long Sonic has struggled as a series—and how many times his major contemporary rival Mario has lapped him, in both modern and retro flavors.
With that hindsight in mind, it's tempting to overlook some of Sonic Mania's shortcomings. This is a lean game, weighing in at around 3-4 hours for a first playthrough—which, to be fair, is comparable to how much you'll find in a Genesis or Mega Drive Sega game. A few peculiar design decisions (and, at launch, bugs) can hinder the fun you'll have in your first playthrough. And this game has no interest in holding your hand, so don't expect a relaxing reintroduction to the blue bomber.
But having a good Sonic game again means having a platformer that emphasizes the word "speed" and all it implies—including level density, tucked-away secrets, pitch-perfect controls, and satisfying run-and-jump pathing. Many games have tried to recapture Sonic's magic over the years (including Sega itself, with 2002's Sonic Advance 2 worth a shout-out). But this week's Mania combines the familiar and the new to declare that maybe, just maybe, only Sonic can do it best.
Gotta go fast
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Some of these images were captured with the game's built-in CRT filter, which is easily disabled if you don't care for it.
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Old level, new trick: you can repeatedly jump within the spouts in Oil Ocean Zone to reach new places.
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A tricky mix of useful petals and damaging chomping mouths pop out of these stems.
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Sonic's on a boat. Take a picture.
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Sonic is clearly not impressed by Eggman's train. Can't blame him: he's got his own plane.
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One nice nugget hidden in Sonic Mania: the Knuckles campaign has a totally different first level, and it's quite good.
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Bounce with bunnies.
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These letter-block platforms appear and disappear depending on the letter.
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Turn into a block of ice and get boosted to get around.
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The time trial mode lets you immediately die-and-retry should you miss a jump in your speedrunning progress. Here, Tails aims for a new low time in the new, neon-loaded Studiopolis Zone.
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Run in place with this hand over your head to go faster.
Mania opens with a sliver of plot: Dr. Eggman (aka Dr. Robotnik) is back, and he has a variety of robotic assistants to help him wreak havoc on a mix of familiar and brand-new environments. The game's brief, confusing, wordless cut scenes pop up between some zones but not others, and they are honestly one of Mania's biggest letdowns. The game never really explains why we're madly dashing from old environments to new ones and back again.
What the game lacks in sensible plot, it makes up for with ridiculous amounts of fan service. Mania employs an interesting design tactic of remaking older games' zones—a lot of them, in fact, with eight classic zones represented from five games (Sonic 1-3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD). You may expect the worst after diving into Mania's first level: a nearly identical version of Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone (which, ugh, Sega has already remade about 40 times at this point). But eagle-eyed players will notice a few intriguing differences in this first level, in terms of brand-new running paths and other tucked-away secrets. But that's nothing compared to the zone's second stage, which sees design studio PagodaWest open up the tried-and-true level with a simple zip-line system.
The other zone remakes are even more adventurous. Usually, they open with note-for-note remakes of their forebears, but these only last about 10-15 seconds before changes small and large become apparent—like a new bouncy-pool system in Chemical Plant Zone, a pair of giant lava-walking boots needed to traverse the Lava Reef Zone, and a pollution-timer problem in the Oil Ocean Zone that forces players to vent dangerous smoke on a regular basis. The familiar never takes long to make way for the new and refreshing, and the same can be said for four brand-new zones that borrow liberally from other Sonic games' best. The brand-new zones carry the "Sonic Spinball" torch of elements, like flippers and bounce pads, and they add even more intense zip-around mechanics like a magnetic attract-and-launch system in the final Titanic Monarch Zone.
My time playing Sonic Mania's 12 zones (two levels each) drastically improved once I beat the game—and therefore freed my mental energy from the simple act of getting through. Each level has been designed to turn exploration and route optimization into fun acts in and of themselves. Finding the right place to become frozen—and then get launched as an ice cube—in the new Press Garden Zone is a delight, and I loved coming to grips with the verticality and route experimentation opened up by Lava Reef's second, unbelievable act.
Other little secrets and discoveries piled up from there (including, among other things, learning how the "special" shields do special things in certain parts of the game). A lot is going on in terms of 2D level design in Mania, and the time-attack mode is a great way to relive its highlights.
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