
The main playthrough of the game takes place in “Mania Mode”, upon which a playable character is selected. The game uses an autosave feature that saves the player’s progress at certain points. GameplayĮmulating the style of the original Sonic Sega Mega Drive games, Sonic Mania is a 2D sprite-based side-scrolling platform game with Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower and Knuckles the Echidna as playable characters. with Sonic, Tails, the Hard Boiled Heavies, and Knuckles the Echidna, who was relaxing nearby, getting caught in the warp. As they did so, space-time suddenly warped around them. Sonic and Tails arrive on Angel Island just as the Hard Boiled Heavies excavate the source of the signal, a mysterious gemstone known as the “Phantom Ruby”, from the ground. Realizing it could be a source of unspeakable power, Eggman immediately dispatches his elite robot minions―a group of five elite Egg-Robos known as the Hard Boiled Heavies―to retrieve it. Eggman, having discovered the dimensional breach, has detected this energy signature too. Sonic and Tails thus head to Angel Island in the Tornado. Despite not being the Chaos Emeralds, this reading is remarkably powerful, and Tails convinces Sonic to investigate it with him. While he and Sonic are relaxing, Tails picks up this odd energy reading. PlotĪfter Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles “Tails” Prower saved Angel Island, a sudden dimensional breach occurs in the atmosphere, causing a unique energy wave signature to appear on Angel Island.
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Additionally, an update released alongside Sonic Mania Plus adds more cutscenes and a reworked Metal Sonic battle based on his appearance in Knuckles’ Chaotix. a pinball bonus stage, and a four-player competition mode. It also made me more conscious of the number of rings I was carrying at any given time, as you have to be holding 50 to access this.It adds playable characters Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel from the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, each with unique abilities: Mighty can slam the ground and is immune to spikes when in ball form, while Ray can glide without losing altitude. As a fan of pinball, I found these to be a welcome and fun distraction and way to earn back characters, even if characters’ 3D models could occasionally get stuck in corners for a couple seconds.

Special stages have been overhauled, and are now pinball sections calling back to titles like Sonic Spinball. Sonic Mania Plus’ Encore Mode is similar to the base game at it score but makes a few small tweaks to keep things feeling fresh. That being said, these are very small nitpicks, and barely take away from the whole experience. Also, “game overs” are a bit more intrusive, as you have to build up fifty rings to go to the special stages to get those characters back. Both characters have to be at a complete standstill to switch between them, which can mess with the pacing in some parts. While this system does function well for the most part, I do have a few little grievances with it.

Mighty has a strong downward thrusting attack and can get an extra hit before losing rings, and Ray can glide across levels. As someone well-versed in the series’ history, I can’t help but have a smile on my face seeing Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel in action again for the first time since Knuckles’ Chaotix and SegaSonic the Hedgehog respectively. The brand new characters and Encore mode Sonic Mania Plus introduces allow the game to become even more of an addiction to SEGA/ Sonic junkies. The primary campaign should last players more than 5 to 6 hours and offers a ton of replayability with the hidden chaos emeralds, different paths in levels, and multiple playable characters. The labyrinthine (but always easy to navigate) levels are all designed well, and stage designers know when it’s best to speed things up or slow things down. Sonic Mania Plus still features all of the content of the original, which still holds up a year after release.

This package and its new features only bolster an already fantastic experience, and warrants players to finally pick the game up if they have not done so yet.
