Sonic Mania

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), 2 Competitive (Local Splitscreen), Online Leaderboards, DLC: 3-4 Competitive (Local Splitscreen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Sonic Mania + Team Sonic Racing Double Pack bundle along with Team Sonic Racing. In addition, it is also in The Ultimate Sonic Bundle, along with Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Forces.)

Sonic Mania is a Platformer that acts as a love letter to fans of the Sonic series, drawing multiple stages and elements from games throughout the series, and tweaking them to create remixed versions of them that present something new.

In practice, this actually works out to be a “best of both worlds” sorta’ situation, since you get the hit of nostalgia from the classic look and feel of the original stages, but with modern stage design that does a better job of highlighting the Sonic series’ strengths and avoiding its weaknesses.

And to be clear, this game has possibly the best stage design of any game in the Sonic series, and on top of that it has some of the most clever boss design, too. I still hold to my position that I’ll take most Mario games over any Sonic game, but Sonic Mania is nevertheless a high watermark for the series in my mind.

Visually, the game looks more or less like it came straight from the 16-bit era, and new stages fit right in with the old ones, and classic stages have both a rendition of their original music as well as a “remixed” version to go with the newer interpretation of the stage… a lot of love went into making this game look and sound great.

It bears mention that the version of the game I played had the Encore DLC (packaged with the game in physical copies as Sonic Mania Plus). This DLC adds two new characters, an “Encore” mode that allows you to swap between characters, and support for 4-player split-screen competitive play – all really nice additions.

All in all, Sonic Mania stands as a new high water-mark for the series. It has superb level design that mixes nostalgia with good game design to make something that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It may not beat Mario in my book, but it’s still a must-have platformer regardless.

tl;dr – Sonic Mania is a Platformer that mixes classic throwback levels with newer, remixed stage design to create something unique and refreshing that stands as the best the series has ever been. It may not top Mario in my book, but it’s a must-have game regardless.

Grade: A-

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