Sonic Mania takes gamers on a joyful journey down memory lane
After more than 20 years, Sonic has finally returned to his classic 16-bit roots. But will Sonic Mania make fans feel like kids again?
Hot on the heels of the PS1 classic Crash Bandicoot’s return to modern gaming consoles in July, another iconic 90s gaming character burst back to life this week — Sonic the Hedgehog.
And with Sonic Mania, the blue blur has returned in triumphant fashion.
As gaming characters go, Sonic has amassed an astonishing following of incredibly passionate fans over the decades. But many have been waiting just as long for SEGA’s famous mascot to stop faffing around in 3D mediocrity and embrace the 16-bit formula that made so many of us fall in love with him in the first place.
Sonic Mania is more than just a wonderfully executed homage to a bygone era in gaming — it’s a shining example of the emotional power of nostalgia.
Start a game, see the Green Hill Zone titles appear and hear that familiar refrain hit and you’re immediately transported back to a time when deadlines, bills, and the general chaotic uncertainty of modern life couldn’t be further from your mind.
Old favourite levels return reinvigorated by new interpretations from the developers. Fans of the original Mega Drive quadriology will immediately recognise the underwater sections of Hydrocity Zone or the scenery-shifting set pieces from the boss in Lava Reef Zone, yet all the returning stages have been remixed with new sections and elements that still feel perfectly at home with that classic Sonic style.
Even the newcomers to the series manage to shine while still fitting perfectly with Sonic’s side-scrolling gameplay. Studiopolis Zone is bursting with visual gimmicks and level design that borrows heavily from the casino inspired zones of old, while the final Titan Monarch Zone offers one of the greatest challenges and tests of endurance in the series’s history.
From the brilliant level design to the multiple references covering the length and breadth of Sonic’s 26 year history, Sonic Mania has so many elements that will create nothing but joy and happiness in the hearts of anyone to whom the original Mega Drive games meant something.
There’s no dialogue, no major cut-scenes and little in the way of plot linking the game’s 12 zones together. Yet the franchise’s three original heroes — Sonic, Tails and Knuckles — still manage to ooze their individual personalities in their animations and mannerisms.
Sonic is bold, adventurous and cheeky. Tails is cute and shy, yet brave. And Knuckles is brash and headstrong, but still fiercely loyal and willing to fight for what he knows is right.
In Eggman — who many would stubbornly still refer to as ‘Dr. Robotnik’ — Sonic continues to have one of gaming’s most endearingly cartoonish villains. The sheer variety of boss battles throughout Sonic Mania range from challenging to ingenious. With Chemical Plant Zone’s unconventional final boss providing perhaps one of Mania’s best and unexpected callbacks.
While gaming is arguably enjoying one of the finest periods of its history with a wealth of high quality and high budget releases over these last two years, Sonic Mania is a shining example of old-school game design philosophies meeting modern hardware to create an experience that is so much greater than the sum of its part.
Back in the 90s, games were still viewed as a childish medium. Dismissed as silly and generally derided as a waste of time.
Fast-forward two decades and Sonic Mania goes to show not only that there is life still in the Hedgehog’s 16-bit, 2D roots, but that, sometimes, it’s just bloody good fun to feel like a kid again.
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