Sonic Mania Review Embargo is Up (and the Reaction is Positive)

Sonic Mania review embargo is up and the reviews are coming in and the reaction has been very strong. A good sonic game is here!

Gamespot 9

IGN 8.6

Game Informer 8.5

Destructoid 8

Eurogamer - Essential

The Verge

Polygon 7/10

Waypoint

With Whitehead involved I cant say its shocking but I am relieved to see that it seems to be exactly what it promised

Can't wait for the quicklook :)

Hot take: Is this the best sonic game in 17 years?

Few more reviews.

• Eurogamer - Essential
• The Verge
• Polygon 7/10

Hell, maybe I'll actually play a new Sonic game after last having played one...24 years ago, oh lord.

Really happy to see that it's receiving great reviews so far! Definitely looking forward to the quicklook also, @elwood!

In general I'm sure people will hold it up as the Sonic game they should have made this whole time, but I thought Colors and Generations were legitimately great.

Is this just a collection of the old games or are these all new levels made like the classic ones on the genesis? Sorry I haven't kept up with this game and I'm always lookin to beef up my switch catalog.

We're in the end times. A good Sonic game came out.

Note: I liked generations, but all that side mission stuff hamstrung it bad.

Good for the development team! Seems like they went above and beyond creating a 2D Sonic that follows the heritage of the Genesis classics and for making possibly the best Sonic game in over a decade. Can see this as a best surprise contender if the GB folks like it.

From things they've said, it sounds like a few of the crew are in the revisionist "Sonic was never actually good" camp.

It's a mixture of old levels remade, along with completely new ones in similiar style to the days of olde, or at least that's what I've gathered.

@sackmanjones: Brand new title. Made to look like a mix of the classic Genesis Sonic games and Sonic CD from what I've read about it. So basically the "sequel" to Sonic CD. Development was lead by a fan and celebrated member of the Sonic fangame/romhack community, Christian Whitehead.

That's all I really know about it. I'm not the biggest Sonic fan, but the story behind this game seemed interesting and what I think Sega should have done a while ago.

Is this the apocalypse? Damn it, I didn't wear my apocalypse pants.

Finally a proper sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, I'm very excited for tomorrow/tonight, I kinda knew this would be good though due the people involved

2017 sure is an odd year. Now to wait 2 weeks for the PC version...

I'm sure I will be shot for this. But I've always been more into the 3D ones. Even having a genesis as a kid. Might get this during a sale if only for the music.

I'm legitimately debating faking sick tomorrow to play this all day.

I'm totally with you there. The internet hate for anything 3D Sonic is something I will never, ever agree with. Some of his best games come from the 3D era.

That said, I'm buying this immediately tomorrow, no questions asked.

And here's another hot take: Sonic 3 and Knuckles' absolutely garbage save system, douchebag-ey Super Emerald design choices, sometimes hellish level design, and perhaps the worst final boss in Sonic history disqualify it from being the best 2D Sonic game. That honor goes to the Sonic CD remake.

Jeff does like Sonic CD the most though, and a lot of people are saying this feels like a sequel to that game.

I'm happy for the long suffering fans of Sonic to have a good game.

Guys, they accidentally made a good sonic game.

That's awesome, I was hoping this would turn out great. I'll likely pick it up for the Switch, seems prefect as a portable game too.

Sonic makes his triumphant return to glory!

@myketuna: got it. Sounds kinda neat, may have to keep an eye on it.

I haven't read the reviews yet, but there's one thing that I'm curious about:

Is this genuinely a good game or is it a game good for your nostalgia?

Like, if someone never played a Sonic game, would they enjoy this one? Or is this a good game only if you enjoyed the older ones?

Christian Whitehead, the maker of this game, also worked on remakes of the older games like Sonic 2 and Sonic CD. In each of the remakes, he put in a lot of quality of life features to improve the games like getting rid of an annoying deathtrap that would result in a dead game for a while in Sonic 2, or increasing the draw distance in that game's special stages to make collecting the Chaos Emeralds less hair-pullingly frustrating, or smoothing out the frame rate in Sonic CD's special stages to make them actually playable. He did this when he could've just moved the games to another console and fans would eat it up.

There very well may be some nostalgia bait in the game, but the man has a track record of focusing on quality and making sure the game is enjoyable for both newcomers and experts alike. I think you'll be fine :)

@nicksmi56: @johnymyko: it being a good game only if you enjoyed the older ones and it being all nostalgia is a false dichotomy. A more accurate way to put it would be it's the same as it was, so if you didn't like those you're unlikely to like this one. it's not merely preying on nostalgia, from everything I've seen it just is one of those games, with some fun twists.

Even Hotter Take: Best Sonic game in 24 years.

Call me crazy, but a new Sonic game in 2017, no matter the quality, is just not something I could care less about in any way. Glad for the people that have suffered through all the garbage though.

This has me really excited, probably getting this for the Switch

Now granted I used to follow the Sonic fan game community pretty intensely so maybe I have a weird perspective on this, but I'm going to be honest - this is not a surprise in the least to anyone who is familiar with Christian Whitehead's work. Also, I wish I was playing this right now.

I'm happy to play it, got it pre ordered for tonight. The asking price is reasonable and they seem to be hitting the right notes. From what I've seen, I've felt convinced this is gonna be something to see. I'm on board, and for the first time since like early 2000's I'm actually excited for a sonic game.

Give it a year before the "all Sonic games are total garbage" starts up again :P. Never let reality stand in the way of a satisfying narrative.

Hey guys, on an entirely unrelated note the only thing worse than Sonic games is that E.T. game. Did you know it's the worst game ever made? Also Dragon Quest games must release on weekends by law and Final Fantasy was named such since Square was about to go bankrupt.

Oh the fun we're having.

EDIT: Also "they both sucked and I had no choice"

Holy shit, I just saw that there's a Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine boss battle and now I'm suddenly way more interested in this game despite never really loving old Sonic.

Fool me a dozen times...

That's pretty cool that sonic fans finally got a good one. I bounced after 3d blast on genesis, but might check this out.

Am I the only one not impressed?

Wasn't it always the 3D games that were the problem children? I'll be shocked when they make a good 3D sonic game.

I have absolutely zero interest in Sonic, but I am really happy that fans might finally have a good new Sonic game to play.

Generations and Colors say hello

I disbelieve.

There is no such thing as a good Sonic game

I don't like Sonic platforming physics, so even if this game turns out to be "a good one of those" I doubt I'd really enjoy it. I'll probably keep, keeping my eye out for impressions though.

just do Sonic Maker already.

TMobile is apparently going to give away a bunch of Sonic Mania keys tomorrow. I think this being good even took Sega by surprise.

My first hour was very enjoyable. It feels like a lost sequel to sonic CD for the Saturn. Music is great it looks good, and more importantly it avoids the issue a lot of sonic games had where they didn't mix the speed and platforming well. The game feels very layered so you feel in control. You can go fast but also "hey look at that thing up there."

Why isn't this available on the eShop yet???

Sigh, guess tomorrow morning will have to do.

I was so confused for the first couple seconds before I realized what was happening. That part's great, although I had a weird glitch just after that where I seemed stuck, but it eventually corrected itself.

Anyway, game seems cool after the first three or four levels.

So what's the idea behind 2D Sonic games? Do you want to replay the levels trying different routes? Replay with characters with different abilities? Just plow through the levels? Never played one, wanna get this on the Switch, wondering what the general idea behind these games are besides he moves fast.

@sloppydetective Pretty much yes to all of the above. You can also look for chaos emeralds which you get by completeing hidden bonus levels, and in this game you can get medals for completeting checkpoint stages. Usually getting all of these gives you a better ending. Though I just beat the first level so I'm not exactly an expert.

Physics feel good, music is incredible, the levels seem well designed. I like it quite a lot so far