You know, the ones who translated the one game in your favorite series that only got a Japanese release completely into English, or spent their free-time designing a special ROM hack that contained settings and beta stages and music for the best of everything from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Only those obsessive nerds (and I say that positively) found only on the Internet could inject this much detail into one game. The attention to detail is bar-none, the greatest love letter to the Sega Genesis Sonic games that one could possibly think of. But after so long, would fans buy it? And after so many disappointments, would Sonic Mania live up to the hype of its predecessors, started nearly 25 years ago?Īt the start, one can easily tell that Sonic Mania’s creators, a small team of only two developers, three designers, and one music producer, were the most die-hard of Sonic fans. Regardless of how many times the classics have been re-released, a full-fledged Sonic game with new zones is what the people wanted.
Here Sonic was again, ready to run back into the arms, and hearts, of the gamers who initially cherished him back in 1991 and made both Sega and its Genesis household names. Blogs were heralding the return of the prodigal son, long lost to the temptations of the foreign lands of 3D graphics and whatever new animal Sonic Team could anthropomorphize. There was beautiful 2D pixel art, new zones, and fantastic music. There was Sonic, once again in glorious 2D, and 60 FPS to boot! No wonky physics, no homing attack, no “warehogs,” and no cut scenes with new friends. When the trailer for Sonic Mania appeared last July, and its creators stating they wanted to make a 2D game for the Sega Saturn, it was as if, after a long storm, the rays of sunshine had finally graced the skies. This reception internally gave Whitehead and Thomley, who had at this point become legends in the realm of fan-game creators, enough of Sega’s trust to make Sonic Mania. These ports, which were re-coded from the ground up and included new features, and in Sonic 2’s case an entirely new level, garnered great reception with fans and the company. It understandably came as a surprise when Whitehead was given the green-light to develop official ports of Sonic 1, 2 and CD, to iOS and Android. In past years, Fan game creators were used to getting handed cease-and-desist letters when they made sequels to their favorite franchises, and SEGA was no exception to this, giving one to Streets of Rage fan-game creator BOMBERGames, for their lovingly-developed fan mashup Streets of Rage Remake. Longtime Sonic fan game creators Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead and Simon “Stealth” Thomley have diligently perfected their craft over the past two decades on ROM hacks like Sonic Megamix, which was noted for its physics engine being identical to the original games.
And, in a move that shocked the gaming world, SEGA was handing the next iteration of its most heralded (and maligned) franchise to two fan game creators. So, when Sonic Mania, a 2D Sonic game with pixel-perfect graphics and new zones was announced unexpectedly at Sonic The Hedgehog’s 25 th Anniversary party, the crowd went wild.
I played everything: From the 2D re-releases of the original games on Android and iOS, to the online fan games, forgotten Game Gear spin-offs, and indie titles such as Freedom Planet, inspired by the original series. I had played everything I could get my hands-on when it came to old-school Sonic. Like Lazarus returning from the dead, the beloved 2D Sonic The Hedgehog was returning in an all-new game. Never in my life had I been more excited for the launch of a game before Sonic Mania.