Sonic Mania
Developer Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, PagodaWest Games Publisher Sega Format PC, PS4, Switch (tested), Xbox One Release Out now
So your schoolmate’s dad who worked for Nintendo was right after all. Here is, to all intents and purposes, a 16bit Sonic game on a console belonging to Sega’s biggest rival of the time. It’s a Mega Drive game in look and in spirit, made by a group of developers that grew up with Sega’s mascot. It soon becomes clear that this team has a profound understanding of how those old games worked. Yet it’s a double-edged sword: Mania carries the ring of authenticity, but it’s faithful to a fault.
Its project leads cut their teeth in the fangame community, and so it’s no surprise to find Mania wheeling out the hits – albeit in remixed form. Sonic & Knuckles’ Flying Battery is there, as is Sonic 2’ s Oil Ocean. And when you reach the first wholly original stage, Studiopolis, it’s smothered in references: from Daytona USA to Streets Of Rage and even deep cuts like SegaSonic Popcorn Shop, a Japanese-only vending machine. The message is clear – ‘We know our stuff’ – but at times you’ll wish it would ease up on the nods and winks.
Amid all the homages, there are moments of real flair. Mirage Saloon is thrillingly stuffed with ideas: sandy loops that disintegrate as you pass through them, rotating revolvers that fire Sonic like a spiky bullet, and This boss shows Mania at its best and worst. You leap over long, thin missiles while bouncing the smaller, fatter projectiles back to sender, but the scroll speed stalls your momentum, leading to unavoidable collisions piano keys to bounce between. The wintry, blossomflecked Press Garden is not only beautiful, but also has an appealing gimmick, as Sonic finds himself encased in blocks of ice that slide down ramps and smash through obstructions. When it’s not trying to prove its credentials, Studiopolis in particular feels so recognisably Sonic we had to double-check it hadn’t once featured in some cancelled Saturn version.
Even here, there are moments of counterintuitive design. If Sonic’s biggest attribute is his speed, why are enemies and hazards so frequently positioned to arrest your momentum? Its challenge is often reliant on withholding information: hidden enemies, sudden pitfalls, springs that push you into spikes, forcing you to memorise stages you’re often hurtling through too quickly to take in. Conversely, time pressures discourage you from slowing down during the sprawling later zones. The moments of ingenuity you come to admire most are those where you’re least in control, and you’re reminded that Sonic games are more fun when they’re pinball tables rather than platformers: when you set this ball of energy in motion and watch him go. Mania’s fixation on the past may have precluded its creators from addressing historical flaws, though that was never really the aim. This convincing comeback has been designed for the die-hards – and they haven’t been this well served by a Sonic game for ages.