WAIT! ISN’T THAT…?

How Sonic Mania employs scrapped content from earlier Sonic games

GOGGLES

■ When Sonic pilots the Tornado, you can see him wearing goggles. These were scrapped from the original Sonic The Hedgehog, and fans believe they were meant for use in underwater areas to help Sonic breathe.

JUMP POSE

■ In early prototypes of Sonic The Hedgehog, jumping after you’d passed the stage-end post could cause Sonic to leap into the air with his fist raised triumphantly. His act clear animation here is adapted from that.

SPLATS

■ This bad bunny was scrapped from Sonic The Hedgehog but still managed to appear on early merchandise. It finally gets to make its debut as an enemy in the brand-new Press Garden Zone stage.

MIRAGE SALOON

■ This brand-new desert stage combines elements of an unused desert stage from a Sonic 2 mock-up screenshot shown in an advert and the scrapped Desert Dazzle stage from the 2011 Sonic CD remaster.