Before the release of Sonic Mania Plus, Sega is jumping back in and adding in some requested features (and fixing some grievances) for the original Sonic Mania. The patch has just hit for PS4 owners in the UK, but should be rolling out to other platforms and territories shortly.

In addition to the the ability to skip cutscenes, new animations, and some minor changes to level design, this patch includes 4 major updates:

All stages now have added cutscenes that connect one level to the next. One of the bosses has revamped with a new final sequence. You can view the new battle here *SPOILERS* Unlockable abilities like the Insta-Shield can be used on Save Game files instead of only No Save files. The stage time limit can now be disabled from the Options screen.

It’s nice to see that Sega hasn’t forgotten about Sonic Mania (it helps that they’ve finally released a Sonic game worth remembering), although the permanently changed boss battle raises some interesting questions about the preservation of games in this digital age. Agree? Disagree? Let us know your thoughts below!