Sonic Mania was released on PC less than a month ago, and already there are dozens of mods for it available online. In the short time since release, fans have figured out how to modify art assets, sound effects, music, and even use cheat codes by changing some data values.

For Sonic The Hedgehog fans, making alterations to their favorite games is half of the fun.

However, this past monday, 9/25, a new patch for Sonic Mania was released.[1] The update was nothing more than a small collection of bug fixes, however it may have some unforseen consequences.

Prior to the patch, most Sonic Mania mods used the Mania Mod Loader, a program created by user “MainMemory” of the SonicRetro forum. This program organizes and loads mods, as well as having many options for cheat codes such as infinite lives, or being able to use special abilities like peel-out and insta-shield outside of no-save mode.

Monday’s update to Sonic Mania left many players with an error screen.

Unfortunately, Mania Mod Loader is not compatible with the 1.03 patch of Sonic Mania, meaning that nearly all mods are currently unusable. This sort of thing tends to happen with PC games, however fans might have to wait longer than they anticipate to play their favorite mods again.

When asked how long he expected an update to Mania Mod Loader would take, author MainMemory gave a suprising answer.

I am not presently willing to rewrite the mod loader to be compatible with the new version of the game. In the mean time, you can download the previous version. [2]

This answer is particularly intriguing. MainMemory is not simply saying they do not have the time to update the program, but rather they are not interested in updating it at all. The motives behind their cryptic message aren’t clear, but what is clear is that Sonic Mania fans may need to wait for an entirely new mod loader to be build from the ground up.

[1] Patch Notes: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonicTheHedgehog/comments/72dwyc/sonic_mania_patch_notes_103/

[2] MainMemory’s Response: http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?s=d52ea6833a94b8c56058d221525eef8f&showtopic=37160&st=60