Poor Sonic Team. After Sonic the Hedgehog and its Mega Drive sequels captured the imaginations of school kids around the world in 1991, the development studio behind the character hasn’t quite been able to find the magic formula that made the original game such a hit. After years of ill-thought out additions - werehogs, treasure hunts, royal love interests, even the third-dimension was arguably a stretch too far - it has taken an officially endorsed fan-game to recapture the essence of what made Sonic the only real challenge to Mario’s platforming crown all those years ago.

If the 90s had never ended, Sonic Mania is the follow-up we would have had instead of making do playing Big the Cat fishing mini-games in Sonic Adventure. All those horrid secondary characters we’ve grown to hate over the years are nowhere to be seen, save for a couple of cameos that only hardcore Sonic fans will even recognise such as the cast of Sonic Championship. The player guides Sonic, Tails and Knuckles across two-dimensional rollercoaster levels (sorry, “zones”) made in the style of the Mega Drive originals and full of loops, springs and spike traps. It’s exhilarating.

Return to those familiar Green Hills. Photograph: Sega

One of the problems that Sonic games have had in the near two-decades since the last great one is making him fun to control. He’s a hedgehog that runs fast, so naturally it’s a tricky feat to accomplish. Over the years he’s been too twitchy, or too stubborn; too heavy, or too floaty and always too eager to fall off the nearest ledge into the abyss below. How do you solve the problem?

The secret is to embrace the lack of control. For every tricky series of precision leaps and enemy-filled gauntlets, Sonic Mania rewards players with breathless rushes where the blue blur’s momentum takes care of everything. All the player has to do is watch in wonder as Sonic spins and dashes through corkscrews and pipes, flies up into Sega-blue skies and rushes down green hills.

Very familiar Green Hills they are too, as Sonic Mania is in part a greatest hits package, with most of the levels being remixes of stages from the original Mega Drive games. It’s a great trick, capitalising on the warm nostalgia of favourite old levels, and also the familiar dread of where many 90s Sonic players met their end. Who can forget the sight of Sonic drowning in Chemical Plant Zone’s pink acid? The trick would be much more effective, though, if the Sonic series hadn’t spent the best part of 15 years celebrating its own past on many occasions. Green Hill zone itself has seen countless revisits and remixes over the years.

The difference is that Sonic’s past hasn’t been celebrated quite like this. The sheer love and dedication shines through in the craft of Sonic Mania. Every classic level recreation adds welcome twists and gimmicks. It can be shallow fun at times, but it’s difficult not to enjoy the sheer thrill of watching Sonic teleport through airwaves or be shot from a giant handgun. Those harsh 16-bit limitations reveal true artistry in the animation; hold up on the d-pad to see Sonic looking towards the sky with more character and charm than he ever had as the fully-voiced bro who appeared when he made his Dreamcast debut.

Sonic Mania is what Sonic fans have been crying out for all these years. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The only shame is that the developers, Headcannon and PagodaWest, are perhaps too beholden to the past, either by their own design or by orders from Sega. Of the dozen levels in the game, only a handful are brand new, and it’s in those stages that the game shines brightest.



Studiopolis is a neon-lit journey through a CRT cityscape full of bumpers and lightning fast set-pieces; Press Garden’s parallax scrolling printing press transforms into a beautiful Japanese garden full of cherry blossoms. As brilliant as the remixed classic stages are, it’s hard not to wish that the developers were given the chance to fill their game with entirely new levels. As a statement of intent though, Sonic Mania makes a great case for allowing them to do so next time round.

If there are issues, they’re in the boss stages, which end up being too convoluted in their attempts to play with Sonic conventions. Neat little jokes end up outstaying their welcome on a few occasions, and none of the bosses really rival their inspirations from the Mega Drive era. These moments pass though, and before long Sonic is back where he belongs, running through stages that no other platforming star can dream of.

Sonic Mania is what Sonic fans, both lapsed and unwavering since the Mega Drive days, have crying out for all these years. It is a celebration of Sonic history. It is the greatest possible gift to the video game ilegend after spending so many years in the abyss; so great, in fact, that it took someone other than Sonic Team to give it to him.

Sega; Switch (version tested)/PS4/Xbox One/; £16; Pegi rating: 3

