Sonic Mania has received some backlash from SEGA's use of Denuvo, an anti-tamper technology that interferes with the gameplay itself, on the PC version of the game. SEGA has since responded to the criticism and stated their aim to investigate the problem. However, it would seem the pirate community has 'investigated' the problem faster than the video game publisher could and Denuvo has been successfully cracked.

In the eight days since release, the PC version of Sonic Mania has successfully been cracked. This means that the pirated version of the game lacks the Denuvo anti-tamper tech and can be played offline, and thus it is the definitive way to play the game.

The pirated version of the game includes all the fixes and updates currently applied to the legitimate version, so unless a major update happens, the two will be indistinguishable besides the DRM features. The existence of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech was not disclosed on the game's Steam page, but now that it's known and cracked, it seems clear that SEGA would remove the tech from the legitimate copy of the game.

Despite the backlash on DRM, Sonic Mania has received wonderful praise for its gameplay, being touted as the best Sonic game in 15 years.