Sonic Mania

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 678 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 560 out of 678
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 678
  3. Negative: 82 out of 678
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  1. Metayerju
    Aug 30, 2019
    6
    Worth a run. Good free game on psn plus. It is a bit dated. Slightly boring
  2. westkent
    Aug 17, 2017
    5
    Sonic Mania is a sonic game made for sonic fans. That means that if you never enjoyed sonic like me you are not likely to enjoy this game, this game has amazing music and sprites, every world feels new and different and the boss fight is pretty cool. But the problem I have always had with sonic remains, you are too fast to avoid anything when you are rolling and area that requires tightSonic Mania is a sonic game made for sonic fans. That means that if you never enjoyed sonic like me you are not likely to enjoy this game, this game has amazing music and sprites, every world feels new and different and the boss fight is pretty cool. But the problem I have always had with sonic remains, you are too fast to avoid anything when you are rolling and area that requires tight platforming is very frustrating due to sonic being super slippery. Overall, just because this is the best sonic game in a long time does not make it a good game to me, and if you didn't like sonic before this isn't going to change your mind, so dont buy into the hype unless you are a hardcore sonic fan.… Expand
  3. SuperkenGaming
    Aug 19, 2017
    7
    Sonic Mania
    Even the best 2D sonic game is still a 2d Sonic game
    I’ve dipped my toe in all of the original 2d sonic games and none of them ever grabbed me, they felt like they were lacking any sense of direction After hearing the praise about Sonic Mania and people saying things like if you’re a platforming fan play this but if you’re a sonic fan definitely play this I thought this was    Sonic Mania
    Even the best 2D sonic game is still a 2d Sonic game
    I’ve dipped my toe in all of the original 2d sonic games and none of them ever grabbed me, they felt like they were lacking any sense of direction
    After hearing the praise about Sonic Mania and people saying things like if you’re a platforming fan play this but if you’re a sonic fan definitely play this
    I thought this was it.. This would be the one…
    I’m actually a fan of a few 3d sonic games so I was excited to finally become a 2d sonic fan... and well…
    It never Happened
    Sonic Mania is a platformer where you play as either sonic, tails, sonic and tails, or knuckles, all with their won perks and unique play styles…
    and you make it through all 13 zones that are split into 2 acts, almost doubling the levels as the 2nd act can look and feel completely different from the first..
    They all have their own unique feel and sound, and while at the end of the day I may not like the gameplay, the look and feel of these levels were my favorite part...
    sonic mania is all about gaining momentum and collecting rings…
    rings act as your life and if you lose them all you have to die and restart from a checkpoint…
    which if you’re a sonic noob like me, will happen a lot
    you know what it’s like to play ice levels in a platforming game, where you’re sliding all over the place?
    This is what playing sonic mania feels like…
    I know this is what sonic is. But just because something is the way it’s supposed to be doesn’t make it good...
    Platforming feels frustrating because this hedgehog slides off platforms extremely easy forcing you to restart an entire section and it happens way too frequently
    speaking of restarting some moments unless I missed something don’t have a fail save, for example I got a fire pick up which caught a platform on fire and I couldn’t figure out how to progress the level, I had to die and restart from a checkpoint losing one of my precious lives
    … if there was one somewhere, that’s on the game for me not being able to find it.. Not me...
    this was only the first level of the game I shouldn’t already be getting hit with things like this
    It shows a lack of direction in the level design which I feel this entire series of 2d games suffers from...
    I’m zipping through levels going in all kinds of directions...
    I never feel a sense of direction or have any sense how deep I am into a level aside from a few more linear feeling levels…
    These levels are short but feel endless because everything inside of its act looks the same and feels like a jumbled mess
    once you make It through act 1 you take on a miniboss and act 2 you take on the main boss
    these bosses being my 2nd favorite part of the game, but do require a little bit of trial and error... Thankfully are right next to checkpoints, but rarely have rings in them to save you...
    And this is where my ultimate frustration comes in with this game…
    There is a game over like it’s the 80s and 90s all over again...
    sure if you clear an entire zone and beat both bosses you have nothing to worry about…
    But no matter what... no matter how deep you get into a level... if you lose all of your lives… you have to play the entire level all over again…
    that means if you’re on the final boss and you’re on your last life.. which again these bosses are very trial and error with no rings to give you the opportunity to get your trialing on…
    and you die… you not only have to redo act 2 and get to the boss again,.. You also have to go back and beat act 1 and its mini boss again...
    an act that you’ve already proven yourself in…
    for what? Just to be annoying?
    Just to waste your time and drain your lives so it happens again?
    Acts themselves feel like full-fledged levels, it’s ridiculous to not give the player a campaign checkpoint at the end of a mini boss or at least a difficulty setting for this, especially to make the game more accessible to people that aren’t sonic vets
    it will never be fun for me to have to replay levels ive beat ever..
    I’ve already proved I can clear that section, let me move on
    there are some cool nods to the entire series here like sonic 3d and a few others that I don’t want to spoil that genuinely made me happy to run into…
    But still sonic mania just couldn’t turn me into a 2D sonic fan,
    This may without a doubt be a masterpiece for a sonic game…
    just don’t ignore that for a sonic game part…
    Overall this 2d sonic game is solid, buts it’s still a 2d sonic game
    slippery gameplay, frustratingly cheap moments, game overs with trial and error bosses, and levels that while beautiful - lack a sense of direction
    I give Sonic Mania
    A 7/10    … Expand
  4. AVdE
    Aug 15, 2017
    7
    Sonic Mania checks off all the boxes you'd expect from a 2D platformer these days: great controls, good level design, gorgeous environments, awesome music, solid framerate etc. It's really a great game.

    HOWEVER. Sonic newbies beware. As someone who has never played a 2D Sonic game in his life, my first playthrough can only be described as a miserable experience. The game only gives    Sonic Mania checks off all the boxes you'd expect from a 2D platformer these days: great controls, good level design, gorgeous environments, awesome music, solid framerate etc. It's really a great game.

    HOWEVER. Sonic newbies beware.

    As someone who has never played a 2D Sonic game in his life, my first playthrough can only be described as a miserable experience. The game only gives you 3 lives after every game over, and expects you to make it through an entire zone - existing of 2 levels and 2 boss battles - with those. I've had a game over in almost every zone, and essentially had to play every level twice (one zone in particular even three times). It's not that this game is ridiculously difficult or unfair, but that can still get pretty frustrating.

    I'm honestly not sure why they thought giving you only 3 lives was a good idea; if I get a game over I'm clearly struggling already, so why give players this extra handicap?

    Fortunately it does get better after that rough first playthrough. As I said, the levels are really great, and there's a lot of fun to be had in all of them, with every character. Just make sure to grab every life monitor you come across.    … Expand
  5. Amocoru
    Aug 16, 2017
    6
    Doesn't do enough to differentiate from the original. It's a fun trip down memory lane but nothing more than that. If you want to play a remake of the original then this game is for you, but it's no masterpiece.
  6. spun4ik
    May 14, 2020
    5
    I think this game is not bad. But they added a lot of old levels. It spoils everything. You can make it a little better if you use mods. I put 5 of 10.
  7. fujitanaoto00
    Mar 21, 2018
    5
    O jogo prometeu mais do que cumpriu, com um lançamento bugado, em que se poderia ate travar seu video-game, com poucas fases novas, e com chefes muitas feses lançado do nada, como o mega robo do eggman ja na green hill que era para ser um grande chefe, com muita pouca melhoria, jogo lançado problemático, level design confuso, aonde voce se perde muitas vezes sem saber aonde ir, como aO jogo prometeu mais do que cumpriu, com um lançamento bugado, em que se poderia ate travar seu video-game, com poucas fases novas, e com chefes muitas feses lançado do nada, como o mega robo do eggman ja na green hill que era para ser um grande chefe, com muita pouca melhoria, jogo lançado problemático, level design confuso, aonde voce se perde muitas vezes sem saber aonde ir, como a ultima fase que é muito mal feita, poucas fases para quem joga ate hoje os sonic do mega drive, sonic mania é uma decepção… Expand
  8. PanosGX
    Apr 9, 2018
    7
    Sonic mania is a good game.
    The graphics are amazing, gameplay is tight and fair and the music is just ok. The 20€ price tag is amazing, even though there isn't anything to compell you after the end.
    It took me about a week to finish the game 100%, trophies and all. I finished the game on three separete save files with 3 separete characters, with all the chaos emeralds on each one with    Sonic mania is a good game.
    The graphics are amazing, gameplay is tight and fair and the music is just ok. The 20€ price tag is amazing, even though there isn't anything to compell you after the end.
    It took me about a week to finish the game 100%, trophies and all. I finished the game on three separete save files with 3 separete characters, with all the chaos emeralds on each one with all the gold medals. After that, I only popped the game up to mess around in debug. There was nothing else to keep me coming back. Sonic mania is a 3 time wonder.
    Also the callbacks and referances are epic for long time fans!    … Expand
  9. RK800
    Jun 16, 2019
    5
    I was blind after **** playing dis game, this is so sickeningly. Epilepsy **** warning
  10. apanblod
    Apr 19, 2020
    7
    Sonic Mania is both an homage to and continuation of the classic Mega Drive games, and is crafted well enough to satisfy any long time fan of the series. The gameplay is nearly identical to the original games, (especially 3&K) adding only a few new ways of traversing the levels.

    The nostalgia pandering could be said to be the games biggest asset and it's biggest flaw, as the familiarity    Sonic Mania is both an homage to and continuation of the classic Mega Drive games, and is crafted well enough to satisfy any long time fan of the series. The gameplay is nearly identical to the original games, (especially 3&K) adding only a few new ways of traversing the levels.

    The nostalgia pandering could be said to be the games biggest asset and it's biggest flaw, as the familiarity makes it instantly recognisable as the "true" Sonic 4, while too many of the levels are just revisiting the ones we've already played in earlier games (some questionable choises of such levels were made in my opinion - such as Oil Ocean). The changes include a lot of new gimmicks, which are slightly too numerous at times and hurt the flow of the gameplay. The boss fights have been greatly overhauled to be more intricate and many of them are quite tricky the first time around, but once you learn their pattern most of them get ridiculously easy during later playthroughs.

    Definitely a great game and well worth its price, but you can tell it's basically a glorified fan game (which to be fair, it is) and I don't think it's quite on the same level as its Mega Drive counterparts, especially not the afforementioned S3&K.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

17
#17 Best PS4 Game of 2017
33
#33 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2017
46
#46 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 70 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 70
  3. Negative: 0 out of 70
  1. CD-Action
    Nov 16, 2017
    90
    With this brilliant game Sonic at last reminded us why he was once a worthy rival for Mario. [11/2017, p.56]
  2. GameOver.gr
    Sep 28, 2017
    90
    It is surprising how well the developers understood the underlining reasons Sonic was so loved in the 16bit era. Gone are the autorun, the messy 3D levels and the horrible clown characters, gone is the linear cheap thrill design of the modern 3D games. In their place, we got excellent level design with hundreds of different routes, elegant design choices and supremely balanced gameplay which bring us one of the best Sonic games since Sonic & Knuckles. Pity Sega was too afraid to budget for modern graphics because they would have had a full priced, instant classic on their hands.
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  3. DarkStation
    Sep 28, 2017
    80
    Sonic Mania is a wonderful celebration of what's made Sonic so great in the past while also striving to push it forward. This isn't to say it's perfect – it has some of the problems of the previous games as well – but it's such a perfect encapsulation of old Sonic games, it's impressive. If you've ever been curious about what makes these old games special, or if you're just interested in revisiting the series you loved as a kid, this is the best way to do it. It's the old and the new wrapped together in a way that makes both shine. I hope this team goes on to do more, and eventually break themselves away from needing to remix old levels and just make their own.
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