Sonic Mania Trailer Shows Off Special Stages and Bonus Modes, Brings Back Childhood Memories

Alright, it’s official: Sonic Mania is the best Sonic game we’ve seen in decades. Every time we see additional gameplay footage or new modes, our hype builds. We’ve never seen a new teaser and thought, “Oh this just took a wrong turn.” The game is always looking better, and today we got a brand new look at some of Sonic Mania‘s bonus modes, special stages, and time attack. Check out the trailer above, and get ready to swoon.

The team has taken inspiration from so many different Sonic games, and we love it. This really is a celebration of all of the best 2D and faux 3D Sonic games that we grew up playing as kids and teenagers. It’s not all throwback, though. Sonic has some new moves that should revamp the gameplay in some interesting ways, especially when it comes to speed runs. In fact, we already have a sample speed run of the Green Hill Zone Act 1 from YouTuber “TheRealCatGoneCrazy.” Check it out and you’ll see that new move in action.

We can already tell from this footage alone that the speed runs are going to get ridiculous. This is a fairly tame stage with very few obstacles or enemies, but later levels are going to crank up the intensity significantly. You can see Sonic making good use of his new “drop dash” move, which allows him to land on the ground and immediately shoot forward with a burst of speed. Mastering the drop dash will greatly aid players throughout the campaign, but and it will be a necessity when trying to set these kinds of records.

We love everything about this. The blue spheres, the low-polygon character models, the beautiful music… Sonic Mania is providing a $19.99 ticket back to the days of our youth, and we’re all over it. Stay tuned to WWG for our full review, which is dropping in a couple of weeks!