Sonic Mania quickly became one of the most beloved entries in the venerable series by taking the hedgehog back to basics while focusing on clever stages and classic platforming. The veneer of a nostalgic setting certainly didn’t hurt, and the upcoming Plus expansion will double down on that by bringing back some of the most obscure characters in Sonic canon. Now we know when to expect their arrival.
Fully indulge your nostalgia with the best old games on PC.
Sonic Mania launches on July 17, a $4.99 /£3.99 upgrade for owners of the original game. The expansion adds two new playable characters from the obscure SegaSonic the Hedgehog arcade game – Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo – each with their own unique abilities and gameplay styles. Competition mode will allow up to four players, and a new Encore mode remixes the existing stages with new visual changes.
As detailed in this week’s Famitsu (translation courtesy of Siliconera), Sonic Mania has also hit a significant sales milestone with over 1 million units sold worldwide across consoles and PC. Not a bad return to form for the series, especially since it just launched last August.
If you’re looking for some extra fuel to stoke your nostalgia, Sega have launched a new series of animated Sonic shorts in the style of the Mania intro. It’s good stuff. PC players might also pass the time on the way to Plus’s launch with the Knuckles Mania & Knuckles mod, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.