Sonic Mania Plus is coming to a store near you

Sega have announced that Sonic Mania is finally getting a physical release this year. The long awaited announcement was made at SXSW today via the Sonic Panel. Titled Sonic Mania Plus, the physical release has a couple of special extras. An all new Encore mode, allowing players to explore the levels in new ways, two new playable characters along with unspecified visual changes.

Certainly a much loved game from 2017, some may say that Sonic Mania was even a better game then last years flagship Sonic Forces, a game I had the pleasure of reviewing (you can check out the review here)  A physical release was something the Sonic community wanted from the start, there was a US only special edition that was faux physical, it came with boxes however simply a download code.

Sonic Mania Plus will also contain a holographic reversible cover, so you can make it look like a Mega Drive game should you wish as well as a 32 page art book. The two bonus characters are Mighty and Ray, deep cuts from Segasonic the Hedgehog which was an early 90’s arcade game. There is also a 4 player battle mode to round out the package. Likely to be a mid priced game there is certainly value for money here and dare I say enough for owners of the digital download to head down to the shops. Luckily for Sega, the Sonic community are just the type to re purchase the physical edition of Sonic Mania.

Another announcement from the Sonic Mania range is an upcoming set of animated shorts called Sonic Mania Adventures to be released free on youtube. The first episode is slated for April following with a new one month by month, the series will total five episodes. Featuring classic Sonic animation by the same team that did the video for Sonic Mania, hopefully it is the lead up to a big announcement. Sonic Racing perhaps? Sega is poised to announce further Sonic Projects this weekend at SXSW so stay tuned Sega and Sonic Fans. In the meantime, check out the trailer.