Sonic Mania's Special Stages Take Inspiration From Sonic CD

This game just keeps looking better and better with every new reveal. Can't wait!

When is the release date?

At least it's not the Sonic 1 special stage which is chaos (and the Sonic 4 one didnt help much). I liked Sonic Cd's though the perspective regarding the UFO's was a bit troublesome at times and their patterns and speed were insane.

That said, I think the Sonic 3K one is the most balanced. Hopefully they inprove it as the Sonic Cd rerelease didnt change things much.

If Sonic controls well enough in these Sonic CD stages, then they should be a nice edition.

Hmm, wasnt too sure about Sonic CD special stages, Sonic 3 to me was the best and Sonic 2 the next best.

Can't wait for this, pre-ordered the special edition from US Amazon back in April.

This game cannot come soon enough!

@liljmoore 15th August.

I'm definitely interested to see these stages in motion.

I hope they bring back the special stages you'd get for having 50 rings and going through a check point. The ones from Sonic 3 & Knuckles were cool.

I would have liked if they'd made a better looking version of Blue Sphere from Sonic 3, but this could be good. I kinda hope it doesn't have the floaty controls of Sonic CD's special stages though.

Gonna call it now, this game right here is gonna destroy Sonic Forces I like the look of the game, I love the soundtrack! Wish it was coming out physically but this is a day one for me

Pretty cool stuff. It's so funny that Sega itself still can't figure out what makes a Sonic game a Sonic game, but these guys seem to have nailed it. Hopefully the revenues on this will send the message to Sega that this needs to be the future Team Sonic, and they can evolve on the original 2D games in the way that should have happened as though the Dreamcast never died and we can erase 20 years of bad memroies.

The music for this game is so amazing. Each new track is better than the previous. I can't wait to play this.

That looks really cool! But is that a Saturn-era polygonal Sonic amidst the 2D scaled sprites? Could be a neat touch, but I'd like to see it in motion.

Day one! Easy.*
*if I have money!

@SegaBlueSky
This.

@MegaTen

Yeah, I'm holding out for a Switch physical edition later but I will be getting it on my PC next month

Hated the Sonic CD special stages. I've never been able to figure them out at all. Sonic 3 & Knuckles special stages were stressful, but at least fair unlike trying to play Sonic 2's with Tails. Sonic 1's remain my favourite. Just the jingly noise as you slowly turn each block another colour until they vanish. Pure nostalgia.

Any idea how we get into the special stages yet? Is it the ol' checkpoint with 50 rings, or the giant ring after the level ends? Also, I'd love it if the bonus stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles made a return of some sort. Is that too much to ask?

Neat, but it looks like Sonic is a 3d model here, whereas he should be a 2d sprite like in Sonic CD.

@TurboTEF is there going to be a retail version?? Even the special edition is a download...far as I know

@Baker1000 I used to hate them as well (as beautiful as they looked), but when I went back to it years and years later I suddenly found them much easier.

As for how you get into the special stages - I've seen the ol' mid-level star posts in a few videos now, where the player has gone past and activated the circle of stars above but not jumped in. So at the moment that looks like the most likely answer, but like you say I'd love there to be two different types of special stage like in S3&K!