Sonic Mania delayed on PC for two weeks, retro intro released

Sonic Mania was scheduled to blast onto PC August 15th alongside the Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, but the master race will have to wait two full weeks before they can cover their bodies in nostalgia sauce. To make up for it, pre-orders will receive a free steam copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. The Collector’s Edition will also include the freebie.

For added excitement, SEGA revealed that 26 Collector’s Editions will be hand-signed by devs and randomly distributed throughout the North American market.

Until then, they can check out this blast from the past opening animation, that knows exactly who their audience is. They better but the blue blur on a cereal box soon, (but make it a healthy bran cereal since Sonic’s fans are all grown-up and responsible).

I like that Sonic’s hairless face and chest makes him seem older than Miles Prower’s full-on old fisherman beard.

Also, my naive brain didn’t realize until today that Miles Prower is a pun for Miles-per-hour. It took a NeoGAF post to clue me in.

Sonic Mania

I’m quite excited for Sonic Mania. I haven’t bothered with the franchise since Sonic CD and was content to never play a new entry again. But, the story of former ROM-hacker turned SEGA dev is too good to pass up. If you aren’t aware, Christian Whitehead was known as one of the best Sonic developers on the black-market of Sonic ROM hacks.

After SEGA put out a miserable mess of an iOS Sonic 2 port, Whitehead made his own from scratch that emulated the original perfectly. SEGA took notice and had Whitehead handle the iOS ports of a few more Sonic titles. Handing him the reigns for their triumphant return to what made the series great is genius, but still very surprising.

If you’re not playing on PC, you can join the internet hype on August 15th to see how Whitehead did with his step into the big leagues.

There will be remixes of classic levels and new areas as well. Studiopolis was shown off already, along with several great sounding tracks, because Sonic demands a killer score.

Are you excited for Sonic?