With the release date of Sonic Manic rapidly approaching, Sega has taken the wraps off of the special stages and various other modes that will be featured in the game. As we reported on previously, the special stages that were featured in Sonic CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 have made their return and each has their own purposes.
Here’s a rundown of those modes, as provided by Sega.
- In “Blue Spheres”, players navigate Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles through a series of blue spheres to clear the stage. But be careful! Once touched, the blue spheres will turn red. Touching a red sphere instantly ends the Bonus Stage. Silver Medallions are awarded to players who complete the Bonus Stage while collecting all the blue spheres and rings awards players with a perfect score and a Gold Medallion.
- Time Attack was also revealed to be a new mode in Sonic Mania. Prove you’re the best of the best in Time Attack, which lets players compete for fastest speed in the world by recording their time in the game’s online leaderboard.
- In Special Stages, players chase down enemy UFOs to secure various Chaos Emeralds. Collecting blue spheres along the way will give their character an added boost of speed to their meter. Once the meter fills up, the Mach level increases. Just watch out and don’t speed off the stage!
I enjoyed the special stage in Sonic CD, and if Sonic Mania can recreate those, then I’m going to be in heaven. It just seems like Sega has gotten all their ducks in a row when it comes to this title and with a bit of luck, this will get the game to get rid of that Sonic cycle. Now, I don’t want to jinx it too much, so I’ll just stop now. Still, I can’t wait to get my hands on this game.
Sonic Mania releases on August 15th, 2017, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
