Sonic Mania review — Sonic’s best game in over two decades

After years of disappointments, with only a few decent games offering a small reprieve from an onslaught of garbage, the Sonic series has its first great entry in years. Sonic Mania, which comes out on August 15 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch (the PC version follows on August 29), goes back to the franchise’s roots, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise.

Most modern Sonic games focus on pure speed. Sonic Mania is, finally, a true platformer. It also brings back Sonic and friends’ charming 16-bit looks, while sparing us from the awkward cutscenes with poor voice acting that have become a fixture in the franchise.