Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is a 2017 platform game developed by Headcannon and PagodaWest Games and published by Sega. It is an entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, with a development team led by prominent members of the Sonic fan community Christian "Taxman" Whitehead and Simon "Stealth" Thomley. It was designed to be a successor to the classic 2D Sonic games for the Sega Genesis, and as such contains many elements from and references to those games. The D-Pad played Sonic Mania upon release as the forty-fifth game in The Super Sonic Let's Play - the playthrough commenced on August 16, 2017.

Episodes

« preceded by Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure

Video	Episode	Title	Length	Player(s)	Commentators	Release date
294	*	"A Brief History of Sonic Mania"	10:47		Rick, John	16 August 2017 (2017-08-16)
In a special live-action video, Rick and John introduce the game by exploring the larger history of Sonic level editors, ROM hacks, and fan games. Specifically, they look at the careers of Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley: the two started as notable members of the Sonic fan game community before eventually transitioning to making official remastered mobile ports of the classic Genesis games for Sega. After porting Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, they planned a similar treatment for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, but were unable to proceed due to unspecified legal issues involving the game, likely related to the soundtrack containing music written by Michael Jackson. No more official Sonic projects were announced by them for several years, until the 2016 reveal that they had in fact been working on a completely new game, intended to take the franchise back to its roots - Sonic Mania.
295	1	"Just Like the Old Games"	30:29	Rick	John, Lindsay, C/J	17 August 2017 (2017-08-17)
Rick and John continue to explain the history of Sonic Mania, this time delving into the specifics of the game itself, including its origins, development team, announcement, and combination of classic Sonic elements with new features and innovations. In the game itself, Rick, John and C/J watch the opening animation and begin the game, with Rick on the controller. He begins in Green Hill Zone, noting that the first act starts off identical to the original level from Sonic the Hedgehog before becoming very different later on. Along the way, Rick enters a "Get Blue Spheres" bonus stage identical to the first special stage from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and completes it with a perfect, earning a gold medallion. He continues with the level but soon becomes stuck in a wall due to a bug. He resets the level and plays through it again, picking up another two gold medallions along the way. He defeats the miniboss at the end and moves onto Act 2, where he plays a further four special stages, getting perfects on three of them. He then tackles the boss of the zone, which turns out to be the final boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. He defeats it, then watches a brief cutscene where Sonic and Tails are teleported to the next level.
296	2	"Cool Bonus"	16:38	C/J	Rick, John, Ben	18 August 2017 (2017-08-18)
C/J takes over the control to play Chemical Plant Zone. Early on the first act he enters a giant ring, taking him to the game's first Sonic the Hedgehog CD-inspired UFO chase special stage. He completes it and gets a Chaos Emerald. He also enters a bonus stage, but fails to complete it. At the end of the act he fights the boss, resembling the Icecap Zone boss but with attacks similar to the Metropolis Zone boss. After defeating it, he moves on to the second act. The group enjoy the new music and level mechanics as C/J works through the act, completing another bonus stage along the way. He enters a third bonus stage later on in the act, and becomes lost for quite some time trying to find the final batch of blue spheres, but Rick eventually points him in the right direction and he completes it.
297	*	"The D-Pad Unboxes the Sonic Mania Collector's Edition"	9:21	N/A	Rick, John, C/J	20 August 2017 (2017-08-20)
In another special live-action video recorded before the start of the playthrough, Rick, John and C/J sit down to unbox the collector's edition of Sonic Mania. Rick tells the story of how he ended up accidentally pre-ordering three different copies of the game before opening one of them. The three look at the special items inside the box, including a Sega Genesis cartridge, a golden ring, and a Sonic statue.
298	3	"Lock-On Technology"	13:44	C/J, John	Rick	21 August 2017 (2017-08-21)
C/J enters another special stage through a giant ring, but fails to complete it. He also enters a bonus stage at a checkpoint, and gets a perfect. He then moves on to the boss, which turns out to consist of beating Eggman in a round of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Despite not being familiar with the game, he easily wins and completes the zone, passing the control over to John. John enters a brand new level, Studiopolis Zone, somewhat similar to casino-themed levels from past games. He plays through some of the first act and tries two bonus stages along the way, failing at both of them.