The popularity and success of Sonic Mania has been unprecedented over the past months. The community-made game has introduced new characters, interesting levels, amazing music, and had such an impact on the Sonic community that it has now surpassed 1 million worldwide sales.
According to Famitsu, the Japanese gaming magazine, as of today, the combined sales of Sonic Mania on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and the Nintendo Switch have added up to be over 1 million. The title found solid roots from its developers, who were all popular in the Sonic the Hedgehog fan and ROM hacking community. The lead developer, Christian “Taxman” Whitehead, was extremely popular due to his work with fan games, and even landed job working for SEGA after working on a Sonic Remastered HD prototype back in 2011.
Upon its release, Sonic Mania was met with instant success and had an overwhelmingly positive reception across the board. Due to the popular and positive reception of the game, at SXSW 2018, Sonic Mania Plus was announced for the West. Returning once again are Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo from Sonic the Hedgehog will be playable for an extended adventure. In addition, a competitive four-player mode will be added, and an Encore Mode will be introduced. This Encore mode will allow fans to play through remixed versions of zones that already exist in Sonic Mania. To sweeten the release of Sonic Mania Plus even more, there will be a YouTube series of five-minute cartoons based around Sonic Mania titled Sonic Mania Adventures.
Sonic Mania Plus will be released sometime this summer for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and the Nintendo Switch for $29.99. These copies of the game will be both digital and physical editions with the physical edition coming with holographic package, reversible SEGA Genesis cover, and a 32-page artbook. Owners of the digital versions of the original Sonic Mania will receive the option to upgrade their game to Sonic Mania Plus at a reduced price.