/v/ - Vidya Games

The game's developed by people who are fans of Sonic

>>75505 (OP)
sonic mania is a gem

Resurrecting Forgotten History and Scrapped Content
A standard cash grab relies only on famous, recognizable imagery to pull in casual buyers. Sonic Mania actually went into Sega’s vault to pull out content that never officially released.
The Lost Badniks: Characters like Splats the rabbit and Motobug with wheels were deleted from Sonic 1 before it launched in 1991. The developers rebuilt them from scratch based on 25-year-old magazine previews and prototype ROMs just to give them a home.
The Sega Activator: In Studiopolis Zone, there is a background object shaped like an octagon. This is the Sega Activator, a famously terrible, failed motion-control peripheral from 1993 that almost no casual gamer remembers.
Rebuilding the Lost Sonic CD Stage
The sand-themed stage in Sonic Mania is the ultimate proof of developmental passion.
Mirage Saloon Zone: This entire wild west desert level is explicitly based on "Desert Dazzle," a completely original stage that lead developer Christian Whitehead started designing for the 2011 Sonic the Hedgehog CD remaster. It was meant to fill the missing "Round 2" slot in Sonic CD, but it was scrapped so the remake wouldn't stray too far from the original 1993 release.
Roots in Sonic 2: Furthermore, "Desert Dazzle" itself was inspired by "Dust Hill Zone" (also known as Sand Shower), a desert environment famously cut from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992. Instead of letting decades of lost desert concepts vanish, the developers recycled the art and ideas to create Mirage Saloon.
Rewriting Franchise Lore and Obscure Canon
Instead of just copying the Genesis trilogy, the developers integrated storylines and characters from obscure spin-offs and side games.
The Hard Boiled Heavies: This main boss squad is made up of heavily modified versions of the EggRobos. These generic enemy units only appeared in Sonic and Knuckles in 1994 and had not been relevant to the plot in decades.
Bark and Bean: In Mirage Saloon Zone, you fight illusions of Bark the Polar Bear, Bean the Dynamite, and Fang the Sniper. These characters are from Sonic the Fighters, an obscure 1996 arcade fighting game, and Sonic Triple Trouble, a Game Gear title. A cash-grab game would have just used Metal Sonic or Shadow.
Community and Rom-Hacking Tributes
The ultimate proof of passion is that the game celebrates the fan community itself. The lead developer, Christian Whitehead, started as a community fangame creator.
The Jimmy Motobug: During the Heavy Rider boss fight, the boss rides a Motobug named Jimmy. This is a direct, emotional tribute to Polygon Jim, a beloved member of the Sonic rom-hacking community who passed away in 2013. Jim was famous for a mod that let you play as a Motobug. Including this in an official Sega product shows a level of community respect that a corporate cash-grab would completely ignore.

You also have the Knuckles mode as well

I really don't see why anyone would dislike this game besides it not have that many original stages