SEGA has officially unveiled two important details about its upcoming 2D retro Sonic the Hedgehog game. As rumored last week, Sonic Mania will be released later this summer on Aug. 15. Digital preorders are now available for Sonic Mania on Steam and Xbox One, and will be for PlayStation as well later today. On Steam, the price of the game is listed at $20, and currently pre-orders are 10% off.
This announcement was made via an adorable short video on the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account. The video is an animated short of Sonic and Friends with a hand drawn style somewhat reminiscent of what appeared at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but in motion. Check it out for yourself below.
Sonic Mania arrives this August! pic.twitter.com/2peh19wCy5
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) May 30, 2017
There are a lot of reasons to be hopeful that Sonic Mania will be the game that finally ends the dreaded “Sonic Cycle” of hype that sprouts up every time a new Sonic game is revealed. While the games have certainly improved since the much maligned Sonic ’06 game, it still remains a divisive franchise.
However, Sonic Mania marks a return to its former Genesis glory days. Whether or not that will be the jolt the franchise needs to catapult it back into the good graces of both fans and critics alike, or at least recapture their older audience remains to be seen.
We’ll find out on Aug. 15 when Sonic Mania releases on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
