Sonic Mania's Secret Areas Are Based on Sonic CD

Z-axis, engage.

By Joe Skrebels

Sonic Mania's drawing huge inspiration from Sonic's 2D past - including its faux-3D sections.

Revealed in a panel at San Diego Comic-Con (as reported by The Sonic Stadium), Sega's retro homage game will include the Mode 7-like extra stages included in Sonic CD:

We know that Mania's Special Stages will see you chasing a UFO (you can see it in the background on the right) to reclaim a Chaos Emerald, although we don't know how they'll be accessed. The CD's Special Stages were accessed by entering Giant Rings, earned by finishing a stage without a boss with at least 50 rings intact.

A cleaner version of the above image has since been released, which you can see below:

The first Sonic Mania Special Stage image.

Sega has since released the Special Stage music (titled 'Dimension Heist') from Mania's soundtrack, which you can listen to below.

Earlier this month, we learned that Sonic Mania's success could determine whether more 2D Sonic games are made - thankfully, we think it could be the best Sonic game in years. It will be released for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on August 15.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and his poor diet means that he has got to go vast. Follow him on Twitter.

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