Sonic Mania announces Special Stages [UPDATED with new video, stages and details!]

UPDATE: SEGA have just released the first video of Sonic Mania's Special Stages which can be seen here or at the end of this news post. The Special Stages are similar in appearance to Sonic CD's, as we theorized in the original post, but the video shows that they are actually 3D races where Sonic, Tails or Knuckles (all three were shown) has to catch a UFO by picking up spheres to help them speed up, although then they run the risk of running off the course.

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We're very excited about Sonic Mania! Here's all we know on the game!

These look extremely tricky to us, as the 3D stages in Sonic CD were bad enough, but we'll find out how playable they are when Sonic Mania releases on August 15. The Special Stages are accessed by finding a giant hidden ring somewhere on each stage, much like in Sonic 3. Completing a Special Stage gets the player a Chaos Emerald, much like all Sonic games since the first, and collecting all seven allows Sonic (or whoever) to turn Super - not to mention presumably getting a different ending.

The video held another surprise: Bonus Stages modeled directly after Sonic 3's classic Special Stages, set on a 3D sphere where Sonic continually runs and the player can only move him 90 degrees left or right, and has to collect all the Blue Spheres while avoiding the Red. It's challenging and quite fun, but we can't imagine what the bonuses could be. These are entered by jumping into the swirling stars above a Checkpoint beacon, if you have 50 rings at the time.

Finally the video also introduces a cool-looking Time Attack mode which played purely for fun and getting the best score. Sonic Mania is beginning to look like the ultimate Sonic fan package, and we're already excited to play it.

Original Post is as follows:

At a special panel at San Diego Comic Con this weekend entitled 'Sonic Mania: Behind The Scenes', the development team revealed a few new facts about the game. The most notable is the confirmation that brand new Special Stages will feature in the game. including the upbeat music track from these stages which can be heard in the video link above.

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They also released this screenshot from the Special Stage, showing that the developer is modelling the Stage after Sonic CD's pseudo-3D racing stage:

Other secrets announced at the panel includes that Mania was originally called 'Sonic Discovery', that there will be in-engine sprite cutscenes in the manner of Sonic 3, and that there will be a vinyl version of the Sonic Mania soundtrack featuring 16 tracks by composer Tee Lopes. The vinyl soundtrack can be pre-ordered here.

Sonic Mania is out on August 15.