Sega unveiled Sonic Mania Plus, the physical release of last year's digital-only Sonic Mania with additional content, while also teasing that a new Sonic Racing game may be coming soon.
Sonic Mania Plus will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this summer, while details are scarce on the hinted Sonic Racing title.
What's New With 'Sonic Mania Plus'?
Sonic Mania, released in August last year, took the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise into a new direction by going back to the past. The game brought Sonic back to its roots as a 2D sidescroller, featuring old school graphics that took inspiration from the 16-bit days of the series.
The $20 Sonic Mania, however, only received a digital release, with the only physical version being the Sonic Mania collector's edition that carried a price tag of $70.
Sega, however, announced at the Sonic the Hedgehog panel at this year's SXSW that a physical release for Sonic Mania will be rolled out with Sonic Mania Plus.
Sonic Mania Plus will not be a simple transfer of the digital edition into a physical copy though. The package, which will be sold for $29.99, will come with a holographic slip cover, a reversible sleeve that looks like a Sega Genesis box on the other side, and a 32-page art book.
The re-released game will also feature new content such as the Encore Mode, which will allow players to explore all the stages of the game. There will also be some visual changes, but what this means was not made clear. The competition mode of Sonic Mania Plus will also be expanded with four-player support.
Also coming to Sonic Mania Plus are two new playable characters, namely Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. They first appeared in SegaSonic the Hedgehog, which is a 1993 arcade game that was based on Sonic.
What We Know About The New 'Sonic Racing' Game
In addition to the announcement of Sonic Mania Plus, Sega launched a teaser that can be viewed through the official Twitter account of Sonic the Hedgehog. The video provided blurry glimpses of a racing vehicle, followed by an obscured logo with only an "R" lit up. It does not take much to discern that the logo is for a new Sonic Racing game.
Unfortunately, not much else was revealed about the upcoming title. However, a source who previously leaked information about Sonic Forces said that the new Sonic Racing game was meant to be released this first quarter, but is now looking like it will be launched in the holiday season. In addition, the game will only feature Sonic characters, unlike the previous entry Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed that also contained characters from other Sega series.
