The following year, Sega launched an expanded port of this game with extra content named Sonic Mania Plus, which was also made available in physical form. The game's popularity soared to the point of it being Sega's best-selling game in recent years. Upon its release, the game garnered a staggeringly critical acclaim amongst the Sonic fanbase and critics, who hailed it as a successful reincarnation of the classic 90s games.
They were assisted by PagodaWest and Headcannon studios who provided the art style, level design and polishing touches for the game, whilst Tantalus Interactive were responsible for porting the multi-platform video game to the Switch console.
The game was actually worked on by a group of Sonic fans as opposed to the professional designers at Sonic Team, led by Christian Whitehead who had produced successful, enhanced ports of the classic 2D games for mobile devices. In fact, out of the 12 levels featured in the game eight of them are remixed copies of their originals. The game is a fully-fledged emulation of the classical games released in the 1990s, returning back to the blue hedgehog's 2D roots down to his gameplay, artwork and level styles.
The next prominent addition in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game is a modern throwback to the classic Genesis era of 2D Sonic games, further continuing their astounding legacy over the years. Sonic Mania is a platformer video game released for the Nintendo Switch console in 2017, available on the eShop service.