Prerelease:Sonic Mania

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Sonic Mania.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. Notes: Because the screenshots have not been uploaded to the wiki yet and there are more comparisons between the old and final level layouts coming soon.

To do: Find more Prerelease videos, information and images.

Sonic Mania was announced in the summer of 2016 during the week of the annual San Diego Comic Con to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog's 25th anniversary since its 1991 debut game, Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. There are at least two different playable demos at different states of development. Each demo illustrates differences in stage gimmicks, power-ups, item placement, music selection, and so on.

Development Timeline

• 2016
  • July 22nd - Game revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2016.
  • September 3rd - Playable demo available showcasing the first Act of Green Hill Zone & Studiopolis.
• 2017
  • January 12th-13th - Nintendo reveals Sonic Mania is coming to the Nintendo Switch on the "Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017" livestream, along with a trailer. It was later uploaded as a single video in the official Nintendo channel.
  • March 10th - Destructoid Demo
  • May 30th - Sega announces a new release date for Sonic Mania and is delayed from Spring to August.
  • August 11th - Sega delays the PC version by two weeks.
  • August 15th - Game is released on the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
  • August 29th - Game is released on PC.

Early Sonic Mania OST

Early 2016 USB Studiopolis Act 1 Theme

This theme has multiple differences from the final release. Those include the synthesizer having less echos, the audio being more compressed than the final, and less added sound effects. The audio also fades out in the end, unlike the final that ends with a special tune for the ending of the audio.

Early Title Screen Theme

Same with the Studiopolis Act 1 theme, the audio has less echos, more compression, and less added sound effects.

Early Stage Select Theme

Same as with the other two, see an occurring theme?

Early Green Hill Act 1 Theme

Same reasons with the other ones.

Early Flying Battery Act 1 Theme

Missing instruments from the final. Also, the intro notes of Act 2's theme start this off.

Early Mirage Saloon Act 2 Theme

Same reasons as with Green Hill, Stage Select, Title Screen, & Studiopoils.

Pre-Release Pictures

Pulp Solstice

Early Press Garden

In May 2017, a screenshot of what appears to be an unseen Mania level was used in a poster for a Sega meeting at a Las Vegas licensing expo. Looking back, it is clear this is what became Press Garden Act 1 in the final game. Interestingly, there aren't any Press-like themed tiles, and there's a distinct background with a sunny and bright-summer look. One might assume that Press Garden had its name changed from Pulp Solstice because of minor tweaks given to the level during its development that transformed Act 1 into a press, and in which from Act 1 and Act 2 a solstice would happen and the level would make a transition from summer to winter. However, the area shown in the following picture is nowhere in the final game.

Pre-Release Cutscenes

To do: Find a source? List those apparent differences ideally.

From an unknown timeline, this cutscene has many differences from the final version.

Studiopolis Act 2

This level was only shown one time from game announcement to its release, and many things changed since then, including a new background and some visual tweaks in which have made the level more colorful.

Early Studiopolis Act 2	Final Studiopolis Act 2

September 2016 Demo

• The September 2016 demo does not contain elemental power-ups found in the final version. The monitors were either replaced with 1-up monitors or the area of the map where the power-up monitor should be is absent. Studiopolis Act 1 ends without a miniboss and there's a backward ramp from offscreen that sends Sonic upward to the piles of rings above it.
• The spike hazards were not properly layered behind the terrain revealing the entirety of the spikes, including their base. The layout and number of spikes were altered in the final build.
• Water wasn't implemented into the level yet. Sonic cannot drown.
• The Bubble Shield was not implemented.
• Less flowers, trees, and foliage.
• Special Stages are inaccessible. Giant rings are placed on the map but cannot be activated.
• Placement of the UFO special stage is changed. Remnants of where it was previously located is still in the final game but the bridge and area connecting to it were omitted in the final design.
• Sonic uses the flame shield to burn rotating spike logs. The sprite used for the burning log was changed in the final game, most likely to better match the flame shield itself.
• Cool Bonus isn't here in this demo.
• The Bonus Stages from Sonic 3 also isn't here in this demo .

March 2017 Demo

• Demo contains both acts of Green Hill Zone.
• Green Hill Zone's second act lacks the remixed version of the Green Hill Zone theme found in the final game. The game instead repeats Act 1's theme.
• When GHZ's logs are burned, it uses the Sonic 2 fire sprite.
• Tails' carrying Sonic upwards while flying sprite was different.

June 2017 (E3 Pre-Release Videos)

• The first 6 minutes of Act 2 on Green Hill was seen on E3 2017. Interestingly, at 0:18, has an extra Life monitor, removed on the final version.

• Only Green Hill and Mirage Saloon are Playable., At 3:36 and 3:47, the Roller badnik of Spring Yard Appears Here.

• The second video of 6 minutes on Sony's E3 stage shows the Sonic 3's flame shield sprites were used for the flame shield here , they changed the sprite on the final version of the game.

Pre-Release Videos (March-June 2017)

A video showing off gameplay of Chemical Plant Act 2.

• Interestingly, at 0:30, the 1-Up Monitor uses an icon from an early version of Knuckles' Chaotix.

A video showing off gameplay of Flying Battery Act 1.

• The music used here was an early version of it.
• At the time mark 0:19 , there's a launcher that got removed from the final version of the game.