It doesn’t take a gaming expert to know that there hasn’t been a good Sonic game in years. Sonic was a major part of many gamers upbringings, not too dissimilar to Mario and the like, but whilst Mario has continued to grow and provide many epic outings, Sonic has only disappointed and failed to return to its glory days.
Well, Sonic Mania finally appears to have finally delivered on the goods. It’s already being enjoyed by Sonic fans and non-Sonic fans alike. Many are claiming that it’s the best Sonic game in decades and similarly, critics are confirming that it perfectly pays homage to Sonic games of the golden era.
Metacritic has the game pegged at an impressive average score of 86/100 which is well above any Sonic game in the last few decades. 
There’s been no shortage of Sonic games over the years but this is the best average score in quite a while. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice on the 3DS only managed to garner a 62/100 whilst Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on the Wii U was panned at 32/100.
In-fact, the only games that have managed to come close to Sonic Mania in the last 10 years are the Sonic and All-Stars Racing games which have actually held up quite well. I don’t need to state the obvious that these aren’t platforms and can’t really be compared to the likes of Sonic Mania or earlier Sonic games.
You’ve got to go all the way back to 2011 to Sonic Generations to find a game that was universally praised (but still not as much as Sonic Mania) with a Metacritic average of 77.
It’ll be interesting to see where SEGA takes the Sonic franchise from here. I’m hoping they give the Sonic Mania team creative license to do whatever they want. One can only hope that they don’t ruin the little faith that gamers are growing in the Sonic franchise with Sonic Forces that releases on all platforms later this year.
