Sonic Mania Two

Sonic Mania Two is a 2021 platform game made by Sega for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Windows. The game is a sequel to the hit popular game Sonic Mania three years prior in 2017. The game was made to celebrate Sonic's 30th anniversary being released 10 days prior and pays homage to the original 16-bit Sonic titles. It follows Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as they stop Doctor Eggman from polluting the world and turning animals into badnik slaves. Christian "Taxman" Whitehead, Simon "Stealth" Thomley, among several others who worked on the first game returned for Sonic Mania Two.

After the success of Sonic Mania in 2017, Sega announced plans for a sequel in December until it was finally announced by Whitehead and Thomley. Production of the sequel was shown through photos on Twitter through the year but in late 2020, had a teaser trailer released. The team still used the Retro Engine Whithead used for the mobile ports of the classic Sonic games. The game features levels from the original Sonic the Hedgehog 2, taking place on West Side Island. Tee Lopes returned to compose the game.

Sonic Mania Two was released on June 13, 2021, ten days before Sonic's 30th anniversary, and like the first game received critical acclaim from both critics, audiences, and fans of the franchise praising its level design, music, story, faifthfulness, and more originality. It received the same reception as the first game. Sonic Mania Two sold over one million copies in a year.

Zones

 * Emerald Hill Zone
 * Abandoned Forest Zone
 * Toxic Caves Zone
 * Aquatic Ruin Zone
 * Rock World Zone
 * Winter Zone
 * Badnik Gauntlet Zone
 * Madness Mountain Zone
 * Sunset Beach Zone
 * Azure Lake Zone
 * Bridge Zone
 * Cloudy Chase Zone
 * Egg Fortress Zone
 * The Final Battle
 * Hidden Palace Zone (bonus stage)

Gameplay
Sonic Mania Two controls exactly like Sonic Mania, and the other 2D side-scrolling platforming Sonic games before that. Like the others, rings are used as the central mechanic for surviving when you hit a spike, enemy (or badnik), or the boss. Sonic has his drop-dash perform from Sonic Mania and it is used to kill enemies and hit bosses too, along with the spindash. In the game, Sonic and Tails travel back to West Side Island from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and find out that Eggman is on the island, enslaving animals to look for the Super Emeralds, 7 rare emeralds that can turn Sonic into something stronger then Super Sonic, Hyper Sonic.

The player goes through 15 levels, including The Final Battle, a zone where you battle Eggman's strongest mech, the Final Fever, and Hidden Palace, a zone scrapped from the original Sonic 2 where you can turn into Hyper Sonic with the seventh Super Emerald. Sonic Mania Two takes place on West Side Island, featuring Emerald Hill and Aquatic Ruin, including scrapped zones from Sonic 2 such as Madness Mountain, Rock World, Hidden Palace, and Winter Zone. It also features zones from other games such as Bridge Zone and Toxic Caves.

Original zones are Abandoned Forest, Badnik Gauntlet, Sunset Beach, and Cloudy Chase. Sonic Mania Two features giant rings to get into special stages to get the Super Emeralds, while if you pass a checkpoint with 25 rings or more, you can go into the bonus stage. Featuring a casino-like stage or an gumball stage.

Plot
After the events of Sonic Mania, Sonic and Tails discover powerful radiation on West Side Island with new emeralds, the Super Emeralds, which can turn a living being into an powerful superbeing. They go to West Side Island but find almost all animals gone. Sonic and Tails detect that this is because of Eggman, so they decide to find him. They find badniks and destroy them, releasing animals, stating that Doctor Eggman is on the island. Eggman has used the Chaos Emeralds to power his Death Egg, now renamed Egg Fortress, and has a new base polluting the island. After going through Emerald Hill and other zones, Sonic and Tails get into Eggman's base on the top of the island to find it overrun by badniks. After having a fight with a purple big badnik with boxing gloves, Eggman traps Sonic and captures him. Tails, on the biplane Tornado, goes to Angel Island to recruit Knuckles to help them rescue Sonic. Meanwhile, Eggman has locked Sonic in a cage on Madness Mountain, where there is a timer for the mountain to explode. Tails and Knuckles manage to rescue Sonic in time before the mountain explodes. Knuckles goes to explore the island while Sonic and Tails continue to pursue Eggman.

At Bridge Zone, Eggman detonates a huge water pipe on West Side Island, which causes the island to flood, with a tsanumi. Sonic and Tails manage to rescue all the remaining animals and get them to high ground, while they take off in the Tornado, now being flown by Knuckles. They chase Eggman through the sky, encountering several badniks, before they finally make it to Egg Fortress. In Egg Fortress, Sonic and Tails encounter Mecha Sonic (a robot copy of Sonic) and defeat him, not before Mecha Sonic takes off to battle Knuckles. Sonic battles Eggman's mini Egg Fortress, which sends out clones of badniks with saws, powers to jump, and lasers. After Sonic and Tails destroy them, they encounter Mecha Sonic again, holding Knuckles captive. They battle Mecha Sonic again, until Knuckles breaks out and helps them defeat Mecha Sonic. Eggman tries to take off in his space jet but if the player has collected all seven Super Emeralds, then they can unlock the final boss.

If they dont, then they hijack Eggman's jet and destroy it, also destroying the Egg Fortress. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles go back to Earth, whereas Knuckles goes back to Angel Island.

Hyper Sonic ending
If the player decides to get the Super Emeralds through the Super Giant Rings (working in the same mechanic as Sonic Mania), they will be transported to Hidden Palace Zone, a scrapped zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where Sonic would have a cutscene turning into Super Sonic, whereas in this, he turns into Hyper Sonic. After going through a whole act and a mini-boss. Sonic gets the seventh Super Emerald and turns into Hyper Sonic, and goes back to the zone he was in.

In The Final Fever, Eggman takes out his new flying "indestructible" machine, Final Fever. It has lasers, missles, badniks, assault weapons, enough stuff to defeat Hyper Sonic. If the player manages to hold on to their 50+ rings, Hyper Sonic manages to defeat Eggman's Final Fever, sending Eggman, and the Egg Fortress (now on fire) back down to Earth, landing in the ocean. Hyper Sonic manages return the Chaos Emeralds powering the Egg Fortress to Angel Island where Knuckles guards them with the Master Emerald. Knuckles returns to Angel Island and Sonic and Tails go back to their home.

Knuckles' Story
On the save file screen, there is an option to play as Knuckles. At the beginning, there is a cutscene where Knuckles is recruited by Tails to help rescue Sonic. After rescuing him on Madness Mountain, Knuckles explores West Side Island by himself. He goes through these zones:


 * Olympus Hill Zone
 * Yellow Powerhouse Zone
 * Wood Zone
 * Lava Machine

In Lava Machine Zone, Knuckles battles Sonic, until he realizes that he is battling Mecha Sonic, revived by Eggman after Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles, has shapeshifted into Sonic and has more powers. When West Side Island floods, Knuckles enters the tornado and with Sonic and Tails, goes into the sky to chase down Eggman and enter his newly-named Egg Fortress Zone. When Knuckles is in Egg Fortress, he is attacked by Mecha Sonic, who just attacked Sonic before and is held captive. Knuckles defeats Mecha Sonic with Sonic and Tails. Knuckles stays on Egg Fortress with Tails while Hyper Sonic goes to defeat Eggman and Knuckles' story ends with rescuing Sonic and Tails and going back to Angel Island.

Development
When Sonic Mania was released in 2017, it was a critical and commercial success. Fans demanded for a sequel already. When Twitter user @MayannoiseJohn tweeted to Christian Whitehead about the possibility for a sequel, Whitehead responded, "We don't really know yet. Considering the success right now, we might have to ask SEGA about it. Don't worry though, keep your fingers crossed!" In December 2017, a sequel was leaked by an unknown SEGA employee, but was taken doen from Twitter after. In mid 2018, Whitehead and Thomley had officially announced an Sonic Mania Two, even showing early artwork for the sequel.

They also confirmed that the game would take place on West Side Island, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, even featuring zones from the game as well as scrapped zones such as the possibility for Hidden Palace. Thomley also said that Hyper Sonic in Mania Two would be a possibility, after only being featured in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles. Whithead and Thomley would share more information about the development of Sonic Mania Two, including zones, cutscenes, and backgrounds. In late 2019, a 5-second video was leaked online of half of a Mania Two cutscene, featuring Tails and Knuckles on Angel Island.

Fans speculated Tyson Hesse would be returning to animate more cutscenes for Sonic Mania Two. Hesse confirmed he was animating more cutscenes and said that "there would be more cutscenes then the first one." Hesse, Whitehead, and Thomley would continue updating fans on the development of Mania Two, including an option to choose the Sonic 3 sprite, the Super Peel Out, and to play as Knuckles, also taking place on West Side Island. Even the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account would update fans on the development, including a joke tweet on April 1, 2020 where a claimed Sonic Mania Two video leak was a rickroll instead, formed into a "sonicroll".

Music
Tee Lopes confirmed in 2019 he was returning for Sonic Mania Two, also updating fans on the production. In early 2020, Lopes uploaded a video of a remix of Hidden Palace Zone, the scrapped zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where it was confirmed Hidden Palace was making an appearance in the game. Lopes uploaded two more remixes, for Aquatic Ruin Zone and a new zone, Sunset Beach Zone. Lopes would make occasional updates on the music of Mania Two, even uploading pictures occasionally

Marketing
It wasn't until December 13, 2020 where fans would get the first look of Sonic Mania Two. On the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel, there was a video uploaded at 1:57PM where it had a black screen with nothing on it, with the title being "First Teaser", inside the video began with Tyson Hesse and Christian Whitehead welcoming the viewer and showing them the teaser for Sonic Mania Two. The teaser was shown and spread everywhere online. Fans and audiences were excited for Sonic Mania Two and on December 20, another teaser was released showing the first cutscene, fully animated by Hesse.

There would be more marketing for Sonic Mania Two, including toys and merchandising. There was also an McDonalds deal with Mania Two, possibly making fun of the fact Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was split into two parts because of McDonalds. There was also a commercial similar to a Sonic 2 ad where they made an real clay model of Emerald Hill Zone. For the Mania Two commercial, they made a model of Hidden Palace. It wasn't until March 2021 where Whitehead confirmed that Hyper Sonic would be in Mania Two. And it wasn't until April where it was announced to be released on June 13, to coincide with Sonic's 30th birthday that year.