From the moment that Sonic Mania was first announced, fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog series were excited to see a return to the 2D platforming of old. As it turns out, the reception to Sonic Mania upon its release has at least come close to matching those expectations, with the game sitting on a rather high rating across the board.

The news was shared by the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter feed, taking to the social network to share exactly how well Sonic Mania has been received. At the time of the Twitter post, the new game was sitting on a very impressive Metacritic score of 86, while the user score was even better at a rating of 9.2. All in all, this gives Sonic Mania the hugely impressive place as the highest-rated Sonic game in a whopping 15 years.

The last Sonic game to beat a score of 86 was 2002's Sonic Advance, with the Game Boy Advance title getting a rating of 87 overall. It's easy to see why Sonic Mania has managed to reach such heights, too, with plenty of love for the game's excellent retro platforming and a clear passion for the Sonic games of old, as shown by the Sonic Mania launch trailer.

This is certainly the reception that Sega had been hoping for with Sonic Mania. It's been a turbulent few years for the Sonic franchise in general, and it was clear that Sonic and Sega needed a successful 2017 to try and get the blue hedgehog back on track. Should Sonic Mania continue on this trajectory, and fan support continue for the game, then it's certainly a strong step in the right direction for Sega.

Of course, there's still one version of the game still to come, after the PC release of Sonic Mania was delayed until August 29, 2017. However, if the PC launch matches those on home consoles, then it's likely that the game will end up in a strong position for the foreseeable future.

After that, of course, will be the release of Sonic Forces, the next 3D Sonic release that is due to hit stores by the end of 2017. Given the praise for Sonic Mania, however, it's likely that Sonic Forces is going to have to pull something special out of the bag to beat it.

Sonic Mania is out now for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, and releases on August 29, 2017 for PC.

Source: Twitter