Sonic Mania is an excellent game which manages to capture the nostalgia of past entries in the franchise. However, many gamers expressed some concern with the title for its lack of Xbox One X support. Even though Sonia Mania features pixelated visuals, they can appear rather blurry on a 4K display because a 1080p image is being stretched out. Despite its smooth gameplay, experiencing this presentation is a less than ideal experience.
Luckily, it seems like that's about to change soon. Today, Sonic Mania Plus was announced for Xbox One and other platforms. While specific details about the Xbox One X upgrade weren't covered, the Xbox One box clearly displays a "4K Ultra HD" logo and the "Xbox One X Enhanced" designation. Unless the box art represents an error, it means that the game will be enhanced for Microsoft's newest console. However, it's unclear if 4K, in this case, means native 4K, dynamic scaling, or checkerboard rendering. We've reached out to Sega for comment and shall let you know as soon as we hear more.
Sonic Mania goes packaged with Sonic Mania Plus! Mighty and Ray join as playable characters, new Encore mode, 4P Competition mode, Holographic packaging, 32-page art book, and more. Summer 2018. pic.twitter.com/4U74kJ7xuGSonic Mania goes packaged with Sonic Mania Plus! Mighty and Ray join as playable characters, new Encore mode, 4P Competition mode, Holographic packaging, 32-page art book, and more. Summer 2018. pic.twitter.com/4U74kJ7xuG— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) March 16, 2018March 16, 2018
Players have been asking for an Xbox One X upgrade for this game for a while now and it's great to see the publisher finally listened to the request. The game already runs at native 4K 60 FPS on PlayStation 4 Pro so Xbox One X owners should expect similar results due to the 1.8 teraflops advantage Microsoft's system has over the competition. The wait for the upgrade hopefully won't be that long because Sonic Mania Plus is expected to release this summer. However, that's not all. The official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account teased another announcement tied to racing today.
The post on Twitter just says "Top Secret" and features clips of cars and a logo with the letter "R" at the beginning. Many gamers on Facebook and Twitter believe this to be a new entry in the acclaimed Sonic Racing franchise. The lettering is quite similar to past Sonic Racing games, so that's why many individuals arrived at this conclusion. However, we can't confirm this until Sega officially unveils a new game in the series in the coming days.
[ TOP SECRET ] pic.twitter.com/OVQ6n77Rh4[ TOP SECRET ] pic.twitter.com/OVQ6n77Rh4— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) March 16, 2018March 16, 2018
In our review of Sonic Mania, we said that it "looks and feels just like a long-lost sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with lots of huge and varied levels to explore, multiple playable characters with unique abilities, and spectacular boss battles." If you haven't played it yet, be sure to check it out at retailers for $19.99.
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