Sonic Mania is the rare retro revival that manages to do it all. It's a love letter to classic Sonic fans that manages to showcase why we love the Blue Blur in the first place, but it's also a great introduction to the series for newcomers. There was definitely an opportunity here to sand down some of the more divisive elements of classic Sonic gameplay - where it can often feel like you need to memorize a level's layout to actually feel like you can master it - but it's so committed to delivering an authentic experience based on those Genesis games that it's hard to fault it for that. It achieves its goals on every level, and I honestly think that the new Zones are some of the best in the game. The new special stage is really tough, but oh well, gotta work hard for those Chaos Emeralds. It's hard to imagine a 2D Sonic game that's better than this, and in a sense, that's the highest possible recommendation I can give to a project like this.