Although I didn't have a Sega Genesis, I played the Sonic Mega Collection on the Gamecube a lot as a kid, so I do have a lot of fondness for the classic Sonic games, even though recent replays of them have exposed a lot of their flaws. Sonic Mania is like if you took someone's unexamined nostalgic memories of Classic Sonic and turned them into a game, and because of that it totally kicks ass. There's clearly a lot of love for the originals here, but there's also a lot of innovation and new mechanics. The levels are sprawling and full of branching paths, and genuinely really fun to attempt to speedrun, even casually. When a Sonic game gets me to actually use the Time Attack mode, that's a sign that it's doing something right. One of Sonic's best qualities compared to Mario has always been the uniqueness of its level environments, and that's definitely the case here. My favorite world has got to be the one that's a printing press factory located inside a wintery Japanese forest, but the vine-covered Roman cityscape of Stardust Speedway Act 1 is also just incredible to look at. Also, every single song on the soundtrack slaps.