Sonic Fan-Made Game Has Serious Sonic Mania Vibes

Sonic Fan-Made Game Has Serious Sonic Mania Vibes



Summary

  • Sonic Galactic is a fan game reminiscent of Sonic Mania, appealing to fans of pixel art and classic Sonic gameplay.
  • The game features new playable characters Fang the Sniper and Tunnel the Mole, with unique paths for each.
  • Sonic Galactic’s second demo offers roughly an hour of Sonic’s stages and a couple of hours of total gameplay.

Sonic Galactic by Starteam is a Sonic the Hedgehog fan game that carries the same energy and vibes as 2017’s Sonic Mania. The Sonic the Hedgehog fan community is always an active one, making different sequels and follow-ups to various titles in the franchise. Sonic Mania in particular is one of the most popular games in the series, being the ultimate celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Mania was developed by Headcannon, Christian Whitehead, and PagodaWest Games, a team of passionate Sonic fans who previously worked on beloved fan games like Sonic: Before the Sequel.

A sequel to Sonic Mania never ended up materializing, due to a combination of Sonic Team wanting to move away from pixel art graphics for its games, along with Whitehead’s studio, Evening Star, wanting to move on to something else. As a result, 2023 saw the release of Sonic Superstars, a follow-up to the 2D entries that retained the Genesis-styled gameplay while implementing 3D graphics and cooperative multiplayer. However, fans believe that Sonic Mania‘s graphics and pixel art style are still timeless. As such, various fan games like Sonic and the Fallen Star have utilized this art style. Sonic Galactic by Starteam is looking to do a similar thing.

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Sonic Galactic is a fan game that has been at least four years in the making, being first revealed at Sonic Amateur Games Expo in 2020. Sonic Galactic is a fan-made interpretation of the Sonic series as if it was a 32-bit game that was released on the 5th Generation of video game hardware, described as “what-if Sonic was potentially produced on the Sega Saturn” console. As such, this Sonic the Hedgehog fan game draws from a number of inspirations and tries to be an authentic retro 2D platformer like the Genesis games, while adding their own spin on it.

What is Sonic Galactic?

The second demo of Sonic Galactic was released at the start of 2025, giving fans the chance to play as the classic trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in brand-new zones. Alongside those three, Fang the Sniper from Sonic Triple Trouble has been promoted to playable character status, teaming up with Sonic and pals in order to get revenge against Dr. Eggman. Sonic Galactic also introduces a new playable character named Tunnel the Mole, a character who is native to Illusion Island.

Sonic Galactic feels a lot like a Sonic Mania sequel, with each of the playable characters having their own paths that can be taken in each zone. The special stages feel very Mania-inspired, requiring players to collect a certain number of rings before time runs out in a 3D environment. Due to it being the second demo, a typical playthrough of Sonic Galactic will last an hour in terms of getting through all of Sonic’s stages, while the other characters only have about one stage each. In total, it should round out to a couple of hours of playtime.

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