Sonic Mania Plus

Sonic Mania Plus was a game released as an expansion to Sonic Mania in July 2018. Sonic Mania Plus adds Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel as playable characters as well as Encore Mode. Sonic Mania Plus’s new features were released as a DLC to Sonic Mania that was titled Encore DLC.

Encore Mode
Following the events of Sonic Forces, Sonic arrives back on his version of Angel Island. The Phantom Ruby, however, had not been destroyed during the events of Sonic Forces and it has followed Sonic home. Sonic tries to catch the ruby after it floats away but he ends up finding Mighty and Ray trapped inside Schrodinger’s Capsule. Sonic frees them and sides with one of them, but the one that Sonic didn’t side with revealed themself to be Heavy Magician. She steals the Phantom Ruby and leaves. Sonic and his partner chase her down but end up catching her too late. She gives the Phantom Ruby to Phantom King who revives the rest of the Hard Boiled Heavies. Sonic and his partner were sent to Green Hill Zone where they began to hunt them down. During their adventure, they find more of Sonic’s other friends. The group is attacked by Eggman who is in his Death Egg Robot. Upon being defeated, the robot falls into a cave and gets stuck. The group investigates and discovers that Eggman found the newly revived Hard Boiled Heavies who have the Phantom Ruby. Eggman steals the ruby and sends Sonic and his friends to Chemical Plant Zone. After traveling through all the zones that are seen in Mania Mode, the group comes to find that Eggman has taken over Little Planet again. The heroes enter the newly rebuilt Titanic Monarch Zone, where the battle Eggman in his Phantom Egg. After the Phantom Egg is destroyed, what happens afterwards depends on if the player collected all seven of the Chaos Emeralds. If not all seven emeralds are collected then Heavy King will steal the Phantom Ruby and power himself up as Sonic’s group and Eggman escape. A screen where Heavy King is seen juggling the emeralds left uncollected on a black background while two members of Sonic’s group stands in front of him, angry or disappointed. If all seven of the Chaos Emeralds are collected then Eggman will begin to flee as the Phantom Ruby begins to go out of control. It creates a space-time rift that begins to suck everything in. Sonic’s group uses the emeralds to enter their Super States and escape, knocking Eggman into the rift. The group rewards themselves at Mirage Saloon Zone where Heavy King surprises them after serving them a sundae.

Gameplay
Sonic Mania Plus’s Encore Mode plays differently than Mania Mode. The player begins as Sonic and has a partner character that they can switch to. More characters can be found with Character Monitors. In Encore Mode, the player will go through altered versions of zones from Mania Mode (all of them except Egg Reverie Zone). Mighty the Armadillo’s character-exclusive ability is the Hammer Drop, which is like a ground pound. Ray the Flying Squirrel’s character-exclusive ability is the Air Glide, which allows Ray to glide in the air. There is also a 4-player competition mode, where 2-4 players choose a character and compete against each other.