History YMMV / SonicMania

* FandomHeresy: Admit you don't like the game. [[SchmuckBait Go on, we dare ya.]]
* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', unsurprisingly. It's a pretty one-sided rivalry though, at least as far as noise goes, with fans of ''Sonic Mania'' being quite vocal about their dislike for ''Sonic Forces'', whereas those who genuinely prefer the gameplay, story, and overall presentation of ''Sonic Forces'' simply deem ''Sonic Mania'' as uninteresting rather than bad.

*** ''VideoGame/BlueSphere'' as the star post bonus stage is a highly-controversial feature, due to many players finding it tedious compared to other bonus stage formats. Encore Mode replaces ''Blue Sphere'' with a new pinball bonus stage, which in addition to being less repetitive also allows the player to (re)gain party members and shields.

* MyRealDaddy: After the game received widespread acclaim, and even more after ''Forces'' came out to [[SoOkayItsAverage a mediocre reception]], many fans proclaimed {{Promoted Fanboy}}s Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and [=PagodaWest=] Games to be the better handlers of the franchise than Sonic Team themselves. This is for better or for worse, as when ports of ''Sonic 1'' and ''2'' were brought to the Switch as part of M2's ''SEGA AGES'' series of ports, they got blasted simply because the CW-HC-PW trio wasn't involved with it.

** "Get out before the ceiling falls! You have five seconds!"[[note]]A popular {{mondegreen}} of a sampled and heavily distorted line used in the "Ruby Illusions" song, which is taken from the Apollo 11 launch and actually says "Astronaut report, it feels good. T-minus 25 seconds..."[[/note]]

** "King of Speed", which requires you to beat Stardust Speedway Act 2, a rather labirinthye level with multiple routes, in under a minute. Fortunately, you do not have to fight Metal Sonic as well, and this achievement is slighter easier to get on Time Attack mode.

** Older ''Sonic'' games remember whether or not you've already collected 100 / 200 rings (so if you collect 100, take damage, and then collect 100 more, you won't get a 1-up the second time). This is not the case in ''Mania'', which means if you collect 100 rings while you have the Hyper Ring powerup, you can immediately take damage and then gather up the larger rings to get them all back, effectively giving you two 1-ups for the price of one.[[note]]Interestingly, this doesn't work when your rings are drained one by one, like with the Super transformations or the gas in Oil Ocean Zone Act 2.[[/note]] Like the glitch above, this too got patched out in ''Plus''.

** As was revealed when an early prototype of the game was dumped and released to the public in November 2019, the Drop Dash was actually intended to debut in ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic 3]]'' with slightly different mechanics.[[note]]Instead of holding down the jump button in midair, it's activated by holding ''up'' before jumping.[[/note]] When someone brought this to Christian Whitehead's attention on Twitter, he called it an "uncanny coincidence".

* EndingAversion: The game, in a first for the Classic series, ends on [[spoiler:a SequelHook for ''Sonic Forces'']]. Considering how divisive [[spoiler:''Forces'']] is, and the ending having [[spoiler:Sonic sent away]], some fans were ''not'' happy. Said fans then understandably celebrated when it was announced that Encore Mode would take place chronologically after [[spoiler:Sonic returns from ''Forces'']], finally allowing ''Mania'' to get a true ending all to itself.

** When discussing the franchise's attempts to WinBackTheCrowd, some will refuse to acknowledge this game as legitimate reasoning towards that simply because it was mainly developed by [[AscendedFanboy fans within the Sonic community]] rather than Creator/SonicTeam, and as such will only consider the franchise to be on a road to recovery if high-quality games are made by Sonic Team, themselves. Compare to ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXMegaMan'', another well-made game by a single ''Franchise/MegaMan'' fan that has divided people on whether or not it should count toward that series' own recovery due to having little to no involvement from Creator/{{Capcom}} beyond officially endorsing and supporting its release.

** ''Plus'' adds Mighty and Ray as playable characters, neither of which have been seen in the games outside of cameos in decades. While Mighty and Ray had been featured frequently in [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog the Archie Comic]], many fans feared that said comic's cancellation would lead Sega to just quietly forget their existence like it had happened to so many other (semi-)obscure Sonic characters. Takashi Iizuka has [[https://www.sonicstadium.org/2018/05/takashi-iizuka-without-sonic-mania-ray-and-mighty-would-never-see-light-of-day-again/ in fact remarked more than once]] that as far as he's concerned, the two would've remained shelved forever if not for ''Mania''. Presumably this also applies to [[spoiler:Fang]]'s gang.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Some who consider ''Mania'' [[HypeBacklash overrated]] express distaste for all of the attention both fans and Sega have given it, arguing that it takes attention away from other parts of the franchise, sometimes detrimental in regards to the people [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks who treat all non-classic games]], and modern Creator/SonicTeam (who had little involvement with this game), as AcceptableTargets.

* The Combine Ring powerup (which makes giant rings worth ten rings each fly out the first time you get hit while equipped with this powerup) isn't new to this game. It originated in ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix''.

* HypeBacklash: With ''Mania'' receiving such accolades like being called "the best ''Sonic'' game in years", some fans are annoyed with all the gushing it has been receiving and have accused it of being somewhat undeserving of its acclaim, arguing that it is blatant PanderingToTheBase and [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks similar to the classics to a fault]]. Additionally, there are those who believe that its acclaim will work ''against'' the franchise [[ToughActToFollow as subsequent games will be compared to it]].

* MyRealDaddy: After the game received widespread acclaim, and even more after ''Forces'' came out to [[SoOkayItsAverage a mediocre reception]], many fans proclaimed {{Promoted Fanboy}}s Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and [=PagodaWest=] Games to be the better handlers of the franchise than Sonic Team themselves. This is for better or for worse, as when ports of ''Sonic 1'' and ''2'' were brought to the Switch as part of M2's ''SEGA AGES'' series of ports, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks they got blasted simply because the CW-HC-PW trio wasn't involved with it]].

* MyRealDaddy: After the game received widespread acclaim, and even more after ''Forces'' came out to [[SoOkayItsAverage a mediocre reception]], many fans proclaimed {{Promoted Fanboy}}s Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and [=PagodaWest=] Games to be the better handlers of the franchise than Sonic Team themselves.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Despite harkening back to the 16-bit era with the graphics, the game sets out to ''surpass'' them in fidelity. The animation for the logo, for instance, is [[https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/MiserableDistantHerring movie-quality smooth.]] Even minor things such as ''ring animations'' have been updated to look much more fluid, while retaining the classic 16/32-bit feel.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Despite harkening back to the 16-bit era with the graphics, the game sets out to ''surpass'' them in fidelity. The animation for the logo, for instance, is [[https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/MiserableDistantHerring movie-quality smooth.]]

* RecurringFanonCharacter: Omelette, also known as Eggette, was created after someone noticed an upside down sprite of Eggman from ''Videogame/SonicMania'' looked like someone else entirely. The character became popular with the fanbase and is commonly regarded as Eggman's niece or daughter, and is used in notable fanworks such as ''Webcomic/SonicLegacy'' and the eighth season of ''WebAnimation/SonicForHire'', and even has a cameo in ''Anime/SonicX [[MultiAnimatorProject Reanimated]]''.

** When the game was leaked due to the Switch version breaking the street date, curious fans had to endure watching [[{{Noob}} a rather clumsy and impatient player]] make his way through the game. Oil Ocean in particular was a major roadblock for him, enough that it took [[EpicFail 12 game overs]] until he cleared that zone. This led to running jokes such as pretending that zone was half of the game. Even Sega's apology video for the PC version's delay made fun of the incident.

* HoYay: A particularly odd example. The DummiedOut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOKZK8MU5lo love tester]] in Casinopolis shows [[PrecociousCrush Tails having a happy reaction to being paired with Sonic]], and [[CrackShip Knuckles having an interest in]] ''[[FoeYay Eggman]]''!

* SoOkayItsAverage: While this game got great reception by the majority, there's a minor that felt it didn't really offer that much new content in it as most of the stages from previous games are reused instead of all stages being new, and it doesn't really have much of a story when compared to other modern 2D games like ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'', ''{{VideoGame/Shantae}}'', ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'' and ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet''. All of which had bigger stories. Said fans basically wished that the game would have gone all out with a bigger story and new ideas so that the game could live up to its reception a lot better.

* ToughActToFollow: The [[spoiler:Metal Sonic]] boss fight in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' is a fan favorite. As such, its equivalent for this game wound up being more divisive, mainly due to its length and one particular phase being [[PuzzleBoss less]] [[GuideDangIt intuitive]] than it needed to be.

* * SoOkayItsAverage: While this game got great reception by the majority, there are some that felt it didn't really offer that much new content in it as most of the stages from previous games are reused instead of all stages being new, and it doesn't really have much of a story when compared to other modern 2D games like ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'', ''{{VideoGame/Shantae}}'', ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'' and ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet''. All of which had bigger stories. Said fans basically wished that the game would have gone all out with a bigger story and new ideas so that the game could live up to its acclaimed reception a lot better.

** Out of all the playable characters, Tails is by far the least useful in abilities, basically being Sonic with a slow flight and without the ability to use shield powers. Whereas Sonic gets an ensemble of different moves to choose from in addition to the powers of the Elemental Shields, and Knuckles has his own distinct moveset and Ray has his incredibly broken and fast gliding ability while Mighty has his very nifty [[GroundPound Hammer Drop]] and immunity to spikes, Tails almost feels superannuated by them in comparison.