If you've been around the Sonic online fan community for a while, you may have heard of Sonic Megamix. This was a fairly extensive ROM hack of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game that was released between 2005-2007 for the Sega Mega Drive, before being ported over to the Sega Mega CD.
Developed by a talented group of Sonic hackers including Stealth — an individual who later went to work on numerous official Sonic titles including RetroEngine remakes of Sonic 1 & 2, Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins — it featured new levels, characters (Shadow the Hedgehog and Mighty the Armadillo), music, abilities, and art, and has since become something of a legendary hack within the game's community.
So recently, when we became aware (via the filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist) of the V0.9 release of Sonic Megamix Mania, a new and improved remake of the hack for the PC version of Sonic Mania Plus (now available to download as part of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2023), we knew we had to dig deeper and learn a little bit more.
The hack, as described on the contest page is a fan-made modification of Sonic Mania Plus, which includes a straightforward remake of the original Sonic Megamix with some improved art and slightly touched-up levels. That's in addition to a new Megamix mode that takes the core ideas of the original hack and gives it a fresh spin with plenty of new gimmicks, art, music, and level design. It is the work of Team Megamix Mania, which is a fairly large team comprised of artists, musicians, QA testers, translators, and designers (full credits here).
The current version of the hack includes:
- 12 Classic Mode Acts and The Final Fight
- 8 Megamix Mode Acts
- And 6 Diverse Characters (including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, Shadow, and Amy)
It is available to download here for free, but you'll need a copy of Sonic Mania Plus on Steam in order to play it, in addition to the Amy Mania mod (should you fancy playing as Amy Rose).