With Lava Reef Zone, for example, the original tileset was basically unusable in its original form, so we had to generate a new tileset. It’s not just about giving the sprites a lick of paint. Going into it, we thought that revisiting classic zones was going to be easy, but then the ideas we came up with were so crazy that it eventually became much more challenging than we expected. With those two, they were definitely simpler than the classic levels. Coming up with the concept and artwork for it didn’t take very long. For example, Studiopolis is one of the first levels we made, and I had a very strong idea behind it from the start. I think it varied depending on the level. On the hardest part developing Sonic Mania… I’m not against adding in the new characters – I think they’re cool – I think there’s potentially a lot of things you could do with it… Even with just three characters, you can access different parts of the stage because of their unique abilities – Tails can fly, for instance. There’s only so much you can do within a particular time frame. Really, what it comes down to is general scope. On any discussions bringing in newer characters from games past Sonic 3 and Knuckles… When you have a game that has to convey its story through sprites moving on a screen, going overboard with fun things is what makes it come to life. It’s funny, because I’m sure there are Sonic fans out there who say “Yeah, we want Sonic to be serious, and to convey a feeling of genuine threat.” Meanwhile, we’ve got Eggman riding a cartoon train.

But he said, “Let’s look into it.” And it made sense creatively for the game. I just thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we made the boss just Puyo Puyo?” I thought Iizuka-san would just immediately veto it. We had already made a souped-up version of the original boss, so we needed something else. I was having trouble thinking of a novel boss for the Zone. The two bosses that I couldn’t imagine us getting approval on to begin with were the Mean Bean Machine Boss in Chemical Plant Zone. There’s a spirit with the whole team – both Sega and ourselves – where it’s just been a lot of fun to make. On any pushback on some of the more sophisticated Easter eggs… You can read the full talk on Rolling Stone here.

We’ve highlighted some notable excerpts from the interview below. The two sides chatted about a wide array of topics, including the game’s Easter eggs, how the initial plan for the sequence of Zones was scrapped, potentially coming back for a sequel, and more. Rolling Stone published a lengthy interview with Christian Whitehead, the director of Sonic Mania.

Sonic mania levels