Sonic Mania/Bugs

This page lists various glitches that can be found in Sonic Mania and Sonic Mania Plus.

General bugs

Shifting Spin Dash

If the player walks right up to certain interactable objects, such as Springs, Spikes, unbroken Monitors or breakable walls, readies a Spin Dash and holds , their character will slowly shift to the left until they release the Spin Dash. This won't work with every object however, such as the rocks in Green Hill Zone.

Not fixed in any version.

Sideways spring animation error

If the player rolls into a sideways spring and continually holds the control stick or D-pad in the opposite direction they are moving in, their character will briefly enter their pushing animation when they stop moving, appearing to be pushing nothing.

Not fixed in any version.

Gliding through terrain

Should Knuckles interact with certain objects at the top of a wall, he would enter a strange state in which he will no longer collide with the terrain, which effectively allows him to glide through walls. However, he could still stand on objects, but will still maintain his momentum from gliding, and walking off of objects would cause him to walk on air and defy gravity.

The places the player would be able to do this glitch in is with the first purple jelly catchers the player encounters in Chemical Plant Zone Act 2, one of the press wheels above a spring in Press Garden Zone Act 1, and with the spinning pillars at the start of Hydrocity Zone Act 2. In the case of Press Garden Act 1, the player can let Knuckles fall forever due to the Act's vertically looping nature, and watch as the background gets confused.

Because Knuckles ignores walls in this state, players would abuse this glitch by gliding all the way to the end of levels and achieve super fast clear times in Time Attack mode.

Fixed in v1.03/RC 1.03.0829.

Not-so-Super Sonic

When playing as Sonic, if the player holds to pan the camera up and then attempts to transform into Super Sonic, the transformation will not finish properly, causing Sonic to appear as a blue Super Sonic, and will not be invincible. The player can still re-transform into Super Sonic, however.

Fixed in v1.03/RC 1.03.0829.

Sign collision detection

Getting the Signpost partially stuck in the ceiling.

The Signpost is completely stuck in the ceiling.

The Signpost has faulty collision detection - in several Acts that end with ceilings (most notably Metallic Madness Zone Act 1), it is possible to drive it into the ceiling, causing it to vibrate in a glitched manner until it falls out of the ceiling. With persistent effort, it is even possible to drive the sign entirely into the ceiling, causing it to be placed within it.

Not fixed in any version.

Pause screen colour bug

The player character's colours are rendered incorrectly if certain graphical effects, such as a regular Shield, are overlapping their sprite. Brighter colours, such as white, are rendered darker.

Fixed in v1.04/Sonic Mania Plus.

Mighty's victory animation

Mighty's victory animation is rather bugged in some cases. If he is standing on the Capsule at the end of some zones, he may fly off the capsule during his victory animation depending on where he is standing and which direction he is facing.

Not fixed in any version.

Super Peel-Out with any character in Encore Mode

Should the player change Sonic's ability to the Super Peel-Out in Mania Mode's options, then activate Encore Mode in the level select (02, 00, 01, 08, 00, 06, 02, 03 in the sound test), Sonic will be able to use the Super Peel-Out in Encore Mode, even if he is not being controlled by the player. Should Sonic be replaced with another character via a Player Swap or Random monitor, the character he will be replaced with will gain the ability to perform the Super Peel-Out. They'll keep the ability until the player finishes the Act, restarts or enters a Special or Bonus Stage.

This bug can also be achieved with the Max Control cheat (09, 00, 00, 01 in the sound test).

Not fixed in any version.

Level-specific bugs

• Angel Island Zone
• Green Hill Zone
• Chemical Plant Zone
• Studiopolis Zone
• Flying Battery Zone
• Press Garden Zone
• Stardust Speedway Zone
• Hydrocity Zone
• Mirage Saloon Zone
• Oil Ocean Zone
• Lava Reef Zone
• Metallic Madness Zone
• Titanic Monarch Zone
• Egg Reverie Zone
• Special Stage
• Bonus Stage

Denuvo DRM

These bugs only apply to the PC version of the game, which used the Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Always online requirement

In the initial release of the PC version, the Denuvo DRM did not allow the game to be played offline.

Fixed in a patch released one day after launch, allowing the game to be played offline after it has been run online at least once.

Time Attack infinite write loop

Denuvo was updated upon the release of Sonic Mania Plus, but an oversight had slipped in due to sloppy implementation. When the Time Attack menu is accessed, a trigger is activated which makes Denuvo start writing to its section. However, the trigger isn't closed properly, causing Denuvo to keep writing to its section until the game is closed, causing massive slowdown.

Fixed in RC 1.06.0503, which completely removes Denuvo from the executable.

Miscellaneous bugs

PS4 leaderboards crash

In the initial release of the PlayStation 4 version, accessing the leaderboards caused the game to crash.

Fixed in v1.03.

Switch HOME and POWER button delay

In the initial release of the Nintendo Switch version, the HOME and POWER buttons were delayed, and accessing the Switch's quick action menu by holding HOME would randomly block access to the Switch’s UI entirely, forcing a hard restart.

Fixed in v1.03.