Finally, SEGA managed to make a good sonic game. This plays really like mega drive titles. I like it.

Playing it now!
Just one level in and I'm already having a blast!
This is classic 2D Sonic alright!!

And the music is fantastic!!!

Edit: (But then again, this IS Sonic we're talking about. If there's one thing that has been consistantly good with Sonic, classic or modern, it's the music.)

General first impression after nearing end of 1st playthrough...

Sonic Mania is the best Sonic game ever made :)

How many zones are in this game?

It's only short if you blaze through it. And even so i wouldn't call ot short. It's 12 stages and you aren't gonna steam roll every boss. You need to figure out their gimmick.

I have been exploring and i've died to time over a few times cause of it. The levels are huge and full of secrets. 

Also, if you do the bonus stages and special stages it won't go by that fast.

I am pretty much half way and have been playing for... 4 hours. The only thing that irks me a bit are the special stages, Sonic is so slippery. >.<

If you don't rush this is an 8 hour game and tbh would've been fine if sold for 60€/$. For 20€/$ absolute steal. This is the equivalent of sonic 3 + sonic & knuckles. Back in the day, it would've set you back 120+ €/$. Incredible value proposition.

The game is also definitly harder than S3&K. I've unlocked some skills wich i won't say anything about cause of sort of spoilers but i still don't know how to activate them. Bit odd. Maybe in further playthroughs they get unlocked.

Definitly a very good game. Those low reviews are criminal. Anyone that rates this a 6 or a 7 doesn't deserve to be credited as a reviewer. Theres only one flaw in the whole game imo wich is the slipperyness of the special stages. 

So question, how are the sales breaking down that you've seen platform wise? Plenty of people getting it on the Switch Third Party thread, but most reviews are PS4.....

It's really comparable to Sonic 3 & Knuckles in terms of length. It's practically the same actually in the normal playthrough sense. If your going for all of the extras, then Mania takes the cake in terms of length. 

Something interesting to note from my first playthrough: The design is supurb in this game, along with the difficulty. I had a hard time finding those moments that other classic Sonic games had where it'd throw something "cheap" at you, like throwing you into a wall or bed of spikes randomly. This game may have those dangers, but it doesn't purposely barrel you into them like previous titles.

Sonic Mania is high on the E-Shop, how about the XBox and Playstation store? Is it high on the download list?

Yeah, honestly I think that Sonic fans just got so used to terrible games that when a mediocre one came along, they elevated it far beyond where it actually is. The 3D sections were bad, and the 2D sections were mediocre. It definitely wasn't good and, from what I've played so far of Mania, shouldn't be in the same conversation.

3D in Sonic games have always been bad though outside of Lost World, where they were just mediocre and only in select levels. Not that I think it can't be done, but it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon, short of doing a Whitehead-like fangame like Mania and having someone else make it.