Sonic Mania Special Stages Completed Backwards
50One of the really cool things about the special stages in Sonic Mania is that you can play them by running in the opposite direction!
When you turn round to run in the opposite direction, so does the UFO which holds the chaos emerald. This means it takes longer to catch up to the UFO, so it's more challenging! Gathering as many rings as possible, not getting hit by bombs as well as reaching Mach3 is essential if you are to catch up to the UFO before your time (ring counter) runs out.
In this playthrough I beat SS 1, 2, 3 & 4 by immediately turning in the opposite direction.
For SS5 you can't beat it by turning in the opposite direction as soon as the special stages. You need to run in the normal direction for about two laps so that you are moving fast enough and only collecting rings via the ramps to begin with it. Get hit once and you will fail. This by far the hardest ss to complete running backwards.
Unfortunately it's not possible to beat SS6 by running in the opposite direction (so in this playthrough I just go through in the normal direction). Some of the narrow sections are very hard to navigate, but the main thing which stops you is the lack of rings (you can't get the high-up rings accessible via the ramps because you're running in the opposite direction).
For SS7 I had to run in the normal direction for about a quarter of a lap before I was able to turn round. The lack of barriers in SS7 makes turning round very difficult. If you turn around immediately from where you start it leads to a dead-end.
Other Videos By Retro Master
Other Statistics
Sonic Mania Statistics For Retro Master
Retro Master currently has 4,608,439 views spread across 35 videos for Sonic Mania. His channel published over 1 day worth of content for the game, or 7.34% of the total watchable video for Sonic Mania on Retro Master's YouTube channel.