Sonic Mania update adds extra stage transitions, a new boss and other new features

Sonic Mania was pretty great at launch, but some areas of the game felt a little like they'd been hastily put together. This latest patch changes that.

The latest patch for Sonic Mania addresses a major fan complaint with the original launch of the game - a lack of stage transitions between every stage in the game. Previously, small animations would stitch together some levels, helping to tell more story and explain how Sonic and his friends get from one themed zone to another, but not all stages had such transitions. A new patch that arrived on PlayStation 4 last night has now added stage transitions to every level in the game, plus a variety of other small features.

Here's a glance at some of the new level transitions in action - they're only small, but in a game that's deliberately light on story they make quite a difference, as does the 'all new' boss (a reappearing foe from an older Sonic spin-off), which replaces a particularly rough piece of design in the game as it shipped at launch. Here's a look a those main changes:

The official patch notes for this new version 1.04 haven't yet been released, but fans are reporting a variety of changes online in places like Reddit and ResetEra. Here's a list of changes fans have noticed:

• Every zone in the game now has a stage transition, as mentioned above
• Cutscenes can be skipped
• Menus have been changed
• Additional moves from past games such as the Insta-Shield (Sonic 3), Super Peel Out (Sonic CD) and '& Knuckles mode' can now be used in save files rather than just non-saved play
• The Time Limit can also be disabled, allowing you to explore levels for more than 10 minutes
• The Metal Sonic boss fight has had one phase of it completely overhauled, while the other phases have been tweaked.
• Super Sonic has new animations including a new idle animation
• Graphical changes to all levels, plus new sound effects
• Multiplayer can now be played without the stretched visuals

These changes are small, but they also add up to be something fairly significant that helps push the already amazing Sonic Mania to greater heights still. This isn't the last update Sonic Mania will be getting, either - this work is seemingly just a prelude to the launch of Sonic Mania Plus later this year.

Sonic Mania Plus is a new physical version of the game or a paid DLC update to the existing digital version of the game. It features two new playable characters - Mighty the Armadillo (last seen in Knuckles Chaotix) and Ray the Flying Squirrel (of the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog), plus new modes and remixed stages. It's coming to all major platforms later this year.