It's a good game, just unhappy about the fact that I had to pirate it because they added DRM to the PC version. I don't get hyped for games anymore but I was happy to actually pay for one for once because I'd followed the work of the guys that put this out for many years. Sega decided to be retarded and I'm sure they'll justify not porting games to the PC due to the lackluster sales. I'll probably play the plus version whenever someone releases the crack.
Anyway, I loved the 16-bit games back when I was a kid and Mania put me right back there for a few hours. Had no desire to replay but had a lot of fun. The engine they've built is really good and if Sega has any business sense at all they'll let this team produce an original game at some point. It was nice running through those old stages and they kept it fresh enough that it wasn't a straight port of them but I feel like they could do so much better if they were given some creative freedom. It's awful that Sega has fans this devoted to the old games yet they just keep shitting out bad games with Sonic slapped on the cover to appeal to the furry side of the fan base.