It's everyone's favorite blue hedgehog's birthday today, as the original Sonic the Hedgehog released in North America on SEGA Genesis all the way back on June 23, 1991. To celebrate, SEGA and Data Discs announced that they will be releasing a vinyl album for the upcoming 2D Sonic Mania. Pre-orders for the album will go live sometime in mid-July for $19.99.
The vinyl features select tracks from composer Tee Lopes, and has colorful gatefold art that features Sonic, Tails and Knuckles exploring Green Hill Zone Act 2. The inner sleeve of the vinyl will also include artwork of various characters from the game. This release also comes with a download code of the album. There will be three different versions of the Sonic Mania Vinyl Album, which you can see below:
- 180g Limited Edition (TBA), available exclusively from Data Discs
- 180g Translucent Blue
- 180g Classic Black
To give Sonic fans a small taste of what is included in the album, Data Discs released the opening track "Lights, Camera, Action!" from Studiopolis Act 1 on Soundcloud. You can check it out below.
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/329636950&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true
For those who don't know, Sonic Mania is one of two new Sonic games releasing this year, and aims to bring back the nostalgic visuals and gameplay style of the classic Sonic games. It was originally slated to come out in Spring 2017, but was delayed until Summer, with an August released date eventually being confirmed. Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces also recently got twenty minutes of gameplay at E3 2017.
Some pictures of the vinyl were released, which you can check out below. Sonic Mania is currently set to release on August 15 of this year on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The vinyl does not yet have a release date, but as mentioned before, pre-orders will open in mid July.