Here are the six best Sonic Mania levels put in by modders

techradar.com:

There used to be a time when the only way to prolong a game further, would be to use cheats or hope that an expansion pack would soon arrive to bring out new levels.

But we live in a time where modding a game can be very easy, as long as you have the patience. The Sonic community is a great example of this, where full-blown makeovers of existing games, or additional levels have been created to showcase what a game could do further.

Since its release in 2017, Sonic Mania is still regarded to be one of the best Sonic games of its time, but modders have been expanding it with new levels, mods, characters, and conversions to prolong it further.

With this in mind, we've played through countless levels to highlight five of the best, from their time and attention paid, to the complete randomness of how some fit so well for a Sonic game.

This zone is part of a collection that has four other levels from Sonic 2, released back in 1992.

Sonic 2 Mania is a team effort to remake certain zones into the Sonic Mania engine, but with remixed music and their Act 2 variants twist what you think of what the level entails.

This mod has been the template for other modders to follow since its first release in 2019, as other levels released before this, would be 1:1 copies. Here, they're fresh but look as though they're DLC from SEGA.

Aquatic Ruin Zone has been remade from the ground up, with remixed music and all the enemies intact, alongside the dangerous arrows and the breakable pillars that are across the two acts.

This zone is a great example of building on what made the level memorable while expanding its design.

Released as part of the Misfits Pack, you also get three other zones as part of a demo that remixes established and cut levels from past