Sonic Mania released back in September of 2017 to widespread praise from both fans and new players alike. Given it's reception, it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that Sega has now announced Sonic Mania Plus - a minor expansion set to arrive this Summer alongside the physical editions of Sonic Mania.

There aren't that many details available just yet, but you can expect to see two new characters and a brand new Encore game mode that will apparently offer a darn good reason to do another playthrough. What might come as a surprise, however, is that the new characters won't be the series mainstays like Knuckles or Amy, but rather two incredibly obscure ones: Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. You can learn a little bit more about them and where they come from over at the Sonic wiki.

Right now there are plenty of rumors circling around that Sonic Mania Plus will be a free update, but I'm afraid that's not actually true. The developers haven't stated the price because they aren't sure what it's going to be just yet, and not because it's going to be entirely free. On the positive side, existing owners will have a way to upgrade to the "Plus" version at a much cheaper price point, so it's not all that bad.

That's pretty much it as far as currently available information goes. Once more details arrive I'll make sure to cover them, but until then I'll leave you with this image showing off the physical editions and the two new characters: