Sonic Mania's release date may have been revealed by its European Steam page

Sonic Mania hearkens back to a day when Sonic games were considered among the best, and that's what makes it look so exciting—though I'm personally not getting my hopes up because that would be a crazy thing to do for a Sonic game in 2017. However, if you're looking forward to playing it, you might be able to do so on August 15.

As GameSpot reports, that's the date that was revealed in a trailer on Sonic Mania's European Steam page. The funny thing is that the American Steam page's trailer still says the game's coming "summer 2017." There's been no official comment from Sega on the suggested release date, but we'll keep you updated as more is revealed.

Sonic Mania was originally slated to release in the spring, but it was delayed to the summer back in March. It's being developed by independent developers, and in our interview with producer Lola Shiraishi, James finds that it could be a worthy sequel to the original games.

There's another Sonic game expected to launch this year as well. Sonic Forces combines both flavours of Sonic—the classic 2D with the more modern 3D platforming—and even lets you create your own Sonic-like character.