Sonic Mania ‘Drawn Back to the 90s’ Competition: THE WINNERS

WOW! Last week, we asked you all to ‘draw like a 90s kid’ to celebrate Sonic Mania’s launch tomorrow, and boy have we been bowled over by the humungous response (and amazing talent)! It seems like everyone’s nostalgia-bone has been well and truly tickled. Let’s take a look at the winners – and some honourable mentions – below!

Before we get into it, we want to say that we have never had such an amazing response to a contest held at The Sonic Stadium – and we’ve had some creative ones in our 17-year history! The sentiment we saw in people entering was incredible – some had old 90s drawings to share, others really tried to channel their inner child with new artwork, and some have told us how this contest has really inspired their kids to enter with their own drawings.

All of our entrants had the same reaction – that this competition was extremely fun to do and allowed them to get really creative. And we love hearing that kind of stuff. The Sonic community is nothing without the enthusiasm, talent and excitement that drives all of us. To that end, we really wanted to give everyone a prize but as we all know, it can only go to a special select few.

So congratulations to all of the winners below, but also a special well done and thanks to all who participated in this dumb little contest. We’ve included everyone’s entry (entered before the closing date) at the very bottom of the page so you can also admire the other entries and understand just how difficult it was for us to pick a small number of winners!

• NB: We will be reaching out to winners very soon – we haven’t had a chance to do so before we went live with the post, so please don’t fret if we’ve not got in touch yet… we’re on our way!
• Entries listed below are not in order of preference. In fact, it’s rare we do anything in order to be honest with you.

STAR PRIZE WINNERS

Five Star Prize Winners will receive a Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition package for PlayStation 4 (PEGI-rated), as well as a Sonic Mania Introduction Manual (items will be shipped separately).

We knew kids like these. Kids who’d literally spend a week sketching (and then inking in felt tip pen) in the back of their workbook a scene from Sonic that would seem really intricate… but you knew – you just knew – that they were running references from VHS tapes to comic book covers to make it look as good as it did. This ‘not-quite-traced’ picture from Patrick W is just the kind of 8-10 year old talent that we secretly hated and were jealous of, and has now come to haunt us in our thirties. Thanks, Patrick. Have a Sonic Mania CE and manual, I guess.

This wonderful picture comes all the way from Italy, by Camilla. This is the upper tier of what we would expect from an entry in this contest – utterly believable as a kid’s drawing, with just enough roughness in it. And yet, something you’d see right in the back page on an Archie or Sonic the Comic. Well done!

Fat Sonic. Scribbly colouring pencil work. A Knuckles that looks like he has a greasy head. If you turned around and said that my eight-year-old kid drew this, I’d totally believe you. I’d believe you, even though I don’t actually have any kids! Great work, Will K!

Davy J seems sad. There he was, playing his favourite Mega Drive game, Sonic Mania, and all of a sudden the characters come bursting out of the TV screen. We love the crumpled paper look, the colouring pencils, and the look on all the characters. We don’t love the sad look on Davy’s face, so we’re going to send him a Mania CE and manual to cheer him up.

“I have the poweeeeeer!” Oh, wrong franchise. Anyway, this picture from Jamie B expertly illustrates what almost every 90s kid did during Sonic mania (…the fad, not the 2017 video game) – draw a bunch of scenes from their favourite game and put Sonic in it somehow. Probably with a self-insertion to make Sonic their best pal. Jamie doesn’t do that, but does work in Super Sonic, so that’s just as good. Congrats!

RUNNER-UP PRIZE WINNERS

Twenty Runner-Up Prize Winners will receive a copy of the Sonic Mania Instruction Manual, highly coveted by the Sonic community and rare as hen’s teeth right now.

“I order you to clean my toilet!” Robotnik has Sonic in his clutches in this cool drawing by Adrian. We especially love the rather solemn face on Grounder and Tails’ cute spelling mistake.

We can’t ignore the strong crayon game going on here in Sterling J‘s entry, so we have to give him a Mania manual. We’re not sure what Knuckles is doing, but we’re very appreciative of the awkward poses of all three characters, and particularly Sonic’s detached leg right there.

This is such a mesmerising and awesomely-colourful rendition of the Sonic 1 Special Stage, that we had to include it as a winner! Well done Chez!

Sonic strutting his stuff is enough for us to be won over, but the scratchy colouring in and the warped Green Hill Zone loop-de-loops and animal container is incredibly authentic. Thanks for sending this in Andrew Y!

Brackon H was so excited for a follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles that he made his own ‘Sonic 4’ poster. Bless him, he thinks Sonic 4 is coming out in 1995. We’ll look past the ‘original character’ inclusion here as well, but if anything else we reckon this adds to the authenticity here. Plus, Paddle the Duck sounds kind of cool– (I didn’t write this, who did it own up? They’re fired – Dread).

We really enjoyed this cool take on a classic scene from Launch Base Zone, courtesy of Daisy M. We’re not sure what’s better; Tails getting copped to the side (which always happened), Sonic fitting into the tiniest capsule, or Knuckles’ super-flat head that you could lay your dinner tray on. Well done!

This almost borders on the ‘too stylish for a 90s kid’ but we were just so romanced by the STK gang rocking shades and bopping around Green Hill and Chemical Plant that we gave Cristian S as pass. A Mania manual is yours!

Gary S made this brand new drawing inspired by fan art he used to make when he was a kid. We love the googly eyes, but especially love the fan character that he revived since childhood – Jaden the Magical Mouse (he’s holding a magic wand). He was half-roboticised by Eggman but his magic power was too strong and he broke free… it’s actually incredible. Have a manual.

There’s nothing much to say about this great picture from Jan S other than the fact that we appreciate the time taken to really go large on Knuckles’ head. Eggman doing a Sonic-style ‘wicked’ pose is icing on the cake.

Sonic and Tails pose for a cool picture courtesy of Jason C, but Knuckles doesn’t want to concern himself with any of that. He’s more interested in what appears to be a tidal wave coming to engulf all of Green Hill Zone… Awesome work!

We thought this piece by Jon L had a really interesting perspective; Sonic facing off against Robotnik. It’s something that we can imagine a kid hanging on his own wall after proudly drawing it. This was a great effort, have a manual!

We’re suckers for epic battle scenes, and Joshua J‘s entry certainly lives up to it with this 8-year-old style rendition of Doomsday Zone. Turns out Joshua is actually 12-years-old himself (instead of ‘Internet-12-years-old’) so we thought this was a really well done piece indeed! Congrats Joshua!

It must have taken forever and a day to colour all those hills, Katie M, but your dedication to the cause (and your uncanny ability to make Sally look like she’s about to eat Sonic) has won you a Sonic Mania Introduction Manual. Well done!

Liam C has gone all out with the arts and crafts for this piece – glitter, cotton for clouds, the works! All that effort is worthy of a Sonic Mania manual, so one is on its way to you.

This was a big favourite with the TSS judges. We love the sense of perspective here as well as the whole ‘drawn like a screenshot’ vibe. We did that as kids too! Well done Jordan P!

The over-use of pink felt tip pen in this picture is just so fantastically 90s, ‘Pandamis’. There’s a great crossover between SatAM Sonic with his Power Ring and game-related art (Robotnik’s Sonic 2 larger-than-life appearance, Knuckles and Tails) here too. Nice one.

We’re not quite sure what’s going on here in Robert W‘s entry – some sort of robot spitting out rocks or bullets, that appear to have buried Tails while Sonic darts off with the Master Emerald in hand – but we know we like it. A manual is on its way!

How many of us drew Sonic art like it was the front cover of an official comic? Will B clearly did, as he channels this through his entry here. There’s a lot going on in this picture, and we think the yellow skin tones of Sonic and Knuckles make it even better for us. Good job!

This insanely cute picture by ‘Ximena790’ tells so much within such a small drawing space. The drama and intrigue of Sonic 3 is retold in one frame, with Eggman almost politely trying to burn everything to the ground. A manual is yours!

We’re a big fan of Yasir B‘s entry here – not only is it channeling Sonic Mania with the gigantic ‘M’ in the middle, but the renditions of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are pretty much exactly how we would have done them in the 90s. How did you get into our head, Yasir? Have a manual so you won’t do it again!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

These entries came very close to the mark, and we wanted to honour them in our own special way. A lot of these entries were either bested by the winning entries, or were simply deemed ‘too good for an 8-year-old’ by the TSS judging team. Honestly, take that as a compliment; we’re not sure what superhuman art skills you had as a kid, but you seriously should be making money off it (if you’re not doing so already).

This very almost made it – a beautifully colourful piece by Jag S, really great work here. The wonky Sonic eye was especially a big hit for us.

This entry from Amrith has all of the hallmarks of a classic kid’s drawing – from the scribbly colouring-in, to the speech bubble pointing to Sonic’s nose.

This is so excellently illustrated, Aylin U, that we’d be ecstatic to see this in anyone’s notepad! We’re especially big fans of the watercolour-style that’s been applied to the Floating Island in the background.

Really cool and stylish picture by Collin S, showing Sonic, Tails and Knuckles chasing Eggman in the name of Sonic Mania. We love it!

So here’s an interesting entry by Claire R – she has already had her artwork published in the UK Sonic the Comic way back in the 1990s! For her entry for this contest, she shared the proof with us. We remember seeing this picture in the comic, Claire – nice one!

Superb piece by Bradley W, showcasing the iconic Stardust Speedway boss level from Sonic CD. The level of detail here is just stunning, really nice work!

We were impressed with ‘Frack‘s ingenuity here, going for fingerpaints to illustrate a scene from Sonic CD. I think poor Frack has had one too many bad run-ins with Metal Sonic in the past though, don’t you?

We love Giacomo‘s entry here, mostly for the cool little pixellated style he’s gone for but also because he seems to have created a rather legitimate boss idea for a jungle zone! Just don’t be too hard on him, Sonic – an elephant never forgets.

This colourful scene from Mariann is just so well drawn, we don’t know where to begin! It really brings you closer to the original Mega Drive games when you see the Triple Threat coming after Eggman like that!

Mark T decided to send us a three-page comic and some other cool things he created when he was a kid – including a sculpture of a Sonic head and some Sonic-themed Pokemon-style battle cards. All of this wasn’t going to make him win, sadly, as we asked for a single picture, but we really appreciated looking through his old stuff. Thanks, Mark!

We absolutely adore this cute little piece by ‘Bateagle‘. Just goes to show what you can do with a simple pencil – we can just imagine the colour bursting out of the page here.

We really loved this comic by John A, but we can’t imagine many 8-year-old kids featuring Bill Clinton ironically in a comic. It is an amazing eclectic mix of 90s imagery though, and for that sir we salute you!

This incredibly cute drawing by Becky just made us sit there and go “d’awww” for a good twenty minutes. Which is time we just do not HAVE, Becky, come on what are you trying to do to us.

A chap known only as ‘guy497‘ sent us this photo, which would be a stretch to include but we wanted to feature it because… I mean, look at it! Also, brilliant story behind this; ‘Guy’ originally created this at a community centre when he was seven, misplaced it and thought he had lost it forever… until he saw it in the lobby of the same community centre ten year later. He’s now re-acquainted with the chair he made as a kid. Awesome!

This was one of two drawings submitted by two sisters – we loved them both, but Rowan D‘s piece captures a really cool child’s view of the infamous Ice Cap Zone. Watch out for those falling icicles, Tails!

We loved this entry by Nathan S-D as it has everything; chili dogs, a taunting Knuckles, Robotnik mistaking Tails for a dog and a sassy Tails. There is a Chao in it… it was replaced with a further entry for a Flicky, but we want to point out that we didn’t disqualify this entry on that basis (we just lost the Flicky re-do, so we put this one up instead, sorry Nathan!).

Nothing like a good ol’ kick in the particulars to sort someone out. Sonic seems to have learned this in the best way possible, in tackling one of the hardest Sonic bosses known to mankind. This was an entry from ‘Interkom W’s nephew, and we just loved this scene so much. The stones on Sonic!

We have a soft spot for this piece by ‘Blue Ash‘, you can really see how hard they’ve pushed on those colouring pencils. The shine off of Sonic’s mouth is very indicative of a kid’s drawing. We also love that Robotnik appears to be jumping out of his Egg-o-Matic.

Danielle‘s epic face-off between Sonic and Robotnik perfectly captures the kind of amateur scribbles that we remember doing when we were kids. Nice work, Danielle!

There’s just something about this entry from ‘Mase‘ that makes us grin. Maybe it’s the determined look in Tails’ face that makes us excited for the battle ahead. Maybe it’s Sonic looking carefree as he orders his two-tailed friend around. Or maybe (it’s definitely) Knuckles angrily mashing about the place, bopping Metal Sonic for the ’emarwoods’.

ENTRANTS GALLERY!

We loved all of the entries sent in to us – so we decided to show them all off! Art pieces are captioned with the name or nickname of the entrant.