The worldwide release of Sonic Mania, Sega’s latest throwback attempt at recapturing the magic of the original games within the series, is rapidly approaching.

Many fans have been excited that the game is an honest-to-goodness, 2D entry in the series – with no 3D sequences whatsoever. Due to the ambitious nature of the title, many are curious how it will perform against the modern era Sonic title: Sonic Forces. To go a step further, fans have endlessly speculated just what Sega is planning for the franchise overall.

Now, we’ve gotten some insight into what the future of the series could hold, via Sonic Team boss Takeshi Iizuka.

“In the past two decades Sonic games have been trying to target a broader audience from kids to adults,” Iizuka said to Metro. “And Forces has that same idea, so that means a wider range of characters that we know children like. Even if other fans may not be quite as keen.

“But for Mania it’s kind of like a new approach. To target specifically 2D fans. So we don’t know whether it’ll be accepted positively in the market. We’ll find out after the game’s released, and we can figure out the direction of future titles after seeing the reaction.”

So there you have it – if you want more classic-styled Sonic the Hedgehog games, you should each probably buy like nine copies of Sonic Mania. Totally. I’m not being paid by Sega to say that I swear!

Sonic Mania is launching across for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on August 15th.