Sonic Mania brought back the blue hedgehog’s wonderfully pixelated platforming of yester-90s and the throwback seems all the better for it, as the resulting game has gone on to receive massive success despite an initial PC hiccup. From the stylish opening animation, it’s apparent that players are in for a fitting love-letter to the Sega Genesis-era of Sonic. Admiration has reached such heights that one fan has converted the Sonic Mania intro for playback on Genesis hardware.

A user by the name of “Matteus” on the Sega-16 forums was the handy fan that managed to accomplish the task of recreating the 2D cinematic. After conversion to a .bin format, the video is able to run using a flash cart and played natively using solely the Genesis hardware. The retro result combined with remixed music by YouTube user Alianger, is something that looks as though it belongs on the old-school Sega CD. Check it out below:

While at the end of the day, the quality does not match up the the full animated short, it is quite a technical achievement to have made the Sonic Mania intro run on outdated consoles at all. Nostalgic titles such as this seem to inspire crazy creativity in fans, a response that can only boost widespread appreciation. Fan-projects have been aplenty as of late, with Atomic Purple Switch controllers, a Tomb Raider 2 remake, and a new Zombie mode for Overwatch. Sonic Mania is out now for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

What do you think? Is seeing the Sonic Mania intro on the Sega Genesis a cool sight to behold, or do retro systems need to stay in the past? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow DFTG on the Twitter for the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day!