sonic origin Should be a home run. dunk. Punt returns for a touchdown. The midfield bike kick splits the keeper’s body in two and slams into the net. Four of the greatest games of all time. How can you go wrong? “Hold my chili dog,” Sega said. What a mess.
I wrote this at the time, calling the game “a master class in screwing up a classic.” There are many problems. Many decided to focus on the unfortunate but legal removal of the iconic Sonic 3 music associated with Michael Jackson, but there were other issues.
mistake. Resource usage on PC. Odd oversights, like not being able to play the game according to their original structure of life. Renders blurry due to poor pixel-suffocating image scaling. In some cases, even Tails’ player 2 AI is screwed up–this is meant to follow you through each level for more than half the experience.
Even Sonic 3’s alternate music is problematic, with the game’s soundtrack being of an odd quality that doesn’t even match the other two games in the series. Then there’s the issue of audio levels, where the stage music on the Sonic CD is surprisingly low, but the cutscenes are blaringly loud. Rest in peace, those headphone owners who turned on the Sonic CD and had their eardrums blown apart as the credits rolled.
To be fair, Sega released some patches. Fans are getting in on the action too – if you want to restore Jackson’s music, or at least restore the decent quality of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles soundtrack, the PC mod has you covered. But much of the game remains a mess, and most egregiously, the Sonic 1, 2, and CD versions in Origins are arguably inferior to the versions that were available on mobile devices years before release.
Anyway. I’m restating my arguments from last summer. But my point is simple: Sega can throw everything it likes into Sonic Origins Plus–unless the series fixes these problems and actually delivers a stellar version of these games, I’m not interested. Even the idea of playing classic Amy in a classic game is exciting.
To be fair, we could see some features catching up to or even surpassing those mobile versions that maintain a high water mark. For example, the ability to play Knuckles on Sonic CD is a feature that isn’t really even in that excellent mobile port. Of course, Amy is also new here. Sonic Origins also has all the fun quest mode content, at least when the quests don’t go awry.
It would be nice to see more upgrades like this. It would be nice to be able to play the game in its original life structure in a 16:9 presentation, which is currently not possible. It would be nice if there was a way to play Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as separate games and as a locked behemoth – if nothing else, for historical preservation. These are things that fans offer in fan-made ports or mods like Sonic 3 AIR or Sonic 3 Complete – so Sega’s lack of such a switch in its official offering is a huge disappointment.
But what I’m most interested in is whether the rest of the game has been tightened to a more acceptable standard. The Japanese official website talks about “bugs and motion behavior” being fixed, noting that “some specifications have been improved based on user’s game reports”. Hopefully this means things like last year’s legacy music and game-breaking bugs are fixed in the upgrade.
The addition of 12 more Sonic franchise Game Gear games is nice, but it’s confusing that Sega keeps re-releasing these versions of those games, not the Master System versions.microsoft version With larger screen display and field of view than the GG equivalent, so I’m still surprised it always reissues GG. These games are also emulated, not actively ported, so they are not equivalent to the rest of the Origins series. Remember, they are good enough bonuses.
The real “Plus” here might include Sonic 3D, Sonic the Fighters, and Sonic R (like the previous Sonic series), but I digress. I think the collection was worth a lot before and is even more so now. Although Sega was kidding in thinking I’d pay for an indie “Gems Collection” that included those early 3D titles; 3D All-Star Suit. But that’s another debate.
As far as Sonic Origins is concerned – like I said, I’m more interested in seeing Origins deliver on their promise to deliver the final version of Sonic, 1, CD, 2 and 3K. It was a huge disappointment from last year’s original, and between Christian Whitehead’s Sega-approved mobile ports and fan-made mods, there are better versions of all four games. All Sega had to do was follow the lead of these projects and tie these features together. In that regard, Origins was a wobble and a miss.
That’s what makes this pack a Sonic Mania Plus, and it truly is one of the greatest games of all time. Hopefully Sega is just making a splash with Amy on board – there will be more to talk about when we launch this June.