Back to the Roots | Sonic Origins (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/XbOne/XbSeries, 2022) Review

 NOTE: This review is… KIND OF part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

Since I reviewed Sonic Colors Ultimate after that came out, I figured I might as well review the most recent Sonic remaster - Sonic Origins!

Like Sonic Colors Ultimate, I won’t be reviewing the games that are a part of this collection themselves, since I already have made reviews of the classic games. This will be a review of Sonic Origins as a collection and remaster, and what it does to bring the classic games to new systems in a new light.

Sonic Origins was originally announced as part of the May 2021 Sonic Central showcase - the same one where they announced Sonic Colors Ultimate and teased what would become Sonic Frontiers. There wasn’t a whole lot said about it, but the ports of Sonic 1, 2 and CD would be based off their Christian Whitehead remasters from 2011-2013, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles would not only be seeing it’s first re-release since it’s ‘Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics’ port on Steam in 2011, but would also be seeing similar treatment to its predecessors in the form of a widescreen, 60FPS remaster.

I don’t know if this game saw some development troubles, but while it was stated it would be released “next year” in 2021, it was also stated we would at least see more information on the game later that year. And, well, we didn’t until April 20 (nice) of this year, with the new trailer and a release date. I don’t know what that was about but, whatever, the collection ended up releasing on June 23 - Sonic’s 31st Anniversary - and although I didn’t preorder it, I did end up getting the Digital Deluxe edition on Switch day one. This is, of course, only my hundredth time buying and playing these games.

Since its release, I have heard some pretty conflicting opinions from people in and out of the Sonic fanbase - the compilation did receive decent scores from critics, with praise going towards the enhancements to the classic games, but some criticism has been directed towards the quality of the ports and lack of substantial additions. And especially as someone who’s played these games so many times… I’ll just get this straight, I sort of understand where both sides of this are coming from.

I think the main thing to note about Sonic Origins is that, again, the ports of Sonic 1, 2 and CD are based off their ‘Christian Whitehead’ remasters for mobile phones, utilizing an updated version of the Retro Engine, and as such, the enhancements in those remasters are available here as well - widescreen, 60FPS, smoother scrolling in the Sonic 1 and CD special stages, Sonic 2’s special stages utilizing a better 3D effect for depth perception and ‘Hidden Palace Zone’ in said game making a reappearance, replacing the death pit in Mystic Cave Zone.

I have to admit, I haven’t really played the mobile ports of Sonic 1 and 2 from 2013. I didn't have a smartphone of my own until I was about 16, and even then, I was kind of turned off by the mobile controls and I didn’t have a controller that I could really use. A lot of people told me they were the “best” versions of those games, but frankly, I just couldn’t get over that hurdle. 

So it’s nice to see these finally get official ports on PC and console so that I can enjoy the added enhancements. Not only that, but also seeing Sonic 3 & Knuckles get those enhancements as well. Widescreen is one big enhancement, giving more real estate for better reaction times, which isn’t necessarily something I ever struggled with but is an issue I have seen newer players of these games bring up. The higher frame rate also makes the games feel smoother to play, especially with the extra frames that seemed to have been added in many of the games’ sprite rotations and whatnot. Granted, I will say that the smoother rotation of Sonic 1’s special stages did throw me off a bit, but that’s probably just me being too used to the more clunky rotation in the original game.

These enhancements are a part of the ‘Anniversary’ mode for each game, and if you prefer how the games played originally with their original aspect ratio, the ‘Classic’ mode is also there if you would like. That said, those two modes do create somewhat of a criticism I have which applies to the life system. The games retain their original limited lives system… in the ‘Classic’ mode. In the ‘Anniversary’ mode, lives are done away with and swapped out for coins you can grab to replay Special Stages if you fail or use them to unlock extra illustrations, movies and music in the Museum. Problem is, if you do want to use the original life system, but with the enhancements made to the games… you’re pretty much out of luck. It isn’t a huge issue for me, but I can understand why people who enjoyed the challenge of the original games would criticize this aspect of the compilation.

Still, I am glad those enhancements were made to the games. I feel like out of these games, Sonic 2 is probably the one that benefits most from the enhancements made. The special stages finally have a degree of depth perception that makes them less annoying to play compared to their “pseudo 3D” look in the original game, and it is good that Hidden Palace Zone is finally available to play on console after being cut in the original game. I don’t have too much to say about it, but it is a pretty fun zone overall, although I do have to admit I’m not so fond of the boss - the timing and positioning of the attacks just feels kind of awkward to me. Still, Sonic 2 was always my favorite of the classic games, and seeing the enhancements and additions made to it on a non-mobile platform makes it even better.

That said… these ports also have some problems. For one thing, there is a slight degree of blurriness in all of the games. Apparently this is a result of the games not using a good method of integer scaling, and being stretched up to the resolutions of modern game platforms you do see some blurriness in all of the games. To be honest I didn’t really notice it until people brought it up, but even compared to the Sega Ages ports of Sonic 1 and 2 on the Switch, the image isn’t as sharp. Again, it isn’t a huge issue, but the fact that it’s there at all, especially when other ports of these same games have figured out how to solve that problem, does sort of show some lack of professionalism.

On that note, I find it kind of odd how they delisted the classic games on other platforms… except for the Sega Ages ports on the Switch. I kind of get not wanting to have multiples of the same game on different platforms, especially when trying to offer a newer port with more features, but it’s sort of odd to me that you can’t buy the classic games on PS3 or 360 anymore, yet the Switch still offers ports of Sonic 1 and 2 on the eShop despite Origins releasing on said system. Or hell, Sonic 2 on the NSO Expansion Pack.

But that aside, I also noticed a few bugs when playing through all of the games. Probably the first of these I noticed was that in Sonic 2, when dying in Chemical Plant specifically, parts of the background and foreground would just… disappear. Minor thing, but okay. Another one I noticed was in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where at one point after turning into Hyper Sonic while having the Electric shield - when it transitioned to the next stage, I still had the electric shield but the visual effect was just not there.

Both of those are relatively minor, and of course just visual, but I did run into one during Sandopolis Zone Act 2 in Sonic 3 & Knuckles where at one point I decided to restart the level after missing a big ring and, well… I got stuck. The camera was stuck at a “shaft” in the level, and although I could hear Sonic jumping, he literally just didn’t appear. I’m probably not doing the best job explaining this, so I might as well just link a video of the bug.

I have also seen some people post glitches they ran into on Twitter and the like, and in addition it does seem like the PC version in particular is having some major problems which can be attributed to the inclusion of Denuvo, especially in terms of performance. One of my buddies on the r/Sonic Discord server has stated they bought the PC version and didn’t experience any major issues, but if you’re looking to get the PC version, I would… maybe advise proceeding with caution. I myself bought the Switch version, since of course I would like to play these on-the-go in addition to on my TV, but as you can see I did still run into a few bugs of my own.

Supposedly, this game… might have been rushed. I’m not just saying that based off the bugs, but there actually has been statements from Stealth at Headcannon, the company that was involved with these ports, that they were put under pressure and time crunch to get this compilation out in time for June 23, and that major aspects of their builds had been changed by Sonic Team. Since it is a bit more in depth, I would advise reading the thread itself, which I’ll link here. I stated earlier that the blurriness may have shown some lack of professionalism, and it definitely seems likely that Sega and Sonic Team did put pressure on Headcannon and made changes while hastily trying to get this compilation out the door.

I definitely kind of see it as a similar situation with Sonic Colors Ultimate. A lot of people blamed the bugs that came with Colors Ultimate especially at launch solely on Blind Squirrel, and while I’m sure they did have issues of their own… I feel like Stealth’s statements put that into perspective. I mean, let’s be real, Sega has had a history of rushing both their own games (see Sonic 06) and even games taken at the helm by smaller developers (see Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric), and especially looking at it now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sega had rushed the released of Colors Ultimate as well. All I can say is… I really hope that they stop doing this. It definitely isn’t a good reflection on them and at this point it feels like a scapegoat to pin these problems on other developers or teams.

Another thing I should point out with the port of Sonic 3 & Knuckles in particular is with its soundtrack. You’ve probably heard by now that the themes of Carnival Night, Ice Cap, and Launch Base have been changed, and while that is disappointing (especially in the case of Ice Cap), the reasoning for it is understandable. This is the first time Sonic 3 & Knuckles has been re-released in over a decade, which is the result of Michael Jackson’s sound team being involved in the games’ soundtrack likely leading to potential copyright and licensing problems, especially following Michael Jackson’s death in 2009.

Last year, a beta version of Sonic was discovered, which most likely came before the involvement of Michael Jackson’s sound team, as the tracks for the aforementioned levels were different from the final release - matching the compositions found in the Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC released in 1997. So, obviously, the compromise for Sonic 3 & Knuckles to be re-released would be to use these tracks. 

Problem here is they changed the beta tracks and, frankly, not for the better. The compositions themselves are the same, but particularly in the case of Carnival Night and Launch Base, they used a different soundfont that make the tracks sound more muted and not as energetic even compared to the original beta tracks. I really do not understand why they did that instead of just using the beta tracks in their original form. Especially since, oddly enough, the theme for Ice Cap soundfont-wise is almost the same as its beta counterpart, even better in some areas. 

Supposedly this might have been a result of them basing these themes off the versions in the Sonic & Knuckles Collection, which… why? Were they just unable to just get the tracks from the beta, were there more copyright issues for that, or… what? Either way, my issue isn’t just that they changed the soundtracks, but the fact that they just made the beta themes of Carnival Night and Launch Base sound worse here compared to their original beta counterparts.

They also gave Super Sonic its own theme compared to the original which just used the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Invincibility theme, and again, I really like the composition itself… but it’s also paired with a Sonic 4-esque soundfont which doesn’t even fit the Mega Drive/Genesis style. Along with the other changed themes, they had the compositions there, but used a poor choice of soundfont for all of them. 

Also, another minor change is that they removed Sonic’s voice clips from Sonic CD for… some reason. I guess they didn’t want the public to find out that classic Sonic can speak after all.

Okay, so far I’ve talked about the ports themselves and the enhancements added, but this compilation does add a few other features as well. First of all, each game has an animated intro and outro to it by Tyson Hesse, which I really like. The animations look good and colorful while giving some more context to the games’ plotlines. It’s especially a good addition with the “Story Mode” offered by this compilation - in which you play through all of the games back-to-back, giving a more seamless transition between all of them.

Once you view those cutscenes at least once too, you can watch them again in the game’s Museum - where you can watch the animations, look at illustrations and listen to the soundtracks of the classic games - as well as the soundtracks of Sonic 3D Blast, Knuckles’ Chaotix, and Sonic Spinball if you have the “Classic Music” pack that you can get either with the Digital Deluxe edition or on it’s own as DLC. You can even look at the manuals of the main classic games in the museum mode under the Illustrations.

The ‘coin’ feature I lightly went over earlier also comes into play here - the three categories in the Museum also come with a “Premium Collection” in addition to the “Normal Collection”. The latter of which you unlock by performing various tasks in the collection, but the “Premium Collection” allows you to unlock more of each type of content using the coins you’ve collected. In “Sounds,” you can unlock remixed versions of the classic themes which are actually just the Sonic Generations versions of the soundtracks. Okay and the Super Smash Bros Brawl version of Angel Island Zone. 

The movies category allows you to unlock three parts of a shortened version of the Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony as well as animatics for the new animations and Sonic Mania Adventures. The illustrations category definitely has the most variety here though, including various style guides, sketches of the characters and levels, among other types of illustrations.

There’s also a Mission mode, which offers a bunch of remixed versions of the various classic Sonic levels in which you have to complete certain goals - about what you would expect from a “Mission” mode in any game. It does give the classic games a bit of new content to work with and allows for some incentive to go back to this compilation, especially as you are offered coins and can even try to rank the stages similarly to most major Sonic games from Adventure 2 onward, but at the same time I don’t feel like it gives much else other than a decent distraction. There’s also a Mirror Mode for all the games which you unlock by completing each respective game in the compilation.

And you can also replay stages in the “My Data & Ranking” mode which also records your time and ranks it among other players. This is more or less the game’s level select, although you can still access the original level selects from Sonic 1, 2 and 3&K.

And uh… you can look at the 3D islands in the background of the main menu. That’s neat, I guess.

Conclusion

I sort of feel similar about this collection that I do about Sonic Colors Ultimate. It’s a solid remaster with some nice added features and enhancements, although it does have some minor bugs and oddities that can potentially take away from the experience. But either way, it is nice to have all the classic games in one package on modern platforms.

That said, my biggest issue among everything is that this package is $40-$45, which for what you get I feel is somewhat overpriced. The classic games have still been re-released time and time again, including on the Switch. While most of the ports for modern systems have been delisted, you can still get the Sega Ages versions of Sonic 1 & 2 on the Switch for $8 each, and you can get the mobile ports of Sonic 1, 2 and CD for free with ads, or $3 each without ads. 

So, really, I feel like you’re just getting this port to have an official way to play these mobile ports in addition to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Yes, there are added features too, but even with those… it’s kind of hard to justify paying $40 for this, and that’s not even mentioning the problems that this compilation has. Especially for the price of $40, Sonic Origins feels like a missed opportunity to throw some other games in the mix. 

In particular I really feel like it would’ve been nice to see some games that haven’t really been re-released before, such as Knuckles’ Chaotix and/or SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Yes, maybe those aren’t the best games, but they are still stuck on the original hardware and can still only be accessed through emulation. Maybe they could’ve thrown the Game Gear games in, or hell, maybe even stuff like the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast - sure, Sonic 3D Blast itself has been re-released before, but the Saturn version does include a good amount of differences even from the PC version that was based on it that I definitely would consider being worth re-releasing. Maybe even the “Sonic World” from Sonic Jam or something. 

I might be thinking too outside of the box here, but I just don’t really feel like this game offers enough content to justify it’s $40 price tag. Especially in the case of the DLC and Digital Deluxe editions where you basically just get some extra soundtracks to listen to in the Museum mode and some harder missions, backgrounds and extra character animations.

As such, especially if you own the classic games on other hardware, I’m not sure I would recommend Sonic Origins for the time being - at the very least, I would say it’s worth waiting for a sale or price drop for about $20 or so.