Sonic Origins (PC) Review

Sonic Origins is exactly what it says it is, an origins collection of Sonic The Hedgehog's first four mainline outings including Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The standout features include remastered and visual upgrades to some of the sprite work and a few new modes and options that players can experience for the first time, such as the new Story Mode. Story mode connects all the games together to play through one coherent playthrough in the aforementioned order of Sonic The Hedgehog through to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with each game receiving brand new pre- and post-game cutscenes linking the games together. These cutscenes are done in the same excellent art style as the Sonic Mania Adventures shorts, although unfortunately these are much shorter in length, normally lasting between 30 seconds to 1 minute each. The immersive cohesion from going between game to game is a little disorienting since the credits for each game run at the end of each game. It would have been preferable to have one long credits sequence at the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but this is only a slight bug-bear, as other than this it is more than serviceable. Games can be saved and resumed from Starposts in any Act with all rings intact from where it was left off, and that isn't just available in Story mode but also in Anniversary and Classic mode in any of the games.

Anniversary mode are the games that were reworked using Christian Whitehead's Retro Engine that were seen on iOS and Android, including having a widescreen display and retouched visuals. Anniversary mode adds in the idea of infinite lives, although 100 rings and 1-UP boxes will now earn players a 'Coin', which can then be used to replay a failed special stage or to spend in the in-game museum (more about that later). The ability to play as Tails in every game is great although there isn't an option to select Sonic and Tails to play together in the original Sonic The Hedgehog. However, Knuckles is also playable in everything except Sonic CD, which is a bit of shame given that Tails is in there. Anniversary mode boasts Sonic Mania's drop dash, although the execution of it isn't as well implemented in the first three Sonic games compared to Sonic 3 & Knuckles or how it is in Sonic Mania. There is also the persistent bug of the 2P Tails getting trapped in parts of the stage and then struggling to escape, rather than resetting as he would normally do, which results in him constantly making the jumping sound effect. This is something that also persists in the Classic Mode as well. Classic Mode is intended to be the original classics without the Anniversary bells and whistles, no infinite lives and coins to cheekily retry special stages. The 16:9 widescreen is replaced with the 4:3 aspect ratio and there is no more drop dash. Strangely though Sonic can spin dash in first game, which is not something he could in the original. Just in case pushing right to get to the end of zone got a little boring then Mirror mode flips the games to now needing to go from right to left, just to spice things up, and it will certainly mess with the muscle memory for many experienced veterans of the franchise.

The Museum acts as a store front to spend the in-game currency of Coins, which can be spent on music, illustrations and movies. Most, if not all, of these bonuses have been seen before in various other Sonic games, and arguably there is a ton of extras that SEGA could have included from those games to bulk out the Museum a little more. Given that the unlockable extras only cost 5 coins each it can be pretty easy to earn enough coins to unlock the bulk of the additional content quite early on. If players are struggling to find enough Coins to purchase Museum content, then the new Missions mode is a fun and enjoyable new mode that will entertain fans for a short period of time and earn some decent coinage as well. Missions are comprised of repurposing parts of zones from the various included Sonic games in the collection and adding objectives such as "collect X number of rings in X time", "destroy X number of enemies and reach the goal", and "avoid enemy attacks while doing X", with each Mission rewarding coins based on performance ranging from S-Rank to C-Rank. Arguably this is probably one of the best elements of the collection. Sure, having some of the benefits added in from Anniversary mode are great, but Mission mode brings in a whole new set of challenges.

Unfortunately, there are many bugs that have wormed their way into all games featured in Sonic Origins, perhaps due to the fact that these games aren't being emulated but rather remastered mobile ports. It could also be due to the split development of the games between Sonic Team and indie darlings Headcannon, who had more than a helping hand in Sonic Mania. Bugs and glitches are present where there weren't any before, which in a sense have brought along their own challenges, such as the Drop Dash not being quite implemented in the way it was intended or the aforementioned Tails getting lost in a level and constantly jumping. There are various SFX issues such as with collecting rings and missing vocals in Sonic CD, or in Sonic 3 & Knuckles' Special Stages the music doesn't speed up like it is supposed to. The soundtrack is also another contentious point, with numerous zones in Sonic 3 & Knuckles having audio tracks changed due to potential licensing issues that have allegedly plagued this title since circa 1994. The newer version perhaps takes away the authenticity of the original games, although despite this, if there are indeed licensing or moral issues then it is understandable as to why the tracks are not intact as they once were. It must also be noted that at the time of writing there are two different versions of Sonic Origins, each containing varying levels of digital bonuses, with the Digital Deluxe Edition unlocking a number of these bonuses which include small add-ons such character animations in the menu or for the add-ons to be purchased into two DLC packs. It is unnecessarily convoluted and quite a shabby tactic to charge extra for a few extra music tracks or camera controls and character animations. People may also have their take on the value that the Deluxe package offers at £36.99, with other Sonic collections in the past costing a similar amount but having far more games and bonuses included in them, such as the Sonic Mega Collection Plus package which is 20 years old.