Review: Sonic Origins is a tragic example of a good classic destroyed by greed

Zoom / Sonic Origins It comes with a few completely new anime series. But are they tilting the scales to make this set worth $40? (Spoiler: Nah.)

Sega

Here’s the player version of “Guess How Many Bubbles Are in the Jar”: How many times has Sega reissued the first sonic the hedgehog Game?

If we don’t ignore the six-in-one wagons from the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive in the ’90s, the answer will be somewhere near 30 launches. This issue includes a home edition port of early ’90s arcade games, which is Sonic Jam A compilation of Sonic-starved Saturn, versions on various mobile platforms, multiple plug-and-play TV boxes, and a version that can be played exclusively in Tesla cars. Many of these versions come with other 16-bit Sonic games as well.

Zoom / Each game gets its own entry in Sonic Origins Menu interface.

Sega

If you’ve missed any of the other 30+ ways to play the series over the years – or have kids who want it so much My voice Content is possible after seeing it Live action movies of the series–Sonic Origins It launches later this week on PC and all families of consoles. Sadly, I’m reviewing this $40 (or honestly as much as $48) compilation of 16-bit Sonic games not because it’s cool, but because it’s weird.

… and joints

Let’s start with the price-to-content ratio, because $40 suggests the amount of Sonic content that will make fans of the series faint. I don’t think they will.

The biggest problem is that Sonic Origins It only includes four games: Sonic 1And the audio CDAnd the Sonic 2and the “full” version of Sonic 3 (i.e., “knuckles” as a closed combination of two cartridges). Other groups have gone even further by adding other 16-bit Sonic-themed games, along with 8-bit games from Master System and Game Gear, but this time it’s missing. Sega doesn’t make up for their absence with things like My voice3D games from the Dreamcast or a series of edutainment quirks on Sega Pico.

Zoom / Sonic 2 in memory mode. The biggest difference is the hack that makes the game render correctly in a 16:9 ratio.

Zoom / The same Sonic 2 Moment in “Classic” mode. Once you’ve experienced classic Sonic games with more viewing distance left and right, it’s hard to go back to anything less.

Sega

Sonic OriginsThe four games included are well simulated, at least. Thanks in large part to Headcannon, a development team with experience tweaking Sonic game code to preserve the look and feel of the original games while adding modern perks. (Not surprisingly, they were helped by Christian Whitehead, the developer who officially assisted Sega at the port audio CD For iOS many years ago.) ‘Anniversary’ mode for each game in Sonic Origins It natively supports a screen ratio of 16:9, which makes high-speed exploration of the series much easier to follow visually. This mode also includes perks ranging from the obvious (unlimited lives) to the subtle (adding the “Police Drop” maneuver to older games or supporting the “Knuckles and Tails” mode).

If you want to play the games as they were originally designed, you can go back to the “Classic” mode with 4:3 ratios, the original “Life” system, and other things from the Genesis era intact. (This mode has one caveat that I will make.)

Zoom / The widescreen mode definitely changes the feel of any 3D effects in the different bonus rounds of Sonic games. over here audio CD Looking for an extra trippy.

Genesis’ unique FM synthesizer sound system has been faithfully recreated for the most part, although so far I’ve noticed two strange pre-release issues: audio CD It will sometimes skip certain sound effects, and some sound effects suffer from strong trimming Sonic 2Bonus stages. The color calibration of the four games looks great for a series that has always preferred bright, flashy color palettes. Also, the entry lag for this compilation is low as far as I’ve measured it in a PlayStation 5 game, which is good news, although I haven’t tested the compilation on any other platform.