Sonic Origins Review – Not the ultimate collection I was hoping for. But the widescreen fits.

In the end, Sonic, or if we’re being honest SEGA, manages to shoot himself in the foot. I was already considering recommending this actually very nice collection called Sonic Origins (available for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch) of some of the best – speaks good, if not brilliant – Sonic games. Despite the 40 euros, despite the rather clear effort that was made with the extras. But two things resented me and the first was looking into the “museum”.

Here you will find cheats and tips for Sonic Origins

I happily clicked through the options before even launching any of the games, took a look at what was there and immediately found what was missing. Instead of simply delivering the complete package for this certainly unrestrained price and saying that this is the ultimate collection of these games and that’s fine, it’s off to the shop. There you will find a not small music package for 4 euros and, even more dramatic, a higher level of difficulty plus a few gimmicks in the menu and even more music. Another 4 euros please. I could agonize over how this looks given the no small price tag for a couple of delicately polished retro titles, plus the annoyance that the older, cheaper versions are no longer available in the shop. Or I just say “puke”, do without the award logo and keep going.

What’s there is, for the millionth time, Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic CD. No Sonic Master System or Game Gear, no Spinball – pardon it – but most importantly no Knuckles Chaotix from the 32X. That definitely should have belonged in the collection, after all it also ran on a Mega Drive. Technically speaking. But well, if you don’t know the games, I want to explain them to you… No, I don’t want to. It’s hard to imagine someone who hasn’t accidentally bought a Sonic in their life, be it out of curiosity on the phone, or if you’re older, for the mega drive at the flea market or whatever. It’s the games you know, there are no extra levels or content in the games themselves. Four hoppers that have always been good, but never as good as their hottest fans make them out to be. Part Two I think is the best game of the round, followed by CD. Three is okay too. Just like the first part, which you could always tell from the level design that it was knitted with a hot needle in search of the Mario killer.

But what SEGA thankfully didn’t do was take an emulator, throw in one of those awful widescreen stretch modes and leave it at that. They upgraded Christian Whitehead’s Retro Engine, which had proven itself before. Is it an elaborate emulation? Partly sure yes, but not really, it’s more remakes and not remasters. In any case, the result is impressive. Sonic has never looked better than it did on the Retro Engine, although the pixels haven’t really changed. But it’s a real widescreen for a game that otherwise only knew 4:3. That works and is impressive.

As for the bugs: Yes, there are quite a few of them. The second reason why I do not recommend this collection. There are a few screenlock issues, which are almost certainly due to the player’s crop being larger now. The audio quality, even with headphones, is rather mediocre and everything looks a bit like under cotton and not completely clean (switch). The bouncing behavior in Sonic 3 doesn’t quite feel right. Tails in Sonic 2 sometimes snaps around, gets stuck somewhere and you have to continue on your own, although I was always able to complete the levels. That would be what strikes me as there are more of them.

What’s a bit frustrating is that the developers knew these things, some may have even fixed them, but then new bugs emerged somewhere between developer Headcannon and SEGA. Again, what we have here is a case where a game came out a bit early, hopefully those things will sort themselves out in upcoming patches and then everything will be fine. And if not, then that would be more than just a little annoying, but even then Origins would still be a very successful collection for everyone but the hardcore Soniccistas – that’s what I invented as a word. It’s just stupid that 90 percent of them are the target group for a slightly overpriced retro collection.

In terms of play, the renunciation of life should be the most important feature. You have a classic mode – the emulation – in 4:3 and you have to earn extra lives if you want to continue hopping after a boss snafu. In the modern version you have unlimited lives and thanks to the quite pleasant reset points you can play through each of the games with a little patience. Since it also automatically saves at such points and continues after restarting the game, it feels almost modern. It’s also clever that instead of extra lives, coins are now collected with which you can repeat the annoying bonus stages in order to finally get all those chaos diamonds. Finally seeing the real ending and not just getting “Try Again” smacked in the face after struggling through one of the Sonics. I do not want to miss it anymore. And neither does widescreen. Is this the ultimate version of the old Sonics?

no That depends on how true you want to be there. I would have found more animations and colors and thus a thorough overhaul appealing. Like Sonic Mania, which plays like the ideal version of the concept anyway. Above all, I would have liked to have had a little more than the meager museum, the irrelevant boss rush and the umpteenth Sonic music player without Michael Jackson. Oh yes, some Sonic 3 tracks have been swapped out, surprise!… No one says because SEGA is known not to want to mess with the Jackson legacy. At best, the story mode is interesting, in which you play through all four games in one go. Well, if you’ve always wanted to do this, please, here it is. Can’t say I ever had that wish.

But what I did have, a long time ago, was a desire for the ultimate Classic Sonic collection that perfectly recreates the old games in widescreen. Well, not a big wish, but sometimes it’s nice to have small wishes granted. It might not be perfect here, but apart from a few small bugs that you’ll surely iron out if you’ve gotten enough extra money with the ridiculous additional bundles, it’s already very good. Jumping to widescreen in this way was certainly not easy, it could have been made much easier.

In the end, this is probably the most important aspect here, depending on how complex it is to adapt other games to widescreen with the new retro engine. The Mega Drive had a whole bunch of classics that I would rather have seen than Sonic for the umpteenth time. But if they could now make the leap into the new breadth more easily, then it would be worth an almost good compilation of hedgehog hopping that has been warmed up again.