SONIC the Hedgehog games have been a staple of the retro gaming landscape for almost three decades, and many people have strong memories of the blue blur’s games.
The Sega Mega Drive saw three Sonic games, and while they weren’t particularly long games, they were quite challenging, and running out of lives was a common occurrence.
Sega’s Game Gear games look and play pretty bad on a big screen
Sonic Origins Plus brings together the three classic Mega Drive games, along with Sonic CD and 12 Game Gear games in one collection for modern consoles.
The original Sonic Origins release last year included Sonic 1, 2, and 3, as well as Sonic CD, but didn’t include the Game Gear games.
Sonic 3’s inclusion in the package is a special one, as the game has been largely absent from compilation releases for well over a decade.
That’s because it contains music that was said to be written by Michael Jackson, and that music has been caught up in rights disputes for a long time.
The three tracks said to be written by Jackson have been replaced in Sonic Origins, and while not the new tracks aren’t as good, they do mean the game is finally playable again.
The good thing about Origins is that lives are gone, so you don’t have to worry about a game over taking you back to the start of a world or the game
Origins Plus also adds Amy Rose as a playable character, which is the first time she’s been playable in the classic games.
Unfortunately Amy isn’t much fun to play as, and is probably the least enjoyable character in the collection.
Sonic runs a bit faster and jumps higher, Tails has the ability to fly, and Knuckles can climb up walls and glide with his fists out.
Amy just has the ability to swing her hammer, which makes her hitbox a little bit bigger, but that’s not enough to make her worth playing, which is a bit of a bummer.
The Game Gear games aren’t much better, not just because of the porting process, but also because the original games weren’t that much fun either.
For those who don’t know, the Game Gear games are essentially just the inferior Master System versions of each game, just cropped to use a smaller viewing space.
That means you don’t get to see as much of the level at any given time, and not being able to see upcoming hazards makes these games significantly less enjoyable to play.
It’s especially annoying given players will be playing these games on big TVs attached to their PS5, which makes these Game Gear games all that much more frustrating to look at.
Having the Master System versions of these games would be a much better option, since they’re largely the same but much more playable.
There are no additions to the Game Gear games either, no additional characters or changes to the lives system like in the other games.
Sega simply added the games exactly as they were with no additions or improvements, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, especially when using the worst versions of these games.
Another issue is that Sonic Origins’ original release had much of the game’s features locked behind paid DLC and microtransactions.
Animated cutscenes and new ways to interact with the overworld were locked behind a paywall, and while this new package includes all that and more, it all should have been included in the first place.
Sonic Origins Plus is the best way to play the original Sonic games, but if you already have ways to play these games, or bought the original release, there’s not much forking out for.
Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.
