The team of developers in charge of the most recent 2D outings (like Sonic Mania) of the blue blur, Headcannon, have returned to work alongside SEGA on the recently announced expansion of Sonic Origins Plus.

Back some months ago, Sonic Origins released on many platforms to mixed to poor reviews, many citing a lot of issues with the collection, be it weird changes made in Sonic 3's soundtrack for zones like Carnival Night, Ice Cap and Launch Base (which featured tracks used in the original beta, before the alleged involvement of Michael Jackson in the soundtrack), a lot of bugs and glitches in some of the ports, like AI misbehaving, or physics issues, mostly in Sonic 3's port specifically.

Even Stealth, one of the main developers in Headcannon and greatly known in the homebrew community for Sonic games, was really unhappy with the released product of Sonic Origins the day it came out, with many of the bugs and glitches that they still wanted to address, but couldn't due to some internal issues (most likely deadlines to be met for the game).

Thankfully enough, it seems like with the recent expansion announced a few weeks ago, SEGA wants to set the record straight, and are working alongside Headcannon on many of the new features announced for it, like a fully playable Amy in all 4 games in the collection, and the inclusion of Knuckles into Sonic CD. Not only that, but Headcannon mentions working on a lot of bugfixes that many people still have with the latest release of Sonic Origins, and that they plan to address them to give Sonic fans the best possible experience when it comes to the original classic collection of beloved titles.

Here's what the official Headcannon Twitter account mentioned regarding their work with SEGA on Sonic Origins Plus:

It's coming - Sonic Origins Plus! We're happy to announce that we’ve once again cooperated with SEGA to update this project; you know we can't resist Sonic! Here’s some of what you can look forward to in Origins Plus:

We were excited to hear that SEGA wanted to make Amy playable, and we couldn’t resist an opportunity to help her into the spotlight! New playable characters need new sprites, and our own @AStartShow was certainly up to the design task while @DashPadSPD performed data management.

Knuckles is now playable in Sonic CD, as well! As with the inclusion of playable Amy, we were thrilled to provide some new graphics to complement SEGA’s efforts in making this possible.

Alongside SEGA’s work in updating the collection, we were also able to supply a few additional updates and enhancements to help make the title the best it can be! We appreciate their openness to our feedback and suggestions.

We're very proud to have had a hand in bringing out the best In this collection; Sega have placed a lot of trust in us in by allowing this, and we appreciate that greatly! We can’t wait for you to experience it!

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[DominoBright]

NOPE! That's the shittiest part: the game costs the same as it always has, so all new buyers get the new content for the same price people paid for the initial release.

However, if you've already bought the initial release? You have to pay $10 to upgrade to plus. Meaning you'd have paid $50 for the EXACT SAME THING that new customers are paying $40 for now. Doesn't even matter that you were an early adopter, in fact they're literally saying "fuck you for being an early adopter"! You're paying $10 for no reason other than BECAUSE you were an early adopter!

That's right: SEGA is screwing over all early adopters/existing customers while all new customers get the DLC content for free. I have never seen a single game launch like this before. It's always the case where existing customers get a deal, a nice little bonus, for being an early adopter. This is just ass backwards.

It's even worse for those who bought the Digital Deluxe version.

...I'm still bitter.

 

[Marc_LFD]

The launch of Sonic Origins was appalling. Sega better not repeat it again.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Hard to give them praise for doing what they should have done in the first place and fixing their greedy and botched original release.

But, this is good I guess?

 

[CeeDee]

This collection needs a ton of work to make it really shine IMO. More than just bug fixes which are to be expected.

A small handful of things I'd like to see added/improved:

• Better audio throughout with balanced levels (it's all over the place at the moment)
• Replacement music tracks pulled from the 1103 prototype and not the garbage versions they included
• Proper save systems for each game (ala Sonic 3)
• Customisable options for each game not hidden behind sound test codes with options similar to Sonic 3 Complete
• A properly implemented drop dash for Sonic 1&2
• Ability to choose a sprite style for the main games
• CRT style and clean filters like in Mania
• Actual emulated versions of the main games for the "classic" modes instead of just 4:3 versions of the retro engine ports

I could go on but I really hope at a minimum the above is a reality. But this is a SEGA managed product so I'm not holding my breath

God, the drop dash being broken in 1/2 kills me. Such a good addition to the moveset it's hard to go back to a classic sonic game without it, very much like the spin dash in that regard.

The fact the collection has as many small flaws as it does makes the experience pretty lackluster in my opinion. I want to defend the official availability of the Taxman/Stealth remasters on consoles/PC, I don't want to be the "just play Sonic 3 AIR" guy, but it's disappointing how funky Origins is, and it's difficult to recommend it in the state it's in. I don't have high hopes it'll be much better after Plus, either.
I'm especially disappointed in the fact this Plus rerelease was clearly pre-planned to make a quick buck off double-dippers. The additions are neat but don't even feel more enticing than Mania Plus, which was much more fairly priced.

 

[Viri]

Why didn’t they just fix the original Sonic origins to make up for such a tacky launch? Is plus at least free for people who bought the original early?

Because, fuck you, we got your money already! Now pay 10 dollars to play as Amy and Knuckles, and maybe get your game fixed.

 

[raxadian]

I've been installing PC mods on the Switch version since the same week of release actually, I even made a tutorial about it here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/install-sonic-origins-pc-mods-into-switch-version.617775/

Whatever they used for Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins is like a gateway drug for mods. For example Sonic Mania was the first PS4 game to be emulated correctly, even if they had to use a mod to fix the colors.

 

[Lumstar]

Whatever they used for Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins is like a gateway drug for mods. For example Sonic Mania was the first PS4 game to be emulated correctly, even if they had to use a mod to fix the colors.

Comprehensible engines running natively on the target platform is the best thing to happen to gaming. Emulation had its day, it's time to move on.

 

[vstar950]

Its amazing people are still buying new games. I don't know what's worse. People repeatedly paying for games that are poorly created or are half broken on these consoles and then complain about it, or the company's creating terrible games because they know people are dumb enough to keep buying them. Then they laugh at the consumers.

 

[raxadian]

Its amazing people are still buying new games

This is now a new game, is remake of a bunch of old games.

Games that I already have legally, on my PS2. Sure the PS2 ports are not great, but I also got the Sonic CD remake on Steam so really no interest in this collection.

Maybe if Sega had not fucked up but as it is? Only reason to buy it if the mods get really good.

 

[64bitmodels]

I don't want to be the "just play Sonic 3 AIR" guy

I mean even if the collection had every issue fixed Sonic 3 AIR would still be the better deal due to simply being free and having official mod support. It's useless to anyone with a computer and arguably everyone with a mobile phone as well, it doesnt offer enough on its own for it to be worth it.
This collection should have been console exclusive, there's really no reason for it to be on PC.

 

[Nakamichi]

This makes me so happy!
I really enjoyed Origins, but the bugs dragged it down.

Cant wait to finally get the Plus version!

 

[Jayro]

Bug fixes? Noice!

Oh wait... It's April fool's.

 

[chrisrlink]

still no original sonic 3 music so fuck off I'll stick to emulation

blame the dead king of pop for that one

 

[Lumstar]

I mean even if the collection had every issue fixed Sonic 3 AIR would still be the better deal due to simply being free and having official mod support. It's useless to anyone with a computer and arguably everyone with a mobile phone as well, it doesnt offer enough on its own for it to be worth it.
This collection should have been console exclusive, there's really no reason for it to be on PC.

You got your wish for some of the games, Sega never (officially) brought the original Taxman/Stealth versions of Sonic 1 and 2 over to PC.

 

[Marc_LFD]

blame the dead king of pop for that one

Wasn't Sega the one who was the cheapskate on not wanting to license the songs?

 

[Viri]

blame the dead king of pop for that one

I think that only became an issue after he died. We got Sonic 3 in compilations before he died, and the music was fine. I could be wrong though.

 

[Thorhax]

I still found the original release perfectly playable, my only gripe was with the music, but that was fixed thanks to layeredfs

 

[gaga941021]

Is that for the retail release of Sonic Origins plus?

How can you be so incompetent?
You never use Google, you just spam these easily searchable questions under every single post.

 

[Guacaholey]

• A properly implemented drop dash for Sonic 1&2
• CRT style and clean filters like in Mania
• Actual emulated versions of the main games for the "classic" modes instead of just 4:3 versions of the retro engine ports

I could go on but I really hope at a minimum the above is a reality. But this is a SEGA managed product so I'm not holding my breath

These are things I want to see. I'd rather they just use patched ROMs with the updates in this compilation because we'd have fewer bugs and we wouldn't have to worry about performance issues.

So...when is SEGA gonna take Sonic seriously?

When Game Freak takes Pokémon seriously. When you can put minimal effort into a franchise and it can still print money they start doing as little as they can while still making a playable game. Investors don't care about the quality of the game, they care about the amount of money that can be made.

 

[Lumstar]

These are things I want to see. I'd rather they just use patched ROMs with the updates in this compilation because we'd have fewer bugs and we wouldn't have to worry about performance issues.

When Game Freak takes Pokémon seriously. When you can put minimal effort into a franchise and it can still print money they start doing as little as they can while still making a playable game. Investors don't care about the quality of the game, they care about the amount of money that can be made.

I don't know about that. If you use patched ROMs, you're confined to the hardware capabilities of a Megadrive.