Sonic Origins coming June 23rd 2022!

[MidnightDragon]

It has been confirmed Mirror Mode unlocks through gameplay. That's just for early access. Still, the stuff shouldn't be behind a damn paywall.

[Zephrese]

Everyone but Sega is carrying this franchise while they purposefully drop it like it's their least favorite child, god damn.

 

$40+ is way too much, especially with the joke of there being no physical print (at least for now) and this mind-numbing "DLC".

Edited April 20, 2022 by Zephrese

[WiktorM101]

5 minutes ago, Zephrese said:

$40+ is way too much, especially with the joke of there being no physical print (at least for now) and this mind-numbing "DLC".

It would be okey if it was for everything and not even a thought about different editions/DLC's.

Anniversary release of any game/series that cuts its content and sell it as DLC's is just greedy. 

[MD_91]

Don't understand the excitement for this, looks like another cash grab to me

Edited April 20, 2022 by MD_91

[Darling Baphomet]

6 hours ago, Xylobe said:

Seems like Sega is struggling to figure out how to monetize their games. "Character Animation in the Main Menu" is locked behind the Digital Deluxe Edition? Wild times.

 

... Camera Controls are locked behind paid DLC? Good fucking lord. Maybe it's just an extra mode where you can fly around the islands or something but that phrasing throws me off.

 

How I wish we didn't live in a world where game developers are forced to taint their art with shit like this to line the pockets of executives.

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

5 hours ago, Stan Lee said:

dafuq? I just can't with Sega

 

lol, I didn't even see this previously but why am I not surprised at this point? Ah, the wonders of modern gaming, modernising even the retro with ever excitingly needless DLC and other nonsense.

[SelectiveGamer]

I'm bad at the 2D Sonic games though

[Honor_Hand]

Love the games, love the remasters, and love the possibility of playing today under a clean interface, with crisp image quality and trophies. The price for the whole thing is too much, though. And the monetization on it kinda reeks. I will mark this one for one to get once it goes on sale.

[AJ_Radio]

Using nostalgia for 1990s era video games to try to cash in on a generation of demoralized gamers. Bold move SEGA.

 

I guess they finally settled that issue with Michael Jackson. Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection was released in early 2009 months before MJ's death. He wasn't credited in Sonic 3 as far as I'm aware of, likely due to his 1993 molestation charges.

 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the ONLY game that's worth it to me in this collection. And it's just far too much money. Granted, this is still cheaper than trying to hunt for original copies of Sonic 1 thru Sonic 3 due to there being a big demand for classic games. The monetization here though is unacceptable.

 

This is capitalism at its worst. Not only charging these prices for an old retro gaming collection but trying to bastardize my childhood by making you pay more for Premium Fun Pack and Classic Music Pack?

 

I'm disgusted. I'm not saying that either Capcom or Konami aren't greedy money grubbing pricks either, but just look at the Mega Man Legacy Collections and the Castlevania/Contra Anniversary Collections. You pay ONE PRICE TAG for those collections. No forced DLC. No additional paywalls.

 

If there's no physical for this Sonic Origins collection, that's another step in the wrong direction.

 

Not happy with this news.

Edited April 21, 2022 by AJ_Radio

[Deluziion90]

The paywall is a bit of a dick move ?..

BUT looking at my right I'm looking at my Sega Megadrive 2 and that's where everything started when I was 6 years old. Yeah I'll be getting this the day it's getting a release. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is still one of the best games ever for me. Hopefully it still gets a physical release and a collector's edition would be even better to match my Sonic Mania collector's.  

[TrophyChief]

12 hours ago, Xylobe said:

 

Seems like Sega is struggling to figure out how to monetize their games. "Character Animation in the Main Menu" is locked behind the Digital Deluxe Edition? Wild times.

Can I just buy the fucking game and be done with it? This bullshit drives me crazy.

*Old man here yelling at the wind. 

[DarkHpokinsn]

On 4/20/2022 at 8:33 PM, MrTrofyHunter said:

Can I just buy the fucking game and be done with it? This bullshit drives me crazy.

*Old man here yelling at the wind. 

Lol Buy it, if you want. Not like they’re making you pay more if you don’t want to. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by DarkHpokinsn

[TheRetroManiac]

Was really excited seeing this, and then I see the BS that comes with it man why can't these people stop being greedy I can tell you It's because we are all suckers and will buy it no doubt at launch. They're playing of people's nostalgia and the need for these old games, as these are the types a lot of us grew up on, so naturally we will buy it. Shame there is no disc version for these types of games, I definitely want that version.

Edited April 21, 2022 by TheRetroManiac

[Jerry_Appleby]

Going to get this Day 1, no doubt about it! Sonic 3 was the game I logged the most hours on growing up!!

 

Was contemplating the digital deluxe version, but I can almost guarantee they will release a physical version a year down the road, so I'll stick with the regular version and then buy the physical one when it eventually comes out.

 

I just hope they have the original soundtrack for Ice Cap zone and Launch Base and not the version used in the PC version.

 

Also for anyone interested, here are a few Sonic 3 songs I played on my piano: 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[You]

FFS. Just release a product, it's that simple. Why are so Sega so obsessed with cutting it into pieces and making a ton of bullshit mechanics that nobody asked for.

Are they worried about sales?

 

IT'S FUCKING SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!!!

 

And arguably the very best versions of all the games and remixed. I mean Sonic Mania was a huge hit for them, and for good reasons. This game is going sell bucketloads as is. Imagine having to make a Premium version of this game... Oh Sega... how far you have fallen.

 

26 minutes ago, Jerry_Appleby said:

Also for anyone interested, here are a few Sonic 3 songs I played on my piano: 

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

That is awesome. If I could give you 10 upvotes I would. Interestingly I am also currently learning a play a VGM tune on the piano at the moment, I wish I could upgrade to your skill level lol.

Edited April 21, 2022 by enaysoft

[AJ_Radio]

14 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

FFS. Just release a product, it's that simple. Why are so Sega so obsessed with cutting it into pieces and making a ton of bullshit mechanics that nobody asked for.

Are they worried about sales?

 

IT'S FUCKING SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!!!

 

And arguably the very best versions of all the games and remixed. I mean Sonic Mania was a huge hit for them, and for good reasons. This game is going sell bucketloads as is. Imagine having to make a Premium version of this game... Oh Sega... how far you have fallen.

 

I used to think SEGA was free from all this. They have officially joined Nintendo in the ranks of monetization bullshit. I wouldn't put them at the level of EA, Rockstar, Bethesda, or Activision. Maybe not even Capcom or Square Enix. But they are now in the same boat.

 

I mean, I still have emulators and ROMs of old Nintendo games that I still have physical copies of. If I want to play those games on the Switch, I'm being forced to pay a subscription for them. That's why I'm not on board with any subscription service because after being a Netflix subscriber for a long time, they can just do whatever the fuck they want at the cost of the consumer. Stuff gets delisted constantly, a film I wanted to see isn't on there anymore because of rights expiring or copyright issues or whatever.

 

And you can't just get the basic package for Nintendo if you want to play old Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games, you have to get the Expansion package.

 

This is just cashing in off of nostalgia. We all get it. Times have changed, standards are different, those old developers have long since moved on and/or retired. But I can't think of any other generation, aside from maybe the ET (ET: The Extra Terrestrial) Atari video game crash era, that gaming has been in a worse shape than this.

 

Making the Classic Music Pack separate just mind boggles me to no end. 

 

Just copy what Capcom did with their classic Mega Man games. Assemble a retro collection, sell it digitally and physically, and just have one price tag attached to it. That's all it has to be. But no, we're having to cut this into pieces, to help stain a childhood I cherished close to 30 years ago because greed knows no boundaries.

 

I can literally just power run these old Sega Genesis titles, it takes next to nothing to play them given the technology we have now.

 

These publishing companies that control these gaming companies have really gone out of their fucking heads in the past 5 - 10 years.

[LewNazWar]

17 hours ago, MD_91 said:

Don't understand the excitement for this, looks like another cash grab to me

Eh, I'm pretty critical of SEGA's business practices with this one - I have been since they started implementing this garbage with Persona 5 Strikers, Sonic Colours, Monkey Ball, etc. But in terms of the actual content I wouldn't call it a simple cash grab, there definitely seems like a labour of love involved especially when you know many of the people involved with it and their history as fans.

[Jerry_Appleby]

21 hours ago, enaysoft said:

That is awesome. If I could give you 10 upvotes I would. Interestingly I am also currently learning a play a VGM tune on the piano at the moment, I wish I could upgrade to your skill level lol.

 

Haha thanks! I play too much Sonic music on my piano, I've been playing a lot of Knight of the Wind and Tropical Resort (from Sonic Colours) lately.  Almost every day I'm working on stuff!

[AJ_Radio]

Well I think I'll buy this collection on Day 1 provided I have some money saved up. I've played Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 countless times so it's really Sonic 3 & Knuckles I want to get my hands on. That hasn't had a proper re-release in over a decade, probably due to Michael Jackson's involvement which a lot of people still say was a conspiracy.

 

Regardless, it'll be fun to jump back in and play 90s Sonic.

[EcoShifter]

(Unsubmitted a month ago)

Unsurprisingly there are quite some overreactions. The original chart was also updated shortly after it was posted, but in reality the update was unnecessary because it was an over-clarification for people who outright ignored the second column's description.

 

 

There are only two editions of the game: standard and deluxe; the latter actually does brings everything (you just have to preorder it, for those unimportant extra starting bonus coins, an early access to mirror mode, and some also unimportant letterbox backgrounds for classic mode).

 

The other three things in the middle are just typical dlc packs (two of which are irrelevant), things that have long existed and plagued countless games since the 7th gen. The first (irrelevant) pack, "Start Dash", is simply the packaged-preorder content (as detailed above, unimportant stuff). The second pack, "Premium Fun", is basically the deluxe edition's content (minus the additional music) separated for optional purchase, which a lot of other games still aren't offering as a choice. The final (irrelevant) pack is a purely music based pack, which contains extra music from games not even included the collection.

 

To go a little deeper- The chart Sega made here differs from the more familiar charts that includes various editions of games and season passes and expansion passes, spread across the row. Like other charts this one has multiple rows, but in this case it's not for many editions (unlike Assassin Creed Odyssey, Borderlands 3, etc). The entire row simply and clearly includes just two mere editions of the game, with three dlc packs alongside them. Secondly, Sega unified all the content from both editions and every pack on one shared column (and with no dividers at all) which is why there are five rows of things in the way that they are and is why the preorder content (Start Dash Pack) has its own tier column.

 

Speaking of preorder, the literal entirety of it is inessential; the first content is a head-start bonus of 100 coins; the second is an earlier access to mirror mode; and the last are letterbox backgrounds. . . Before moving on to the next pack, reminder that 'remasters' like Shadow of the Colossus and Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled also has preorder content, and those cases are worse because their content were actual cool gameplay and skin items, respectively (let alone their special game edition contents with even better stuff). Those aren't the only examples. So one of these false ideas that Sonic/Sega is breaking new ground or doing something that is rarely done with regards to this subject, is absurd.  

 

Premium Fun Pack would be the only true controversial pack on this chart, which is only because it's paid dlc of features for the game, but what specifically is the contents included? 

• "Letterbox backgrounds"
• "Camera control over modeled islands from menu background"
• "Character animations during music player"
• "Main menu character animations"
• "Hard missions". 

The vast majority of this stuff is purely insignificant visual elements on menus/screens, and nothing gameplay affecting such as filters and aspect ratios.

 

This is "character animation in music player". (Just select character sprites running on the screen or doing several animations from gameplay.)

This is clearly nothing worth complaining about on a moderate or high level. Same goes for the other visual based stuff. Is it weird and questionable that this (insignificant) stuff is behind a paid dlc pack? Maybe. But are any of these things major losses or major features? Not at all. If things like Boss Rush, Knuckles in other titles, or widescreen ratio were put behind a paywall, then it'd be worthy complaint. That leaves the one non-visual related element included in the pack: Hard Missions. So, there's an implication these are a second new set of missions on top of the regular ones already new to the game, which means the hard ones would act more-so as "extra missions" made after the original ones and (probably) couldn't make it to the final game in time. Besides all that, considering the industry standard, it's actually noble of Sega to allow this pack to be brought separately instead of telling us that "if you want these contents then too bad you'll have to buy the game and its deluxe version" like legitimately most companies do.

 

Lastly, Classic Music Pack. Just like the preorder pack, this is yet another irrelevant dlc pack (a fanservice music pack), as it contains music from games not even included in this game collection: Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast, and Knuckles Chaotic. And so yes, that debunks the "original music/S3&K music locked behind a paywall" theory. Just a fun extra music pack that Sega went out of their way to include.

 

The overall chart is misunderstood and only confusing to those who took a glance at it and assumed it functioned like most other similar looking ones, when it instead acts as this transparent all-in-one chart grouping together preorder content, game editions (2), and dlc packs (3) under a one-dimensional format.

 

There is one weird aspect on the chart that I'm not seeing among the complaints though, which is the letterbox backgrounds' access difference between PFP and DD. Keeping it as a preorder bonus for the SE is fine, but it should come with the DE without the need for preorder. However, if the DE includes the PFP as a separate download, then this criticism is moot.

 

On 4/20/2022 at 4:14 PM, Darling Baphomet said:

... Camera Controls are locked behind paid DLC? Good lord. Maybe it's just an extra mode where you can fly around the islands or something but that phrasing throws me off.

 

You're not far off, but the phrasing is accurate. (The America branch of Sega usually has more controversial wording in their promotions with this IP than other territories, though. Asia's, for example, says "main menu island view function", which is much less offensive.) It's the full camera control over the (brand new live 3D modeled) islands in the menu backgrounds-

Typically in other games that graphical object would purely remain a background detail that all you get to do is look at from the distance while you go through menus (like in the original version of these games), but here they made these menu island "backgrounds" 3D and viewable with a controllable camera, which imo is something that feels extra for a remastered origin collection. Because they went from flat 2D backgrounds (with no camera function) to fully 3D modeled islands (with camera function) on par with something like Crash Bandicoot's/4 World Map. 

versus

Once you take control of the camera, not only do you get an isolated view of the whole island and see Sonic and friends, enemies, etc (all of which is fully animated), but there's also possibly some progression aspect to the island models the further you get in its respective game. A third thing is that these models actually includes zones in them, which is an expansion of detail not at all present in the original versions of the first two games and only partly present in the midquel and third. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by EcoShifter

[ExHaseo]

I was excited until found out about the "DLC". It's really disturbing that such basic things like main menu animations are being locked behind a paywall.

[MidnightDragon]

Really hoping they have the original Carnival Night music in Sonic 3. I have played versions where it was altered.

[EcoShifter]

A LOT of good stuff was just shown in the 40+ minute showcase of the collection on Famitsu's stream yesterday. (Starts around 12:00)

 

- S3&K gameplay (Angel Island)

- New animated story cutscene

- Better look at the main menu animations

- Several character sprite animations seen during music playback (including Amy kissing Sonic :0)

- Missions gameplay (StH2)

- 2P Multiplayer gameplay (StH2)

- Mirror mode gameplay (S3&K)

- Boss Rush gameplay (Sonic CD)

- Sonic CD's intro vocals have also been restored ? (the extremely popular 2011 mobile remaster didn't even have this!) 

- Museum showed off the inclusion of brand new original concept art, never seen before concepts, IDW comics' covers, Sonic Harmony covers, album covers, and a lot of other cool stuff. (This is really high quality)

- Museum also confirmed a video playback feature, including all the story cutscenes and. . . the entire "Sonic Mania Adventure" mini series :0

Edited June 6, 2022 by EcoShifter

[EcoShifter]

Release date trailer (Sonic Central)

---

The music situation

Sega finally addressed the music concerns people have had with the third game. When asked on stream whether the game would have all the original music, they said:

Quote

So while unfortunately we can't use all of the original sounds from the SEGA Genesis version of the game, Jun Senoue has been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for Sonic Origins, and he's been going so far as reproducing it with the same soundchip from the SEGA Genesis, and using his own digital audio tape collection to make it as faithful to the original as possible.

 

A team that assisted development also had something to say on the matter:

Quote

 

 

 

Cat's out of the bag... KatieChrz shared on today's Sonic livestream [S6:E3] that it was, in fact, necessary to replace some of Sonic 3 & Knuckles' music in Sonic Origins. I know this may be a disappointment to some, but we've all known for a long time that this would very likely happen

 

The "new" tracks will be familiar to those who have played 1997's S&K Collection for PC, but their history is deeper than that. Recently, a prototype of Sonic 3 has surfaced that proves these were indeed the original, intended songs before they were replaced by MJ's sound team

As Katie said, these tracks, originally presented in MIDI form in S&KC and unpolished in the Sonic 3 prototype, have recently been given an FM makeover by Jun Senoue for integration into the finished soundtrack

 

Don't ask me why this change is necessary now and expect a solid answer- I actually don't have any more information on it than is already available to you. Given the apparent circumstances though, it seems a reasonable compromise to have Sonic 3 be released on modern platforms

--

 

There's also this pretty interesting, closely related interview from a few weeks ago—Brad Buxer, a keyboardist who worked closely with MJ on the third game's soundtrack, during a part of his recent interview clarified (yet again) MJ's involvement with the title.

Edited June 16, 2022 by EcoShifter

[Alantor32]

I pre-ordered the Switch version of the Deluxe Edition incase the PS5 and PS4 versions don't have a platinum trophy, just to be safe.