It is not the best possible outcome for the collection and there are things I would like for them to improve still, but even if the older releases were still around, Origins Plus is still the best option, and people who like it don't have low standards.
I mean, if you don't like it you don't like it. Personally, for any PC owner the remaining issues are pretty negligible or fixable with mods. I can get the perfect music, turn off the bilinear filter and add rings to the final bosses of 2 and 3 (which they sorely need), but it sucks when other players can't access those things, especially when we can see how little it would take (one more reason for the console market to die a quick and easy death). Moreover, I think more than anything what disappoints me about Plus is everything except the games. They could have fixed up the master system ROMs as well as or better than fans ever have. We'd all love a Tails Adventure without the inventory crunch! There already is a resolution hack for the game, among other improvements. But not only did they not include that, they missed the opportunity to put the remaining 3 genesis games on there even when the improvements that can be made to spinball and mean bean are pretty negligible, and John Burton did their job for them already with 3D Blast, for free. It seems it's just never gonna be the definitive classic collection, and that's excluding every single 32-bit game on its own. Still, I like playing as the four characters through the four games. If that's all it needed to be, I wish that were all it was marketed as. I guess at this point I just hope it serves as a foundation for future work to build off of. There could be a second DLC, an update, or even a volume 2 for the remaining games (plus Mania and a remade Sonic 4?), and I would feel a lot better, because the thing about a faithful, polished PC remaster is that you only have to get it right once. It can be definitive, they just have to stop restarting.
Well first of all Sonic can go fast without rolling. That isn't relevant in of itself. Her not-drop dash doesn't seem to boost her at all. If you're making a comparison to Advance Amy, her little down-A lunge move runs circles around whatever the hell this not-dash is supposed to be. Really I think I like the not-dash in theory. It's just the execution seems totally ass-backwards. It should be a full-on drop peelout that should at least give her as much momentum as Sonic's equivalent. Also fix the animation so she uncurls out of the midair roll or something.
Having tried Amy out a bit, I can safely conclude that I will literally never go out of my way to use that awful 'Drop Dash'. No need to dress it up in Sonic Discourse™ language, it just feels shitty to use.
Done another CD playthrough, this time with Knux showing-off all the new routes I've found/am aware of: Time Stamp: Palmtree Panic Act 1: 3:10 Palmtree Panic Act 2: 6:30 (just a platform with an extra-life item-box) Collision Chaos Act 1: 10:08 Collision Chaos Act 2: 12:42 (Just a platform with a fast-shoes item-box) Tidal Tempest Act 1: 18:40 Tidal Tempest Act 2: 20:25 Wacky Workbench Act 1: 31:47 Wacky Workbench Act 2: 35:35 Metallic Madness Act 1: 43:36 If I've missed any please let me know.
No kidding, she is janky. And the awful bug still exists in the S1 and S2 Drop Dash implementation where it makes the whiff sound every time you do it, on top of her weird sound effects.
Playing through S1 as Amy, I like it and I think the hammer run is cute, but the idea for how they could have made her feel more distinct struck me - holding down the action button would create a continuous bounce run/attack on the hammer. Not quite the same as the bubble shield bounce Sonic gets since it'd actually retain momentum, and maybe as a trade-off Amy could be in a vulnerable state while doing this (but gain some invulnerability to things, like being able to bounce on spikes). Very derivative of Scrooge McDuck and Cranky Kong in DKC Tropical Freeze, sure, but given that Ray's characteristic in Mania Plus was just the cape power-up from Mario World, I doubt anyone would have minded the similarity. I do find the expanded hitbox on her hammer jump to be pretty useful, for what that's worth, even if it's just a beefier Insta-Shield.
1. There's are extra platforms near the top of Stardust Speedway 1 that makes using Knuckles ability to glide across the stage easier (as well as more rings), but you have to work hard to actually get up that high. I mostly used them in the past, myself. 2. Quartz Quadrant Act 2 has an extra set of dual yellow springs at the very top route that make speedrunning the very very top of the stage much more efficient. It's a subtle, but very cool change. I've only tested it in the present. Originally, the area that had this had a set of rings on the wall, but they led to nowhere. And I stand by what I said... Amy makes sense when you realize she gains an overpowered instashield at the cost of a slower (but somewhat more maneuverable) dropdash and shield abilities. It keeps her gameplay very much in line with the classics while also making her distinctive enough from Sonic to still change the experience. I know it looks lazy on the surface, but its brilliance is in its simplicity, and it's obvious they were intentionally going for a variation of the "girl sonic" feel. Now that I've picked up a controller and played this, I will happily defend the choice against any naysayers. She feels like a classic Sonic character and that's not a bad thing. Add following tails to her roster and it balances her out even moreso. She is "easy mode" in some subtle ways, but not necessarily in a way that a veteran can't appreciate either. Speedrunning with her will actually be pretty fun, rather than frustrating like Advance 1 Amy could be. Sonic 1 Forever Amy was admittedly a pretty good moveset for her, but I also definitely like this better than SCD Restored Amy's moveset.
I had a chance to play version 2.0.0 today. I haven't bought the DLC yet, so my impressions are purely on the bugfixes. Overall I am pretty satisfied with how Sonic 1 and 2 turned out, and they definitely fixed some of the main issues I had with S3&K, like the endless falling debris in Marble Garden and some collision issues. However, there are still a few issues that should be addressed: The fifth Super Emerald special stage still rewards you with a blue Emerald when its supposed to be the grey one. Theres a softlock that could happen when fighting Knuckles in HPZ in a super state/invincibility. Might only apply to Switch, but I've noticed certain sound effects like collecting rings or bouncing on springs are extra loud and "crackly", it kind of irritates my ears. I don't believe the audio was like that in the original game. I did report these bugs to SEGA via their support email last year, so hopefully these will get addressed in the future. Does anyone know if any new cheat codes were added to the Plus expansion?
I've seen the softlock issue when fighting Knuckles in HPZ while being super or having invincibility. But, for those that have encountered this, is it just entering the fight in this state that causes it? Or does it happen during the middle of the fight or at the end?
For me personally it happened when entering the fight. Usually I'd grab the hidden invicibility box using Tails or go Hyper beforehand and that usually triggers the softlock after the fight ends.
I expected little and I'm still a tad underwhelmed. Maybe if I hadn't already gotten the deluxe version on Steam close to launch I'd be more interested.
Alright, with this finally out, I guess I'll look back on my hopes, and see what came about: Knuckles is playable in CD, and the roll lock has been removed! Good stuff. Sadly, story mode is still Sonic only, and there's no level select for cleared saves, though these aren't really super huge deals for me. Biggest letdown is maybe the cheats still not being accessible through non-cumbersome means. Would have been a great additional function for coins to unlock them as basic gameplay customization options. I don't think the hotboxes have been fixed (which is still honestly unacceptable to me given how apparently simple it would have been to do), but I guess changing the behavior of the piston in Metropolis Zone is sort of like a bandaid over that. Remains to be seen if I'll still get crushed in 3K thanks to the incompatibility of my muscle memory and the Retro Engine, or if other similar sorts of bandaid solutions have been implemented.
This is exactly how Superstars works lol. It's activated the same way, but the hammer dash lasts for as long as you hold the button down.
Not quite what I was getting at, though I probably could have worded it better. Was thinking more like this:
my 10 year old right now is very happy at the thought of playing with Amy :D the sprites reminds me of E-122-psi's sprites and that's amazing
I suppose I'll list some of my desired new features for this collection, even if it likely won't happen at this point: Replace the character select screen with a save file system; also give access to a level select screen on cleared saves like the mobile releases. The ability to toggle lives/continues in Anniversary Mode, AKA play Classic Mode in wide-screen. Some kind of cheat code/setting to swap the Sonic 3 title theme to the Sonic & Knuckles title theme (yes, im still nitpicky about that lol). Bonus points if you could swap to the base "Sonic & Knuckles" title graphics as well. Fix the audio/soundtrack issues across all 4 games in the collection. I really hope we at least get some more patches in the future.
Here's what I'd like to see for the main Mega Drive games (although I also don’t expect any of this to happen): • Use the Sonic 3 save menu/character select for all games. • Let you have custom hero/sidekick options (and you can switch between them in the level like in Mania) • Custom mode where you can toggle everything (live system/coins, screen ratio, cheats) • More 2PVS stages If they did this, for me at least, it would be perfect! (And obviously, this is just for the MD games and not the GG ones).
I don't want the people who like this collection to shut up. Like I said, what I don't like is people talking like this collection is the best option to play these clasic games, as if it sets a new standard. It most definitely does not. I don't know where this idea comes from that people are moving goalposts. We expected and wanted the mobile remasters, plus a remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles done in the Retro Engine. That's not what we got. Multiple things were removed from the remasters: the remastered music, the loop points from Sonic CD, the level selects (aka a decent save system), and who knows what else (I haven't played the mobile versions). As for the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remaster, it's unfinished, the music is a bad recording, and the Michael Jackson tracks are missing and the replacements aren't satisfactory. All of this in a sloppy package (I'll mention again the blurry graphics).
