It definitely feels like, with update 2 for frontiers coming out and being pretty good all things considered, that sonic team on their end was either too busy to go in and fix some of the issues frontiers still has, or couldnt/didnt care to while working on frontiers updates. Plus feels cheap, though I do like that Amy is here now, and knuckles felt good in cd from what I played Origins very much feels, secondary
I think one of the more frustrating things is that we could be seeing a lot more fan-patches to polish up this release, were it not for Denuvo making it much more of a pain in the ass to modify the game.
I dunno what exactly you mean by this, but stuff like the filter was left untouched so mods for that don't need updating. I'm hearing the GG games are encrypted in such a way that we can't touch them currently, and there were in fact some things that got fixed in this release. So it's really not that surprising, even if I expect people to get their stuff updated soon anyway. We don't say "day 1" as some bar for mod developers to clear, just a bar that SEGA for some reason couldn't.
Yeah when you think about it half the cool features from the mobile versions like shield swapping are not part of the regular menus, it's shocking that it wasn't part of the marketing or feature set to advertise. The problem with origins imo is sega, they decided to mess with what already worked and tried to be fancy with the front end menu systems but in the end it ruins things and after a whole year they have not resolved those issues.
Speaking of cheat codes, it's kinda funny to me that the reward for clearing the tacked on Surprise achievements picture is tutorials for the cheat codes. I hoped in silly vain that maybe they threw in some new ones I just hadn't seen people talk about yet, but it's literally just the Level Select cheat for each game, like not even a list of all the pre-existing cheats and secrets to make new players aware of neat stuff they very well might've missed out on and are half the fun of the RSDK versions. They did an Origins Speed Strats video on that, but that was before S3&K's V1.04 cheats and also missed a few hardcore obscurities like the Miles' name change in S1/S2, S1's 8th Special Stage maker and accessing SCD's 8th Special Stage from the Time Attack menu. The Game Gear games' secrets have been public knowledge for 30 years, but as a tangible reward that's not even something Mega Collection Plus did 20 years ago, try a little harder Sonic Team.
In the Plus compilation, I like Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3&K is where things start pissing me off. It’s a glitch fest. How do you make the best game of these 4 the worst? It also annoys me there is still no Knuckles Chaotix to play on recent consoles. They also decided to do game gear version of Spinball instead of Genesis. They added Sonic Blast but no Sonic 3D Blast. You see where I’m going with this. Koolaid no sugar, Peanut butter no jelly, ham no burger. It’s just certain things, they could’ve done to make this game a home run but they decided to with a bunt.
There's another thing they missed. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, if you beat the game with all Super Emeralds and then replay the game from the beginning with that save, the beginning cutscene has Sonic as Hyper Sonic when he jumps off the Tornado rather than Super Sonic like he is in the Genesis original in the same circumstance. I'm not sure if this is a coding error or whatever. But it's been in the game since last year.
I thought that this was a conscious change, because by all accounts Sonic has all the Emeralds at that point. It's a non-canon New Game Plus.
Also weird the Premium gallery gave us an expanded jukebox, but not for the Game Gear games. I swear it feels a lot like Origins had a big plan ahead but then diverted into something smaller scale some point in. I mean was this really what the survey amounted to?
Blast to 3D Blast is really no comparison. Blast is more like a handheld standalone Sonic & Knuckles gameplay wise or story wise than anywhere close to 3D Blast even though it came out around the same time. I can see where Spinball and Mean Bean Machine for Game Gear are just inferior ports but all 12 of those games are just emulation with very small file size games. It was something they could just throw on there with minimal effort. I think the other Genesis titles aren't there because they would feel worse about just emulating them when their included counterparts are not emulated, but at the same time they don't want to do the work to give them justice.
One might argue that Sonic 3D doesn't belong in a 2D games collection called "Origins". ... okay don't read into it too much, given the "origin" of many of those Game Gear games was the Master System, and the Mega Drive Sonic Spinball released before Sonic 3. It's more likely that they've run out of nouns - I expect to see a "Sonic Revelations" or "Sonic Odyssey" in the next decade.
Sonic Origins Plus Artbook Scanned It's pretty underwhelming. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PqCIUSHCyxH3SB8kXjRjLidl5C3Hf8cX/view?usp=sharing
I guess, but I always assumed they were just showing you the cutscene again. Nothing changes in the game other than you have all the emeralds. Enemies and bosses aren't harder. I never considered it a New Game Plus thing.
I noticed that there is inconsistency with Amy’s hammer attacks. It often feels like I can only use trial and error to know what enemies/bosses Amy’s hammer spin will work on. It works on Star Pointers, Orbinauts, and the top of Mecha Sonic Mk 1, but not the top of Mecha Sonic Mk 2. Furthermore, using the hammer spin on certain enemies/bosses will hurt her even when Sonic’s Insta-Shield has no issues (like Pointdexters with their spikes drawn out. Sonic’s Insta-Shield beats them with no problems, but Amy gets hurt by them). For these enemies/bosses, Amy gets hurt as soon as contact is made with her hammer (instead of with her actual body). Additionally, Amy’s hammer run makes her go through Knuckles when he’s fought in Hidden Palace (with neither character getting hurt). I hope this gets corrected in a future patch, along with how Hyper Amy is incorrectly referred to as Super Amy by the in-game text. EDIT: Okay, I tested it out again, and Amy’s hammer run is sometimes countered by Knuckles punching. He also sometimes blocks it. If he does neither of those things, you will hammer run through him with neither of you taking damage (unless Amy is in her invincibility frames from being hurt, in which case Knuckles will get hurt like he does whenever you touch him while invincible). So, the hammer run properties during the Knuckles fight appear to all be intentional.
I've only played a few hours of the Origins Plus DLC, so I've still got to play more to gather my complete thoughts but here goes my thoughts so far. I'll start with what little I've played of the Game Gear collection. It's...*fine* for an emulation job (similar in quality to most of the Mega Drive compilations - not perfect, but okay if you don't own the original hardware like I do for the Mega Drive titles and most of the Game Gear titles). Just the fact that I can play on a screen that's not got a crap viewing angle makes it worth having on the collection for me. For Amy, I've played up to Labyrinth Zone in Sonic 1, not started Sonic CD yet, up to Aquatic Ruins in Sonic 2, and not started Sonic 3 yet. Essentially, she has some sort of Insta-Shield ability. like Sonic does in 3, by spinning her hammer around her whilst jumping. The Hammer Spin is a lot of fun to play with in the first three games, as Origins doesn't let you mix Sonic's single-game abilities (like the Peel-Out from CD and Insta-Shield from 3) between games like Mania does. She also has what is essentially a down-graded Drop Dash, but (like the Drop Dash in Origins) I don't use it much because of muscle memory from playing the games across a period of 20 years before base Origins released last year. For Knuckles, I've also done a full 'Bad Ending' playthrough of Sonic CD, as I've yet to get good enough at CD to do either of the two 'Good Ending' methods. Honestly, Knuckles is now my favourite character to play as in CD, as the more open-ended level design (and the new routes that was added to every CD zone in the 2.0.0 update that came out on Thursday) lends itself wonderfully to Knuckles' move-set in such a way that it feels better to play with him than with Sonic and Tails. The Metal Sonic race in Stardust Speedway Zone 3 was a pain in the arse to beat, as he kept overtaking as Knuckles slid to a halt from a glide in front of the finish line. It's the best bit of the Origins Plus DLC for me.
I haven't played Sonic Origins Plus yet, but even just from the live streams I've watched thus far, I think it's absolutely criminal that it took this long for Knuckles to become playable in Sonic CD officially, because from what I can tell he fits the more vertical, exploration-based level designs of Sonic CD like a glove wonderfully. At least he's finally playable there now, because he looks absolutely right at home with his move-set combined with the level designs. I've yet to even get Plus, but Knuckles' new addition to Sonic CD might honestly be the single thing that persuades me to cave in and buy, it's perhaps even more appealing to me than Amy's addition to all 4 games, to a degree.
Quick capture of the Sky Base Act 1 edit made for Origins, as noticed in @NiktheGreek's Twitch stream last night. Obvious warning for strobe effects here: Ignore the capture on the right being a bit shitty and blurred, it's just to illustrate a point :P
The hammer spin having a long term extended hit box in place of invincibility works as a trade off for me, otherwise it would just be 'Sonic's but better' and there's at least a BIT of new strategy involved, though yeah the inconsistency with objects kinda takes down its potential. For example it doesn't work on the ARZ pillars, which would have been a great ability given what a pain those sometimes are, and while it DOES work on the corners of the CPZ springs to send her up, it doesn't on normal ones, which would have been a great call back to her Advance gameplay exploit. It would have been cool if the hammer run worked on more objects too, like the breakable blocks the others have to jump on.
