What is very noticeable playing through Origins is the depth of the story conveyed through the games. Sonic 1 probably has the least object plot development, but then again it was also setting the entire foundation of the series - so arguably it has the most depth. But with Sonic 4, I actually have no idea what the story was... It appeared to be a literal repeat of exactly what has already occurred. I don't think Sonic 4 deserves to be part of the lineage in the way the Origins collection does. It's not bringing anything to the table - it's literally nostalgia pandering based on the previous entries. Conversely, for all the nostalgia reliance of Mania, it DID have a story arch that was identifiable, it did have unique settings. Sonic 4 will always be emblematic of the feckless anti-consumerism in Sega, it ought to be thrown into the dustbin of history.
Sonic 4 should've just been called iTouch Sonic or whatever early smartphone abandonware title it was deservedly going to have before Sega forced it into the next big thing. Calling the new game Sonic 4 & Amy could be a cute way to differentiate as well as astroturf if they reasonably chose to go that route.
The Score being visible in Origins 2P irks me somewhat - Removes the tension of having to wait until the results screen to see if you managed to outscore your opponent, particularly when trying to rack up the points after they've finished first.
I think a lot of the level design and art direction across the two Sonic 4 episodes is salvageable with some tweaking, and making the level themes feel distinct from the other games is a question of art direction, lighting, color palettes more than it is the themes themselves. If they were to retro-engine overhaul it, add the equivalent of a third episode's stages, and so forth. I kinda think something like that, along with Mania, would be what you need to justify a "Sonic Origins volume 2", since we're apparently so allergic to the rest of the classic era games for this collection.
I will say the Game Gear games' inclusion has grown on me, I think it's cute to have both versions of S1/S2 and all the specifically 2D AND Sonic platformers of the Classic era in one package (this doesn't count). It may've had something to do with the games no longer having an eShop to be sold on rather than perhaps being the more well-received or mainline-resembling of the spin-offs (the platformers at least), but game preservation is what people previously criticised Sega for in removing the existing releases of Origins' games. Maybe rephrase that first title.
Okay...but if it's about 2D platformers with "Sonic" in the title, 1. That's weird overly-specific criteria and they should be doing more to improve the experience of the 8-bit platformers and 2. They're still including six games that are decidedly not platformers, three of which do not even feature Sonic the hedgehog.
Man do I have to start using winky faces? Maybe Sonic 4 deserves a terrible accidental innuendo title.
I briefly scanned that post while waiting for a ride at an amusement park (Tivoli for anyone wondering), so I wasn't fully engaged, but I'm worried that it didn't register as weird until I saw that other response lol. My only thought was, "Wasn't it already going to be called Sonic the Portable?" Shitty phone games and their shitty names have desensitised me, I guess.
I like that it works either way. If only it was called that and was just a thing on the app store for a bit or just y'know didn't exist at all.
I see it as them including the closest approximations of the classic titles from all the spin-offs, a couple of them literally being 8-Bit equivalents, with the other weird GG games just along for the ride at that point as a complete collection because you might as well. Sucks that the Genesis's weird spin-offs and others couldn't also be included; not sure if at some point developing a new 32X emulator from scratch for Chaotix or something for SegaSonic was going to dig into the budget for Headcannon's additions or not. I'm also not sure exactly what they could've done to add to the GG experience. Either RSDK-remastering or M2 SEGA AGES-esque porting twelve entire games in order to make the necessary changes sounds way out of the scope of this project. Even trying to get Master System or widescreen resolution out of them through emulator trickery sounds like it'd take an excessive amount of tinkering? At that point you might as well do the former if it's not going to be authentic to the original releases.
Is there a way I can force Sonic Origins to run at 424x240 like I can with Sonic Mania? Since I love to record gameplay footage in lossless quality and I want perfect square pixels, it would be ideal for me if I could play Sonic Origins at that resolution.
But "you might as well" totally fits for the three remaining Genesis games. If they can just throw twelve game gear ROMs on there with plain-ass emulation, I see literally no reason to exclude Spinball, 3D and Mean Bean. I dunno, I just feel like when you have the creators of some of the original Sonic hacking tools on hand, things like "put some rings in the boss areas" or "run the version of the game with a bigger screen" should be trivial.
Maybe, but they were busy with Amy/Knuckles, "a few additional updates and enhancements" to the collection and presumably fixing up the S3&K remaster to also be adjusting multiple aspects of 12 or so other games of different architecture. Sonic Team, meanwhile, can't implement a Drop Dash into the Retro Engine without issues. I don't deny they could've easily thrown in Spinball, 3D and Mean Bean, but then if they're still slacking on a proper 32X emulator for Chaotix, it wouldn't be a complete collection of those Genesis spin-offs to market like the mainline or Game Gear games is, especially with the music DLC including that and 3D/Spinball (I guess Eraser could also easily be thrown in, though). Same with getting SegaSonic to work for all of Sonic's (legitimate, at least) arcade games, which I guess is just the two.
Really even if it doesn't make a 'complete' collection, I just feel it's a 'why NOT add them?' outlook. They've already put in some emulated games so why end at the GG ones? If anything I think it would add a really fun incentive to playing the game. Say it was like Sonic Adventure DX, Pac Man World 2, or the first Animal Crossing where progressing through the main titles slowly unlocks this Museum page of the more obscure titles from that era. Completing 1 gets Spinball, 2 gets 3D Blast, etc. Hell, I'd gladly take Eraser for novelty's sake. It's not a great game but it'd be a neat piece of history to unlock and likely the most fun way to introduce that game to a less knowledged gamer. I get not all the old Sonic games are easy to emulate, but MD emulation is their go-to, they have those ROMs handy.
IMO, would be better to have not 100500 games that we can play on another systems (ar least, not only them), but have previously never seen content in museum. Masas unused demos, new documents. Who knows, maybe even previously unseen proto of Sonic 1/2! Spoiler: Btw They really want to make a 2D game about modern Sonic? meh.
Considering how lackluster Sega's Mega Drive emulation is, as evidenced by their latest collection, I'd rather they didn't include those. But there's no good reason to not include the Sega Master System versions. Them not being released before in Japan certainly didn't stop them from re-releasing them on the Japanese Virtual Console.
It's kinda funny that Mania considered Mean Bean Machine to be a part of Sonic's identity but Sega doesn't. Spoiler I kinda hope a modern 2D game means they're trying to kill the Classic Sonic brand. I hope they actually remember the Sonic 4 backlash at this point and aren't just gonna copypaste 06+ Sonic into a sidescrolling environment. Maybe this will give them a chance to actually experiment with his design again? The movies have shown that no one cares anymore if Sonic is short or inversely that he has green eyes so maybe they can finally start moving on from the Generations nonsense. Just wishful thinking though.
I'd imagine if they did go out of their way to include 3D Blast/Spinball but not Chaotix again, specifically after making all three a set of music DLC, that wouldn't go so well. Granted, the exclusions of games as it is is already criticised, but IDK if Sega was really going to finally rush out an in-house 32X emulator for one weird game in a collection's $10 side DLC. Though to harbour a more cynical guess, 3D Blast/Spinball/Mean Bean are all already available on Switch Online/Steam, with even Fighters being in Lost Judgement, whilst the Game Gear games just so happened to recently be made completely unavailable if not for Origins Plus thanks to the eShop closure (I think, was there an SADX release that still had them? The Steam version doesn't, and is that also the case with the XBLA/PS3 versions?) IDK if Sega doesn't want to affect the existing releases of these games, but this is the collection they removed existing releases of S1/SCD/S2 for (they kinda had an excuse with MJ-infused S3&K). And the thing about the Master System versions is that whilst roomier in aspect ratio, they mostly weren't the most recent and most polished versions of the games, mostly coming before the Game Gear rereleases. And even so, historically only half of them even had MS equivalents to begin with and I have to ask if Sega would need some additional legal paperwork to rerelease a Tectoy version of one of their games. Spoiler They're not gonna kill off the Classic Sonic brand, it's like, what, what Sonic is to people? it's too lucrative.
Spoiler I don't want anything to "kill" the classic Sonic style per se because I obviously think it's very charming and worth keeping around (see: pfp). But I hope a hypothetical 2D modern game would help break down the barriers between the Sonics, letting them be one brand with only an art style distinction between them. As someone who was a big time classic purist at the end of the 2000s and a participant in the big "de-design Sonic back to classic so he fits into Sonic 4" mad scramble here on our very own Retro forums back 13 years ago when S4:E1 came out, I... just feel like I grew out of that mindset. It's not modern Sonic's fault S4 was ugly as shit. It was a really immature stance. Thankfully, it seems like what you're wanting is kinda what's happening with Sonic these days. So maybe things are gonna be alright, in that regard.
