I’m really enjoying the Sonic 3 concept art, though I wish you could zoom in further. It’s interesting that the Flying Battery boss was originally going to take place sliding down an avalanche in Ice Cap, which eventually evolved into the snowboarding intro. They aren’t “remixes” of anything, they’re based on the original demo music that the prototypes and S&K Collection both pulled from. Its possible (if not likely) that these are closer to the tracks the final version of Sonic 3 would have had if the MJ tracks didn’t make it in. never mind about that part
SteamDB has it listed as 16:00:00 UTC, which is pretty late. Kinda regretting pre-purchasing it now since the Epic version is already online and I can't just "obtain" that version in the mean time because of Denuvo.
Why would they change the arrangements to sound worse? These are clearly earlier versions if anything.
EDIT: Your post wasn't out to lunch because you misinterpreted what I said. It was out to lunch because Jun Senoue redoing his own work using the samples and MIDI files from the first time around is tantamount to a remix.
This, I would sincerely hope to god almighty that Origins' Carnival Night Zone music is not what we would have gotten had M.J. and his team never been involved, because they sound like shit, and the Sonic 3 prototype's tracks that we have available blow them way out of the water, despite themselves being unfinished. The fact that the unfinished Sonic 3 prototype has superior Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone tracks to what SEGA is touting as "definitive" Sonic 3 & Knuckles in Origins is frankly embarrassing. I'm in complete agreement with what some others have expressed prior, SEGA would have been far better off simply using the better prototype tracks unaltered and calling it a day.
Not sure if it’s been discussed but Japanese Sonic Twitter has just announced that an update is out for Sonic Origins on all platforms. The Asia website also describes patch notes but it seems mostly related to stability and minor bug fixes, no mention of music. https://twitter.com/sonicofficialjp/status/1539799642040193025?s=21&t=u7bmRHuhreRhuBe4Wujxhw EDIT: English Patch Notes and source: https://asia.sega.com/SonicOrigins/en/
The SEGA Asia website has also been updated to mention this, but it only states: Nothing too specific sadly, but at least they are working on patching things up.
Really boggles my mind they reverted the soundtracks back to the original versions rather than the remastered ones used in CD, 1, and 2 mobile. Especially CD. I don't care how authentic it is, the music cutting out and not looping is dumb. Like they actively went out of their way to butcher this aspect. Or ffs if you're going with this classic mode nonsense leave those tracks for that and keep the remastered ones in anniversary. It'd be one thing if it was about authenticity, but S3K's super theme says all you need to know about that. Like the menu and animation music is alright, wtf is up with the games?
Some random early feedback in case anyone working on this thing reads this thread: When booting the game for the first time, the saving icon explanation screen has the ring sprite improperly scaled and pixels are visibly distorted. Character select screen in Sonic 1 shows Sonic 2 sprites Drop dash in Sonic CD plays the wrong sound effect on release No remastered soundtrack in 1/2/CD? Sonic 3D/Chaotix soundtracks in the museum are messed up and don't match their titles Also, the title screen for the new blue spheres mode is fucking spectacular. A+ to everyone who worked on that one. If only the rest of the compilation had the same level of care and attention to detail.
I'll probably pick this up when the following happens, it's been out for a while and has it's issues sorted out, it's a lot cheaper and on sale, and Denuvo free. What's the point of picking up a game these days the first day it comes out anymore? It's not even out for general availability and there's already a patch for it.
Feel free to post known issues/bugs you find in this thread I made - https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-origins-known-issues.41063/
I was thinking this myself actually the other day, hardware audio recordings for Classic mode and remastered audio for Anniversary mode would have been a neat touch, a real missed opportunity... ... Unfortunately the audio is an inconsistent mess of variable quality. On the sound effects side of things, is it just me or is there something ever so slightly off with the ring collection sound effect in Sonic 2 specifically? In the Sonic 2 gameplay from various videos / live streams over the past days, something about it seems off in a way that I'm struggling to accurately pinpoint. It sounds a tad, crusty? Not as sharp as on original hardware? Hmm...
Seems like theres a lot more wrong than the new music. This is so disapointing. Sega won't get a cent from me until they fix it. Making glitchy versions of old Sonic games, it's like they never learned from Sonic Anniversary on GBA. I'll be enjoying the games on my Genesis this week. Can only hope Sega fixes this rushed product.
I'm actually kind of really annoyed because they've draped Hedgehog Engine 2 throughout this whole thing, interfering with a lot more than should be reasonable. It's like Sega had to leave their mark all over everything and hijack the Retro Engine to their own ends.
I was wrong about the timeline, sorry about that. But… Maybe I’m just splitting hairs here but remix, to me, would denote that these current versions of the songs were based on the tracks found in the 1193 prototype when they were said to have been made based on the demo tapes, which I would assume the midis come from as well due to how similar they sound. The versions we got from the 1193 proto have some differences, but we also know that that they aren’t what the final versions would have sounded like since the entire soundtrack is a bit wonky in that ROM. But yeah it certainly does make more sense why the prototype versions sound better, lol. Mainly I was trying to establish that the new ones aren’t based directly on the actual prototype tracks that we currently have access to. that’s my bad, I misread this post by Mastered Realm about how they were likely from an earlier proto. Not sure how I got what I did out of that post, but oh well. The damage is done.
What’s wrong with the Hedghog Engine, out of curiosity? The menu islands aren’t necessary, but they seem like a harmless enough addition to me. The real issues with Origins are mostly within the games themselves.
For one thing I’m kinda annoyed that there doesn’t seem to be a CRT filter of any sort, probably because the menu’s are in HD resolution while the gameplay is in the game’s original resolution (but wider), unlike Sonic Mania where the menus were the same resolution as the gameplay. I know most people don’t care about that stuff but I played Sonic Mania exclusively with the CRT filter.
Looking through the museum again… did we know Knuckles’ early temporary name was Stealth? Because that seems to be what the “rival character” concept documents suggest. Oh, I see. I actually was thinking about that while playing earlier. I’m sure it would have been possible to implement in-game at least, regardless of the menu resolution. It’s a shame they didn’t.
One thing that stood out when playing Sonic 2 in Classic Mode is Tails is able to fly and carry Sonic. That wasn't the case in the original Mega Drive version of the game. The Mission Mode is fun, but, the grey blocks everywhere looks out of place. Couldn't they have used appropriate level assets?
