I would say yes. I think the artists did a good job giving everything a "second pass" to keep things cohesive. Angel Island makes a good point of comparison - little details like the striped grass make a big difference.
I'm ngl I didnt even notice the striped grass in Angel Island Zone. They really did a much better job giving the game it's own visual identity that my memory did not credit them enough for! I kinda wanna comb thru it and all the games on Origins to make comparisons between the two of em lmao. Honestly Taxman and his team really did work when it came to doing justice and preserving the original Sonic games. It's a shame Origins is just ever so slightly unpolished and with weird decisions, because the ports themselves are really good.
Just tried it out on my iPhone 14 Pro today! Something isn’t right with the sound though. There’s some soft popping.
While on this topic, Superstars made me realize how important having an arranger like Falk for the music. Sonic 1 and 2, CD, and 3nK all have distinct feelings soundtracks from each other. But Falk was able to take Tee Lopes remixes and new tracks and choose the best instruments and overall style that they felt like one complete soundtrack with nothing ever really feeling out of place from the other. Superstars didn't put in the effort to achieve this same audio cohesion and it's probably why a lot of the songs just don't feel like they're from the same soundtrack. We heard the original version of Bridge Island with the Sonic 4 sounding instrumentals at the end of Superstars and got to see all it took was Tee Lopes choosing better sounds for the song to make it a masterpiece. Think about how many other songs probably just needed something like that to shine? I just hope they don't forget the importance of having someone with a good ear for these things next time.
