Sonic Origins Collection - General Thread

“I bought a copy of this game. So I am entitled to snatch up another copy of this game for free and have 2 copies of it.”

I can understand the sentiment. And even if I didn’t, I don’t really care what others do in situations like this, so whatever. To each their own.

But I do know what I feel comfortable doing and what I no longer feel comfortable doing. And for me, that falls into the latter.

Still, I have nothing but less than kind words to say about the apparent greed and cynicism on Sega’s part here.

 

Different people on the same website can have different points of view. IMO the Retro Engine ports are extremely frustrating to play because I get crushed in spots I know I wouldn't have been crushed in the original games. Playing them involves me having to relearn years of intuition about where is/isn't safe to go. I get why they made it like this, it's because making the crush behavior the same as the original games would make it relatively easy to clip into solid terrain so there's a trade-off. I was hoping the Sonic 3 port would fix this with the "path tracing" feature Stealth was hyping before the game came out, but if anything it's even easier to get crushed in the Sonic 3 port than in the older ports.

 

Too bad there's no such thing as an "accurate Mega Drive/Genesis collision system and physics" mod for that...

 

Actually, yeah.

Once you've licensed a digital product you're free to install it on other machines, provided that you are the user. If you had 3 consoles (regardless of Xbox, Switch or PS) the libraries would be mirrorred across devices seamlessly. Remember that digital copies aren't "purchases" in the real sense of the word.

But please do let us know what you think of Origins. I think you'll enjoy the new mission mode.

 

Even if that was part of it, everyone always forgets that that version of S3&K wasn't in a good spot any way with it still containing the Michael Jackson music Origins explicitly had to remove. It's totally possible that it was going for the chopping block regardless if they were legally supposed to be selling it without that music in Origins.

There's actually a lot of evidence to suggest it's probably even earlier prototype stuff than what was leaked, as if that was the sole prototype Sega still had left to use. Not only does Senoue consistently not produce actual Genesis-sounding retro imitation music elsewhere for those to be his remixes (the Super theme, Sonic 4 and Superstars), but Ice Cap Zone is straight up the leaked prototype version just with less unique instrumentation in Act 1. And they use a prototype version of Universal Sound Bank for some reason.

What are the other things besides speed that are changed?

Was this the cause of S3&K seemingly having speedier physics than usual? Remember hearing it was existing S3&K values as interpreted by RSDK but maybe that was debunked and collision physics or such was the reason? I just wonder if it was a "deliberate" change as it's being framed as here, or if it was a permanent consequence of the game being rushed.

I wonder what the general opinion is on the physics changes, how severe it is specifically compared to S1/S2/SCD differences (like stricter crushing, but not as strict as S3&K?) and precisely where it breaks intended game design. Seems to have a bit of a mixed reaction from what I've seen, with even some avid fans seeming not to mind or notice.

Is Pocket Adventure technically an 8-Bit game, tho? Also, do you notice input lag on those games in Origins Plus? Because it's something I've tried to look into.

Origins S3&K still has yet to be decompiled with that kind of script mod, so that might be part of it?

 

My understanding of the crushing thing was that the original games have a line of code that pushes Sonic away from two surfaces that are close enough together to crush him, but which he's not close enough to on his own to justify crushing, and that line of code either didn't make it into retro engine or didn't work right or got commented out or something.

Either way, it seems like they employed some kind of hacky fix to make it not happen as much, as post-patch Origins definitely had way less of this issue.

 

There's also the fact that in the originals, Sonic can't get crushed horizontally.

 

He can, at least in Hydrocity (off the top of my head).

 

yeah that's basically the entire point of that wall chasing you down at the beginning of Act 2 lol

 

I have a question. It sounds like a so-called dumb question but I guess no question is dumb after all.

I have the physical release of Origins Plus and I cannot figure out how to access the Game Gear games. When I look on the internet, it appears to be an option underneath the Mission option. It isn't there on mine. Or, do they have it only accessible if, like, all the regular games are completed first which I absolutely haven't done because I usually play the originals on real hardware or my Mini console or the decomps.

Switch version.

EDIT: never mind. I have figured it out. I need to download that stuff. I thought it was all in the game already because of the 'plus' in the title.

 

Nope it’s a DLC code despite the disc saying “origins plus” on it
Anyways. Origins is fine. I wanted straight ports of the retro engine games if I can be 100% honest, and their attempts at homogenizing the games together came off clumsy and amateurish. Messing up the save systems, getting rid of those charming menus, attempts to remove the extra stuff they added in sonic 1 and 2. Using inconsistent hardware recordings of the music and those god awful renditions of the Proto tracks. Removing CDs music loops. It all just left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s still a fine bundle, one I’ve gotten every achievement for on every console I’ve played it, but it’s by no means my personal “definitive collection.”
I’ll give props for the story mode though, connecting all the classics together is something I’ve dreamed of for as long as I can remember.

 

I honestly wonder if Sega/ST just didn't know how to make SCD's save select (which works the same in that you can only replay the last level when you've beaten a save, which is kinda useless) more like S1/S2 or S3&K's without Headcannon's help, so they just crippled S1/S2's to match whilst S3&K did its own thing.

 

I think SEGA wanted to revert the games to the state most people remembered them. They were mostly sucessful with S1 and S2 but in Sonic CD they couldn't transform the settings into a different pop-up menu for some reason so we have to awkwardly enter those single-screen remnants of the mobile menu to change the soundtrack option and spindash style. Sonic CD even has the US tracks as default in NA.

I think most of decisions took in Origins can be attributed to Katsuyuki Shigihara, since even Takashi Iizuka mentioned him being the director for the Origins collection while commenting the possiblity of an "Sonic Advance" compilation release.

 

That doesn't make sense, because the entire point of the collection is to get new fans acquainted with the classic series.

 

The mobile menu has a very big interface intended to be used with touch screens. Why would you add suddenly that in a remaster of a classic game? It's a classic game collection, not a "mobile game collection".

If remaking the entire menu wasn't in the budget for Sonic 1 and 2 I'd probably also opt for its removal.

 

Tbh this looks perfectly acceptable for a console game menu. Plus, they could’ve kept the touch functionality on the Switch version.

Origins was just a weird hodgepodge of highs and lows. It’s a great way to play the classics but as older fans with PCs we know there’s better out there.

 

I don't think they kept, say, the touch screen functionality for the S1/S2 title screen cheats on Switch.

I mean yeah, there is the argument of "if only the collection specifically had different original and anniversary modes to offer both the traditional way and a new way or something."