Sonic Origins Plus Review - A Speedily Good Time

Sonic Origins launched last year, to middling responses. The collection of older titles felt like they were missing something and that they really didn't live up to the promise of being the definitive versions of these games, that there was something missing. Still, SEGA decided to push forward with the title rather than abandon it, and in doing so they recently launched Sonic Origins Plus, an addition to the previous version of the game. Despite actually changing very little in the base game, Sonic Origins Plus makes the game a lot more definitive.

The main thing that Sonic Origins Plus adds, other than the Game Gear titles (which we'll get into later), is the addition of a new playable character, Amy Rose. Amy's been around in the Sonic series since Sonic CD, though her first playable appearance in a Sonic platformer wasn't until Sonic Adventure launched in 1998, meaning that she wasn't actually playable in any of the original Sonic platformers. Now, however, you can play as Amy Rose throughout Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, and Sonic & Knuckles, completely destroying the canon of the Sonic series while having a lot of fun doing so. She has unique attacks too, using her trademark hammer to destroy enemies and even having her own Super Sonic form that completely demolishes all enemies in her path.

It's a shame that there are only the Game Gear games added to the collection, and fairly poorly at that. They all work, but the audio emulation doesn't really stack up, feeling like SEGA has cut corners trying to quickly launch the expansion. I'd have loved to see the Game Boy Advance Sonic Advance trilogy finally ported to other systems, allowing us to play those games without the magic of emulation. Indeed, there's a host of portable/older 2D Sonic titles that would have been brilliant to see here that simply aren't. Their exclusion are quite striking, suggesting that maybe depending on the success of this title SEGA may look into making a collection of the Sonic Advance titles and other games of that ilk. The Game Gear titles added to this collection are:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble
• Sonic Spinball
• Sonic Labyrinth
• Sonic Chaos
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• Sonic Blast
• Sonic Drift
• Sonic Drift 2
• Tails’ Sky Patrol
• Tails Adventures

We've also got to get onto the original game at some point I suppose, so here we go. Luckily, a few of the points that were working against the original game such as the egregious level of DLC are solved by Sonic Origins Plus since it actually comes with all the wacky DLC that absolutely should have been in the main game such as:

• Hard Missions
• Letterbox Background
• Character Animation
• Camera Controls
• More Music

Should these have been in the main game? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. But are they a welcome addition to this version of Sonic Origins? Absolutely. They make the package feel that much more complete. All four of the games still play absolutely incredibly, with the addendum that Sonic CD still feels the weirdest to play. It's still a Sonic game, but it's a Sonic game that feels like it's been thrown together haphazardly thanks to the nature of the game. 

My personal favorite Sonic game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, still holds up to scrutiny and plays absolutely incredibly. The addition of Knuckles and Amy to the title also makes the game feel that much more complete, even if it doesn't really make the game feel that much different overall.

Unfortunately, though, the main complaint about the collection, the music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, hasn't been fixed. It's not as completely awful as people made out, but it's not exactly the (allegedly) Michael Jackson created soundtrack from the original game which made it so absolutely iconic. Still, we have the best thing the original package added here: the beautiful cutscenes before each and every one of the main games in the collection. They're absolutely gorgeous, just breathtakingly beautiful, and it would have been nice if they could have afforded such cutscenes to the Game Gear titles.