Somebody please stop Sonic Origins Plus
This is happening and I don’t know why
It is both fair and accurate to say that when Sonic Origins landed, Sonic fans were not happy. Of course, as a Sonic fan myself, I am rarely happy to begin with. But a compilation of four unbelievably brilliant games should have been a no-brainer. Somehow, against all odds, they beefed the fuck out of it. Desperate patching ensued, and many of the collection’s issues were resolved. As it is now, Sonic Origins is an overpriced, but acceptable way to play four fantastic games. And before anyone challenges me on saying it’s overpriced, bear in mind that I am comparing it to Sega’s own previous high-value compilations. They made their bed and I won’t lie either in it or about it.
And now, more is coming. And that’s exciting, isn’t it? It’s always nice when they add more stuff to a thing. Sonic compilations have a surplus of material, too, given that Sega have persisted with the little blue twat for all of these years. It stands to reason that an expansion adding new games is a bonus, especially since four is pretty miserly compared with basically every other Sonic assortment that’s seen release. So, what, are we finishing up the Mega Drive stuff, here? Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine? Those would be the obvious candidates, but no – nowhere to be seen. Well, except for Sega Mega Drive Classics, the all-formats compilation that’s a reasonably decent reason not to bundle the same games once again into Origins, though I’d argue it couldn’t hurt.
No, what you’re getting here is – astonishingly – the full complement of twelve (12) Game Gear games that splashed across Sega’s handheld in its limited years on the market. Now, as any fule kno, I like the Game Gear, and it’s nice to see its games recognised and re-issued. To some extent. A little extent. Okay, almost no extent. Because, Nauties – and I take no pleasure in saying this – the Game Gear Sonic games are main crap. Of the twelve on offer, I would argue somewhat vociferously that only two of them are especially worth playing. Now, continue to bear with me:
The games included are Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, Tails Adventure, Tails Sky Patrol, Sonic Blast, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic Spinball, Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2 and Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. The couple of these I’d recommend anyone make time for are Triple Trouble and Tails Adventure, two games not available anywhere else and perfectly playable fun. Sonic 1, 2 and Chaos are all fine games – on the Master System, where you can see what the bleedin’ bastard hell you’re doing. I love Game Gear Mean Bean Machine, as you’ll have seen recently , but the Mega Drive version is better and fuller-featured, so… why not give us that? The other games here are all just pretty much shite. The Drifts. The absolutely god-awful, stinking Sonic Blast. Why do Sega want to remind people of these things!?
Look, at least give us the Master System versions of the games that were released on it. They’re just manifestly superior, and clearly designed for that hardware, for that kind of screen real estate. So it’s a $10 extra fee in order to have the privilege of the opportunity to play a bunch of primarily crappy games, and two decent ones that nobody is going to bother their arse playing anyway, let’s face it. I don’t think this is a particularly pessimistic view. I’m a big fan of a lot of games that people hate on. I’ll praise one right now, in fact – Sonic Labyrinth is fine for what it is. It’s fine! But everything else here, with the exceptions of the two I’ve already noted: P.U.
You’re also going to be able to play as Amy across the series, a feature that is a welcome rip-off of a brilliant series of fan romhacks. It’s going to be interesting to experience the Sonic series through a relatively fresh lens and new moveset, but it raises the question of why the likes of Ray and Mighty from Sonic Mania couldn’t be integrated somehow. I dunno, it just seems like a missed opportunity to throw in a bunch of actually desirable stuff. Then again, a lot of people online are still asking for Knuckles Chaotix, one of the single worst games I’ve ever played, so frankly the Sonic fanbase don’t deserve better. Face it, we’re all gonna buy this anyway. There’s no point even having written about it. My entire career is a waste of time. I’m a joke. (Has complete mental breakdown)
