Sonic Origins Sonic Animation
Image: SEGA

Sonic Origins is meant to be a celebration of classic Sonic, the first time that all four main games from the Mega Drive/Genesis era — Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD — have been compiled together. And from the looks of the gameplay trailer shared earlier this month, it seems like it will be!

The collection comes with a number of different modes, including Anniversary Mode (that comes with a bunch of modern day features), Classic Mode, and a brand new Story Mode. This will feature some fancy new animated cutscenes and will let you play through the games in chronological order (not release order, which is why CD comes before Sonic 2).

But Sega Asia seems to confirm that you can only play through Story Mode as the blue blur himself, Sonic the Hedgehog, on its website.

Sonic Origins Story Mode 1
Image: SEGA

Now, this might sound disappointing initially, but it also makes a bit of sense. Sonic is the only character who features in all four games originally — Tails and Knuckles don't make their debuts until 2 and 3, respectively — so adding them into the game and the narrative might have been a bit more work than needed. Knuckles also won't be playable in CD at all, for some reason (really, because Sega would need to redesign him significantly to make him work in CD's stages — thanks for the reminder, readers!). At least Tails will be playable in everything in every other mode.

And unless you want to turn off your companion while playing through Sonic 2 in the other modes, this is the way to finally get all of those pesky Chaos Emeralds in the second numbered game without Tails spoiling the fun by running into spikes and bombs all the time. Honestly.

If there's one disappointment to come out of this, it's surely Knuckles' absence in the final game. Knuckles gets his own little story throughout 3 & Knuckles, which is set after Sonic's own adventure and features a different final boss to the one Sonic gets to face off against.

Oh well, it looks like we'll have to tolerate playing through the story as the main character of the Sonic series. But surely Knuckles' scenario will still be available in the other modes, so at least they'll still be part of some of the experience. Still, we would've loved to have seen more story for Sonic's friends, and even more animated cutscenes with the rest of the trio wouldn't have hurt.

Sonic Origins is due to launch on Switch next month — 23rd June, in fact! How do you feel about Story Mode being a Sonic-only zone? Let us know in the comments.

[source asia.sega.com, via gamerant.com]