Sonic 3 EU Boxart
Image: SEGA

Here's something we probably all saw coming and were simply waiting to be confirmed — Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will not have all of its original soundtrack intact in Sonic Origins.

Sonic 3's music legacy has been long scrutinized and debated. A few years ago, it was confirmed that the King of Pop Michael Jackson did indeed contribute to the music, and just last month, Jackson's keyboardist Brad Buxer discussed the connection between MJ's hit 'Stranger in Moscow' and Sonic 3's music.

Because of rights issues with the music, this has made rereleases of Sonic 3 difficult, so much so that an unreleased beta of the game, and the 1997 PC port, used a few very different tracks. And in the latest episode of Sonic Official over on the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel, Katie Chrzanowski — social media manager for SEGA — confirmed that Sonic Origins' version of Sonic 3 will indeed not have all of the original game's music.

This is no doubt disappointing to hear for fans, however, the upside is that long-time Sonic composer Jun Senoue will be adapting the music himself using the same soundchip that many Mega Drive / Genesis soundtracks used.

I know one question that we’ve seen over and over is, what is the situation on the music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. So, while unfortunately, we can’t use all of the original sounds from the SEGA Genesis version of the game, Jun Senoue’s been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for Sonic Origins, and he’s been going so far as reproducing it with the same soundchip as the SEGA Genesis and using is own digital audio tape collection to make this, like, as faithful to the originals as possible.

While Chrzanowski didn't confirm what tracks would be affected, some of the songs that we'll be hearing new versions for are Carnival Night Zone, Ice Cap Zone, Launch Base Zone, the Multiplayer menu music, the Act 1 boss music, and the credits music. We'll miss hearing Ice Cap's lovely music and bopping along to Launch Base in particular!

But we also love the idea of Senoue — who also contributed music to the original Genesis game — being given similar tools to what he had to work with before the game first launched to create something that likely won't feel out of place. So while we're disappointed on one hand, on the other, we're excited to hear the new songs.

You can watch the full Sonic Official - Season 6 Episode 3 below for some fun Sonic merch and fandom discussion below.

Sonic Origins is out 23rd June — which isn't long now! We hope time goes fast so we can get our hands on this compilation. In the meantime, here's some additional info you can check out before the game launches:

How do you feel about the Sonic 3 music news? Let us know in the comments.

[source youtube.com, via twitter.com, tailschannel.com]