Sega Shares An Extensive Overview Trailer For Sonic Origins

Sega, that isn't what the term "speed strats" means... you just took that from speedrunners and used it for your marketing.

also you keep refusing to show us the replacement music for Carnival Night, Ice Cap and Launch Base.

They better not lock the lives system to the wide screen aspect ratio of Anniversary mode, just make it a separate option.

Alright, SEGA. You already convinced me to buy it enough as I'm already stoked to play this enough as it is.

@RubyCarbuncle It does take away most of the challenge of the original games, the main appeal of having to memorize the level layout with enemy placement and just getting good at speeding through.

This looks great. The level of care they seem to be putting in looks promising.

They really didn't have to include the Story Mode / animated cutscenes.

You're laughing? Tails absorbed the cutscene and you're laughing?

@RubyCarbuncle As someone who has been playing these games for 30 years I ask: Sonic has a story?

@embison Same here. Icecap Zone will always have a soft spot in my heart, but I look forward to hearing the new tunes.

@russell-marlow Yeah both this edition covers both play styles. For some people, this will be their first time playing Sonic, and with backlogs the way they are, they might not want to spend weeks and months 'gettin' good' to see the whole game.
You still have classic editions if you want to challenge yourself. So both play styles are included.

Just preordered this morning. Super excited!!

I’m super excited for this!!! They’ll prob release a physical version later I bet…and get me to buy it twice 😩😅

@thinkhector Let me repeat myself, I don't want the wide screen aspect ratio limited to Anniversary mode with no lives.

And I don't want to play the "Classic" versions with the original 4:3 screen size because that is totally defeating the purpose of this definitive "remaster" of the original games. You have to have more screen resolution so not only does the game look better but you could see incoming obstacles and enemies.

What I want is an option to enable the lives system with the new remastered graphics/HD widescreen.

That's literally it. It shouldn't take much to fix or patch or if there will be an option in the first place.

Remember that your purchase supports a business strategy that involves you having to pay extra for animated backgrounds.

Gimme physical release Sega.

I’ve never enjoyed boss rush modes in games and I think that’s because the games that offer that mode are always tough as nails. This however will definitely be the first boss rush mode I’m not only going to play but that I’m actually looking forward to!

wish they had given wonderboy this much care haha

i have sonic 1 and 2 on sega ages, and mega drive mini, but never played 3, knuckles or cd, so looking forward to this. i only had the first sonic on my mega drive as a kid, so playing sonic 2 on sega ages has been fun

Just announce a physical release already, SEGA.

Or are you planning to pull what you did in Europe with Sonic Mania Plus/Sonic Forces and have it bundled with Sonic Frontiers?

@RubyCarbuncle I’m with ya on this. I’ve been playing Sonic my whole life, and I’m very curious about the story mode and not very bothered about the music. I’m definitely going to be checking this out.

I could not be more hyped for this! And I loved the video. Didn't explain or show anything we didn't already know but gave a great overview and I really loved the way it was presented. It also implied there will be more in the series of videos so I'm looking forward to seeing a second, presumably slightly more in depth one.

@embison Of course, I know what you mean. 2d 16bit platformers do not really need a deep plot to be a good game.

But even back in 1991 experiencing the game for the first time at a friend's house for just a few minutes, the barebones story I picked up was one of the main reasons I fell in love with the series, and in turn, gaming itself.

I'm neurodiverse and was always a slightly oversensitive kid, so even though I knew my friends thought videogames were cool, and I could have some fun playing games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, racing games in arcade, and Mario at friends' houses, there was always some element of violence and the worlds themselves were not places I wanted to live, so I didn't feel the escapism of imagining the game was real.

Even when the characters appealled to me, like Pac-Man or Mario, I still felt weird about killing ghosts or goombas, their little eyes made me feel sad for them.

In Sonic 1, by the end of Green Hills its clear that the big guy with the moustache is trapping friendly bunnies and birds and other little creatures inside robot shells and making them do his bidding. Sonic is not killing the badniks, he is rescuing the creatures trapped inside them. And while there is some peril when he meets the big dude at the end of the level, he's easy enough to beat, and when you do, you get to rescue hundreds more animals that he had trapped in a big machine!

That right there was the first time I'd ever played a videogame and actually wanted to imagine myself as the hero in that world. Instead of being scared to get hurt, I was empowered to keep trying and get better, so I could rescue more animals.

Something in my head clicked, and from then on I loved videogames, especially Sonic, but also it started the process of desensitising me to violence, peril etc and learning that through hard work you can overcome obstacles, and this transfered over into real life too. Not too long after I was perfectly fine with games like Street FIghter 2, Mortal Kombat, Doom, all of which I still love and play to this day... though cute mascot games are still my favourite genre.

I know Sonic 1 has a tiny, simple plot that may seem inconsequential to some. But it was everything to me at the time. And of course, reading all the various different series of comic books, reading the novels, watching the multiple tv shows, and playing through the more modern games, theres actually a whole lot of plot in Sonic, even if not all of it is canonincal. Being British I particulalry enjoyed the origin story of Dr Robotnik in Sonic the Comic as a kid, as it gave me a reason to feel sorry for the "bad" guy and hope there may be a chance of eventually turning him good too.

Sorry to over share. But I think its nice to have a public record that what understandably seems inconsequential to some could be meaningful or even life changing for others. Its weird and wonderful how life works like that

@embison (cont) Even just in the games in this collection, Sonic meets his best friend who may be annoying at first but they learn to work together and are better as a team, he meets Amy who has a crush on him, only for her to be kidknapped and he has to rescue her all while having to go back in time to change things to make a better future, and going into the future to see that your hard work paid off for the animals and the environment. He meets Knuckles, starting as antagonist but eventually realising he's been tricked and slowly becoming ally and teaming up to save the island.

They might seem inconsequential for gameplay but if you are invested in the world and characters there's a lot in those little scraps of info there to spark the imagination and round out the world. Personally, I'm really looking forward to seeing some of that animated and see some of what I imagined as a kid visualised in a style similar to cartoons I loved back then.

I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't care whether there's a lives system in the Anniversary version. I never really felt like lives were that valuable an asset in most of the games, especially in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

I guess some folks just want to relive the Game Over screen...?

Sorry Sega, but I simply won't support you stripping out content from a remaster for your "digital deluxe" again, just to scam an extra £5 out of people.

Why do they keep treating Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as 1 game? And it's weird to me that they got a narrator who sounds kinda like Sonic but then is talking TO Sonic.

I also don't think I've ever heard the word "content" so many times in a trailer, and for good reason. It's not a flattering word for anyone's product, making it sound generic.

Physical please!

@malamiteltd
Lives were originally put in games to make it so you pay more to keep playing, so I’m glad we’re finally moving away.

@Thomystic
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Sonic & Knuckles are treated as one game because they were developed that way, Sonic 3 was split into two games because it became too big for one cartridge. That’s why Sega made the genius move of implementing new cartridge technology that could load both games at once to recombine them.

So Sonic Origins is literally using the true vision of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

@relinqued Meh, it's only $45 to get the complete game. Big deal. The bigger problem is the needlessly complicated graph to explain why there different "skus" of what should be just one game/collection.

I do wish they would let you choose whether to play Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles or S3&K but that's a minor gripe.

I will be waiting for the physical release if it ever comes and that one I hope (but doubt) will come with the Master System and Game Gear games too, even if they have to be unlockables.

@russell-marlow I have actually played both Christian Whitehead Remastered versions in both widescreen and 4:3. I actually prefer the 4:3 versions. These games were not designed for widescreen support and it shows. Don't be surprised, when like me, you were excited for widescreen, and then wind up preferring the 4:3 Remaster.

@UltraZelda64 The problem is not that its just 5 bucks more, the problem is that its actually a thing and that people dont mind supporting it. The industry is going to the complete and utter garbage can, and people like you who dont care are at fault.

@relinqued From its very first announcement, I was going to get this game. I feel like the whole scheme is crap, but that is not going to stop me from spending $45 and just getting the game in its entirety. If there was only one SKU for $60 you'd be complaining about that. Personally, I'm just anxious to play Christian Whitehead's versions of the games on a console after probably over a decade, and to see Sonic 3 & Knuckles for the first time in forever in an official compilation--and as a Christian Whitehead remake at that.

I've done my fair share of bitching about things like features, presentation, and yes, even the Microsoft Office-like SKU system, but that's all old news. At less than a week from unlocking on my consoles, I am anxious to actually play the games. Their icons are teasing on my Xbox and Switch home screens.

@thinkhector Uhh, no. No and no, and a thousand times "no" .