Sonic Origins - Review Thread

[Xtortion]

*raises hand* While the instrumentation is definitely weird, I don't think it's bad. I think it hits the "fine" benchmark. This is largely because Carnival Night's original (Buxer) song was gutter tier trash, but I digress.

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I think the production on Carnival Night and Launch Base is way worse than the other tracks on the OST, like alarmingly so. Ice Cap fares better for some reason, but it doesn't fit the vibe of the stage at all imo. I'm not the biggest OG Ice Cap fan (Act 1 is good imo, but feels like maybe 2/3 of a song), but it's extremely hype and has an infectious melody and bassline. Prototype Ice Cap is way too jolly when I want it to be cool.

 

[Gaia Lanzer]

It's not even using the MD prototype tracks per se, instead it's using a remix of those that sounds closer to the PC version, and sound worse than the proto MD versions.

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Oh no....

Even unchanged Proto Ice Cap sounds like it was made for:

Instead of:

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Pretty much where I stand. Proto Ice Cap sounds like a happy, slappy Winter festival of sledding, skiing, and smiling snowmen! Ice Cap stage is cold, isolated among a dark, moody snowscape of icebergs, lots of pointy icicles, and crystalline walls.

 

[Stath]

Not liking something is not equivalent to a lack of effort, as much as some people in this thread want to believe.

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Oh please. This is certainly a matter of not enough effort being put into these, and this would be apparent if you actually did some reading into the matter. You know, instead of reactively shitting out this really stupid comment.

 

[Unknownlight]

It's a strange situation to be in when Ice Cap's music replacement is the one I'm least disappointed in. All this time I never even considered that Carnival Night and Launch Base would have issues, especially considering that I never liked Carnival Night's original music to begin with.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

If not Tee Lopes (I imagine he was probably busy with TMNT, and in case y'all missed it, that soundtrack fuckin' slaps) I feel like there were other people they could've gotten. If a comparatively smaller publisher like DotEmu were able to rope in Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima for SoR4 among other notable composers, surely Sega could've at least paid up to have Koshiro to come up with something for a compilation celebrating the company's flagship franchise, especially considering they had him do the menu theme for the Genesis Mini, and I believe he's doing a similar thing for the second mini as well.

Or hell, bring in chibi-tech. She did amazing work on the Genesis styled menu themes for the Sega Vintage Collection.




I get that they probably went with Jun since he's already there and did contribute to the original OST but damn, would've been nice to imagine what could've been.

 

[TyraZaurus]

So we gonna discuss any actual reviews or what

 

[fixurheartordie]

I get that the music changes are disappointing but I'm still really excited for this and to play a version of 3&K as good as the Taxman iOS games.

The DLC stuff is pretty weak though.

 

[Xwing]

So we gonna discuss any actual reviews or what

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Here's the best review I've seen thus far:

 

[dlauv]

Spoiled myself on the cutscenes. They're so perfect I started welling up.

If you worked on them, thank you.

 

[Ryuman]

Oh please. This is certainly a matter of not enough effort being put into these, and this would be apparent if you actually did some reading into the matter. You know, instead of reactively shitting out this really stupid comment.

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Oh really now? Care to point me in the direction of such reading material?

 

[Unknownlight]

Spoiled myself on the cutscenes. They're so perfect I started welling up.

If you worked on them, thank you.

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See, this is the problem! The main two new things these reviews have revealed are the new music and the cutscenes, and I absolutely refuse to spoil myself on the cutscenes. Happy to hear that they're good.

 

[krat0zs]

What's the point of classic mode? I thought it would just be the rom of the original games but according to the new speed strats video Sonic 1 even in classic mode still has the spin dash. For what reason would I want to play in classic mode

 

[AuthenticM]

Literally just something like this would have been perfect (from the Freedom Planet composer):

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damn, this is great.

 

[Stath]

So apparently they actually gave Super forms in 3&K a new theme, but surprise, it's terrible. Man, I hope you can turn this off Mania-style.



It's so bland, dorky and bare, and I'd genuinely prefer the invincibility theme. There was already an unused track that people thought might have been meant for Super Sonic, and it sounded a lot better:

 

[Jaymageck]

Dude, you're just going to have to deal with the fact that not everyone is going to overlook this issue and are going to talk about it. Exit the thread if you can't handle it.

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Exactly, and honestly the more this issue dominates the discussion, the more there's a remote chance we can get something like an update that adds better music to those levels. The Carnival Night and Launch Base tracks are frankly unacceptable.

 

[Jbone115]

I don't think it's "squashing criticism" to point out that people are being hyperbolic. A person can say "hey this music situation is unfortunate" or "this music instrumentation sucks" without pretending it somehow ruins the entire package.

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IDK who you think is "pretending" here. Myself and others have expressed our displeasure at the state of the game's OST and stated that it is keeping them from buying the game at launch.

You and Speedstersonic need to let people have their opinions. Nobody is harassing devs or anything serious like that FFS.

 

[Xwing]

See, this is the problem! The main two new things these reviews have revealed are the new music and the cutscenes, and I absolutely refuse to spoil myself on the cutscenes. Happy to hear that they're good.

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I am unreasonably excited to have my first "story mode" playthrough on Thursday night. I'd love if we got an option or prompt to launch directly into Mania after finishing (assuming we have it installed), but that is definitely a pipe dream, lol. I'll add that to my PC mod wishlist.

 

[RocketDarkness]

So apparently they actually gave Super forms in 3&K a new theme, but surprise, it's terrible. Man, I hope you can turn this off Mania-style.



It's so bland, dorky and bare, and I'd genuinely prefer the invincibility theme. There was already an unused track that people thought might have been meant for Super Sonic, and it sounded a lot better:

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Sounds like they added a second verse to the theme so that it wouldn't be like a 5 second loop like the original. I actually kinda like the new bits.

EDIT: It is missing a bit of the punch from the original in the remix, which is very unfortunate. So close to a strict upgrade.

 

[RagnarokX]

So apparently they actually gave Super forms in 3&K a new theme, but surprise, it's terrible. Man, I hope you can turn this off Mania-style.



It's so bland, dorky and bare, and I'd genuinely prefer the invincibility theme. There was already an unused track that people thought might have been meant for Super Sonic, and it sounded a lot better:

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It's the Sonic & Knuckles Super Sonic music with a bit of the Sonic 2 Super Sonic music to make it less repetitive, but the instrumentation sound bad.

 

[Xwing]

IDK who you think is "pretending" here. Myself and others have expressed our displeasure at the state of the game's OST and stated that it is keeping them from buying the game at launch.

You and Speedstersonic need to let people have their opinions. Nobody is harassing devs or anything serious like that FFS.

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My opinion is that your opinion is hyperbolic and exaggerates a relatively minor issue to a comical degree. Am I not allowed to have or express that opinion? I'm not name calling or attacking you.

 

[cjelly]

For the price they're charging Sega should've ponied up for the original OST.

That's my hot take.

 

[Jaymageck]

For that it's worth by the way, I think the music is probably also tied to why Sonic 3 and S&K aren't available separately.

I don't think there exists a standalone version of Sonic 3 that has the S&K variants of the Knuckles theme and miniboss themes is there? Correct me if I'm wrong. Those are the other 2 tracks that would've had to be removed due to legal issues.

So rather than present a version of Sonic 3 that has like half the music changed versus original release, they can present S3&K as a complete package with "only" 3 tracks missing. Because S3 Knuckles and S3 miniboss never existed in S3&K.

I think it was to mitigate the music discussion.

 

[Jbone115]

My opinion is that your opinion is hyperbolic and exaggerates a relatively minor issue to a comical degree. Am I not allowed to have or express that opinion? I'm not name calling or attacking you.

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The issue is that you claimed me and others are "pretending" aka stating that we are lying about how much the music matters to us just to be negative or whatever. You can believe that our priorities are silly or weird or whatever, but to claim we are liars is quite rude and is why I am calling you out here.

 

[ZeoVGM]

So we gonna discuss any actual reviews or what

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You're free to discuss what you want.

Talk about the reviews. No one is stopping you.

 

[ThatMeanScene]

Jun really screwed something of these tracks up. They should've just put in the beta tracks as is.

Real disappointing that there's some other stuff that's lacking such as filters, separate standalone Sonic 3 and standalone S&K, widescreen classic mode and Level Select in Sonic 2. Hopefully they at least address *some* of these.

 

[Xwing]

The issue is that you claimed me and others are "pretending" aka stating that we are lying about how much the music matters to us just to be negative or whatever. You can believe that our priorities are silly or weird or whatever, but to claim we are liars is quite rude and is why I am calling you out here.

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I apologize. I should have been more careful in my word choice and not said "pretending".

 

[Jbone115]

I apologize. I should have been more careful in my word choice and not said "pretending".

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Apology accepted, thanks for understanding.

 

[Xwing]

Jun really screwed something of these tracks up. They should've just put in the beta tracks as is.

Real disappointing that there's some other stuff that's lacking such as filters, separate standalone Sonic 3 and standalone S&K, widescreen classic mode and Level Select in Sonic 2. Hopefully they at least address *some* of these.

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The no level select in Sonic 2 is incredibly weird, but I have a theory as to why. I think in the iOS version, they added the ability to play the unfinished "original" version of Hidden Palace from the level select screen. Rather than program to precisely cut around that option, they may have just cut out the level select entirely. Very weird choice for sure.

 

[Stath]

It's the Sonic & Knuckles Super Sonic music with a bit of the Sonic 2 Super Sonic music to make it less repetitive, but the instrumentation sound bad.

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I know that the Super Sonic theme in 3&K is just the invincibility theme (and a version of the S&K title theme), and that this new track is another remix of it. Honestly it's all bad, not just the instrumentation: the composition, the instrumentation, everything. It's a goddamn Sonic 4 track in its bones.

 

[ZeoVGM]

My opinion is that your opinion is hyperbolic and exaggerates a relatively minor issue to a comical degree.

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You think the issue is minor.

Others do not.

It's getting really annoying watching people try to police the opinions of others just because you don't agree.

Am I not allowed to have or express that opinion? I'm not name calling or attacking you.

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You aren't just giving your opinion that you don't care about the music.

You're talking down to others who do care and acting as if they're wrong or crazy.

 

[beelulzebub]

My opinion is that your opinion is hyperbolic and exaggerates a relatively minor issue to a comical degree. Am I not allowed to have or express that opinion? I'm not name calling or attacking you.

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The greatest irony in this is that you two being SO unshakable in letting others have the opinion that this sours their experience with this package is that this music discussion is going to be WAY more present as a result. I'm getting this game but seriously chill out and stop minimizing this for people where this is a big issue for them.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

I know that the Super Sonic theme in 3&K is just the invincibility theme (and a version of the S&K title theme), and that this new track is another remix of it. Honestly it's all bad, not just the instrumentation: the composition, the instrumentation, everything. It's a goddamn Sonic 4 track in its bones.

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I hate that it manages to actually be slower than the og theme. Super Sonic themes are supposed to be high tempo, and this one almost comically misses the point of that.

 

[Roliq]

Still sucks that there isn't Playable Amy and Metal Sonic

 

[Bonito_Flakes]

I hate the fact that the new Super Sonic theme uses Sonic 1/2 drums instead of Sonic 3's ones. Its a super tiny detail and I get Jun is not great at making retro sounding music but given the amount of detail, dedication and passion others who worked on this collection have put into I expect more from an industry/franchise veteran.

 

[Stath]

I hate that it manages to actually be slower than the og theme. Super Sonic themes are supposed to be high tempo, and this one almost comically misses the point of that.

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Exactly. The slowness in particular just kills it.

 

[ThatMeanScene]

The no level select in Sonic 2 is incredibly weird, but I have a theory as to why. I think in the iOS version, they added the ability to play the unfinished "original" version of Hidden Palace from the level select screen. Rather than program to precisely cut around that option, they may have just cut out the level select entirely. Very weird choice for sure.

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I was thinking about that as well. Hopefully fan complaints convince them to go back into the collection and make tweaks where it wouldn't be too time consuming and expensive.

 

[Xwing]

Still sucks that there isn't Playable Amy and Metal Sonic

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Honestly, I was expecting this to be the biggest point of criticism today, but boy was I wrong.

Seriously, no playable Amy is a travesty at this point. I thought for sure we'd get her with how much she was focused on in the new art for the collection. You don't even have to do something crazy like make a new hammer move set, I would have been happy with a Sonic sprite swap. Maybe we'll get DLC.

 

[Stath]

The no level select in Sonic 2 is incredibly weird, but I have a theory as to why. I think in the iOS version, they added the ability to play the unfinished "original" version of Hidden Palace from the level select screen. Rather than program to precisely cut around that option, they may have just cut out the level select entirely. Very weird choice for sure.

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Apparently level select in Sonic 2 is still in, you just have to use the code from Knuckles in Sonic 2. It worked this way in the original mobile release too.

 

[Xwing]

Apparently level select in Sonic 2 is still in, you just have to use the code from Knuckles in Sonic 2. It worked this way in the original mobile release too.

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Excellent! I never had a reason to use level select in the iOS port for Sonic 2 so I had no idea they changed it.

 

[Gunstar Legend]

Jun really screwed something of these tracks up. They should've just put in the beta tracks as is.

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The more I think on it, the more I believe the theory that the original demo tapes sound an awful lot like the PC version and Senoue just tried to do a 1:1 conversion instead of tweaking it to sound better on Mega Drive hardware. Reminds me of Sonic 2, where the beta music was closer to the original demo tapes but was tweaked largely for the better before release.

 

[Semfry]

It's not even using the MD prototype tracks per se, instead it's using a remix of those that sounds closer to the PC version, and sound worse than the proto MD versions.

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Same energy:


At least mods can fix this on PC.

 

[Tomasdk]

I was so looking forward to playing this on my ps5 on a comfy couch but oh well, PC version it is once someone mods in the proper music. These games are my childhood and the replacement tracks are terrible, I'm not paying for that.

 

[Hutchie]

The whole music and s3+ k pre locked on situation are disappointing but the games for all intents play as expected. I guess price is a bit high but hey happy to have these back

 

[mute]

Honestly, I was expecting this to be the biggest point of criticism today, but boy was I wrong.

Seriously, no playable Amy is a travesty at this point. I thought for sure we'd get her with how much she was focused on in the new art for the collection. You don't even have to do something crazy like make a new hammer move set, I would have been happy with a Sonic sprite swap. Maybe we'll get DLC.

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I think these are ripe for a "plus" DLC/physical version, if the chatter about the music doesn't tank the whole thing anyway.

 

[Armoredgoomba]

This is all I needed to know about the music changes

https://twitter.com/SandaMarinoVT/status/1539293949214466048

 

[Chrono]

Honestly, I was expecting this to be the biggest point of criticism today, but boy was I wrong.

Seriously, no playable Amy is a travesty at this point. I thought for sure we'd get her with how much she was focused on in the new art for the collection. You don't even have to do something crazy like make a new hammer move set, I would have been happy with a Sonic sprite swap. Maybe we'll get DLC.

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Similar to how we got playable Mighty and Ray for Sonic Mania Plus, I can definitely see them holding Amy (and maybe Metal Sonic) back just so they can add them into the "Sonic Origins Plus" expansion, probably when they decide to release this title physically.

 

[Dust]

Wait a minute...are the tracks mono? Am I crazy? Maybe that is why they are so flat/muted.

 

[carlosrso]

The games are remastered, widescreen, a good amount of extras, The 3 musics different from the original release are awful. 4/10
Sonic really has a bad goodwill with the reviewers. But looking forward to play it in 2 days.

 

[The Deleter]

Wait a minute...are the tracks mono? Am I crazy? Maybe that is why they are so flat/muted.

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More knowledgeable opinions are coming in now, it's moreso the difference between the soundtrack being emulated vs how it actually sounds on a Model 1 Genesis

 

[TyraZaurus]

You're free to discuss what you want.

Talk about the reviews. No one is stopping you.

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The thread has been derailed. I'm pretty sure it'd get ignored.

Here's the best review I've seen thus far:

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That IS a good review. Balanced and fair.