This has certainly been a bit of a Sonic week. Yesterday, Sega gave everyone a reason to revisit Sonic Frontiers by releasing the first of three free content updates. Today? The existence of Sonic Origins Plus has been officially confirmed, with a trailer featuring what they’ve added to last year’s celebration of Sonic the Hedgehog.
On June 23rd, 2022, Sonic the Hedgehog’s legally recognized birthday was celebrated by releasing a game compilation featuring some of his greatest adventures. Called Sonic Origins, it was a collection that many considered a no-brainer to put together. After all, people had been asking for the 2013 mobile versions of Sonic 1 and 2 on consoles and PCs for years, with the added hope that Sega could finally clear up the legal issues that were preventing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and/or Knuckles) to get the same widescreen, Retro Engine treatment. At a point when it was extremely unclear how Sonic Frontiers would turn out (spoilers: Frontiers ended up being pretty good!), Origins seemed the safe bet of having one solid, if not fantastic, release featuring our favorite hedgehog.
Then the game came out. And. Well. It was fine.
To preface: Sonic Retro was sent a review code for the game. I had intended on writing a review months ago, yet when I sat down, nothing came. After some false starts, I just sat there going “what do I actually want to say about this game?” So I kept on sitting. And thinking. And sitting. Got up to get some coffee. Played the game a bit more. Then gave up.
I know, I know. Exciting story.
It’s been over eight months since Origins came out. And with news that a physical version has been given a rating, it’s made me think once more about Origins. What worked, what didn’t, and why I couldn’t bring myself to write a review.
I don’t know if what follows is a review or not, but here we go.
Last year, the folks over at Sonic’s social media team rolled out the first Sonic Central, a short digital presentation talking about upcoming projects featuring the blue blur. Giving the impression it would become a somewhat regular feature, the second installment has finally happened. Has this concentrated burst of news been worth the year long wait?
Well, it’s not like there hasn’t been anything said about Sonic since May of 2021…
What’s that? There’s more Sonic news? Seems like yesterday there was absolutely nothing to talk about. Yet here we are, with more Frontiers footage, a closer look at Sonic Origins, and even the reappearance of the original Sonic CD in an unexpected place. So without further ado, let’s jump in.
In the wee hours of the morning, the official Sonic the Hedgehog social media account woke up and went “hey, let’s talk about Sonic Origins.” After eleven months of near radio silence, they posted a trailer complete with Hyper Potions music, the English and Japanese websites went live, and everyone suddenly woke up to talk about it.
So, what do we now know about Sonic Origins? Let’s go through it after the jump.
Original April 18th: It’s been just short of 11 months since we first learned of Sonic Origins in 2021’s Sonic Central broadcast, and since then news has been incredibly sparse. While there’s been no official announcement of further details just yet, there have been a couple of quick developments to kick this week off. Last night it was discovered that the game had been given a ratings classification in South Korea. While there isn’t much to gleam from the rating itself, generally such classifications in the past have surfaced online not long before a game’s planned release.
