REVIEW: ‘Sonic Origins’ Is Perfectly Fine (XSX)

Sonic Origins is SEGA’s current-gen rerelease of its first four Sonic The Hedgehog titles, Sonic, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. With a few additional challenge modes and the option to choose between original gameplay and a wider-screened mode with unlimited lives, the port isn’t anything special, but if you’re a Sonic fan or somebody hoping to make a new one, it’s a perfectly fine way to do so.

Here’s the thing. The original Sonic games are certainly some of the most ported console games I’ve played. Personally, I played the original Sonic for the first time on my iPod Nano on the bus rides home from school in middle school. No joke. I had never touched a Sega console to that point and didn’t have any awareness of the Sonic Mega Collection available for my beloved Gamecube or the Sonic Classic Collection for the DS. I did play Sega Mega Drive Classics on Xbox 360, and I played a lot of the SEGA classic ports from the Xbox Live Arcade during my Xbox One days. So when I say my experience with Sonic is varied and perhaps abnormal, well, there you go.

Sonic Origins saw the removal of its content from the Xbox store for individual purchase and it has some framerate issues that are baffling for a game that never had those issues in the past. But some of these real-world issues aside, the port is great. It’s got a nice shine to it with new original animations to start the games, sharp-looking animated menus, and a host of increasingly difficult challenges based in each of the four games. I’ve long been a fan of the modern movement away from lives and towards unlimited gameplay, which leaves me very glad that Sonic Origins allows you to choose whether to play with or without them. I do, however, wish that this option was separate from which aspect ratio you play with. You should be able to switch back and forth between them regardless of which version you’re playing in, like in many other remakes and ports.

The challenges aren’t revolutionary and it’s not like the game offers you any reward for completing them besides coins to buy in-game art basically. It would have been cool to have included new sprites to unlock at the least. Why not let me play as Amy, Cream, Shadow, Metal Sonic, or any of the many other beloved (or maligned) characters from Sonic history as rewards for beating the game as certain characters or under certain conditions? Why not have an & Knuckles mode like in Sonic Origins? There’s certainly a lot of missed opportunity here.

While Sonic Origins does little to innovate or make this set of ports stand out besides some forgettable Museum unlockables and some nice new artwork, it remains a perfectly fine addition to the accessibility of classic Sonic games on modern consoles. I wish it were not at the expense of the ability to purchase them individually from older ports; however, even with its flaws, it’s as fun as these games have ever been.

Sonic Origins is available now on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch.