Sonic Origins Plus does little to justify its existence.

This game trying to repackage the Digital Deluxe content as new alongside Knuckles in Sonic CD (something that should’ve been in the base game or a free update) and Amy is a new degree of insulting for those who already paid for it. Amy herself is an alright addition I have no qualms with though. Her hitbox and jumpball is smaller, and her hammer attacks are an insta-shield that lasts longer and drop dash reskinned that applies to all three games. Lazy? Maybe, but I see this as her being an easy mode akin to Team Rose in Sonic Heroes even when there’s an argument for these games being easy enough now, Amy is good. Not worth an entire rerelease, but good.

I brought up in my base Origins review that Mission Mode was a genuine highlight and the trailer saying New Challenges while offering nothing in that section is a little irritating. In retrospect it’s likely referring to the new “Surprise” mode which is just an incredibly short achievement board that reveals a picture to incentivize the player to care about Plus’ additions.

As a softie for Sonic’s Game Gear library, I was rather excited to see these titles on modern consoles, though now I realize they must’ve been haphazardly included to justify spiking the price with “Now instead of 4 games, you get a whole 16!” I haven’t had any problems playing them so far though I’ve seen friends notice big emulator issues and I can’t get around the weird echo filter the sound now suddenly has either. You also only have one save state to use and overwrite per game, compared to Gems’ Collection allowing for several. Save slots is a complaint I’ll get to next, but unnecessary limitations is becoming a trend with this collection.

As for if anything got better in the four games Origins already comes with minus Amy and CD Knuckles, so far I’ve seen zero improvements aside from an update to how you can now change directions when charging a drop dash in 1 and 2. No lives toggle for anniversary mode and no custom save slots, it’s still only one per character. The replacement tracks for 3&K are still not as high quality as their prototypes to boot. I know a good number of people saw the announcement for Plus as an opportunity to fix their issues with Origins, so seeing nothing done with it is both expected for Sonic Team and makes the game even more contentious.

The physical copy only having the base game on disc/cartridge and the Plus content being a download code voucher was what made me cancel my preorder, even the manufacturers knew the additions were negligible.

The Plus DLC for Sonic Mania added more content and costs $5 opposed to Origins Plus’ $10, that should speak for itself. It’s also probably not a good thing one of my longer reviews on here after a long time was a rant against an expansion.

I’d like to start this review by making it clear this compilation wasn’t, isn’t, and will never be worth the $40 price tag it was released with, I ended up waiting until an eShop sale made it $22 and I suggest you do the same. The way Sega tacked on DLC for something like this is nonsensical too. That being said, this collection was exactly what I was expecting it to be and on that note I can leave it somewhat satisfied.

To get it out of the way, I believe players should be given the choice for whether lives should be limited or not a la Crash Bandicoot 4 and while Origins does this, locking it behind the 4:3 aspect ratio rubs me the wrong way though I won’t lose sleep over it. On the other hand I have issue with the stand-in, Coins. I feel the game doesn’t justify their existence enough with how useless they are once the Museum has been 100%ed and the cost of retrying a Special Stage after failing is such a poultry amount it might as well be unlimited, they’re also ridiculously easy to rack up depending on the game and when playing Mission Mode. I’d rather have taken a total Death Count for these games as a self-imposed incentive for more careful play.

Speaking of Mission Mode, I had quite a bit of fun with it! It’s very reminiscent of Challenges from New Super Mario Bros. U where you’re boxed into portions of a stage to complete a small task as best you can, and be ranked for it at the end. These range from killing enemies while submerged in oil to dodging enemies that move at double speed, it reminds me of NES Remix a bit(?) with how your knowledge of game mechanics is tested. My only complaint is that I wanted more out of it, and I hope a future Sonic collection has a similar kind of successor side mode.

If there’s anything I’m at all disappointed by if anything, it’s likely the Museum but only because of how elaborate they were in previous compilations, Mega Collection especially. More IDW covers to browse through would be nice, but I get it, this collection’s only about Classic Sonic. Still, with how Origins has tidbits of new developer art for games to show off, I would’ve liked watching the commercials for the included games like Sonic Jam did at least, maybe even the Man of the Year short animation from that game? The controls for the Museum itself is a bit finicky too. Unlike Mega and Gems, when reading the instruction manuals you can’t turn pages while in full screen mode. It may be a nitpick but it trips me up having to press B to be able to advance with the right bumper, then press A to zoom and keep reading again. I’m also kind of miffed that there’s no unique gallery theme like Jam/Mega/Gems, you have to arrange your own playlist of existing tracks from the games to play in the background.

Last thing to note is I really love the presentation of this collection, the menus represent the aesthetic of this era rather well and the new animated cutscenes are awesome. The islands for each game acting as a backdrop to the selected title is a welcome visual too, bonus points for Angel Island floating upon completing S3&K. Oh and SONIC CD’S OPENING AND ENDING GOT THEIR VOCALS RESTORED AND NO LONGER IN CROPPED WIDESCREEN. If a sale’s going on and you want the best official version of Sonic CD, this is the one for you.

I think the best way I can describe this collection in a single sentence is, it gets the job done and then some but it could’ve been so much more. I’m glad to have this on my Switch alongside Mania, but a little more put into it could’ve gone a long way. Anything to actually justify $40, and to me Sonic 2 alone is not even worth $10 no matter what you sprinkle on it. If only strict deadlines weren’t a factor…

Maybe expect standalone reviews of each game included here later down the line? They’re more fresh in my mind now thanks to this so I’ll consider it.