(This review was written for Steam first and is in the context of it being on PC.)

Sonic Origins is a very; polarizing title to say the least. Between it being announced nearly 3 years before it had a release date was quite an interesting move and the DLC roadmap image [imgur.com] and then on launch; it came out the Headcanon team came out and said they didn’t turn in what was released and weren’t too happy about it. Origins really didn’t have a lot going for it for existing fans; however what this collection was made for and marketed towards, parents who watched the Sonic Movie with their kids and wanted a way to replay classic games from their childhood; Origin was and kinda is perfect for that niche.


I’ll cut to the chase; Sonic Origins is a good value in two situations; if you have a Steam Deck or just hate “setting up” emulators or fan ports of these games.


However this only effects PC; if you’re on console this is a great value for a game; since there isn’t really any options.


So lets talk about like; the game itself now right?


Sonic Origins is a collection of 4 Genesis titles (+12 Emulated Game Gear games with Plus), under the Retro Engine, developed by Christian Whitehead, a legend in the Sonic space who needs no introduction; they’re all upgraded with full widescreen support in the Anniversary mode or you can keep the og 4:3 in Classic mode; “””new””” playable characters (Amy with Plus) and last but not least the new Story mode that was added to play all 4 games back-to-back in story order. Sonic Origins also comes with tons and tons of goodies that you can unlock with coins you find through out the game and honestly for new and old Sonic fans; it’s always nice seeing them bundle in concept art, music tracks, etc. While it isn’t as cool as Generations was; it’s still a neat touch for them to include a lot of 90s Sonic art and even new Classic Sonic art.


With brand new animated cut-scenes to boot they are by far one of the best parts of this game; they are just usually eye candy to look at, and the Sonic CD intro was upscaled but it looks nice; sure as hell way better than what ever they did to Persona 3 Portables upscaling… sheesh.


They all look really nice! I mean to be fair they didn’t change much in this port with the Mobile ports that came out before looked the exact same since they’re using the same engine; but I will say; the anti-aliasing enabled in game can look really weird? Not bad; just strange.


They all control as you would expect; nothing really new here other than in all 4 games Sonic now has the Drop Dash. Like it or not it’s here to stay and it doesn’t seem it’s going away anytime soon. Sonic 3 doesn’t benefit that much from it since it was planned to be in it originally anyways, so it feels natural to put back in, Sonic 1 gets a much needed speed up with it, and Sonic 2 just feels even better with how already fast that game is. However; this and I’m not trying to oversell this to you; it shatters CD apart; since you can just find a semi-flat space in any level and just drop dash back and forth all challenge of finding a spot to Time Travel is just gone; while this makes the game better for a lot of people since it’s even less maze like and faster some people don’t like it and want to be able to disable it (you cannot in any of the games; either in Anniversary or Classic mode.) but; alas we live in a post-Sonic Mania world and it’s effects will be here forever.


Sonic Origins big improvement in the gameplay department I think benefits ‘em all; is the fact you can retry special stages using the coins you collect. In the case of Sonic 2 which stages I personally despise this was a life changing feature to make that game a lot more enjoyable getting all the chaos emeralds; so very very good move devs.


By far the biggest downgrade and just lame-o feature is that Sonic 1, CD, and 2 are downgraded to the original Genesis versions; the biggest omission from all of them are multiple save files in each of em; so you can save progress between characters; since in Origins if you wanna change characters and mess around with someone else; you better be ready to restart the entire game! Only Sonic 3 has kept it’s save data system since it’s just already included in the game.


As for the 100%? It’s not really that hard. The achievements for the most part are piss easy and you’ll get them as you play and beat each game; the only parts that suck are some of the challenges just kinda are not that fun and will take a lot of grind to get good at and beat the gimmick they’re hittin you with; and getting all the collectibles is something you’ll do while playing the games and doing all the missions.


Honestly? The whole part that this collection is good and brings native widescreen and cool collectibles to the table is why it kinda hurts me to not recommend it; at least for PC, if you’re on console it’s a no brainer purchase if you’re a Sonic Fan; but since we’re here on Steam; yeah, it’s just not worth it to the other options you have on a computer, but if you want the easiest, no mods, cross saves for you Steam Deck already set up, to play all the classic Sonic games it really is a no brainer purchase; but I’d recommend saving your dollars for a better Sonic game.


Overall, I just; can’t recommend this for someone that is looking to get the best bang for their buck.
If you’re a 100% nerd like me; Sonic 3 A.I.R has tons of achievements; just go for those instead of this.

I have a long story with this game; I played the DX port on my Xbox 360 during a huge blizzard from school; so I had like around a week to myself, and I SUCKED at it. I never got past beating Sonic and Tails story because I couldn't beat Knuckles (I didn't know as a kid for some reason you could play them out of order.) but I still really enjoyed it.

Now as a adult playing this game on Steam with BetterSADX and the original Dreamcast game; I can for sure say this is my favorite game ever made. The story is very campy for sure and the English voice acting doesn't help; but yet; it's still an interesting story for what it is. This game has set the gold standard for Sonic games for plot and character arcs; setting up the personalities we've known till this day. Sonic being a cocky-goofball but yet still caring and showing compassion for his friends, Tails wanting to prove to Sonic and everyone that he can be strong and independent, Knuckles simple-minded but strong loyalty to protecting the Master Emerald, and Gamma honestly being probably a top 3 campaign. You won't be disappointed by this games story.

The gameplay is probably my favorite part of this game; while each Sonic game type has it's own jank; hell even the jump from Adventure 1 to 2 has it's own learning curve; but I don't think I've had more fun speedrunning levels as Sonic, Tails, etc. The broken spin-dash Sonic is a key part of his kit and it makes getting to his top speed so much fun; I think only rivaled by the boost in Unleashed and Gens. The level design is fantastic; same goes for all 3 Adventure style games, This, Adventure 2, and Sonic 2006. Speed Highway and Red Mountain for Sonic come to mind instantly for great level design; even the Knuckles hunts are very well made for their first time; if I had to pick one thing to criticize is that I wish there was more level design variety.

Art direction wise? It's by far the part of the game that hasn't aged well but; it's charming in it's own whole different way. Just standing around Emerald Coast looking at the open sea; Speed Highways impressive scale that only Empire City from Unleashed can compare to. It's that 90s vibe that people still want in games visually and I personally love... the soundtrack is another very very strong part of this game; every character theme song is iconic & catchy.. especially the level songs!

All around; I do believe everyone should play this version of the game, DX just does too much to harm the atmosphere this game built back in 1998 that still reigns to the top of most video games, with the charm, music, and art direction it has.

Really really love this game. Please play it.