Blue sphere sonic mega collection12/2/2023 ![]() ![]() While the earlier games are great, Sonic 3 and Knuckles is the big addition for this package, having not previously received a Retro Engine conversion. There's new content too: the Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic 2's Mystic Cave Zone is now a proper bonus stage which replicates the look of the previously unfinished level. Bonus and special stages look smoother too, scattered rings fade out using alpha blending and the soundtrack of the first two games has been remastered with cleaner audio. Instead, Sonic is presented at a stable 60fps. ![]() Native 16:9 aspect ratios are supported, with a higher FOV and modified boss encounters to match, and slowdown is eliminated - a recurring issue on the original hardware. Thankfully, the games themselves are the main draw, and are generally produced to a high standard using the Retro Engine. ![]() We can only hope that Sonic Team is listening to this feedback and will fix the issues in a future patch for the console versions. The only good news is that if you're playing on PC, the modding community has already fixed the biggest issue, restoring the Sonic Mania display options. So while the UI is attractive, there are glaring errors that ought to have been resolved for release. Sonic CD also buries options, such as soundtrack selection, within its own menu that appears to have been hacked in from the original 2011 release of the game and feels inconsistent as a result. Typos appear on the music list, track names are incorrect, and overall volume levels are far too low - yet Sonic CD video clips are significantly louder than anything else in the game. The anti-aliasing setting doesn't seem appropriate for this game. Sonic Origins lacks a sharp scale option, unlike Sonic Mania. Some of the beautiful animated videos included here also incorrectly scaled on Switch, which is a shame. ![]() This reduces the overall fluidity of menu navigation on Switch everything feels sluggish and blurry. Here, you get only a 30fps presentation and blurry image quality - a far cry from the 4K 60fps on PS5 or Series X. The other major drawback of the front-end is exhibited on the Switch version. There is an option labelled 'anti-aliasing', but this further degrades image quality resulting in an unacceptably blurry presentation. Sonic Mania offers four display options to solve this, including a pair of CRT filters and a sharp scale option, but these options aren't available in Origins - and the reduction in clarity is significant. The first and biggest concern is that games are rendered to the screen using a bilinear filter, resulting in softened pixel edges. Our Sonic Origins tech review is presented here in video form. It's an approach we've seen in numerous other retro collections but, in this case, there are drawbacks. When you launch one of the games, the Retro Engine powered games are displayed as a surface within the game's user interface. The entire front-end was created using Sonic Team's proprietary Hedgehog Engine, the very same engine powering many of its games including Sonic Forces and Sonic Generations. To explore that material, you traverse six islands: four represent key games in the package while the others offer bonus features including a movie gallery, illustrations and a comprehensive jukebox. So this is effectively Sonic Jam 2 - all the 16-bit games, plus Sonic CD, surrounded by a wide range of bonus material and alternative gameplay modes designed to expand upon the formula. Sonic Origins reminds me of Sonic Jam for the Sega Saturn - the first complete collection porting each of the original Mega Drive games to a new platform, with a huge selection of bonus material including videos, music and illustrations. Sonic Origins has a lot to offer then but there's always the potential for issues too - and sadly Origins does have a few. This release even includes Sonic 3 and Knuckles, a rarity whose inclusion makes this one of the most exciting Sonic releases in a long time. Sonic Origins is different though: a fully rebuilt suite of the original 16-bit games using the Retro Engine, the same tech that powered the brilliant Sonic Mania. Since their original appearance, they've been re-released many times over, most often as little more than emulators paired with original ROMs. Sonic the Hedgehog's original 16-bit adventures are considered some of the best games in Sonic history and - for my money - some of the best games ever made. ![]()
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