The team of developers in charge of the most recent 2D outings (like Sonic Mania) of the blue blur, Headcannon, have returned to work alongside SEGA on the recently announced expansion of Sonic Origins Plus.

Back some months ago, Sonic Origins released on many platforms to mixed to poor reviews, many citing a lot of issues with the collection, be it weird changes made in Sonic 3's soundtrack for zones like Carnival Night, Ice Cap and Launch Base (which featured tracks used in the original beta, before the alleged involvement of Michael Jackson in the soundtrack), a lot of bugs and glitches in some of the ports, like AI misbehaving, or physics issues, mostly in Sonic 3's port specifically.

Even Stealth, one of the main developers in Headcannon and greatly known in the homebrew community for Sonic games, was really unhappy with the released product of Sonic Origins the day it came out, with many of the bugs and glitches that they still wanted to address, but couldn't due to some internal issues (most likely deadlines to be met for the game).

Thankfully enough, it seems like with the recent expansion announced a few weeks ago, SEGA wants to set the record straight, and are working alongside Headcannon on many of the new features announced for it, like a fully playable Amy in all 4 games in the collection, and the inclusion of Knuckles into Sonic CD. Not only that, but Headcannon mentions working on a lot of bugfixes that many people still have with the latest release of Sonic Origins, and that they plan to address them to give Sonic fans the best possible experience when it comes to the original classic collection of beloved titles.

Here's what the official Headcannon Twitter account mentioned regarding their work with SEGA on Sonic Origins Plus:

It's coming - Sonic Origins Plus! We're happy to announce that we’ve once again cooperated with SEGA to update this project; you know we can't resist Sonic! Here’s some of what you can look forward to in Origins Plus:

We were excited to hear that SEGA wanted to make Amy playable, and we couldn’t resist an opportunity to help her into the spotlight! New playable characters need new sprites, and our own @AStartShow was certainly up to the design task while @DashPadSPD performed data management.

Knuckles is now playable in Sonic CD, as well! As with the inclusion of playable Amy, we were thrilled to provide some new graphics to complement SEGA’s efforts in making this possible.

Alongside SEGA’s work in updating the collection, we were also able to supply a few additional updates and enhancements to help make the title the best it can be! We appreciate their openness to our feedback and suggestions.

We're very proud to have had a hand in bringing out the best In this collection; Sega have placed a lot of trust in us in by allowing this, and we appreciate that greatly! We can’t wait for you to experience it!

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[shaunj66]

This collection needs a ton of work to make it really shine IMO. More than just bug fixes which are to be expected.

A small handful of things I'd like to see added/improved:

• Better audio throughout with balanced levels (it's all over the place at the moment)
• Replacement music tracks pulled from the 1103 prototype and not the garbage versions they included
• Proper save systems for each game (ala Sonic 3)
• Customisable options for each game not hidden behind sound test codes with options similar to Sonic 3 Complete
• A properly implemented drop dash for Sonic 1&2
• Ability to choose a sprite style for the main games
• CRT style and clean filters like in Mania
• Actual emulated versions of the main games for the "classic" modes instead of just 4:3 versions of the retro engine ports

I could go on but I really hope at a minimum the above is a reality. But this is a SEGA managed product so I'm not holding my breath

 

[Deleted member 194275]

This is absurd. Sega have done ports of those games a billion times and didn't learned how to.

I love Sega, but holy fuck...

 

[Mama Looigi]

Why didn’t they just fix the original Sonic origins to make up for such a tacky launch? Is plus at least free for people who bought the original early?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Is there any word on the price of this game? I don't expect this to be a free update (Not talking about bug fixes) If the original game is $40, then this upgrade must be at least $50 or maybe $60 including those game gear titles. The least they can do is put the rest of sonic's genesis games on there. Getting close to such high prices for FOUR remasters in the collection plus 12 emulated game gear games feels stingy in my opinion compared to previous Sonic Mega/Gems Collection.

I know there is other stuff like the museum, gallery... dlc music, dlc... menu graphics, Challenge modes. But maybe can add multiplayer competition modes now that four characters are playable in all four games. (Bonus for online modes) Can't be that bad to ask M2 for a genesis emulator. (Probably responsible for the Game Gear emulator the collection will be using. Maybe you could just import the Blue Sphere and Mean Bean Machine Mini game from Sonic Mania into the collection, Basically more games or modes to actually play.

 

[shaunj66]

Why didn’t they just fix the original Sonic origins to make up for such a tacky launch? Is plus at least free for people who bought the original early?

I expect it will be similar to Mania/Mania Plus where the core game gets updated with all the fixes and general improvements but added content such as the GG games and playable Amy etc will be locked behind the paywall.

 

[raxadian]

Is there any word on the price of this game?

I heard 40 bucks. 10 bucks to upgrade Sonic Origins if you already had that.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I heard 40 bucks. 10 bucks to upgrade Sonic Origins if you already had that.

Is that for the retail release of Sonic Origins plus?

 

[Reploid]

That who they were supposed to hire in the first place.

 

[Plstic]

That who they were supposed to hire in the first place.

yeah lmao, though now game companies outsource to the lowest bidders and hope people don't get too upset.

 

[SonicRings]

Why didn’t they just fix the original Sonic origins to make up for such a tacky launch? Is plus at least free for people who bought the original early?

NOPE! That's the shittiest part: the game costs the same as it always has, so all new buyers get the new content for the same price people paid for the initial release.

However, if you've already bought the initial release? You have to pay $10 to upgrade to plus. Meaning you'd have paid $50 for the EXACT SAME THING that new customers are paying $40 for now. Doesn't even matter that you were an early adopter, in fact they're literally saying "fuck you for being an early adopter"! You're paying $10 for no reason other than BECAUSE you were an early adopter!

That's right: SEGA is screwing over all early adopters/existing customers while all new customers get the DLC content for free. I have never seen a single game launch like this before. It's always the case where existing customers get a deal, a nice little bonus, for being an early adopter. This is just ass backwards.

 

[raxadian]

I have never seen a single game launch like this before.

Never seem Steam Discounts? Sometimes a game gets like 50% or more cheaper.

 

[JuanMena]

This collection needs a ton of work to make it really shine IMO. More than just bug fixes which are to be expected.

A small handful of things I'd like to see added/improved:

• Better audio throughout with balanced levels (it's all over the place at the moment)
• Replacement music tracks pulled from the 1103 prototype and not the garbage versions they included
• Proper save systems for each game (ala Sonic 3)
• Customisable options for each game not hidden behind sound test codes with options similar to Sonic 3 Complete
• A properly implemented drop dash for Sonic 1&2
• Ability to choose a sprite style for the main games
• CRT style and clean filters like in Mania
• Actual emulated versions of the main games for the "classic" modes instead of just 4:3 versions of the retro engine ports

I could go on but I really hope at a minimum the above is a reality. But this is a SEGA managed product so I'm not holding my breath

All of this and more will come true when you add puke reaction in reactions list.

 

[raxadian]

All of this and more will come true when you install the right mods to the game.

Fixed that for you.

Changing the music shouldn't be that hard for the PC version, the Switch version will probably be hacked next.

 

[Kioku]

Don’t forget to celebrate this so SEGA can pat themselves on the back thinking they did good!

 

[lemonmaster]

You once again decide to have the fans do the work for you to do what you seemingly can't pull off yourselves, even when it's the bare minimum. Only this time, you barely gave them enough time to do what you tasked them with. It results in an utter mess. The solution? Do the same "Plus" formula as last time, but the fixes and patches with the new additions are actually a feature!

At this point you might as well call Sonic Team "Modern Sonic Team" and Headcannon along with all the other paid fan devs that worked on Mania and Origins "Classic Sonic Team".

 

[ShadowOne333]

Fixed that for you.

Changing the music shouldn't be that hard for the PC version, the Switch version will probably be hacked next.

I've been installing PC mods on the Switch version since the same week of release actually, I even made a tutorial about it here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/install-sonic-origins-pc-mods-into-switch-version.617775/

 

[Bladexdsl]

still no original sonic 3 music so fuck off I'll stick to emulation

 

[xdarkx]

So in other words, Sega didn't fix any of the problems this game will have before announcing it if I'm understanding this correctly.

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

So...when is SEGA gonna take Sonic seriously?