Okay, okay, I just beat all four games in Sonic Origins. As GBAtemp's resident Sonic CD enthusiast, I feel legally obligated to share my thoughts, after all I'm a Sonic nerd and I give a shit about things like this.
Let's start with the positives. The Taxman and Stealth ports, finally on console! With Sonic 3! That's awesome! I've been waiting for these for like a decade at this point, so it's awesome to see it actually happen.
It's cool that they added the Drop Dash in as well. I really like some of the added polish Sonic 3 & Knuckles has, with some new graphics added to make it a more smooth experience.
Problem is... Sega handled the implementation of the otherwise-fantastic Taxman/Stealth remasters into the collection, as well as certain new features, such as the drop dash and missions.
And... they did a pretty damn lackluster job.
The collections are held back by a lot of relatively small issues. It leads to a sort of 'death by a thousand cuts' situation. Low-quality music recordings, a broken Drop Dash implementation in most of the games, and all sorts of small bugs and issues result in a collection that just isn't the best it could be. It feels disjointed, and it doesn't at all have the level of polish these games deserve. And considering how high-quality the individual ports have, as well as Sonic Mania, I just can't help but feel it's a shame Sega handled this collection and not Taxman/Stealth themselves.
I'm hoping the game gets patches to fix a lot of the issues, because that's really what it needs to be a good collection. But as is, for the $40 asking price, I'm not entirely sure if I could recommend it, especially in a world where there's plenty of solid alternatives.
Honestly, though, I think the most disappointing part is hearing the troubles Headcannon was put under to make this collection, and that Sega ended up making it worse. They seem to have crunched to make the remaster on time, and people have ended up blaming them for issues that were not their fault. It's just a shame to see the unfortunate reality behind this collection.
Anyways, uh, go buy Headcannon's Pier Pressure. They deserve the support.
Let's start with the positives. The Taxman and Stealth ports, finally on console! With Sonic 3! That's awesome! I've been waiting for these for like a decade at this point, so it's awesome to see it actually happen.
It's cool that they added the Drop Dash in as well. I really like some of the added polish Sonic 3 & Knuckles has, with some new graphics added to make it a more smooth experience.
Problem is... Sega handled the implementation of the otherwise-fantastic Taxman/Stealth remasters into the collection, as well as certain new features, such as the drop dash and missions.
And... they did a pretty damn lackluster job.
The collections are held back by a lot of relatively small issues. It leads to a sort of 'death by a thousand cuts' situation. Low-quality music recordings, a broken Drop Dash implementation in most of the games, and all sorts of small bugs and issues result in a collection that just isn't the best it could be. It feels disjointed, and it doesn't at all have the level of polish these games deserve. And considering how high-quality the individual ports have, as well as Sonic Mania, I just can't help but feel it's a shame Sega handled this collection and not Taxman/Stealth themselves.
I'm hoping the game gets patches to fix a lot of the issues, because that's really what it needs to be a good collection. But as is, for the $40 asking price, I'm not entirely sure if I could recommend it, especially in a world where there's plenty of solid alternatives.
Honestly, though, I think the most disappointing part is hearing the troubles Headcannon was put under to make this collection, and that Sega ended up making it worse. They seem to have crunched to make the remaster on time, and people have ended up blaming them for issues that were not their fault. It's just a shame to see the unfortunate reality behind this collection.
Anyways, uh, go buy Headcannon's Pier Pressure. They deserve the support.
