New footage of Sonic Origins shows "Anniversary Mode"

rockpapershotgun.com:

Being a father changes you. After years of resolutely hating on Sonic, my son's interest in the characters, games and cartoon has softened me up. I will now begrudgingly admit that Sonic Boom is alright, and the first Sonic live action movie is better than expected.

So here I am, looking at the new footage of Sonic Origins, which collects and remasters the blue hedgehog's original platform games.

The new gameplay video was reportedly released as part of Rulicon 2022, an event in South Korea, and then shared on Twitter by a Sonic fan account:

Here's new gameplay footage of #SonicOrigins. #SonicNewspic.twitter.com/YhjLAL2mM6

Sonic Origins bundles together Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD. The separate remasters of each are being worked on by Headcannon, the studio responsible for the modern and well-liked 2D Sonic game, Sonic Mania.

Headcannon clarified on Twitter that it was Sega who were responsible for the "integration and presentation" of the games, however. They perhaps felt the need to offer that clarity because Sega are bundling the games together in the most awkward way possible, with two different editions, three DLC packs, and hard missions only available via the DLCs. Sega are also delisting older versions of the games in two days time, on May 20th.

Alas, while fatherhood has softened my stance on Sonic overall, it's only cemented my opinion in other ways. I've had the displeasure of playing some of these original Sonic games recently via iPad and they are as terrible as I remember, while more recent mobile games like Sonic Dash are crammed with inescapable and trashy adverts that play when you fail and which you can't even pay to remove.

For all the muddle of its various editions,