Sonic Origins: a diehard fan’s perspective – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A Sonic the Hedgehog fan offers his view on the Sonic Origins compilation and why it may be the definitive version of the original games.

Let me first state that the Sonic games were my first real gaming experience; Sonic 2 to be specific. The Mega Drive was my first console, there were two Sonic cartoons running at the same time on television and even my bank (TSB) were running a promotion where you could go in and pay a pound to get Sonic posters. From my perspective at the time, the perspective of a child at least, Sonic was everywhere. So Sonic Origins is the peak of nostalgia for me, so I may be more forgiving for some things and less for others.

I’ve dipped in and out of the 3D games and have enjoyed and loathed their releases in (almost) equal amounts, but even with the 2D outings on the Game Boy Advance and the Rush series on the DS it’s never even closely matched the quality of those Mega Drive originals – and this is where Sonic Origins comes in for me.

I want to discuss this release as a diehard fan of the Mega Drive series. I’ve played these games inside out and even bought multiple standalone and collected re-releases over the years and, despite some issues, I believe these are the best re-releases the series has ever gotten.

So let me discuss the changes to the games that really elevate them for me; the widescreen support is probably the best new feature due to what it adds in presentation and extra reaction time. Glitch fixes such as Knuckles moving forward a couple of pixels when you look up is fixed and there are cosmetic changes such as Super Sonic having more sprites to accommodate certain situations, like spinning on a barrel. They even flipped the Tails biplane sprite so that Sonic’s name is now