Sonic Origins Plus Audio Quality Is "Painfully" Bad, Say Fans

thegamer.com:

Gearing up for its launch later this month, Sega has shared some gameplay footage from Sonic Origins Plus. This expanded version of last year's compilation game has a bunch of new features, but the main pull here is its inclusion of all 12 Sonic games released for the Game Gear. However, it seems that their grand debut on modern hardware isn't going to be as great as fans had hoped.

Early footage shared by the Sonic the Hedgehog account has come under fire, as fans say that the audio quality is significantly worse than the original release. Some go as far as to say that the new sound is "painful", as the devs appear to have put the audio in stereo mode, without accounting for the fact that it was originally released in mono. In practical terms, this gives the game a loud, echoing sound - and one that is definitely a lot harsher on the ears.

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Over on Twitter, fans are comparing the upcoming Game Gear re-releases to a fan-made emulator. And despite the official version supposedly coming from the most up-to-date release of the games, it sounds significantly worse than the emulations that are already available.

Sadly, it doesn't seem that this audio issue has been addressed in the final release. A YouTuber claiming to have accessed the PS4 version of the game early has shared some gameplay footage, where we can hear this harsh audio once again in the Game Gear releases. Be warned, the iconic "Sega!" soundbite is a real jumpscare.

It's not clear why Sega decided to change the audio output like this, or if there's a way to set it back to mono. We'll find out for ourselves when the game launches properly on June 23, but in the meantime, fans certainly aren't happy