Sonic Origins messed up Sonic 3 and Knuckles

 Who saw that coming- I mean, who saw where that came from?

From the moment of Sonic Origins' conceptual birth it was proposing to do something never before attempted by man: a full remaster/remake of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. A truly daunting and terrifying proposal that had eluded the best scientists and philosophers for the better part of two decades, now finally on the table of the people who could actually greenlight such a thing: Sega. What sort of rituals, planning, sacrifices and rights waggling were needed to bring the classic cap-off of the original Sonic trilogy up to the standards of it's oft re-released peers? A lot, clearly, as the beast which had gripped 3 for so long and kept it out of the hands of remake developers is that most virulent and unassailable of all development beasts; licencing disputes. Yes, the very monster that has swallowed up entire franchises, such as the Ultimate Alliance Games before 3, MGS3, Too Human, Xmen... something or other... and probably a whole bunch of games that no one's heard of before. It's a big enemy, okay? A huge one. And overcoming it would be a doozy.

You see, Sonic 3 had a problem when it came to it's music and who made certain tracks during it. Because apparently the game wasn't entirely a Sega project. Rumors have persisted since the 90's that the famous singer Micheal Jackson was the creative mind behind half of the tracks in the game, the funkier funner ones, but SEGA have been distancing themselves from that perception since forever. And then confirming it. And then denying it. It's been a real game of cat and mouse, where it's hard to take anyone at their word for when they're telling the truth or speaking a rumour. Although one thing is certain, some type of licencing deal behind the music has kept Sonic 3 and Knuckles out of rerelease cycles which means someone outside of Sega has rights on the game and it's been a headache for them. The release of this collection sparked a whole new wave of Micheal Jackson involvement rumors, which have yet to be directly refuted by SEGA, so for the moment the story is that he did work on this game's music, but then asked for his name not to be credited if the team couldn't get the tracks to sound better. Which of course they couldn't, because Sonic is literally the height of video game music replication during it's time. So that's the tentative story until someone rocks along and totally refutes it.

Getting this Sonic Origins collection out the gate, and murdering all previous rereleases from all storefronts like tyrants, meant that Sega would now be under an obligation to deliver a version of Sonic 3 and Knuckles that was every bit as good as the stellar Christian Whitehead mobile remakes. (Which, themselves, had never made it to PC all these years somehow.) There was only one huge problem there... Sonic Team haven't made an actual game for years. I mean sure, they slapped some 3D assets onto rails and called it 'Sonic Forces', but no one who's actually bought and played that mediocre little project is mistaking that for an actual Sonic game. And besides, they're busy making the most amateur looking AAA project of 2022- how could they possibly work on Sonic Origins? And so Sega were forced to turn to a group of people they had worked for before, and apparently fallen out with; the fans.

Which is to say 'Headcannon', one of the chief creative forces behind the incredible Sonic Mania and Mania Plus. Both games which are, indisputably, some of the best Sonic content of the past twenty years. And it wasn't made by Sega. Tells you a lot, doesn't it? Headcannon would handle the Sonic 3 and Knuckles remake, whilst Sega devoted themselves to the utterly laborious and brow beating task of porting the Mobile remakes to PC and console before then sticking it all into a collection. I mean sure, that does sound like a lot of work for one guy; but SEGA is one of the biggest and longest running video game companies of the modern age, surely they can handle a literal bare basic's task like that between their gargantuan size! Right? They couldn't mess up that, could they? You already know the answer don't you? It's 'yes', they can and have.

First off, that whole situation which was stopping Sonic 3 from being remastered all these years, hasn't been resolved. For some reason SEGA can't find it in their budget to renew, or outright buy, the rights to the original classic Sonic 3 and Knuckles soundtrack and so they went the lazy route and scrapped it. Now if there's one thing Sonic is universally praised for, it's the strength of their soundtracks so this was already going to be a questionable choice for going forward, but SEGA being themselves they decided they could pull this off in only the worst possible way. Which meant replacing the original tracks with the Beta tracks, just as they had done with the PC port of Sonic 3 back in the day, and replacing those tracks with bad and bizarre remixes for no other reason than to make it look like they put some effort into this collection.

They also somehow allowed a number of bugs into the collection, which Headcannon swears weren't there when they sent over their finished project. Somehow, during the work of assembling this collection, SEGA managed to break the stability of this port through what I can only assume was a herculean effort to disappoint their fans. And of course this was all on top of the whole 'selling the ability to zoom in on the main menu map screen as exclusive pre-order content'. So SEGA literally put the least amount of personal work possible into this collection, they ported the Christian Whitehead remakes and smashed Headcannon's work on the end of that, and somehow they still managed to wind their own professional inequities into the final product. How in god's name are we supposed to expect them to handle an entire full game on their own?

At the very least I can say that they didn't somehow turn around and replace Big Arms with Nocturne; which might seem like an out-of-nowhere praise but with the absolute comedy of errors this company is prone to I wouldn't be surprised if they managed that. It truly is a testament to how out-of-their-depth SEGA is with the Sonic franchise where they can't even deftly handle a rerelease and just butcher the process they had the minimal amount of work in. I've often said that the Sonic franchise is a lot better than the general consensus likes to paint it, but oftentimes that's in spite of SEGA's guiding principles, not because of it. Hell, they couldn't even celebrate Sonic's anniversary without brutally delisting all previous ports so that you had to shell out for their full price collection in order to play classic Sonic; what kind of healthy not-insecure company does that? (SEGA and Rockstar, it would seem.)

So my gaze turns from this face plant to Sonic Frontiers, and I question once again what amazingly brilliant formula we western gamers just aren't seeing tucked away here. The recent reveal of the 'classic' sections at least look better visually than the open world of Frontiers, but they're linear action sections totally at odds with the supposed 'open' nature of this game. Plus, they kind of look like left over levels ripped out of Sonic Forces: a game that featured notoriously straight-forward and uninspired levels where you just ran in a straight line and pressed jump a few times and got an S rank, everytime. Yet another failure to sell the promise of this game. But hey, I'm sure Sonic Team are totally the right people to handle this game because hey: they have 'Sonic' in the title, right? They must be the right guys! They probably have none of the same developers who made the originals, and have a direct legacy of largely disappointments, but sure: They're the boys for the job, I guess.