To get those out of the loop up to speed, Sonic Origins is the current gen ports of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games.  However this collection not only includes the first 2 games, but also Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD.  This is a reason to be excited because 3 & Knuckles have essentially been locked away for years.  While not 100% confirmed it is speculated that the reason being is because Michael Jackson (the former pop star) helped with the music.  He left the project early on due to legal issues of his own but some remnants of his music remained (allegedly).  Ever since the King of Pop’s passing, SEGA decided to not fight with his estate’s legal team and kept 3 & Knuckles on lockdown after 2011 just to be safe.  Sonic CD on the other hand just hasn’t gotten a ton of love.  Fans do have a great port done by Sonic Mania’s Christian Whitehead for iOS and Android, but the last time this game was on a console was the GameCube’s Sonic Gems Collection.  Now all 4 (or 5 if you count Sonic and Knuckles as a separate game) of the Genesis titles will be in 1 package.  So why are fans so mad?

The reason being is because SEGA is starting to nickel and dime fans and it’s quickly biting them in the behind.  While the trailer does look amazing and the animation sequences are gorgeous to look at, SEGA also came out with a chart (see below).  This chart was supposed to tell fans what they would be getting should the preorder certain editions of the game, but all it did was confuse and outrage fans.  SEGA was charging more for DLC that could’ve easily been in the main game with no problems.  SEGA was also adding features that are arbitrary and just there to show off that you paid more money than other fans.  These special “features” include animations in the menu, looking over different islands in the menu, and some music packs.  There are some game modes locked behind a DLC pay wall like Mirror Mode and Hard Missions, but there is no current option to just pay 1 price and unlock everything.  Thankfully the animations that were shown off in the trailer are in the base game and aren’t blocked behind a pay wall.  However the things that are classified as DLC seem like they should be in the base game already.

The confusing chart in question

One more thing that got fans mad was the lack of a physical copy of the game.  It’s no secret that physical games cost quite a bit of money to make in today’s day and age.  Last time SEGA had a digital release first was with Sonic Mania but that game gets a pass.  It wasn’t developed by SEGA and it sold so well that it warranted a physical release with all the DLC included.  Not only that but it also came with an art book and it was still an affordable game.  The worst part is that SEGA knows the fans want a physical edition of the game and so far don’t plan to do anything about it.   It feels like SEGA is testing the waters first to see if fan reception and sales would warrant a physical release.  Looking as to what’s been said on Twitter it seems this strategy has backfired on SEGA.

Fans everywhere (including myself) aren’t really happy with this news.  It’s a shame too because the games look like they have been remastered beautifully.  The new Anniversary mode where players have unlimited lives is such a good addition and the animations that bridge the story throughout all the games is a great idea.  Also being able to play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles throughout ALL the games is a great touch.  It’s all this ‘extra’ stuff that SEGA wants to charge for that makes us mad.  While the lack of a physical release is a bummer, I can live with a digital only version of the game. What I don’t want to live with, is a DLC pack that includes classic songs from past games that I can easily listen to on YouTube or modes that could’ve been unlocked by beating certain games.  I don’t care about character animations in a menu screen and the fact that this ‘feature’ is being touted as DLC is insulting.  Hopefully SEGA will rethink some of their DLC packs but with a June 23rd release date it seems unlikely.  I do want this game, I want to play these games on modern consoles, but I might wait a bit until I finally purchase the game.

The post Why Sonic Fans Are Mad. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Being a Sonic fan for over 30 years has definitely had its ups and downs.  From getting poked fun at by my friends or getting my hopes and dreams crushed when a game didn’t live up to the hype is easily the biggest disappointment.  Yet when things go well you get this sense of elation and even a little bit of validation that this thing you loved for over 30 years doesn’t totally suck.  Now to be clear as much as I love the Sonic franchise, I can tell you not everything is perfect.  There have been some major bumps in the road to get to where we are today.  No real Sonic game on the Saturn, Sonic ’06, the Wii games, the problems with the Archie comic books, but even with these hiccups I see more good in Sonic than bad.

The good of course being the games and not just the original Genesis games either.  Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure 1+2, Generations and Mania are all titles that to me are really great games and deserve to be in the spotlight with the Genesis titles.  CD of course being my favorite Sonic game since it was the first one I every owned but not the first one I played.  Sonic 2 was the first game I played but I could only play it when I would go to my friend’s house next door.  It became harder to play games with him when I moved away so CD on the Windows 95 was the only way I could play any Sonic game.  Because CD was my only game I became enamored with it.  Everyday I would come home from school and finish my homework in a hurry so I could play Sonic CD.  It even got to a point t where my parent’s taught me how to turn the PC on and off correctly because they got tired of me asking them to do it for me.  Eventually I would get another Sonic game and that would be the Sonic & Knuckles Collection for the PC.  This came with Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles and it was also 2 player.  Meaning my little brother could play it with me as well.  We spent hours playing Sonic 3 and getting stuck on that one damn barrel in Carnival Night Zone.  You know the one and if you don’t, play Sonic 3 and find out.  I absolutely loved playing Sonic Adventure 1+2 and enjoyed Sonic Heroes for the most part.  I would miss a few titles like Colors but I didn’t miss Generations.  Generations was like a shot of adrenaline for me since the previous games weren’t the best.  Of course it all came to a head when Sonic Mania was announced and just like that my love for Sonic games was renewed.

Oddly enough it wasn’t just the games that got me into Sonic.  Yes the games had a big part of it but it was also the comics that got me hook, line, and sinker.  My very first Sonic comic that I got was issue 29 of the Archie run where Princess Sally turns into a robot.  The best part is where I found this book, it wasn’t in a comic shop, but on the magazine rack in a gas station in the backwoods of Montana.  I couldn’t believe that my favorite character had his own comic book.  Of course my Dad buys it for me, tells me what the character’s names are (I was just learning how to read when we got the book) and I get enamored in this world.  Soon after my grandmother buys me a year long subscription to the book and down the rabbit hole I go.  Best part is that I still have my original copy of the comic.  Sad part is that it’s practically destroyed and barely readable with all the pages it’s missing.  As a comic collector now I cringe at how badly I took care of my books but that just means I consistently read them over and over again.

Over the years I would buy the comics on and off again but one thing remained consistent, is that the comic was in it’s own little world and the games just added to it.  Whenever a new Sonic game would come out the writers had to incorporate that game into the books and sometimes it worked well, and sometimes it was a bit of a stretch.  The Archie line of books would run to over 290 issues until unceremoniously getting canceled and the rights going to IDW.  Pictured to the left is only a fraction of the amount of books I own.  The reason being that SEGA’s contract with Archie ended and they decided to go elsewhere.  Even though the Archie comics had internal problems (lawsuits from a former writer being the main cause of characters disappearing in the books) the books had their own neat world and characters that I would’ve loved to see in the games.  The new line of books is also really well done and captures the spirit of Sonic just like the Archie line did.  While I’m sad the Archie line is done and won’t tie up the loose ends it left, I’m glad that the IDW books are here.

While Sonic has had his bumps in the road over the past 30 years I am still reminded why I love this character in the first place.  The games are just plain fun and always a treat to go back to, the comics are fun to pick up and flip through, and if you have them some of the TV shows were really well made (Sonic SatAm being the best one in my opinion).  I’ve written a lot about Sonic on this website and I’ll probably still find more to write about him in the future.  For now, as I look back at all the fun I had, I can’t wait to see what will happen next.  Until then, I’ll be enjoying the games that I’ve been playing and loving for the past 30 years.

The post When A Boy Met A Hedgehog. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Little Planet, the setting of the game is chained by Dr. Robotnik

So what’s the deal with Sonic CD?  Well quite a bit.  The game introduced 2 crucial characters to the Sonic franchise.  Amy Rose, Sonic’s would be girlfriend in future games, and Metal Sonic, one of my personal favorite villains.  The game’s premise is the same thing we all know and love.  Robotnik is causing trouble and it’s Sonic’s job to stop him.  However the setting for this game is a place called Little Planet, which is home to 7 gems called the Time Stones (I know it’s not original but lets roll with it) and Robotnik wants to take it over and create a metallic wasteland on the once serene planet.  This game sets itself apart from other Sonic titles because of it’s time travel element.  Along the zones are these posts that say either “Future” or “Past” on them and when you run through them and gain enough speed you travel either forward or backwards in time like the DeLorean.  Best part is that you can travel through time multiple times in a single zone act AND depending on what you do in a act it will affect the end of the level.  Meaning if you fail to set things right in the past, the third act of the zone looks bleak and sad.  If you make

These are the machines you need to find and destroy to make good futures.

a “Good Future” in both Act 1 & 2 of each zone (you make a good future by going to the past and destroying a certain machine or getting all 7 Time Stones by the end of the game) then Act 3 will be beautiful and pristine.  Also something that this game does well is that the past and future parts of a zone are not just a color swap, they have different jumps and ledges than the other ones.  The future path is a bit more dangerous with more badniks roaming the zone while the past is easier to explore.  The boss fight with Metal Sonic is one of the most heart racing boss fights in Sonic history a race and it was because of this game that he became a flagship villain not just in the games but also in the current comic books by IDW.  Also, on a personal note the song “Sonic Boom” that plays during the opening cinematic just rules even over 25 years later.

I miss this type of animation for Sonic.

So why hasn’t this game been a part of other Sonic collections?  Well I do not know but I do have a hunch.  The hunch is that since this game was a SEGA CD title and not a true Genesis game, it gets left out as people only know the much higher selling Genesis games.  I do know that there was a collection called Sonic Gems Collection for the Nintendo Gamecube that had Sonic CD as it’s main focus point.  It also served as the home release for Sonic: The Fighters arcade game and a port of Sonic R.  It also had a few Game Gear titles thrown in but the real draw was Sonic CD.  Besides that the game wouldn’t come out on other platforms years later when Christian Whitehead (the man behind Sonic Mania) was hired by SEGA to port Sonic CD to iOS and Android devices since the last few mobile ports of classic Sonic games were subpar.  Sonic CD became a huge hit and the definitive version of the game.  Not only did Whitehead just port the game, he added the choice to pick between the American and Japanese soundtracks right off the bat, and if you beat the game all the way through, good or bad ending, you unlock Tails as a playable character.  He can’t join you in your main adventure like in Sonic 2 and 3, but just having Tails as an option is still a very nice touch.

Sonic CD is my favorite Sonic game of all time, mostly because it was the very first video game my parents bought me when we finally got our Windows 95 PC.  The game is super fun, and the time travel mechanic is a neat little thing.  I currently play the game on my iPhone (you can play it on PS4 via PSNow, Xbox and Steam) and since Whitehead’s port they added achievements and the first time you time travel you get the “88 Miles Per Hour” achievement.  Which makes me happy as a huge Back To The Future fan.  If I would give the game a single demerit, it goes to the special stages.  Now these put Sonic in a pseudo-3D space and your mission is to destroy 6 U.F.O.’s before time runs out.  It may sound easy, but like all Sonic special stages they deceive you in the beginning.  For one you have to jump just right to hit the U.F.O. and if you step on the water it drains your time.  I’ve been playing this game on and off for over 20 years and I can’t tell you how many times I miss a U.F.O. by just the tiniest pixel and then land in water and time out.  It’s a bummer and the only way to get into the Special Stage is by completing either Act 1 or 2 with over 50 rings and jumping into the huge ring after the sign.  It’s not like Sonic 2 where you can just hit a lamppost with 50 rings and try again later in the zone, but it does put your skills to the test when you do get in that ring.

This game should be celebrated a little more.  Sure it was on a add on for the Genesis, but hard core Sonic fans and critics say this is one of the best platformers ever.  The music is fun to listen to, the opening animated video gets you pumped, and once upon a time ScrewAttack called Sonic CD the best Sonic game ever.  The game is a little on the short side, but this game should be up there with Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 as one of the best Sonic games.  Hopefully in the future if SEGA makes and releases more Sonic collections for modern consoles, this game will be one of them and not an afterthought.

The post Sonic CD: A Gem That Needs to Be Featured More. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.