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Sonic Origins Plus made its debut on the Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms last week - adding Amy as a playable character along with 12 Game Gear titles.
Now, as part of the game's launch, the critic reviews have been released. Here on Nintendo Life, we gave the DLC six out of ten stars. While the overall package is strong, this update is admittedly a bit light on content:
"While the overall package is a strong one, we’d give the new content of this expansion a very light recommendation as it does ultimately feel worth the price tag (for existing owners). But how much value this will hold to you depends heavily on how much nostalgia you have for the Game Gear and how badly you want to play as Amy in the classic games."
So, what did other critics have to say? Starting off with God is a Geek - it also felt the overall package in the Plus version was a little bit weak, awarding it seven out of ten:
"Sonic Origins Plus is a great way to play four fantastic games, but the overall package is a little bit weak. The new additions to the Plus version are weaker still, making it hard to recommend even the budget priced upgrade let alone the full package. Despite this though you simply can’t deny the quality of the fantastic games in this collection, and if you’re desperate for a way to play them on modern consoles then you’ll probably still be happy spinning your life away."
Gaming Trend gave it seven out of ten as well, but felt some of this content should have been in the base game:
"While Sonic Origins Plus’ additions feel like they should have been in the base game, Amy is a delight to play as. She’ll have you playing these four excellent games in new ways, despite some odd design decisions. Unfortunately, the selection of Game Gear games have not aged well and are marred by some terrible sound emulation."
Noisy Pixel wasn't quite as impressed - awarding the 'Plus' version a six out of ten. While it enjoyed the inclusion of Amy, it wasn't too impressed with the quality of the Game Gear titles:
"While Amy’s playable inclusion is fantastic, the poor state of some Game Gear titles introduces too many points of frustration to overlook. Features like the Classic Music and Premium Fun packs should’ve been a free update. In fact, the amount of purchase bonuses and content locked behind DLC makes experiencing Sonic Origins Plus exhausting. So if you’re desperately trying to complete this collection, then it’s here, but you could just as easily skip this release."
Press-Start Australia was much more glowing and enjoyed the "neat little extra celebration" of Sonic - awarding it eight out of ten:
"Sonic Origins Plus’ new extras are kind of a mixed bag and might not justify the $10 USD upgrade fee for anyone that bought Origins last year, but at the same price of $60 for newcomers and in its fancy new physical release form it’s a neat little extra celebration of the Blue Blur’s beginnings."
And last but not least, The Escapist also gave the game an eight, calling it a "great" collection and way to play most of the blue blur's classic experiences:
"Sonic Origins was great, and Sonic Origins Plus is great plus. It’s that simple. It’s a fun collection made a little more fun with the adequate addition of Amy Rose, Knuckles in Sonic CD, and a dozen emulated Game Gear games. Some of those Game Gear games I dare say are even still worth playing today, especially Sonic Triple Trouble. Sonic Origins Plus also adds in the Classic Music Pack and Premium Fun Pack add-on content that was made available for the original release. So if you want to play most of the classic Sonic games ever made in one place, you might as well pick this up and have a fun time."
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If you would like to find out even more about Sonic Origins, be sure to check out our original review which we awarded eight out of ten stars when it arrived on the Switch eShop last June.
How has your own experience been with Sonic Origins Plus so far? Tell us in the comments below.
Comments 26
So, all 7/10 and 8/10 scores? I can deal with that. Given the price, and the obvious "missing" things everyone will quibble about, for a non fanboy, I think that's fair.
As an Amy fan, I'm very happy what a positive reception her inclusion is getting. For me, playing as her is enough fun to warrant the DLC price alone. The packaging of the physical version is lovely too, especially the included art book.
@Liam_Doolan "Here on Nintendo Life, we gave the game six out of ten stars." - no, you didn't. Mitch gave the game 8/10, and gave the DLC 6/10. He's confirmed that. But a huge amount of the comments did exactly what you just did, and mistook the 6/10 review for one of the full retail package. Its not Mitch's fault - his excellent review should have been posted as DLC like the MK8, Zelda, Captain Toad etc DLC reviews. He stated in the text thats its a review of the DLC, he added the DLC tag, and the screencaps are all of the GG games. To be fair, he did a good job of trying to make it clear.
But despite that, a DLC review has the title, images, Amazon affiliate links, price information etc of the full retail package. If its a review of eshop DLC, why is it Red, not Blue? Again, no hate to Mitch, great guy, good review. Its just pasted in the wrong page template and its caused a tonne of confusion, and also unecessary arguing from enraged fanboys on both sides! 😂
@samuelvictor Yes, to clarify we gave the DLC six out of ten stars and the original game release got eight out of ten stars when it arrived last June.
@Liam_Doolan Ah, I see you've updated the text to be clearer. Thank you! Sorry if my message sounded snarky its just I've seen so many people getting confused by the review. Again, not blaming Mitch. 😇
I was going to get the physical, but then found out the extras were a download code. Poor show SEGA.
Also, why didn't they port the Master System games? They are exactly the same as Game Gear but a larger screen so you can actually plan your jumps instead of going on blind faith/memory.
So they added Game Gear games groan always clunky and unloved and no master system versions of them to help with screen crunch or additional megadrive ones like spinball,mean bean machine and Sonic 3d. No sonic R or the fighters. No sonic advance.
So basically extra 10 to play as Amy (and knuckles in sonic CD) that's pretty lame and should been in base game all along.
Was more value in sonics gamecube megadrive collection and sonic gems. If they aren't going to upgrade the games throw them all in.
They should’ve added the Master System versions. I was ready to jump on this DLC day one, until I saw it was going to have only the Game Gear versions. It’s almost always Game Gear whenever 8-bit Sonic gets ported. I can’t recall SMS Sonic getting a new release outside of them coming to Wii eShop.
I'm enjoying it, its hard to say if the extra content is worth the price and they should have used Master System versions where possible but we knew this going in and the core package is still great.
The real value is in the physical cartridge and i really like the box art, particularly the reversible cover and it's nice to have these Sonic games physically (yes I know the GG games aren't on it but the main games are)
As a big Sonic fan who skipped this release initially, due mostly to the poor reviews and reactions of fans and also because it was obvious a physical 'Plus' release would eventually come, I am really enjoying it! I really don't understand all the criticisms at all. These feel like the best versions of these games (and I have recently replayed the original versions). The Sonic 3 music issue isn't ideal (the prototype music is pretty naff as well, to add insult to injury), but it's not make or break for me, especially as it isn't all stages affected.
I want the Master System version of the classic games, don't think I'll be purchasing unless it's in a sale.
As much as I liked the original collection (yes, it is flawed - but I think it is currently the definitive way to play these games), I find myself very disappointed with this expansion.
Amy is nice to have, but I don't feel she offers much more than the main trio of characters - unlike Ray, Mighty, and even Advance Amy who had much more distinct playstyles.
Also, although I've enjoyed the Game Gear games in the past, I don't think they've aged well at all, and they seem to suffer from a lot of slow-down in this collection (I'm sure the slowdown was there originally, but it's quite jarring in 2023).
The game is in much better shape now to before however it baffles me why they decided to go with the Game Gear versions instead of the Master System. I played the Master System versions the most back in the day however because I'm playing them on Steam Deck it doesn't bother me too much. Still though a baffling decision nevertheless, oh and I still despise the Special Stages in Sonic 2 as well.
@Buizel The slowdown was present in the Master System versions too back in the day but on Game Gear it was intolerable. Today though I don't think the slowdown is quite as bad but I'm playing them on a Steam Deck so it's possible that could be a factor.
@PlasmaticSnake Lol what on Earth would you want to play that game for? it's awful. Sonic is about going fast but in that you go slow 😂
@RubyCarbuncle I think the slowdown in the Game Gear games is the same on every platform. I compared the Nintendo Switch with the Sonic Mega Collection Plus on the original Xbox. There Sonic 1 GG runs exactly the same.
The emulation just runs the games exactly like the original hardware. Maybe solving those slowdowns results in other emulation problems?
I got the DLC ike a sucker but honestly, all of it belongs in the base game. 4/10.
The DLC isn't great, but it added enough value that I bought this collection after passing on Sonic Origins at the same price last year.
The content exclusive to Plus could've definitely been better, but as part of the whole package I think it makes, along with all the bug fixes and all the extras of the original's different versions (good riddance of that nonsense), an already great collection even better!
I hate how slapped on Amy and CD's Knuckles feel in this expansion; neither of them are included in challenge mode, and they have a single image in the Missions menu of all places that requires 10 objectives to be met by both of them, whereas a locked image in the Gallery menu can be unlocked by completing a single objective. Amy's sprite animation in the Sound Gallery is also untouched; it's still her animation from the original Sonic CD where she clings on to Sonic while a stream of hearts flows out of her.
These are all minor nitpicks, I am aware, but the base game already felt like a bit of a cash grab rather than a celebration of Sonic's iconic legacy on the Genesis, and I feel like if the game was given more time to cook, and Knuckles and Amy were playable across all games from the outset, they would have had more time to fully integrate them into the collection, and you wouldn't need a download code to have any of that content on the physical edition.
Give me Sonic Advance on NSO!
The "plus" content (12 games) is a download code instead of being on the actual physical cart. Why would I buy it then? 1/10
I’m easy to please, so 12 game gear games and Amy for $10 extra bucks is a great value to me. I’m a happy Sonic fan!
It's no surprise that the game gear games are awful. They were awful 30 years ago let alone now
Really, I do have to hand it to Sega for releasing all these. We could've not gotten them at all which is absolutely worse. The upgrade fees and stuff are annoying but it's really great to have a way to play all these again in a legitimate way.
More features would've been nice of course but maybe in another 10 years when they release them for the millionth time there will be. The game gear titles could use a remaster with Sonic 3 sprites. Tails Adventure needs a remaster.
Where I have a massive gripe is with he DLC locked behind download codes. It's so blatantly obvious that this is some sort of sneaky tactic of some sort. It should all be on the cart, no excuses.
@wazlon @RubyCarbuncle I could see why both of you want the SMS versions but if they included the Sega Master System versions, it'll even be more terrible to us elsewhere. While the SMS versions got the wider zoom out view, almost all the games ran on 50hz refresh rate. A slower rate than NTSC 60hz, this will cause those games to run very janky if playing on an NTSC TV hence why you'll only get the Game Gear versions as those are region-free and aren't attach to any regional performance lock. Also including the GG versions means Sega doesn't had to worry about fixing performance issue. You'll just had to get use to the GG games as the SMS games will never see the light of days.
@Serpenterror Master System games and hardware aren't region locked, nor do they require 50hz, nor were they "originally designed for 60hz". There is no difference between "American" and "European" game carts, just the packaging and manual they came with. All the European or Brazilian "Exclusive" Master System games work on any hardware, and run better (and as intended) at 60hz. Most of the best ones, including the Sonic titles from Aspect and Ancient, were developed in Japan on 60hz hardware. It was just always accepted that "games run worse in Europe but screw them it doesn't matter they don't know any better". There was no thought to optimising them whatsoever for the SMS.
They were always intended to be played at full screen, in full speed. No emulator plays the games at 50hz (unless you force it to because you're somehow nostalgic for it), because that doesn't make any sense.
Literally the only exception are the Codemasters games, which were brilliantly optimised for PAL and don't work right in NTSC but they are unlicensed so not relevant here.
Of course, I wouldn't put it past Sega to somehow mess it up. They have a history of making weird mistakes and not doing the most obvious and simple thing. But in this case that most obvious and simplest thing for them to do would be to litearlly plug the roms into the same emulator they are using in Origins and make no changes. They wouldn't even have to adjust the output resolution of the emulator, the one they are using is already outputting at the Master System's resolution and leaving a black border. I'm sure people will pretty quickly work out how to mod the PC port and inject the entire Game Gear and Master System Libraries into Origins, just to prove they can! lol
This article doesn't even mention that you don't actually get to own the "plus" content. You get a one-time use code to access it for however long that system lasts after the network goes offline.
It's just 4 games, slightly modified. No "plus".
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