Sonic Origins
Developers | |
---|---|
Sega | |
Original (Sonic 1/CD/2/3 & Knuckles) | Sonic Team |
Original (Sonic 2/3 & Knuckles) | Sega Technical Institute |
Remaster (Sonic 1/CD/2) | Christian Whitehead |
Remaster (Sonic 1/2/3 & Knuckles | Headcannon |
Publishers | |
Sega | |
Engines | |
Menus | Hedgehog Engine 2[1] |
Games | Retro Engine[2] |
Release dates | |
Windows | June 23, 2022 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 73 |
OpenCritic | 77 |
IGDB | 75 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | DLC, One-time game purchase |
Microtransactions | Time-limited |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Scrolling, Side view |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Platform |
Art styles | Cartoon, Pixel art |
Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
⤏ Go to series page | |
Sonic the Hedgehog fangames (series) | |
Sonic CD | 1995 |
Sonic's Schoolhouse | 1996 |
Sonic 3D Blast (series) | |
Sonic & Knuckles Collection | 1997 |
Sonic R (series) | |
Sonic Adventure (series) | |
Sonic Heroes | 2004 |
Sonic Mega Collection Plus | 2006 |
Sonic Riders | 2006 |
Sonic Racing (series) | |
Sonic the Hedgehog | 2010 |
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine | 2010 |
Sonic Spinball | 2010 |
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | 2011 |
Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 2011 |
Sonic Generations | 2011 |
Sonic CD (2012) | 2012 |
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I | 2012 |
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II | 2012 |
Sonic Dash | 2014 |
Sonic Lost World | 2015 |
Sonic Mania | 2017 |
Sonic Forces | 2017 |
Sonic the Hedgehog (Mobile Decompilation) | 2021 |
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mobile Decompilation) | 2021 |
Sonic Colors: Ultimate | 2021 |
Sonic Origins | 2022 |
Sonic Frontiers | 2022 |
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog | 2023 |
Sonic Superstars | 2023 |
Sonic Dream Team | 2023 |
Sonic X Shadow Generations | 2024 |
Sonic Origins is a singleplayer and multiplayer side view scrolling platform game co-developed by Christian Whitehead and Headcannon in collaboration with Sega and published by Sega. It is part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
The title is a remastered compilation of four classic Sonic the Hedgehog titles, consists of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It sports some additional features, including the ability to use either Sonic, Tails or Knuckles in any game, an anniversary mode with widescreen support and easier difficulty for newcomers, a story mode which plays through the four games sequentially in anniversary mode, and the Museum mode.
The game was released on June 23, 2022.
An expanded update, titled Sonic Origins Plus, was announced on March 23, 2023. The update added twelve Game Gear games, consists of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic Blast, Sonic Chaos, Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic Spinball, Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit), Sonic Triple Trouble, Tails Adventure and Tails' Skypatrol. The update also added the ability to play as Knuckles in Sonic CD or Amy in all four mainline classic games. It was released on June 23, 2023.[3][4]
A patch for Origins Plus was released on August 24th, 2023 for all platforms. It fixed some prominent issues, like the Game Gear games' poor emulation or collision issues in Sonic 3&K, as well as added a nearest-neighbouring shader, which was previously missing. Save data corruption was fixed specifically for the PC version.[5]
General information
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Epic Games Store | Sonic Origins Plus also available. | |||
Sonic Origins Plus also available. | ||||
Humble Store | ||||
Steam | Sonic Origins Plus also available. |
- All versions require Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.[6]
Version Differences
- Sonic Origins Plus: Contains the base game as well as the Plus Expansion Pack.
Monetization
Type | Notes |
---|---|
DLC | Various cosmetic features, additional missions, and remastered music are available for purchase. |
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Start Dash Pack | Pre-order exclusive. Comes with 100 coins, an exclusive Mega Drive pillarbox background for Classic Mode, and Mirror Mode unlocked from the very start. Mirror Mode can be unlocked in the base game by beating each game or Story Mode. | |
Plus Expansion Pack | Includes all content from the Premium Fun Pack and Classic Music Pack DLC's, twelve Game Gear titles, as well as the option to play as Knuckles in Sonic CD and Amy Rose in all four mainline games. Included with "Sonic Origins Plus" and available as a separate purchase to owners of Sonic Origins. |
|
Premium Fun Pack | Exclusive Hard Missions, pillarbox backgrounds, character animations in menus and Music Player, and controllable camera in 3D island menus. No longer available to purchase separately as of June 23, 2023.[4] |
|
Classic Music Pack | Bonus remastered music tracks from Genesis/Mega Drive spinoffs Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast and Knuckles' Chaotix. No longer available to purchase separately as of June 23, 2023.[4] |
Microtransactions
Type | Notes |
---|---|
No microtransactions | Sonic Origins has no microtransactions. |
Essential improvements
Mod Managers
HedgeModManager
- Mod manager for all Hedgehog Engine titles, including Sonic Origins. Required for all non-exe mods.
- Also includes codes for limited lives in Anniversary and Mirror Modes, as well as turning off the autosave icon.
Graphics
Origins Blur Fix
- Fixes the blur in vanilla Sonic Origins by injecting custom shaders from Sonic Mania as well as a nearest-neighboring shader.
- Minimal-to-no performance impact.
- Nearest-neighboring shader was added officially via a patch on August 24th, 2023, making this mod redundant. To activate it, turn the anti-aliasing option off.[5]
Audio
Sonic 1 HQ OST
- Replaces the default, low-quality music in Sonic 1 with a variety of different soundtracks
- Includes a high quality recording from a real SEGA Genesis, the PAL SEGA Mega Drive soundtrack, the SEGA Master System soundtrack, Masato Nakamura's original demos, an early prototype soundtrack, the Dreamcast SEGA Smash Pack soundtrack, the J2ME mobile port MIDI soundtrack as played through the SC-55; SC-88; SC-88pro; SC-8820; Windows; the FatBoy MIDI soundfont; and AVS, the Game Boy Advance port soundtrack, a remastered version of said GBA soundtrack, the Sonic Classic Collection Nintendo DS soundtrack, the AtGames version soundtrack, the remastered 2013 mobile soundtrack from Christian Whitehead, the vanilla Sonic Origins soundtrack, a selection of "high quality rips" from SiIvaGunner, and a Plus Mix blending together the different soundtracks into one. The soundtrack can be chosen from one of the 21 options.
- Select soundtracks in Hi-Res Audio 96 kHz.
- Config version which has all soundtracks in one package cannot be automatically updated through HedgeModManager.
Sonic CD HQ OST
- Replaces the default, low-quality music in Sonic CD with a variety of different soundtracks
- Includes the original SEGA CD OST, the 2011 mobile OST from Christian Whitehead, the vanilla Sonic Origins soundtrack, a remastered version of the 2011 mobile OST, and a hybrid soundtrack from the Sonic CD Restored mod in either Arrange (Enhanced) and Unified (Purist) variants. The soundtrack can be chosen from one of the 6 options (with the former 4 options having Japanese and American variants selectable in-game, giving a total of 10 soundtracks).
- Config version which has all soundtracks in one package cannot be automatically updated through HedgeModManager.
Sonic 2 HQ OST
- Replaces the default, low-quality music in Sonic 2 with a variety of different soundtracks
- Includes a high quality recording from a real SEGA Genesis, said SEGA Genesis soundtrack with an alternate song for Hidden Palace Zone, the SEGA Master System soundtrack, the SEGA Game Gear soundtrack, Masato Nakamura's original demos, a recreated version of the original Masato Nakamura demos in the game-speed, a speed corrected version of the original Masato Nakamura demos, an early prototype soundtrack discovered by Simon Wai, the J2ME mobile port MIDI soundtrack as played through the SC-55; SC-88; SC-88pro; SC-8820; Windows; the FatBoy MIDI soundfont; and AVS, the Sonic Classic Collection Nintendo DS soundtrack, the AtGames version soundtrack, the remastered 2013 mobile soundtrack from Christian Whitehead, said remastered mobile soundtrack with an alternate song for Hidden Palace Zone, the vanilla Sonic Origins soundtrack, a selection of "high quality rips" from SiIvaGunner, and a Plus Mix blending together the different soundtracks into one. The soundtrack can be chosen from one of the 22 options.
- Select soundtracks in Hi-Res Audio 96 kHz.
- Config version which has all soundtracks in one package cannot be automatically updated through HedgeModManager.
Sonic 3&K HQ OST
- Replaces the default, low-quality music in Sonic 3&K with a variety of different soundtracks
- Includes a high quality recording from a real SEGA Genesis, said SEGA Genesis soundtrack with an alternate song for Super Sonic, an early prototype soundtrack, the General MIDI soundtrack of the Sonic & Knuckles Collection PC port as played back through General MIDI; the FatBoy MIDI soundfont; AVS; the SC-88pro; the SC-88VL; and the Sound Blaster AWE32, the FM Synthesizer soundtrack of Sonic & Knuckles Collection PC port as played back through FM Synthesizer; the FatBoy MIDI soundfont; AVS; Nuked OPL3; and OPL3, the Sonic Classic Collection Nintendo DS soundtrack, the AtGames version soundtrack, the vanilla Sonic Origins soundtrack, [Bouncy Glow https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL17DpR7ooPmVX0vaBtMATBM_s5OwEeF75]'s prototype remaster, [Mastered Realm https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBhxfLWCap5FC1No7mCk4iwgVy9GR23K]'s prototype remaster, Mastered Realm's Origins remaster, a selection of "high quality rips" from SiIvaGunner, S3 Alternate, [S&K Alternate https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV8We5uA-hS8l4d1lYcH8iAiqU7KhoePz], S3&K Alternate (a combination of the two aforementioned Alternate soundtracks, the Sonic 3 A.I.R. remastered soundtrack, said Sonic 3 A.I.R. remastered soundtrack with an alternate song for Super Sonic, [Sonic 3 Complete Mindfuck https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/sonic-3-complete-mindfuck], and a Plus Mix blending together the different soundtracks into one. Some but not all of the soundtracks have Sonic 3 and Sonic 3&K variants, while the regular Sonic 3 A.I.R. soundtracks also have prototype variants of Sonic 3 and Sonic 3&K. The soundtrack can be chosen from one of the 49 options.
- Select soundtracks in Hi-Res Audio 96 kHz.
- Optionally restores the original Michael Jackson songs from the SEGA Genesis release.
- Config version which has all soundtracks in one package cannot be automatically updated through HedgeModManager.
Classic Music Pack HQ OST
- Replaces the default, low-quality music in the Classic Music Pack DLC with a variety of different soundtracks
- Includes high quality recording of the Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast soundtracks from a real SEGA Genesis and a high quality recording of the Knuckles' Chaotix soundtrack from a real SEGA 32X; alongside the alternate SEGA Saturn soundtrack of Sonic 3D Blast and the vanilla Sonic Origins soundtracks for all three games. The Sonic 3D Blast soundtrack can be chosen from one of the 2 options (as well as an alternate vanilla Sonic Origins option for all three games), giving a total of 7 soundtracks.
- All non-vanilla soundtracks in Hi-Res Audio 96 kHz.
- Cannot be updated automatically through HedgeModManager like the other standalone versions.
- Requires owning a legitimate copy of the Classic Music Pack DLC.
The HQ OST Compilation
- An all-in-one compilation of the five HQ OST mods above in one package.
- 19 soundtrack options in Sonic 1, 5 soundtrack options in Sonic CD (with 3 soundtracks having different Japanese and American variants selectable in-game), 18 soundtrack options in Sonic 2, 34 soundtrack options in Sonic 3&K and 2 options in the Classic Music Pack.
- 83 separate soundtracks in one mod package.
- Select soundtracks in Hi-Res Audio 96 kHz.
- Cannot be updated automatically through HedgeModManager like the standalone versions.
- The complete package is 11 GB in size, even larger than the vanilla Sonic Origins game.
- Listening to the upgraded Classic Music Pack soundtrack requires owning a legitimate copy of the Classic Music Pack DLC.
Original Remaster SFX Pack
- Restores all the sound effects from the 2013/2011 mobile versions of Sonic 1, 2, and CD.
- Holds an option to change only noticeably different SFX in Sonic CD.
- Does not restore the vocal lines from Sonic and Amy in Sonic CD.
Sonic CD Voicelines Restored
- Restores all of Sonic and Amy's vocal lines from Sonic CD.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Epic Games Launcher | |
Steam | %APPDATA%\Sega\SonicOrigins\steam\x64\screen_setting.xml |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1794960/pfx/[Note 1] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Epic Games Launcher | %APPDATA%\Sega\SonicOrigins\epic\<user-id>\game\data.dat |
Steam | %APPDATA%\Sega\SonicOrigins\steam\<user-id>\game\data.dat |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1794960/pfx/[Note 1] |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Epic Games Launcher | ||
Steam Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Each game's "Classic Mode" is pillarboxed to a 4:3 aspect ratio, with an optional border. | ||
Multi-monitor | [7] | ||
Ultra-widescreen | Aspect ratios wider than 16:9 are pillarboxed to a 16:9 aspect ratio.[8] Works on the mobile versions of Sonic 1, 2 and CD. There should be a workaround. |
||
4K Ultra HD | [9][10] | ||
Field of view (FOV) | |||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | Likely bilinear filtering. To activate nearest-neighbour filter, turn anti-aliasing off.[11] | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS | Main menu, Sonic 1 and 2 run at ~59 fps due to an imprecise frame rate limiter; Sonic CD and 3 & Knuckles are capped at ~63 FPS. See Issues fixed.[12] Gameplay is locked to the frame rate and refresh rate. See Frame rate (FPS). |
||
120+ FPS | Capped at 60 FPS. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | HDR native only for console versions. Use Auto HDR for PC. | ||
Ray tracing (RT) |
Frame rate (FPS)
- The frame rate is partially locked to the refresh rate of the monitor, regardless of V-Sync. A refresh rate of 40 or below will cap the frame rate at 40 FPS, while a refresh rate of 60 or above will cap the frame rate at 60 FPS. A refresh rate between 40 and 60 will cap the frame rate to that refresh rate (so 50 Hz locks the game to 50 FPS).
- The gameplay is synced to the frame rate, and targets 60 FPS to deliver a full speed (100%) experience. This means that 40 FPS (40 Hz or below) will run the game at 66.67% speed (a 1/3 slowdown) and 50 FPS (50 Hz) at 83% speed (a 1/6 slowdown).
Configure the monitor to run at 60 Hz or higher to play the game at full speed |
---|
Resolution scaling
- Similar to other games using Retro Engine, a slight smoothing effect is applied to all games when they are upscaled to a resolution that is not an exact multiplier of the base resolution, irrespective of the anti-aliasing option. This is an intentional decision to prevent pixel "shimmering" or "wobbling" compared to a nearest-neighbor scaled image while providing a sharper pixel image quality than regular linear filtering methods.
Use custom shader injection |
---|
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | Partial support. | |
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | ||
Full controller support | ||
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | ||
Controller Y-axis inversion |
Controller types |
---|
XInput-compatible controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | ||
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | ||
---|---|---|
PlayStation button prompts | ||
Light bar support | ||
Adaptive trigger support | ||
DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
Connection modes | Wireless (Bluetooth), |
Generic/other controllers |
---|
Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Button prompts | The "Button Icon" setting allows manually selecting between Xbox Wireless, Xbox 360, DualShock 4, DualSense, or Nintendo Switch controller prompts. It'll also detect what controller is connected and use those button icons by default upon boot-up.[13][14] | |
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M | Keyboard and button prompts change from one another when inputting from separate controllers in menus.[15] |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Separate sliders for Sound Effects and Music. | |
Surround sound | Stereo only.[16] | |
Subtitles | There is no voice acting in any of the games. Sonic CD's vocal songs in the NA and EU/JP versions are not subtitled. |
|
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
Royalty free audio |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | The theme songs for Sonic CD in the NA and EU/JP versions are sung in English. [2] | |||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Japanese | ||||
Korean | ||||
Polish | ||||
Brazilian Portuguese | ||||
Russian | ||||
Spanish |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local play | 2 | Co-op, Versus Not available in Sonic CD. Sonic 1 is Co-op only and is only accessible through the level select code. |
||
LAN play | ||||
Online play | Leaderboards only. |
Issues fixed
Refresh rate/frame rate mismatch
- Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 run at frame rates somewhat beneath 60 FPS; this mismatch induces severe, consistent stuttering in both games when played without adaptive sync. Sonic CD and 3 & Knuckles are capped at ~63 FPS.
Use Special K's "Sleepless Render Thread" option and cap frame rate to 60 FPS[17] |
---|
|
Game won't launch if you have a non-ASCII character in your Windows profile
Enable Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support.[18] |
---|
|
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 11 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10 | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz AMD FX-8350 4.2 GHz |
Intel Core i5-4570 3.2 GHz AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.4 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 6 GB | 8 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB of VRAM | Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 AMD Radeon R9 280 2 GB (Nvidia), 3 GB (AMD) of VRAM |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1794960/
. - Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (1794960) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Sajid on Twitter - last accessed on 2022-06-22
- "Since Sonic Origins is out in certain parts of the world, there have been some fun discoveries.It appears the game uses a mixture of Hedgehog Engine and Retro Engine. The menus are in HE2 and the collection is using Retro Engine."
- ↑ Christian Whitehead on Twitter - last accessed on 2023-05-19
- "Alright, looks like I can finally come clean and say that RSDK(v5U) is putting in work on Origins"
- ↑ Sonic Origins Plus launches June 23, 2023 - last accessed on 2023-06-24
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sonic Origins Plus is available now! - last accessed on 2023-06-24
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sonic Origins Plus – Patch Notes - last accessed on 2023-08-25
- ↑ Sonic Origins on Steam - last accessed on 2022-04-20
- "Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Anti-tamper"
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- Tested on a multi-monitor setup.
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- Tested by playing the game at 2560x1080 resolution.
- ↑ Sonic Origins - Official Trailer, "4k and 60FPS on PC, Xbox and PlayStation only."
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- Tested by playing the game at 3840x2160 resolution.
- ↑ [1] - last accessed on 2023-08-25
- ↑ Verified by User:Cn9740 on 2022-06-25
- ↑ Verified by User:Cn9740 on 2022-06-23
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- Tested by inputting a direction on my keyboard and pressing the jump button on my DualShock 4 controller at the same time.
- ↑ Verified by User:MasterBlaster on 2022-06-29
- Tested in 7.1 using Orban Loudness Meter in conjunction with Razer Surround.
- ↑ Verified by User:Cn9740 on 2022-06-25
- Tested with Special K disabled and Special K enabled and observing frame rates with both. Frame times were better when these settings were applied with SK.
- ↑ ĐeäTh on Twitter: “(This also fixes the issue present in #SonicOrigins found the original tweet as a quote tweet.)” - last accessed on 2022-10-24
- ↑ Add HCA key for Sonic Origins by blueskythlikesclouds · Pull Request #1152 · vgmstream/vgmstream - last accessed on 2022-06-22
- ↑ Verified by User:Cn9740 on 2022-06-23