This year marks the 30th anniversary of the mascot "Sonic". As one of the household names of electronic icons, it's impossible not to have some festivities. So SEGA has organized a series of commemorative activities - linkage with other games, symphony concerts, inviting big hands to paint, launching new peripheral toys and other measures naturally can not be absent, and as the most important gift for players, The new game is the top priority of the commemorative event.
In September last year, SEGA launched the HD-enhanced version of "Sonic Colorful Colors Ultimate Edition" ported from Wii, and also announced the upcoming release of a collection of four early works "Sonic: Origins" news. Thanks to SEGA's invitation, I got the official version of this work a few days ago, and was able to write a review about this work.
Overall, "Sonic: Origins" can be regarded as a true "cold rice collection" - it includes "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Sonic CD", "Sonic the Hedgehog" from the MD era 2" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles", on this basis, a little new content for challenge and collection has been added. For players, it is obvious that its "nostalgic" value is necessary. It's more important than the actual game content.
chatting about "Sonic"
A dialogue in the new episode "Uncle From Another World" in July seems to have brought back the memories of many old players: the uncle who came back from another world, asked the male protagonist a deafening and embarrassing Question: SEGA and SONY, who won in the end?
SEGA in my heart has always been an "old-fashioned but stubborn" big brother image - from FC to MD, from SS to PS, from DC to PS2, it seems that SEGA has been using a very characteristic but not The efficient mentality has made a breakthrough in the console game market. Although everyone has been teasing "SEGA is out of date", for the loyal fans who have grown up with SEGA since the golden age, it is still a sleeping king, waiting for the opportunity to wake up.
You said that SEGA is not aggressive or backward, but they are the company that created "Sonic", the supersonic hedgehog. Charm. As a representative work of the 16bit era, the "Sonic" series is still the most powerful communicator of the SEGA spirit.
On the MD platform, this blue hedgehog is always running like lightning in front of the screen. But compared with racing games that are also "high-speed", "Sonic" has more of a feeling of "pushing you forward": the bright background becomes pleasing and overwhelming at high speed; Due to the inertia and various acceleration channels designed on the map, it is difficult for players to press the reverse button that makes Sonic slow down; and Sonic itself is an unstoppable impatient. Its shape, its demeanor, and even Because of its huge running shoes, it all shows such a concept - run, don't stop.
The rules of "Sonic" are very simple to play, but the detailed design of various tracks and traps on the map proves that it has sufficient richness and playability. It is precisely because of this unique temperament that the "Sonic" series was able to take a different approach in the horizontal version of the action games at that time, and developed a new category that surpassed the generation. And Sonic's image was very popular in Europe and the United States, and it was even equal to Mario at that time.
It is undeniable that if you must evaluate the pioneering works of "Sonic: Origins" with your current perspective, naturally the distinctive imprints of the times it contains will make you feel a little at a loss. However, I personally think that the reason why a classic is called a classic is because its ideas and creativity are unique enough and will not be diluted by time. The
"Sonic" series can maintain such consistency from character image to gameplay creativity, from operation concept to overall presentation. Whether it is a player or a developer, it still has the value for us to learn and learn from.
So that's why I think the game with the blue super-fast hedgehog is still "worth playing" to this day.
What Sonic: Origins contains
As I mentioned at the beginning, this game is a collection of four games from the beginning of the series. Naturally, these four games are also works that established Sonic's "king" position. Recall that when I was in elementary school, basically all my classmates played FC at home, and there were very few MDs. So when I saw the original "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the first time in the home of a wealthy classmate, I was really shocked.
, born in 1991, "Sonic the Hedgehog" is a typical platform jumping action game. Players can use the arrow keys to cooperate with jumping at high speed to run to the bottom in one breath or make a move to the boss. attack. I still remember when I was a child that what impressed me the most was the visual experience brought by manipulating Sonic through the long 360-degree roundabout at high speed.
But I am ashamed that "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" and "Sonic CD" did not appear in my childhood (after all, I still don't buy MDs at home), I know these two works when I checked the information before. I learned that: after the success of the first generation of "Sonic", the producer Yuji Naka went to the US subsidiary of Sega , while Naoto Oshima, who designed the "Sonic" image, stayed at the headquarters. "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" and "Sonic CD" two works.
"Sonic the Hedgehog 2" has a lot of changes compared to the previous work - for example, the familiar supporting role " Tales " debuted for the first time; in this work, a new "two-player competition mode" has been added. The split-screen form compares the results with each other and wins; the overall rhythm of the game is much faster than the previous game, and the difficulty is naturally improved. After its release in 1992, this work was highly praised for its excellent gameplay and level design, and became the second-selling work in the history of the MD platform (the first was the original "Sonic").
"Sonic CD" released on the Mega-CD platform. As SEGA's main work in promoting Mega-CD that year, this "Sonic CD" got rid of the limitation of cassettes and has a larger storage space. As a result, the animated cutscenes produced by Toei , the greatly improved soundtrack quality and the richer game content in the game became topics that players talked about at the time. This work uses a "time travel" system, where players can operate Sonic to travel through different time points to experience different configurations in the same level. The important characters in the series Amy and Metal Sonic also make their debut in this work.
And as the last work in this collection, I once experienced the ported version of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles" on Xbox360. In this work, three attribute shields have been added, and new tricks such as Tales' linking technique with Sonic floating in the air have also been added. In the earliest version, and in this work, the old friend nacruz debuted for the first time.
But perhaps many players at the time did not expect that this red Echidna would later be promoted to one of the protagonists, and decades later, it became a "nightmare" meme that VR chat players can't forget...
Do you know da wae?
The new changes of the old game
However, since it has come to a new host platform, if it is transplanted completely intact, it is indeed worthy of the name of "30th anniversary". so"Sonic: Origin" adds some new things to the original game. For example, when entering the corresponding mode, players can see a new animation specially made, and the quality is practical.
After entering the game, players can switch back and forth between the four works at any time. At the same time, players can also zoom in to see the details on the island representing the four works - such as bouncing mobs and flying Go to the BOSS.
In addition to the game itself, "Sonic: Origins" also added two new elements: mission mode and museum. The mission mode is more traditional, players only need to complete the level as required, and the game will reward the player with gold coins according to the completion of the mission. Gold coins can be used to unlock various contents in the museum, and these contents can be said to be quite luxurious - various versions of the game covers, poster materials used for publicity, as well as high-definition illustrations and various unpublished past art design.
To be honest, I think the most valuable part of Sonic: Origins is here.
Speaking of the game itself, "Sonic: Origins" includes four play modes: Anniversary Mode, Classic Mode, Boss Battle Mode and Mirror Mode.
As the name suggests, the classic mode restores the experience on the MD as much as possible at that time, while the carnival mode changes the picture to 16:9, compared with the original 4:3, the elongated picture of "Sonic" can be The scope of vision has become larger, and the natural difficulty has also decreased.
Judging from the performance of the screen, "Sonic: Origins" basically has no major adjustments, only the pixel block is enlarged, and there is no imitation CRT filter, which makes people feel a little regretful. In addition, the game cancels the life limit of the original version, and also adds a save point system, which can be picked up and put down at any time, which greatly reduces the overall challenge difficulty of the game, so that anyone can find the fun of "Sonic".
BOSS consecutive battles naturally omit all the adventure links in the normal game, and start continuous battles with the boss in the case of 0 gold ring (that is, if you are hit and die), it is quite difficult, but if you successfully clear the level, you will be rewarded Unlock the gold coins of the museum; the mirror mode is to flip the game directly, let Sonic move quickly from right to left, and it really takes a while to get used to the level; in addition, "Blue the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles" The Sphere" mode can be played alone, and some mini-games can also be challenged repeatedly by using gold coins, adding new fun to the game.
In addition, the game also includes various common elements such as score overview and leaderboards. But in general, the original work of "Sonic: Origin" itself is not low in difficulty, so even if some adjustments are made to cater to new players, it is still difficult where it should be difficult, and it is necessary to practice the operation.
Summary
"Sonic: Origins" is worth mentioning the new content in fact only "museum" this one, as for the newly added modes, in fact, there is still a feeling of "change the soup without changing the medicine". However, its positioning is "30th anniversary" after all. Whether the game content is good or not is another matter, and it is necessary to take a form.
said a thousand words and ten thousand, it is essentially a collection of "fried cold rice", which is undoubtedly attractive to old fans; but for new players, this ancient game experience can be Call it a "chic". If you like it, you can support it. If you really don’t feel it, it’s also a good choice to just take a look.