Sonic Origins Plus

While the Game Gear games in Sonic Origins Plus don’t look, sound, or play great, the problem comes down to these games not being that good originally — not that they're bad ports. Buy Sonic Origins Plus for the Genesis games and to play as Amy, but don't expect the Game Gear games to run away with your heart.

In keeping with tradition, Sonic Origins Plus is a bit of a mixed bag. The new playable characters, Game Gear games, and other content feel just barely worth the upgrade fee, but there's no escaping the sense that Sega could've done a lot more for this update and chose not to. 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. Here's hoping that Sonic Superstars provides an old-school Sonic experience that feels less underwhelming.

Sonic Origins Plus really fills out and completes this package, adding much more variety to the catalogue and giving you some clever, different ways to play titles you already know and love. Most of the titles haven’t aged that well with brutal difficulty, hit and miss control inputs and some lag. To be honest, they probably also look, feel and play better on handheld with the majority of the screen taken up by borders, but there’s some real gems in here Sonic Collectors shouldn’t be without.

Even with my complaints, there’s no denying that what is present in Sonic Origins Plus is nonetheless worth the time of fans. These four Genesis platformers remain some of the best in the genre after all this time and have never looked better. The various extras in the museum are engrossing and the additions and tweaks that the Plus DLC provide only make the compilation better. Thus, I give Sonic Origins Plus a nod of recommendation, even as I find my teeth grinding as I think of all the wasted opportunity here. Oh, and expect to still download the Plus DLC even if you buy the cartridge version! Yet another oddity among many in this compilation.

Sonic Origins Plus, as a basic package, looks even more complete than last year, and a beautiful physical version is also released.

The definitive way to play these classic games, but only because the other options have now been delisted.

Sonic and friends will always have a special place in our hearts for all those great memories, and that's probably why SEGA is sacrificing quality and using Sonic's name to generate money.

Your opinion on Sonic Origins Plus is going to boil down to whether you're willing to spend money on games so old that your fridge could probably play them. If you're a huge Sonic fan, then these are worth the purchase. If not, then your fridge will probably do, honestly.

Seeing other aspects fall short of even the versions available via Sega Ages just really disappoint me, and while I don’t think a kid jumping into the Sonic series for the first time via this set will come away disliking any of the games, I do feel that compared to the Mega Collection I grew up with, the spit and polish to make this feel like the ultimate museum for a celebrated franchise is just not here.

Is it worth the purchase? Well if you don't have any Sonic games and either want to see what it's all about, or relive past glories… then certainly grab a copy. If you bought last years Sonic Origins then just have a look at what the differences are and determine if Plus really adds enough for you to fork out for it. But it's nice to be able to share some of my childhood with my children in a pretty decent modern remastered collection such as this.