Headcannon is only working on the S3&K portion of Sonic Origins; Origins itself is handled exclusively by Sega's internal devs

[Sean]

Might explain why there aren't any brand new gameplay features in 1/2/CD like Knuckles in Sonic CD. Sega considers those versions "complete" and are porting the mobile versions as-is, only adding Origins-specific elements.

Also, Headcannon have no involvement in any of the bonus modes such as mission mode or mirror mode:

 

[Mr. Ion]

This is an interesting bit of information I feel, and especially notable is how they're only commissioning Headcannon for work on the engine, so they likely had no say on how the collection itself was developed/features. It kind of frames them differently then what Sega was doing with Dimps, I'm curious as to where this will go in the future.

It's cool that Headcannon is getting involved but it's also a little disappointing. I suppose they made some additions, but Origins was really a chance to go above and beyond with things like Knuckles in CD or customizability options like a max control scheme. Now, this won't serve as that much of a detriment to Origins, it's nice to have all these games in the same place, and it's nice to see Sonic 3 re-released after all this time, but I'm not sure...I just wish there was a little something more. Maybe I'm just being ungrateful, who knows. I guess the additions already made are alright, the cutscenes are amazing, the 3d renders of the islands are cool, but I think maybe that little bit of content (and doing away with the stupid pricing scheme whose idea was that) would have pushed it over the edge. I'm not necessarily disappointed, just think that they could've put in more effort in a few places.

[Blue Blood]

Christ, this genuinely makes me pretty concerned. SEGA were more than happy to absolutely botch the practically perfect mobile remasters when they turned to a F2P model, and even the PC version of the CD remaster was sloppily handled by a third-party. Now the reason as to why Knuckles isn't in CD is clear as day: SEGA couldn't be fucked. But they could be fucked to add the Drop Dash and replace lives with Coins...

These versions of the games are still going to be the mobile masters when all is said and done. And that means that they'll still be better than any emulation. But the chances of them having any further improvements/fixes from the mobile versions are negligible, and they'll probably be riddled with more little issues that all add up to dampen the package. We can already see that presentation is a bit lacklustre from the footage that was recently releasesd.

I dunno. This is just a shame. I'm still looking forward to Origins, but my expectations have been lowered a bit.

[Wraith]

Headcanon has been saying they only worked on the Sonic 3 part since they announced their involvement. It's one of many reasons I'm waiting for a sale. Any serious problems will be patched out by then. 

[Cosmos Rogue]

Yeaaaaah, I'm waiting on the canaries to report back on if, and how badly, Sega screwed this up here.

[BubbleButt TV]

this really puts a damper on the possibility of a Sprite Swap option or any other fun little additions

[DaBigJ]

My hype really just flat-lined. Just like that, huh?

Okay, I'm exaggerating here, but this just confirms to me that there won't be any real "fun" features like the whole sprite swapping thing. Kinda stinks.

[Kuzu]

I think its funny and fair that all it took was Sega being directly involved for people to be skeptical 

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

5 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

I think its funny and fair that all it took was Sega being directly involved for people to be skeptical 

Can you blame us though? Sega tend to screw things up when it comes to Sonic.

[Kuzu]

3 minutes ago, Ming Ming Hatsune said:

Can you blame us though? Sega tend to screw things up when it comes to Sonic.

That's why I said it was fair, Sega have done nothing to earn any good will when it comes to Sonic.

[Zoomzeta]

...All right

[TheOcelot]

Well at least we know 3K will be awesome. That's assuming SEGA haven't fucked it up when they added the "Origins-specifics".

I still think this will be a solid collection, but could have been so much better if Headcannon and/or Evening Star were developing the entirety of Origins.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Metal

That’s profoundly disappointing. I am no longer expecting much in the way of improvements or polish over the existing remakes of 1, 2, and CD.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Godot

What? All that effort making missions and crap, and they can’t put Knuckles in SCD?
This doesn’t even seem lazy, just terrible decision making.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: PootisBear

On 5/18/2022 at 8:08 PM, Metal said:

That’s profoundly disappointing. I am no longer expecting much in the way of improvements or polish over the existing remakes of 1, 2, and CD.

Game is just barely over a month away and there's literally never been any indication that it's anything more than a straight port of the stealth-taxman remasters on modern gaming platforms with a mission mode and other miscellaneous content, so I'm not sure why your expectations were set any higher. 

Are there even any significant improvements that can be made to a set of remasters that are widely considered to be superior to the original releases? I guess they could've made Knuckles playable in CD this time around, but that's hardly a dealbreaker.

[GX -The Spindash-]

On 5/18/2022 at 10:03 PM, Godot said:

What? All that effort making missions and crap, and they can’t put Knuckles in SCD?
This doesn’t even seem lazy, just terrible decision making.

Because they failed to add one character into a game that he wasn’t in in the first place? I’m not sure that counts as lazy or terrible decision making. I think that’s just them not wanting to eff too much with something that already works.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Megax36

On 5/19/2022 at 3:31 AM, GX -The Spindash- said:

Because they failed to add one character into a game that he wasn’t in in the first place? I’m not sure that counts as lazy or terrible decision making. I think that’s just them not wanting to eff too much with something that already works.

It should be noted that due to Knuckles shorter jumping distance, implementing him into any games that he wasn't originally in would require developers to redesign stages with alternative paths meant specifically for him. This may require more work then what they wanted to put into this collection without seeing how well it is received beforehand.

Let's not forget that there could always be a later update to this game in the form of a 'PLUS' version, just like they did with mania. They could always add Knuckles to SCD or even Mighty and Ray for that matter with future DLC.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Metal

On 5/19/2022 at 12:00 AM, PootisBear said:

Game is just barely over a month away and there's literally never been any indication that it's anything more than a straight port of the stealth-taxman remasters on modern gaming platforms with a mission mode and other miscellaneous content, so I'm not sure why your expectations were set any higher. 

Are there even any significant improvements that can be made to a set of remasters that are widely considered to be superior to the original releases? I guess they could've made Knuckles playable in CD this time around, but that's hardly a dealbreaker.

Giving Sonic all his moves (Super Peel-Out, Insta-Shield) in each game for starters, preferably with some sort of configurability. Including the PC/beta music for S3&K. Including Mighty and Ray based on their Mania appearances. Including features from other older releases of these games such as Sonic Jam’s different level layouts or Sonic Ages’ Ring Saver Mode. Savestates and rewind are awfully popular for retro rereleases nowadays even if I wouldn’t use them. And that’s all without even proposing actually new content like restoring Hidden Palace to Sonic 2 or giving Sonic 1 a 7th Chaos Emerald, which parts of this remaster have already done before.

And until recently there wasn’t really indication that these were “straight ports” of the stealth-taxman remasters. We knew they were based on them sure, but I had personally hoped that in the decade since 3 out of 4 of these games were remade for phones that they might have added a few more bells and whistles to it from their later titles using the same engine. It’s nice to finally have S3&K officially in widescreen and all, but that’s about all I’m getting from this apparently. I wasn’t exactly clamoring for missions to return from Generations, especially when it seems like it won’t unlock anything related to gameplay, and that seems to be the only other noteworthy addition to this near rerelease.

[TSS Classic Comment Bot]

Posted By: Shard the Angel

Good, more power to SEGA

The important question remains thou, is the original soundtrack included?