Sonic the Hedgehog is turning 31 years old this year, and to celebrate, Sonic Origins promises to offer players a way to replay the first four mainline Sonic games in one all-inclusive package. This collection offers a special Anniversary Mode, unique missions, and more. It also offers a way to replay the first four titles as one seamless experience in a Story Mode, but players who like playing as Tails and Knuckles may be disappointed as Sonic Origins' Story Mode only allows Sonic to be playable.
The collection has had some rather interesting buzz around it already. Originally announced as part of the Sonic Central presentation last year, news regarding the collection had been scarce until a trailer suddenly dropped last month. The trailer caught the interest of fans, but due to a confusing chart about preorders on the game's website, many players quickly became angry over details regarding Sonic Origins' DLC.
On top of that, fans have discovered that the Asian Sonic Origins website reveals an interesting tidbit about Story Mode. The description of the feature states that the only playable character in the mode is Sonic himself. It seems that if fans want to play as Knuckles and Tails, they'll need to use another mode to do so.
Several fans have expressed understanding as to why the feature might be so limiting. As part of Story Mode, there will be new animated openings and endings to segue from one game to the next. Not only is Sonic the only character to go through all four titles, but making special cutscenes for Tails and Knuckles' much smaller routes might not seem like a worthwhile endeavor to Sega.
Some players have lamented over the fact that Knuckles' side to the story in Sonic 3 and Knuckles is most likely being left out as a result, but plenty of fans have understood that the idea of playing through all of S3&K only to have to go through it again as Knuckles would be rather annoying. Knuckles may have his own tale to tell, but his stages are the same as Sonic's with minimal changes.
Even though the lack of playable characters for Sonic Origins' Story Mode makes sense, it only adds to the confusing state of the collection's playable character roster. Like Sonic, Tails can go through all four titles in Anniversary Mode, but Knuckles is left out of Sonic CD for some strange reason. On top of that, some fans are also upset that Sega didn't do more for the collection and add Amy Rose as a playable character.
Sonic Origins comes out on June 23 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Sega