Sonic remaster dev says he’s ‘grateful’ to work on Sonic Origins Plus despite issues with previous release

One of the key developers involved in the remasters featured in Sonic Origins says he’s happy to have worked with Sega on its Sonic Origins Plus update, despite his previous unhappiness with the original product.

Sonic Origins was released in June 2022 and included remasters of Sonic, Sonic 3, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD, most of which were developed by Headcannon Games.

However, Sonic Origins itself was developed and compiled in-house at Sega using the remasters, and Headcannon developer Simon Thomley (aka Stealth) was not happy with the finished product.

At the time, Thomley complained about the game in a Twitter thread, saying: “I won’t lie and say that there weren’t issues in what we gave to Sega, but what is in Origins is also not what we turned in.

“Integration introduced some wild bugs that conventional logic would have one believe were our responsibility – a lot of them aren’t.”

Thomley also claimed that the Headcannon team “were outsiders creating a separate project that was then wrangled into something entirely different”, adding: “We knew going in that there would be a major time crunch and we worked ourselves into the ground to meet it.”

He concluded: “We offered to come back for post-release fixes and updates – we do not yet know if this is happening.”

It would appear that since then there has been a reconciliation, because Headcannon confirmed on Twitter today that it was involved in the creation of the new features being added to Sonic Origins Plus. Thomley then also posted another thread expressing his happiness that the ill will seemed to have been resolved.

“I love Sonic, as does everyone at Headcannon, and Sega knows it,” Thomely wrote. “We know the same is true of our friends at Sega. I’m grateful to have had the chance to work with them in bringing Sonic Origins Plus to life as well as other past titles. We all want the best for Sonic’s future.”

After crediting graphics and data management staff, Thomeley added: “Thanks to Sega for this opportunity and for accepting our feedback. I’m proud of the entire Headcannon team and all the effort they’ve put into this collection alongside Sega. We’re looking forward to you getting this update soon.”

Headcannon’s thread detailed the additions in Plus, and added: “Alongside Sega’s work in updating the collection, we were also able to supply a few additional updates and enhancements to help make the title the best it can be. We appreciate their openness to our feedback and suggestions.

Further reading

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Sonic Origins Plus will add 12 Game Gear games and playable Amy Rose

UPDATE: Sega has officially announced the expanded collection

“We’re very proud to have had a hand in bringing out the best In this collection – Sega have placed a lot of trust in us in by allowing this, and we appreciate that greatly.”

Officially announced last week, Sonic Origins Plus is an update to Sonic Origins, due to release on June 23.

The update adds 12 Game Gear games as well as new features, including the ability to play as Amy Rose in Sonic 1, 2, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and the ability to play as Knuckles in Sonic CD.