Sonic Origins, the compilation of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD, will not run on emulation. In an exclusive interview with Sonic Stadium, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka confirmed the games will not simply run on emulation. He also confirmed the newly announced 2022 Sonic Team 3D Sonic title, rumored to be called Sonic Rangers, is aiming to lay the foundation for future Sonic games.
Very few details were revealed about Sonic Origins when it was announced, except that the game will include additional content and features for “the latest platforms”. Iizuka confirmed the games will not be emulated and they will support a 16:9 full screen game for “ease of play,” but was scant on details once again. More news on the game has been promised for the future.
Meanwhile, Sonic “Rangers” will be released in 2022 and is the closest we’ll get to a new game being released for Sonic’s 30th anniversary. However, Iizuka doesn’t consider the game to be an anniversary title. The team is doing “something new and challenging” for the game to the point that Sonic Team’s head hopes the title will have a lasting legacy in the same way Sonic Adventure did:
Sonic Adventure laid the foundation for 20 years of Sonic titles after its release, so in the same way I really hope that this new title releasing in 2022 lays the foundation for the following future Sonic titles – that is the idea behind the challenge for the team.
Sonic Origins and Sonic “Rangers” are two of three upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog titles. The third is Sonic Colors Ultimate, a remaster of Sonic Colors from 2010. There’s every chance we’ll see more remastered titles in the future too:
With the huge success of the movie last year, we have an opportunity to get more people interested in Sonic who didn’t know him before. That opportunity was the reason why we planned for Sonic Colors Ultimate and Sonic Origins, to present some legacy content to this new audience. While we haven’t locked down all our plans yet, there are so many great Sonic games from the past 30 years that can’t be played on modern hardware, so we would love to explore bringing more of those legacy titles out to entertain a new audience.
In the meantime, the 30th anniversary celebrations continue onward with yet more cameos in other games. The hedgehog has recently jumped into Minecraft as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog DLC. The DLC features a variety of 3D runner levels, such as Green Hills Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, although they now have a far more blocky appearance. There are rings to collect, enemies to defeat, and secret areas to find, all with the aim of getting a high score.
The DLC is available from the Minecraft Marketplace. There’s also a free Character Creator item up for grabs and a two-week server-hub takeover available now.
[Source: Sonic Stadium, Minecraft]