izigame.me

Sonic Origins returns with its reputation of being a cash grab by adding DLC that is not only not worth the money, but also scams the buyers in the most goofy cartoon villain way possible that I haven't seen in a long time.
The star of the show in this DLC is Amy Rose. After Amy was so prominently featured in Sonic Origins' promotional material and the ending cutscene, they finally follow through on their promise to add a new character to play as, but with a huge issue.
Instead of a unique character, we get an expensive Sonic clone that is essentially an easy mode. The only two things that are different about her are her Super Form, which allows you to throw hammers, and her drop dash, giving you the ability to turn around on a dime. Two things that are so situational and rarely used in the game, it's laughable that such wasted potential is the selling point of the DLC, especially because Mighty & Ray, two completely unique characters, cost a total of 5 bucks in Sonic Mania. When it comes to the "easy mode" portion, Amy has much more range when curled up in a ball due to her hammer. That hammer breaks every boss in the game, no matter how careful you used to be, it doesn't matter, it is the bully that shoves Eggman in the locker. It is broken beyond comparison and warrants no replay of the game, except you want to feel like you're on a power trip.
Now, you might think that the 12 Game Gear Games included in the DLC are a much better reason to buy this, right?
Well, no. Half of these games are worse ports of the Sega Master System version. You're playing the worst version of an already worse version with the main issue being screen crunch, meaning you can't see 5 feet ahead of you, which for a Sonic game is dreadful, cause you constantly run into enemies. I don't even know why SEGA decided against including the superior Master System versions, maybe for the sake of consistency, but at this point I'm speculating on dumb corporate decisions that decided to give the worst version to the player.
The main issue, though, is that these games aren't even good. There are two or three of them which are fine, but most of these are mediocre games that don't go past the 1-hour mark. You probably won't finish them either way, since they aren't that interesting. Let's go through them real quick:
Sonic 1 8-Bit: The first Sonic game that perfectly captures Sonic 1, in the sense that only the first zone is exhilarating.
Sonic 2 8-Bit: A fine game, made incredibly hard and infuriating due to screen crunch.
Sonic Chaos: Easily the best 2D Sonic game on the Game Gear, but incredibly bland, does nothing good, nothing bad.
Sonic Triple Trouble: A game that actually does try something, but falls short in terms of confusing level design at times.
Sonic Blast: The worst version of the worst 2D Sonic game ever made.
Sonic Labyrinth: It's putrid.
Sonic Spinball: The 8-Bit version with even worse physics.
Mean Bean Machine: This is just Puyo Puyo, but they slapped Sonic on it to sell more copies.
Sonic Drift: SEGA's response to Mario Kart is alright, but feels more like a proof of concept.
Sonic Drift 2: Easily the best Sonic Game Gear game, it improves the previous game tenfold by being pretty ambitious.
Tails Skypatrol: A 2D scroll shooter. Pretty dull.
Tails Adventure: A Metroidvania type game that is actually interesting to look back on. To look back on, not play.
As you can see, they're interesting to dabble with for 5 minutes and then quit, nothing more.
This DLC continuously showed me how lackluster it is, but the breaking point was the fact that this is such a shameless scam.
As you may have noticed, the Sonic Origins game costs 30 bucks now, instead of 40 bucks, with the 45 bucks premium edition completely removed. So, if you bought the game before the DLC was released you basically paid 10 bucks for no reason, and have to waste an additional 11 bucks to even get the DLC. The people who bought the premium edition have it even worse. They already own HALF the DLC, yet still have to pay 11 bucks for the rest of it. This is outrageous, because the premium edition was already a scam, you got a few more challenges, a mirror mode no one cares about and an island camera that does jack shit, with models that are animated like animatronics.
Listen, Sonic Mania's Plus DLC costs 5 dollars and includes a new mode that changes how you play, and two characters that are distinct from the rest of the cast.
Sonic Frontiers is releasing its third FREE update at the end of the month, and judging by the other updates, it adds another 5 hours of content to the game that is worth picking up the game for, so why the heck is this nostalgia bait collection expensive for no good reason, not only scamming new fans, but also day one buyers that thought to support the blue rat? Because they once again treat it like a GTA free money glitch.
This DLC does add content, but nothing here is good or worth getting scammed over. 5/10.