Digital Foundry has released a Tech Review for Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins, a collection of 4 retro Sonic the Hedgehog games, has been available for 5 days now. With the collection being available for nearly a week now, fans have been gradually taking a look at the technical aspect of Sonic Origins.

This also includes Digital Foundry. Earlier today, they released a Tech Review for Sonic Origins. As the name implies, they reviewed Sonic Origins, but mainly from a technical standpoint. If you’re curious about what they said, a list of highlights can be seen down below.

GENERAL

• Overall, feels unpolished – glitches and steep price tag make it a tough sell at the moment
• The games in the collection are not emulated, but are proper ports remade in the Retro Engine
• The frontend for the collection is powered by the Hedgehog Engine
• DLC feels tacked on and should have been included
• The drop dash (now included in all games) feels glitchy compared to Mania
• Classic Mode still uses the Retro Engine versions of the games and doesn’t feel entirely faithful
• Lots of minor bugs that need to be addressed (Museum typos, Tails getting stuck, Blue Spheres music tempo not increasing, etc.)

VIDEO

• All the games are rendered using a bilinear filter rather than a sharp scale, resulting in softened pixels
• Turning anti-aliasing on in Origins’ settings results in an unacceptably blurry presentation
• The other video filter options included with Mania are not present in Origins
• PS5/XSX provides a pristine native 4K frontend, Switch is blurrier
• Animated videos are incorrectly scaled on the Switch
• Anniversary Mode is native 16:9 widescreen, Classic Mode is 4:3
• Sonic CD’s menu is functionally/visually inconsistent with the other games in the collection

AUDIO

• Overall volume levels are too low, especially on the Switch in portable mode
• Sonic CD’s animated videos are too loud compared to everything else
• Several 3&K songs were replaced with versions based on the prototype songs
• The music in 3&K is muffled compared to the other games
• Sonic CD’s music extended music loop sections included in the 2011 version are no longer present
• Sonic CD’s voice samples are not present

PERFORMANCE

• PS5/XSX frontend runs at 60fps, Switch runs at 30fps and feels less fluid
• The games feature low input lag and feel remarkably responsive
• Slowdown eliminated in the games thanks to Retro Engine – games run at a smooth 60fps
• Special stages are much smoother compared to the original Genesis/CD versions

Source