10 Video Games That Exploited Your Nostalgia
2. Sonic Origins
Sonic the Hedgehog only ever does things in weird and confusing ways. Instead of doing a whole lot to commemorate three decades of existence, Sega decided that the Blue Blur’s 31st anniversary was a better time to rush out another collection of classic hits.
Sonic Origins consists of four (and a half?) games that are now all over 25 years old, priced at an ungodly $40 just for the standard edition. Still, it can be argued that a little more playtime has been added to the package via new mission modes but the Sonic 3 and Knuckles portion in particular was marred with glitches and anomalies.
Post-launch Simon Thomley, lead developer, made a statement to defend himself from criticisms of the package. Essentially, he wanted to work on the game until his team were happy with it but Sega demanded workplace crunch to meet a strict deadline. Whilst the developers we can assume love Sonic and its community, Sega was clearly more interested in a nostalgic cash-grab.
As an added layer of exploitation, Sega decided to stop players from making their own little collection of Sonic titles. A month before Origins released, several games from its line-up were removed from online storefronts. From a business standpoint it does make sense, but you better be sure that what you’re offering instead is a fair replacement.