Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins is a 3D platforming game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega in 2015 as a main title in the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise.

The game included multiple playable characters including Shadow as a playable character for the first time since Sonic The Hedgehog (2006). The game introduced unique gamplay and unique levels for all 8 of the playable story characters and included bonus characters to be used after unlocking them.

Plot
After the events on Space Colony ARK, Dr. Eggman discovers some things left behind. One of those things is a journal written by Dr. Gerald Robotnik. The journal contains information about the Great Yeti, the first prototype of the ultimate life form. The yeti was first created on the Arctic G.U.N. Base due to the cold climate for yeti. The main problem with the yeti was it could not be controlled and was far too powerful. In order to try and stop it, Gerald Robotnik tried to create a Lizard, that would be slower than the yeti but just as powerful to take it down. This lizard would also be attached to the base and would not be able to go loose. This prototype made the cut to board the Space Colony ARK. However, the lizard also lacked the intelligence to be the ultimate life form. Gerald Robtnik finally decided on making Shadow the Hedgehog in hopes that he would be powerful enough to defeat that yeti and much more. Although the tests never finished, and Gerald Robtnik died, Shadow fell down to earth in a capsule. When he landed, he was at the Arctic Base where the Yeti had apparently broken free and was destroying the base and had killed some of the G.U.N. Soldiers. Shadow decides to use his chaos control and defeat the beast. However, G.U.N. soldiers spot Shadow and sentence him to imprisonment because of the events on the ARK. The Beast was dead and sent into the deep basements of the base many years ago....

Many years later, we are introduced to the world's newest and largest city, New Light City. The city was under construction for over 20 years and uses extremely advanced technology. The President himself invites Sonic The Hedgehog to turn on the power to the city for the first time as his reward for saving countless cities and islands in the Sonic Universe. Elsewhere, Eggman is at his new base, the Arctic Base. Eggman thinks about how Sonic is always credited for being the hero. Eggman's plan is to set up a situation where he is the hero so that all the people will surrender to the Eggman empire. Eggman's plan is to drop a dome over New Light City and to release the Great Yeti in New Light City and then have the only one who can defeat it, Shadow the Hedgehog will fight against Metal Sonic, defeat him and then defeat the Great Yeti. Since most of the people in this world are colorblind, it's believable that Metal Sonic is Sonic. They will all think Sonic is the bad great protecting the Yeti, with Shadow being the hero. Shadow will then announce to the people that they must acknowledge Eggman as a hero. With Sonic out of the picture, Eggman will then take over the city. With the dome over the city, nobody will be able to escape and this way Eggman will have control of the city and it's electricity through cables in the dome walls. The plan is very complicated, but with success can result to Eggman taking over the city with Sonic on the other side of the dome locked away from all of the action and unable to save the day.

However, in order to revive the Yeti, Eggman needs the Master Emerald. In order to find it, Eggman ventures to Angel Island and attempts to steel it from Knuckles. Knuckles shatters the emerald to prevent the theft of the master emerald. Because it is shattered, Knuckles has to go out looking for the pieces yet again. Before Eggman leaves though, he manages to take Knuckle's emerald tracker. It can track where pieces of the master emerald are, or where chaos emeralds are. Knuckles with no way to track down the emerald, goes to find Rouge for help since she is also a treasure hunter.Rouge offers to help Knuckles out and the two of them decide to take their own paths each using their own detectors to track the pieces of the emerald.

Meanwhile back at the city, Eggman comes in to spoil the party by sending robots down in New Light City. Eggman tells Sonic that according to the detector he has a chaos emerald and Sonic either gives it to him or will face the consequences. Sonic refuses and then Eggman takes the emerald by force and tells Sonic if he wants it, he'll have to chase him. Amy meets up with Sonic and agrees to help him look for Tails so they can fly the Tornado to pursue Eggman. However, on their way, they find Shadow who is looking for Sonic. Shadow, a G.U.N. agent was put on the case of Eggman stealing the emerald. Shadow tells Sonic Eggman most likely head up north and they decide to take their own path to get here.

Meanwhile in the future things suddenly change. In the future, New Light City was going to be a Utopian society, but with Eggman's actions going according to plan, the future becomes a wasteland again. This forces Silver to travel back in time to try and save his time. He does not use a Chaos Emerald to travel. Silver uses a one time use warp to go to the past so he doesn't hurt the time-space continuum.

Sonic ends up arriving at Tails' lab and the three of them fly on the Tornado. They are following Eggman's ship until they get spotted and Eggman shoots the plane down resulting in them crashing in the middle of the desert. Tails claims that if they make it through the desert they can find his old lab that he used to use ten years ago in the mystic ruins which is beyond the desert.

Sonic, Amy and Tails are able to make their way out of the desert and find the lab and another Tornado which they use to fly to where Eggman's ship was heading, leading them to the Arctic Base. Shadow was able to use a G.U.N. plane to get over there. As soon as they arrive, Amy Rose is kidnapped from a trap floor. Sonic, Tails, and Shadow now decide to split ways and find where Eggman is.

Eggman ventures the base to try and find where the intruders are. The first one he finds is Shadow. Eggman tells Shadow of his plans. Shadow has a flashback of Sonic Adventure 2 when he saved the world, nearly fell to his death. (supposedly this is the real Shadow and he didn't completely die. After all Sonic survived when he had the same fall in Unleashed.) Shadow realizes that his plan can make him a hero so he accepts. Eggman tells Shadow that they both must look for the Chaos Emeralds in order to make this plan work.

Sonic arrives a bit later with Tails and Amy. Eggman explains that they won't be getting the emerald back and then Eggman explains his plan to Sonic for the first time but with very little detail. Eggman then kidnaps Amy as bait to lead Sonic and friends into another trap they will encounter later.

Sonic and Tails now make their way to the Jungle where Eggman's ship was heading. When there, the two meet up with Silver the Hedgehog who explains why he came to the past. Silver and Sonic go on land while Tails uses the Tornado to chase after Eggman's ship.

Eggman wanted to go to this jungle since he knows there is an emerald here due to the detector. He brings Amy along as bait so Sonic and co. would come here where according to the detector, there are a full 4 emeralds here and Eggman already has 3 (one at the start, one from Sonic, one that Shadow had). Eggman and Shadow split up to find the first two emeralds with success.

Tails, using the Tornado closes in on Eggman and shoots down the part of the ship. Eggman and Shadow come out where Tails finds out they were double crossed by Shadow. Silver and Sonic see this ship and catch up to them. When here, Eggman steals the last two emeralds meaning that he now has all of the 7 emeralds that he needs to achieve his ultimate goal.

Sonic tells Silver that they need to split up. Silver heads to the Arctic Base to try and stop Eggman from reawakening the Great Yeti. Sonic heads back to New Light City via the Rail Highway to get there as quick as possible on feet to try and get there before Eggman ultimately domes it off.

Amy is back at the base with Eggman where she attempts to escape and avails by using the G.U.N. plane Shadow left behind to travel back to the city. Tails flies back to the city where he tries to prepare the city for the attack but nobody believes him since they don't know what the Great Yeti is. Rouge and Knuckles discover the last piece is back at the city so they head there too.

Now at the base, Eggman finds the Great Yeti and puts it on board his ship with Silver failing to stop him. Shadow during all this time was out at the lagoon area near the desert near the city trying to ultimately chase and catch up to Sonic and stop him at the last second.

Eggman and Shadow are reunited at the city where Eggman uses his ship drops the dome perfectly over the city with Sonic sliding inside just inside and everyone else already there. Sonic, Amy, Silver, and Tails all decide they need to find Eggman's whereabouts and stop the yeti quick before the plan becomes reality and the future is ruined.

Meanwhile, Rouge and Knuckles find the last pieces of the master emerald and put it back together. However they can't return it to Angel Island since they are stuck in the dome. Eggman when he dropped the dome, was outside of it, but he opens the top of the roof to drop down the Great Yeti and then enters through there.

Eggman announces "Do not worry city, I will save you, with the help of Shadow The Hedgehog!" Eggman gets out the Emeralds to make Shadow super, but the Yeti snatches the emeralds away and they fly in all different directions. Eggman releases Metal Sonic who flies in to stop Shadow but Shadow takes him out in one homing attack.

Shadow is able to defeat the Great Yeti and everyone cheers. However the Yeti is not finished yet. Knuckles and Rouge arrive at the scene and Knuckles mentions that in order to truly put the Yeti to piece, you need the Master Emerald to stop the emeralds, thus killing the beast. Knuckles uses the master emerald, but the Yeti smacks it away at the last second. The emerald doesn't break, but it is lost along with the other emeralds.

Now everyone is stuck in a tough situation. The Great Yeti can't be defeated so easily, and they cannot escape the city. People begin to panic and try and hide from the monster who is inside the enclosed city. The main stories end here.

Last Story
The Last story continues where the main character stories end. This time around, all eight characters realize that in order for any of them to survive, they need to split up and find the seven chaos emeralds and the master emerald. Once all of the chaos emeralds and the master emerald is found, Sonic, and Silver decided to fight the monster.

Shadow then steps in and tells them that this is his fight. He was made to defeat the Great Yeti, for this very purpose. Shadow decides that being a hero doesn't mean you can't be a hero as a team even if you don't get as much credit. Shadow, Silver, and Sonic all team up and take down the Great Yeti.

However, the Great Yeti uses all of its leftover energy to become Perfect Great Yeti, but the three hedgehogs stop the beast once and for all. Knuckles and Rouge then neutralize the emeralds with the master emerald thus killing the Great Yeti once and for all. The impact and destruction of the beast destroys the dome and much of the city.

Sonic tells the citizens that although he has saved plenty of cities, not every city can be saved. Sonic had to do what was right for the people and Sonic tells the people that when a city doesn't need to be completely focused on technology or bad things like this will happen. The people decide that they can rebuild this city and it won't take 20 years, but instead not long at all by using simpler technology.

Knuckles and Rouge help return the master emerald to Angel Island and Silver returns through another portal to the future that has once again been restored.

The credits roll with Sonic running in Green Hill Zone where it all started, far away from the rest of the technology along with Tails flying the Tornado besides Sonic.

Playable (Single player)

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Amy Rose
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Rouge the Bat

Playable (Multiplayer/Arcade)

 * Metal Sonic
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Blaze the Cat
 * Mighty the Armadillo
 * Charmy the Bee
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Big the Cat
 * Tikal the Echidna
 * Chaos Zero
 * E-102 Gamma
 * E-123 Omega
 * Cubot
 * Orbot
 * Egg Pawn
 * Egg Fighter

Sonic
Sonic controls very much like he did in Sonic Adventure 2 but with a few extra moves and some upgrades to collect on Sonic's journey. Also, Sonic and every other character get a bonus move they can perform after filling up a bonus meter that fills up by collecting rings and destroying enemies kind of like the meter in Sonic Heroes. Most of his levels are designed around his speed with a few platforming sections in between. Sonic's levels end at the goal ring.

Sonic's special attack is the Blue Fury. When used, Sonic will go faster and be invincible for 20 seconds.

These controls are written for the Xbox One version. The controls translate over to the other consoles.

Tails
Tails controls just as he did in Sonic Adventure. His gameplay has more platforming and some sections where the player must fly tails through hoops. The goal of Tails' levels are to reach the goal rings. Tails' special move is Jet Speed. By using this move, Tails is able to fly for an infinite amount of time and faster than usual for about 20 seconds.

Knuckles
Knuckles controls similar to Adventure 2 but with more focus on his strength. Instead of searching for 3 emerald pieces, Knuckles goes through stages with lots of combat and little platforming with his goal to find a piece of the emerald at the end of the level. Because of the emphasis on combat, Knuckles moves revolve around his punches and attacks. Knuckles' special move is Red Hot Rage. When this move is used, Knuckles will clear out every enemy on the screen. Some familiar upgrades return like the shovel claw but this time the move is used for attacking enemies and turning on switches underground. Knuckles' combo punch can be used to take out two enemies at once if close enough.

Amy
Amy Rose is pretty much back to the Adventure 1 style. Amy can use her hammer, but in this game it can be used for plenty of different combos and attacks. Similar to Knuckles, Amy's gameplay has as more combat than platforming but there are sections where Amy needs to use her platforming skills such as the double and even triple jump she can perform. Amy's special attack is her Hammer Slammer. This move will have Amy pound the ground with her hammer and turn all the enemies on screen into rings.

Shadow
Shadow's gameplay mirrors Sonic as their levels are similar and they are both geared towards high speed and platforming action. Shadow has slightly more platforming and combat than Sonic but with plenty of speed to entertain. Shadow's special move is Chaos Control will slow down time for 20 seconds which can help Shadow's score boost up.

Silver
Silver the hedgehog plays a bit different than in sonic 06 but with almost the same moves. Silver's ground speed has now been increased and he can now hover as long as he wants although there will usually be areas of the stage where you cannot skip over to make sure players don't abuse this power. Silver no longer needs to pick up boxes, instead he just needs to run near the boxes and pressing the X button will have the box fly in toward the nearest enemy.

Silver's special attack is Psychic Blast. Psychic Blast will have Silver use his telekinesis to pick up all the items on the stage and slam them down at the ground killing them for a nice bonus.

Eggman
Eggman's gameplay is much like it was in SA2 but with the addition of the flying levels. 2 of Eggman's levels have him flying while 3 are in the Egg walker. Eggman's special attack is the Egg Torpedo. Eggman's machine will fly straight forward and destroy parts of the level and everything in it's path.

Rouge
Rouge's gameplay is once again treasure hunting. Rouge controls just as fast as she was in SA2 with not much added. In these levels, the detector can detect all 3 emeralds at once and the levels are a lot smaller than they where in SA2. Rouge's special attack is Sneaky Spy. For 20 seconds, Rouge will become invisible and invincible to all attacks and detectors in the level.

Levels
The 3DS versions levels are all 2D and are split into three stories instead of 8. All of these levels are for the console version stories.

Sonic

 * Boss: Egg Vacuum - Eggman attacks Sonic in the city leading to you having to defend yourself against the doctor.
 * City Rush - Sonic's first level will have you running around the lower parts of the city with tons of ramps, jumps and all the fun first level stuff.
 * Desert Lair - This level will have Sonic blaze through the desert. Sonic will have to run quickly over some quicksand sections. There is also a good deal of platforming here.
 * Blizzard Peaks - At the arctic base, Sonic decides to take the high road, snowboarding down a hill for the first part of the level, and then speeding through by foot for the rest.
 * Jungle Dash - There are plenty of loops and cool jungle themed things here. A lot of the level takes place on large branches and homing attacks and little is on the jungle floor.
 * Rail Highway - This level is mostly on rails and requires lots of switching and occasional platforming techniques.
 * Boss: Shadow - Sonic must race and fight Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Egg Circuit - This final level has Sonic rushing through the now Eggman controlled city. There is a lot more combat here than in other stages and there are some pits and other obstacles to make this level the hardest of Sonic's.

Tails

 * City Chase - City chase has Tails trying to evacuate the city after Eggman arrives. Tails' level is on top of the roofs of the city and has a lot of flying sections.
 * Sand Land - This level has it's share of speed but the main gimmick here is the sand tornadoes. If Tails flies into one, he will get a nice boost up. Most of the level is built around that idea.
 * Arctic Ruins - Tails spends a majority of this level in the air going from platform to platform and operating switches. Tails' goal here is to spot Eggman through the air.
 * Storm Chase - High up in the clouds, there is a little bit of rain here making flight not suitable. That's why Tails will be using his tornado to navigate and try to shoot down Eggman's ship.
 * Boss: Egg Rush - Tails confronts and fights Eggman
 * Defense Point - Tails must fly around the city and activate five different switches to protect the city. There are lots of eggman robots and enemies to face but still plenty of platforming. All of Tails' abilities are tested here.

Knuckles

 * Boss: Egg Vacuum - This is the same boss Sonic fights but it is fought at Angel Island this time.
 * Dust Desert - This level is geared towards combat and switches to form new platforms to advance in the level.
 * Street Search - Now back in the city, Knuckles will travel the quieter streets of the city and take out enemies in this path. This level is very linear but has some areas where Knuckles will have to dig to attack stronger enemies.
 * Ice Mines - Knuckles is inside the base here trying to look for one of the shattered pieces. Knuckles will have to punch through ice to advance in plenty of sections using his combo punch.
 * Rush Hour - Knuckles returns to the city and must search in a busy environment. Many trains are running at this time and Knuckles might have to hop on one to proceed with this level.
 * Base Pursuit - Knuckles will find the final piece here inside the city's G.U.N. base. Although G.U.N. doesn't do much towards the plot, they do send Shadow on his quest and there just so happens to be a piece in here of the emerald. This level requires Knuckles to use all of his combat skills here.
 * Boss: Great Yeti -

Shadow

 * Metro Speedway - This level is similar to Sonic's but takes place during night.
 * Cold Operations - Shadow's level here is inside Eggman's base. Shadow will have to hide from Eggman's security cameras or a lot of enemies will surround Shadow.
 * Forest Floor - Now on Eggman's side, this level takes place in the low parts of the jungle. Shadow has a good mix of speed, some combat, and platforming over water.
 * Swamp Lagoon - This level has Shadow go through desert like conditions but with some swamp areas which are instant death if you fall in them.
 * Boss: Sonic - This is the same thing as Sonic's fight but from Shadow's point of view this time.
 * Deathly Destination - This final level is just like Sonic's but with some different level design and the gimmick here is that you have a time limit to reach the goal ring where the yeti is or you are too late to save the day.
 * Boss: Great Yeti - Shadow now must take down the first form of the Great Yeti. After phase one, Knuckles and Rouge will assist you.

Rouge

 * Frozen Tops
 * Downtown Station
 * Mud Pond
 * Tomb Chamber
 * Spy Lights
 * Boss: Great Yeti

Silver

 * Boiling Point
 * City Coast
 * Tropical Ride
 * Boss: Egg Rush
 * Zero Below
 * Robot City

Amy

 * Starlit Evening
 * Dry Lands
 * Egg Ship
 * Boss: Egg Goons
 * Polar Escape
 * Chaos Chase

Eggman

 * Boss: Knuckles the Echidna
 * Island Hunt
 * Boss: Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Intruder Search
 * Citrus Fields
 * Boss: Tails
 * Deep Trench
 * Ground One

Last

 * Last Chance
 * Boss: Perfect Great Yeti

Story Mode
Story mode will have you selecting between the eight stories and once they are all completed, the last story will be unlocked for an additional 9th story. In this mode, there are no hub worlds and once you complete one stage, there is a cutscene and then you are taken to the next stage.

Chao Garden
A fan favorite makes its return in this game. You can bring any character into the graden at any time as long as you unlocked that character's story. There are races, competitions, and of course the chao kindergarten. Chaos can be raised from eggs and little has been touched from the classic garden from SA2.

Arcade Mode
Arcade mode will have you choose from any of the characters and not just the story characters. In this mode you will take your character and play a single player version of the multiplayer levels. The goal is to see how many stages you can clear with each character without losing a life. If you are to die, the arcade mode will end.

Boss Rush
Boss rush will have you control each and every character as they all fight each boss. If you die here, you will have to restart this mode.

Emblems
Each level will have a total of 7 different missions adding even more replay value to this game than there is in SA2 and most other games. The various other missions can give the player emblems while there are also emblems that can be collected through the chao garden, arcade mode, boss rush, and multiplayer mode.

There are 300 emblems in total.
 * 1 Emblem per mission cleared (287 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for clearing arcade mode with an A Rank (288 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for playing multiplayer mode (289 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem each for raising one dark, neutral, and hero chao (292 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for winning a chao race (293 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for getting an A-Rank on all missions (294 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for unlocking all story characters (295 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for clearing the game (296 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for defeating all of the bosses in the story (297 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for unlocking all of the arcade characters (298 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for getting an A-Rank on all of the unlockable stages (299 Emblems)
 * 1 Emblem for playing the game at least 5 hours (300 Emblems)

Rewards
Chracters, throwback levels, and more can be collected from gaining emblems. The rewards are listed below

Characters

 * Metal Sonic (30 Emblems)
 * Espio the Chameleon (120 Emblems)
 * Blaze the Cat (35 Emblems)
 * Mighty the Armadillo (150 Emblems)
 * Charmy the Bee (40 Emblems)
 * Cream the Rabbit (100 Emblems)
 * Vector the Crocodile (45 Emblems)
 * Big the Cat (280 Emblems)
 * Tikal the Echidna (55 Emblems)
 * Chaos Zero (250 Emblems)
 * E-102 Gamma (70 Emblems)
 * E-123 Omega (180 Emblems)
 * Cubot (80 Emblems)
 * Orbot (200 Emblems)
 * Egg Pawn (90 Emblems)
 * Egg Fighter (230 Emblems)

Levels
__INDEX__
 * Casinopolis (Tails - 25 Emblems)
 * Radical Highway (Shadow - 40 Emblems)
 * Crisis City (Silver - 55 Emblems)
 * Twinkle Park (Amy - 70 Emblems)
 * Security Hall (Rouge - 90 Emblems)
 * Cosmic Wall (Eggman - 115 Emblems)
 * Pumpkin Hill (Knuckles - 140 Emblems)
 * Green Hill (Sonic - 170 Emblems)