The release of Sonic Origins yesterday saw the return of classic Mega Drive/Genesis blue blurs games, all integrated into modern consoles. The most notable part of the package is Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which sees Sonic 3 ported to consoles with new HD updates for the first time.

To help make this version possible, Headcannon, one of the developers behind the wonderful Sonic Mania, worked together with Sega to recreate the classic interlocking duo in the Retro Engine. Now that the series is out, Stealth, the alias of Headcannon’s Simon Thomley, acknowledged some of the problems with the final release and shared some of the complications behind them on Twitter.

The full thread (which is quite long and worth reading in its entirety) details how Stealth and the team shipped a build that they acknowledge needed some fixes, but Stealth also noticed bugs in the final build that weren’t present in the build. Headcannon – The result of Sega’s integration of the team’s work into the Origins game as a whole.

Stealth also states that the team wants “these issues resolved” and asked for major fixes to be made before Origins shipped, and asked about the possibility of delaying the game, and was told that this was not possible, which With the game locked for release on Sonic’s Birthday it’s certainly understandable from a marketing perspective. Headcannon is currently awaiting word from Sega on whether it can implement any post-launch patches.

It should be noted that Stealth is careful to clarify that the problem is complicated, and he and other members who worked on this version of Sonic 3 also give high praise to the Sega employees who are called by name, including the head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka:

Sega has yet to respond or announce if patches will be issued. While the issues mentioned above may go unnoticed by players new to the games, Sonic fans who got their start with the series in the ’90s have noticed several differences. However, the biggest changes, those affecting audio tracks attributed to Michael Jackson and/or his team, have garnered the most widespread attention, most notably from Yuji Naka himself.

If there are any updates to the game, we’ll be sure to let you know.