This could be a contender for the strangest news story of the day. Sega has announced that Sonic Origins will not include the original soundtrack from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Now, you might be thinking “this isn’t that strange,” but the strange bit will be revealed below.
This news was confirmed by Katie Chrzanowski, the social media manager for Sonic, who made the announcement via a live Sonic stream. Chrzanowski said that “While unfortunately, we can’t use all the original sounds from the Sega Genesis version of the game, Jun Senoue has been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for Sonic Origins.”
Chrzanowski went on to add, “Senoue has been going so far as reproducing it, with the same sound chip from the Sega Genesis, and using his own digital audio tape collection to make this as faithful to the original as possible.” That is a real commitment to the cause, and he knows what he’s doing, having worked on multiple soundtracks in the Sonic series.
The reason why the original soundtrack cannot be used for Sonic Origins is because of a rumor that Michael Jackson–yes, the King of Pop himself–was originally involved in the soundtrack to Sonic 3.
As we all know, soon after 1993, the singer was accused of child molestation, and Sega was eager to distance themselves from the whole ordeal. At the same time, Jackson supposedly claimed that he wasn’t happy with how his music sounded on the Mega Drive’s MIDI sound chip – we’re not really sure what he expected, to be honest.
Jackson had also apparently waived compensation royalties for his music up until the singer’s death in 2009, which is when things began to get complicated once again. Variations of the original music had been used in re-released versions of Sonic 3 until 2018.
This story is very much not finished, but fans of the series will be eagerly waiting to see what music will be included in the upcoming game. Sonic 3 is scheduled for release on June 23, 2022.
