The Ultimate Nostalgia Trip: Unboxing the Sonic Origins Collector's Edition

It's taken a while, but after many months of teasing Pix'n Love has released the Collector's Edition of Sonic Origins Plus - a physical package containing the blue blur's (nearly) complete 1990s gaming history, along with some exclusive goodies that makes this worthy as a centrepiece on your shelf.

Pix'n Love was kind enough to send us a sample of the limited set, and as you can see in the photo above it comes in quite a hefty box - and even then it cannot contain everything, as pre-orders of the Collector's Edition also come with a Mega Drive/Genesis style replica box (more on that below). Let's open it up and see what's inside!

Upon sliding out the box from its sleeve, you're presented with a numbered Collector's card and a shiny acrylic plate that features the incredible Sonic Origins key artwork. I'd say it's something you can proudly hang on your wall, but as it happens you'll have a lot of competition on what to actually put up because...

...as you dig further into the box, you also find a series of lithograph art cards - one for each playable character in the Sonic Origins compilation. Depending on how big your wall actually is, you could choose to stick up the one card with your favourite character on it, or you could place all of them AND the acrylic plate up there. If you live in, like, a mansion or something.

Of course, you also get a copy of Sonic Origins Plus in the Collector's Edition as well. It'd be kind of weird if you didn't, really. As Pix'n Love is a Paris-based company, the package is likely to be of the French variety as seen above, but as most consoles these days are region-free you shouldn't have any problems loading the disc up into your system. And having "Nouveaux Personnages Jouables" slapped on a Sonic box on your shelf kind of feels refined, exotic and cultured, right? Unless you're French. In which case, it's just a bunch of words really.

The compilation itself is really quite good, too. You can read our review of the base Sonic Origins collection as well as our updated review of the Plus expansion right here, if you need convincing.

Perhaps one of the standout goodies in the Collector's Edition, this Art Book will likely be the key reason fans will be interested in this set. It's a 96-page tome packed full of official art and concept scribbles from the development of various 16-bit Sonic games. Some of this stuff have really come from deep in the archives, such as level designs from Sonic 2's lost stages and prototypes of Knuckles the Echidna.

It's super interesting, and the sample photos above only scratch the surface of what's included. Unfortunately, while there are references to the 8-bit games included in Sonic Origins Plus, these are limited to key artwork found on the Game Gear boxes, and don't go as deep as the Mega Drive/Genesis Sonic game art. But nonetheless, what is in here is substantial, and there is material that would interest even a seasoned fan who may think they have seen a lot of this before.

Surprisingly, Pix'n Love has also produced a number of replica Mega Drive/Genesis boxes to ship alongside the Collector's Edition - and unlike some of the replica boxes I have amassed over the years (Sonic Generations T-Shirt box, I'm looking at you) this has been made to the exact size and specifications of the original 1990s blister packs, plastic tag for retailer hangers and all. Here's a comparison with my Sonic 2 box, above.

Better yet, the Sonic Origins box also has a holder inside for Mega Drive/Genesis cartridges, and it works pretty well! If you have any loose games lying around, you now have a new home for it!

Personally, I really appreciate the attention to detail on the back of the box as well, right down to the alignment of text and game logo within the black box and the cutting off of the grid pattern in the background.

So there you have it. That's what's inside this rather large Sonic Origins Collector's Edition. If you like artwork, Mega Drive replica boxes and enjoy the idea of having a slice of 1990s gaming history on your shelf, then this could very well be worth the €89,90 asking price for you.

Expect a video unboxing of this special set to come very soon! In the meantime, you can order a copy of the Deluxe Edition of Sonic Origins via the Pix'n Love website here: Switch Version | PS5 Version | PS4 Version

Special thanks to Pix'n Love for providing the sample for this article.