Sonic the Hedgehog 3 music from Michael Jackson cut from Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins, a compilation of four classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, is out today, giving Sega fans a chance to revisit the mascot’s 16-bit era. It’s an authentic experience, with one exception: Some of the music that many Sonic the Hedgehog: 3 Sonic 3 & Knuckles players experienced on the Sega Genesis back in the ’90s isn’t included in the new collection. Sega has instead included new tracks which combine old and recent work.

That’s because some songs from Sonic the Hedgehog: 3As it was released in its original form,. were written by Michael Jackson, and Brad Buxer, the keyboardist. According to Buxer, Jackson was not happy with Sega’s implementation of his songs, and later releases of Sonic the Hedgehog: 3A different selection of music was used. Sega itself has never officially confirmed details about Jackson’s involvement in the Genesis game (he’s not officially credited in any version of the game), leading to speculation that Sonic 3’s music rights are fraught.

But on Thursday, former Sonic Team lead Yuji Naka — who was lead programmer on Sonic the Hedgehog: 3 — outright confirmed on Twitter that Jackson contributed music to the game. It’s been a longstanding rumor and hinted at in the past by other former Sega developers, but Naka would be in a position to know.

Re-releases Sonic the Hedgehog: 3On other platforms, and in different compilations, you can swap out music tracks taken from the prototype game. However, Sonic OriginsSega took it one step further and hired Jun Senoue, a long-time Sonic the Hedgehog composer, to modify Sonic 3’s original prototype music for the collection, according to Sonic social media manager Katie Chrzanowski.

“While unfortunately we can’t use all of the original sounds from the Sega Genesis version of the game, Jun Senoue’s been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for Sonic Origins,” Chrzanowski said in a video Q&A. “He’s 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 originals as possible.”

As seen and heard in the excellent video below from GameXplain, the Jackson-Buxer tracks have been removed, and replaced with Senoue’s recreated tracks.

It’s certainly a creative solution to an issue that has vexed Sega and Sonic fans for decades, and likely the most authentic way to address what has been something of an urban legend. But that doesn’t mean that Sonic the Hedgehog fans are happy with it; response to the updated prototype music has been widely negative.

Sonic OriginsIt is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as well as Windows PCs, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One. It includes the original Sonic the HedgehogAs well as its sequels Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & KnucklesAnd Sonic CD.