Sega Finally Addresses Michael Jackson Rumor

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So Sonic Origins finally releases today. This title is a compilation package of the 16-bit Sonic games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. For those who never played these titles before or have lost them over the decades this is an ideal package to purchase, but their is a caveat. Some of the music from Sonic 3 has been omitted in this release. Back in the 1990s it was rumored that legendary pop artist Michael Jackson along with keyboardist and musical director Brad Buxer worked on the Sonic 3 soundtrack. It was said that Michael Jackson didn't like how the Sega sound chip sounded and how his tracks were integrated.




Subsequent releases of Sonic 3 have replaced some tracks with a prototype version. It's been long speculated by fans that it was because Michael Jackson composed those songs and up until now it was just speculation. Today, Yuji Naka, a former Sonic team lead and the lead programmer for Sonic 3 posted the following on Twitter:

Oh my god, the music for Sonic 3 has changed, even though SEGA Official uses Michael Jackson's music.

Yep, that's pretty much a confirmation straight from a developer. In Sonic Origins instead of just using the prototype versions in previous ports Sega instead got longtime Sonic composer Jun Senoue to recreate the prototype music from scratch even using the Sega sound chip. Sonic Origins is now available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. The only ways to currently listen to those Michael Jackson and Buxer tracks are by playing the original versions on Sega Genesis, on an emulator, or through the eventual PC mods for this title.




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