Sonic Gem Collection

BlitzKrieg

Picked this up as i am a very big sonic fan (pity i wasnt here for the sonic 2 challange)


anyway

you get 3 main games and a load of old game gear games.

the 3 big games.

Sonic R.

I already had it on the saturn and pretty much the same faults remain. Great levels but far too few (only 5!) the idea that its not just a race but also a series of challanges was great. But the whole thing shoots itself in the foot by a very poor control design. which seems to be worse on the ps2 pad. Though the large selection of fun characters and the added 4 player mode is nice i guess. The music on this game will tear people in two. some will like the soft vocal pop music, most will quickly go to turn the vocals off (in options) and enjoy the nicely put together music without the lyrics.

Sonic The Fighters.

Its not old school (street fighter 2) its more of middle school, coming from the era of virtua fighter 2 and fighting vipers (and just before tekken 3 i think) this fun little beat em up offers nothing absolutely new and exciting, but is an entertaining beat em up with fun and crazy moves and is difficult enough in single player (for a beat em up) and can be a mad hoot in multiplayer. The music is strangely satisfying.

(i'll get to sonic cd at the end)


The little games.

A collection of sonic games.

sonic 2
-pretty aweful game gear game with poor levels, the bosses are probably some of the most bizarre in sonic history (though the first one is actually the hardest of the bunch)

Sonic spinball.

-why they stuck this in is beyond me, the game is a complete mess based on a poor game to begin with.

Sonic Drift 2

-mario kart clone that suffers mainly from the fact it was designed for the low powered game gear, pretty much a nonplus on a big screen.

Sonic Triple Trouble

-The only half decent sonic game gear game series was sonic chaos, and this sonic tirple trouble (though sonic 1 was good too) fun levels, introduces nack the weasel as a new mini boss character, and of course knuckles to the game gear. If the game was cleaned up a bit for the big screen it might have been great fun to play through, but the shoddyness of the movement takes alot away from the gameplay.

Tails sky patrol.

-tails first stand alone game never made it outside of japan, and it is clear to see why, it is a bizarre flying ring throw em up which apart from the use of the character of tails has nothing in common with a sonic game,

Tails Adventure.

-think Wonder Boy but with tails. an adventure action game. again nothing like a sonic game, but easier to understand and playable then the above.



Now for Sonic CD and my big f*ck you to Sega.

first the good.

Sonic CD is one of the classic sonic games. drawing a line on whats a *real* sonic game and whats a gimmicky half arsed sonic game. Sonic CD lands firmly in the real side with the original mega drive series (and maybe the first adventure game).

Between sonic 1 and 2 (on megadrive) it plays in between the two, the much larger levels of sonic 1, with the spin dash (and running dash) that can be found in sonic 2. The real gem is the time travel, each level has a past present and future. This is a clever extra challange as your actions in the past can affect the rest of the game. Jumping from present to past (find time post...run really quick) allows you to hunt down both a metal sonic projector and a robotizing machine. destroy metal sonic to release animals across the level and the machine to remove all the bad guys. Jump to the present and there are no bad guys still. Jump to the future (after doing the above) to find a paradise future with bonuses. Jump to the future without going to the past and find a hellish polluted nightmare much harder then past or present. the third act of every level is in the future where you fight robotnik.

Free the past in both acts for each level and you will get a third act that is a paradise. Repeat for every level for the proper ending.

or if thats too much, get the 7 time stones (chaos emeralds) for same ending.

The game is great fun to play and it is much more of a challange trying to go back in time and finding these machines in each level.

BUT

f*ck sega.

Due to being lazy idiotic basterds, they shipped the pc version of the game in this pack. Meaning we have the annoying American soundtrack (not in original european). The version of the game on the collection is essentially the pc version. Which for some unseen reason really annoys me...

on its own that might seem to be nothing.

But, the japanese version of sonic gems collection came with its original soundtrack.

It also came with the three streets of rage games.

We get vectorman (which was on sonic mega collection) and vectorman2.



Now that would not be much of an annoyance, unless you have enjoyed the splendor that was Sonic Jam on the Saturn.


That was how one should do a compilation pack. You had all the original games (plus extra modes) then a whole 3d world to explore with challanges and trvia and movies and stuff.

all the cool stuff in sonic jam are in this but they are stuck up on some gallary called sonic museum, nothing really *extra special*.

Even lazier sonic jam, came with digital manuals from every region (europe, japan, usa) plus box design etc. Sonic Gem collection comes with the american manuals only.


Now reading this you must all be shaking your heads thinking i lost it for being annoyed.

but sega cannot use the same excuse as George Lucas. This is not a compilation for everybody.

a game consisting of Sonic CD and Sonic the Fighters, the *rare* sonic games, the ones that only hardcore fans really want is aimed for the hardcore fans and sega throws us a quickly slopped together minute version (without the proper soundtrack damn you!).

Next they will throw us another compilation with Sonic Arcade in it, and i will be pissed at myself for buying it all over again.

Retr0gamer

I actually quite liked Sonic 2 on the game gearand think it would be one of the best in the series if it wasn't for the annoying handglider. I'm also not a big fan of Sonic CD even though it is regarded as the best sonic game. Think the level design is really dull. However including the hated American soundtrack over the superior japanese and european soundtrack is a joke. I really don't see why Sega took out the Streets of Rage games. The Vectorman games may be good but they aren't SoR. The dated violence in those games won't get it a teen rating. Doesn't seem like the best compilation either and seems to be trying to sell on the strength of sonic CD.

Edit: I thought the sonic R soundtrack was the funniest music I have ever heard. I can just sit back a laugh at how bad the lyrics are. It does manage to become painful when you are playing the game.

BlitzKrieg

i thought sonic 2 gg had aweful level design (when compared to the wonderful sonic 1 gg [bridge level kicks ass]) the bosses can be fun (esp silver sonic) and the idea of finding the six emeralds to unlock the last level while an absolute pain in the ass does add replayability.

I wouldnt see sonic cd as the best sonic game by far (the best is sonic 3 with sonic and knuckles) but is alot of fun and i love the time travel. (of course i'll admit most of the bosses are poorly designed...esp the last.)

you wouldnt know where you can obtain the sonic cd soundtrack, or do mega cd games work like music cds? (might buy original just for soundtrack)

Retr0gamer

The music in sonic CD is in track format so you can play it on a CD player. It's quite easy to find the iso and mp3 image on the intraweb just can't tell you where.

BlitzKrieg

cheers will have a look

Roar

sonic 2 was my very first game i had on the gamegear and i played it to death.. although i was replaying it recently and i cant seem to remember much of it..

and i think there was a cheat as well, think you pressed down,left,1,2 and start together at the start screen for a level select.. not too sure... it wouldnt work on my emulated version anyway...

CiDeRmAn

Glad I have the best of the collection already so, Sonic R, Sonic CD. Pity the game gear titles are so poor, ah well, as was said they should have made one great big retrospective, with a Sonic Jam style menu, that would have been sweet. Would have liked an updated Sonic R with a better draw distance and that track ball sonic game, now what was that again, so when if ever will the definitive collection appear, probably when there is no-one left who gives a damn.
The they will wonder why nobody bought it.


Hated Streets of Rage by the way, Final Fight was so much better, fpr Megadrive related violence played lots of Road Rash 2 myself. Got it for my 21st, lovely jubbly!

Anyone else see Bod playing on Noggin (Nick jr) at 20:05, like right now, bugger but those guys were stoners!