According to Sonic Team director Yojiro Ogawa, the compilation (and its 2002 predecessor Sonic Mega Collection) was conceived to introduce young players to older games in the Sonic franchise.
Sonic Gems Collection was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. In each demo the player begins in the respective game's final level and can play until the time limit is met. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1995), and Sonic Blast (1996)) can also be unlocked. Time-limited demos of the original Genesis Sonic games and the other six Game Gear games ( Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), Sonic Chaos (1993), Sonic Drift (1994), Sonic Labyrinth (1995), Dr. The compilation features an extensive museum section in which players can view content-such as promotional artwork, videos, screenshots, and music-unlocked after obtaining achievements. Each game is mostly identical to its initial release, but some were changed for example, Sonic R runs at a higher frame rate. (1990) and the Streets of Rage trilogy (1991-1994), are not included in the international version. Four games in the japanese version, Bonanza Bros. Additionally, players can unlock several Sega Genesis games unrelated to Sonic, including the two VectorMan games (19). These games encompass various genres, such as platforming, fighting, pinball, and puzzle. It also includes six of the twelve Sonic games released for the Game Gear. It primarily focuses on Sonic the Hedgehog games, such as Sonic CD (1993) and Sonic the Fighters (1996). The only people we could possibly recommend this to are collectors.Sonic Gems Collection is a compilation of obscure video games published by Sega for various consoles, such as the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, and Game Gear. To start with, the games on that disc are actually pretty decent and, as an added bonus, extras like Flicky and Ristar really round the package off. If you have to buy a Sonic Collection, then the previous one is far superior. So there you have it, completely underwhelming all round.
The fact that the only unlockable extras are the Vectorman games is scant consolation considering the Japanese version includes Streets of Rage and its sequels - three games that would definitely have made this compilation worth considering.
The only thing that could have saved Sonic Gems Collection is the extra content, and it fails in this respect too. The only ones worth more than five minutes of your time are the mildly interesting Skypatrol - which, despite being unique in its aerial puzzling action, is still a frustrating chore of a game - and the reasonably competent, but no less tedious, Triple Trouble. The final nail in the coffin has to be the collection of awful Game Gear games, which were pretty terrible the first time around. It's painfully slow and unresponsive, and while there's plenty to master in terms of move sets and combos, we can't imagine anyone wanting to put in the effort when the fighting genre has been refined significantly over the last decade. Sonic R, the Mario Kart-style racer of the pack, while reasonably speedy, is an absolute pig to control, with each racer skating around the circuits with all the grace of an inebriated toddler.įighters isn't too hot either, shoe horning Sonic characters into the frankly decrepit Virtua Fighter engine. Which leaves us with the rest of the disc to consider, and we're sad to say it goes downhill rapidly.īoth Sonic R and Sonic The Fighters both look reasonable enough, and the clunky 3D engines powering them both lend a certain charm, but actually playing them is another matter. In fact, the only thing that has stood the test of time is the excellent music, which is hardly a reason to buy Sonic Gems Collection in itself, and will probably only be interesting for the people who played the game the first time around. That's not to say it's a poor game, mind - it's still a very solid and enjoyable platformer, it's just not as good as we remember it being, and we're not quite as forgiving as we were back then. To be perfectly honest, some of the level design is also a bit of a mess, feeling unnecessarily slap-dash, unfocused and as it lacks the streamlined purity of the earlier Sonic games, it can often feel like too much of an effort to play.