User:TheJoebro64/Sonic Gems Collection

Sonic Gems Collection is a compilation video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube consoles. Unlike Sega's prior Sonic compilation Sonic Mega Collection, which focused on the most popular entry's in the series, Gems Collection centers more around rare and obscure games.

The game was released for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 in Japan on August 11, 2005, in Europe on September 30, 2005, and in North America on August 16, 2005. Only the GameCube version was released in Western regions.

Contents
As its name suggests, Sonic Gems Collection contains more obscure in the Sonic series. The game also features an art gallery, where players can look at illustrations and promotional material for the Sonic games.

Full Sonic games included

 * Sonic the Hedgehog CD - originally released on Mega CD. The Microsoft Windows version of this game is used in Gems Collection.
 * Sonic the Fighters - originally released as an arcade game. This marks the first proper release of Sonic the Fighters in Western regions.
 * Sonic R - originally released for the Sega Saturn. Like Sonic CD, the Windows version is used for the port.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) - originally for Sega Game Gear
 * Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball - originally for Sega Game Gear
 * Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble - originally for Sega Game Gear
 * Sonic Drift 2 - originally for Sega Game Gear
 * Tails' Skypatrol - originally for Sega Game Gear
 * Tails Adventure - originally for Sega Game Gear

SegaSonic the Hedgehog was initially planned for inclusion, but was left out due to problems with properly emulating the game's trackball controls. Sonic Eraser was once possibly considered to be included, as data referring to it exists in the game's coding. There are also several pages of the art museum dedicated to Knuckles' Chaotix, which has led to speculation that it was once considered for inclusion.

Non-Sonic games included

 * All regions:
 * Vectorman
 * Vectorman 2
 * Japan only:
 * Streets of Rage - the Streets of Rage games were not included in the western release due to fears of a "T" rating from the ESRB.
 * Streets of Rage 2
 * Streets of Rage 3
 * Bonanza Bros.

Demo Sonic games
It should be noted that the full versions of these games were included on the game disc, but only a demo was made available. This was done by setting a time limit for which the player can play the corresponding game. Furthermore, when the game starts, it jumps to the last act of the last zone in the game. However, once that act has been completed and the credits watched, the game can be restarted from the beginning, although this does not reset the timer so the player cannot get very far. The time limit itself depends on the time needed to complete the game's last act. For example, for Sonic The Hedgehog 3, 15 minutes are given, but for the 8-bit version of the original Sonic The Hedgehog, only 5 minutes are given.


 * Sega Genesis
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Sonic The Hedgehog 2
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
 * Sonic 3D Blast
 * Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
 * Sonic Spinball


 * Game Gear
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Sonic Labyrinth
 * Sonic Drift
 * Sonic Chaos
 * Sonic Blast
 * ''Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Trailers included

 * Sonic the Hedgehog - a video advertising the whole Sonic the Hedgehog series. It shows title screens from the 16-bit versions of Sonic 1, 2, 3, CD, The Fighters, Adventure, Adventure 2: Battle and Heroes, followed by gameplay footage for these. It is interspliced with full motion video taken from modern Sonic titles.
 * Sonic Heroes
 * Sonic Adventure - opening introduction

Reception
Sonic Gems Collection received mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game has an average score of 64 out of 100, which indicates "mixed or average reviews" based on 32 reviews.

Most of the praise went to the inclusion of Sonic CD and Vectorman. Nintendo Power offered a positive review of the title, but singled out Sonic CD as being the game's strongest selling point. Juan Castro of IGN offered similar praise for Sonic CD, and was also pleased by the inclusion of Vectorman, calling it "the pinnacle of 16-bit gaming". Ryan Davis of GameSpot called CD "far more playable" than the other Sonic games on the compilation. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer called Sonic CD "the reason you might buy this".

Opinions were mixed on the remaining content in the compilation. Castro called Sonic R a "mixture of good ideas and poor implementation", commenting that the game was fun, but criticized its controls. Davis, on the other hand, claimed the only redeeming quality of Sonic R was its "laughably bad soundtrack". Both Castro and Davis agreed that Sonic the Fighters was essentially the same as Virtua Fighter, and Phil Theobald of GameSpy claimed it "looks more fun than it is". The Game Gear Sonic games were met with heavy criticism due to poor emulation; Davis called them "all over the place" in terms of quality, while Castro described their graphical looks as "pretty bad". Davis was also disappointed by the lack of the Streets of Rage games in the Western release.

Despite these criticisms, Sonic Gems Collection sold well, with the GameCube version receiving Player's Choice status.