Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Party
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 16 Aug 05

User Rating
9.8 (4 votes)

Score 10 (Best) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Worst)

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Overview

I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the name Sonic, it just gets me right in the mood, and ready to play another rendition of one of my favorite series of all time, and that of course is Sonic the Hedgehog. I am honestly surprised to see how few of these games we have seen come out over the years since the departure of Sega and their hardware aspirations. Well although today we are not checking out a new version of our favorite blue guy, we are checking out a compilation of some of his old adventures. So how do these turn out on the Gamecube? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

To this day it is still weird for me to say that Sonic is playing on the Gamecube after all of those years of fierce battling between Sega and Nintendo, you might as well tell me Mario is playing on the Dreamcast 2, because this is still a bit weird of a feeling. With that being said we have seen Sega already put some of the classic Sonic games together in a compilation disc but today we get to look at some of the different Sonic games that most of us including myself have never even heard of.

Here is the list of games that are available in this compilation:
Sonic CD
Sonic the Fighters
Sonic R
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Gamegear)
Sonic Spinball (Gamegear)
Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble (Gamegear)
Sonic Drift 2 (Gamegear)
Tails Skypatrol (Gamegear)
Tails Adventures (Gamegear)

Now of course when I look at that list the one game that stands out to me most is the first one, which of course a lot of us have played for hours and have loved every minute of it. This game first off ports over extremely well and in my opinion really plays excellently on the Gamecube. I was a huge fan of the sense of speed that you got with Sonic CD originally and am still impressed with the game now in Gems Collection.

I must say that I never even heard of Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R before this game, but after playing them I can sort of see that they both have a lot of potential. First off, Sonic the Fighters is exactly what it sounds like and that is a fighting game. Although it is extremely simple and doesn't have a whole lot of depth to it, it is still kind of a neat experience to fight as some of these Sonic characters. The other game is Sonic R, which is a racing rendition of the Sonic series and this can be fun at times but you can see this game needs a whole lot more work in order for it to really be a worthwhile game to play through.

This collection of course has a ton of Gamegear games and although all of them perform fine on the Gamecube, I wonder why some of them were put in this compilation and why others were left out, but I suppose that will just remain a mystery.

Sonic Gems Collection is really an odd group of Sonic games that I think really was an interesting selection of games that was a good idea but some of the execution wasn't spot on. A lot of these Gamegear games weren't any good when the Gamegear was around, and now are even worse which really hurts this game in the long run. This compilation has the hardcore Sonic fan in mind, and I must say that the overall verdict of the gameplay was that it was a success.

Graphics

Of course this portion of the review is sort of difficult to do when all of the games are from the distant past, but with that being said this compilation plays beautifully on the Gamecube. Even the graphics hold their true form, which was a good thing. I was impressed with how well Sonic Team did in keeping everything as close as they could to the same as when they were initially released, which as many of us already know is a challenge within itself.

Fun Factor

Unless you are one of the three people in this world that didn't find Sonic to be fun, then you are going to find Sonic Gems Collection to be a lot of fun as well. I must say that if you enjoyed Sonic CD, then that really is reason enough to go out and purchase this game and play through it. Also if you're a hardcore Sonic fan you will be able to play through games that you most likely have never played before and I am sure if you're a Sonic fan that will be pretty exciting.

Overall

Sonic Gems Collection for the Gamecube has a select group of people in mind and those people are the die hard Sonic fans that are still depressed that Sega has chosen to concentrate on softwares instead of hardware. If you have said yes to this question then these games is for you, and if you didn't say yes and enjoy Sonic then you too are also going to enjoy Sonic Gems Collection for the Nintendo Gamecube.

Gameplay
7.0

Graphics
7.0

Fun Factor
7.0

Overall
7.0

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