Sonic Gems Collection

Sonic Gems Collection is a compilation of the more obscure games of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 in Japan on August 11, 2005 and in Europe on September 30, 2005. In North America, only the GameCube version was released on August 16, 2005.

Games

 * Sonic CD (Sega CD, port of the PC version, ported by Sonic Team)
 * Sonic the Fighters (Arcade, ported by Sega-AM2)
 * Sonic R (Sega Saturn, port of the PC version, ported by Traveller's Tales)

The collection also includes the six Game Gear games that were absent in Sonic Mega Collection Plus:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2
 * Sonic Spinball
 * Sonic Triple Trouble
 * Sonic Drift 2
 * Tails' Skypatrol
 * Tails Adventure

The two unlockable games in all 3 regions are:
 * Vectorman
 * Vectorman 2

The other four unlockable games are only in the Japanese version:
 * Bonanza Bros.
 * Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage)
 * Bare Knuckle II (Streets of Rage 2)
 * Bare Knuckle III (Streets of Rage 3)

The North American and European releases only include the two Vectorman titles, in order to keep the former version's ESRB Rating as Everyone and Europe's similar rating. The compilation is a GameCube-exclusive in North America, but has also been released on the PlayStation 2 in Europe, Japan and Australia.

Removed Content
Knuckles' Chaotix (32X) and SegaSonic the Hedgehog (Arcade) were games that were expected to be on the collection based upon the obscurity theme. Yuji Naka stated in an interview that SegaSonic was left out due to the original game being controlled by a trackball. However, there is an entire art section of the museum dedicated to Chaotix which suggests Knuckles' Chaotix was originally going to appear in the collection. Some pictures based on Sonic Jam are also in the museum.

Other Information

 * Two remixes of Sonic CD 's original soundtrack are present as extras. A third remix of Sonic CD is based on the opening song of the American version, Sonic Boom.


 * In the PlayStation 2 version of Sonic Gems Collection, Sonic R is limited to the 2 player mode from the Sega Saturn edition. In the GameCube version, Sonic R still has the 4 player mode from the PC edition.


 * The port of Sonic R had a much improved draw distance over any previous version of the game.


 * In the port of Sonic CD, the water in Tidal Tempest in all time zones is clear. In the Sega CD and PC versions, the water was colored differently in all time zones (Present was green, Past was brown, Good Future was cyan, and Bad Future was red). The reason for the clear and clean water in the Gems Collection version is because the port of Sonic CD is the PC version. The PC version of Sonic CD made a call to a specific graphics card to display Tidal Tempest's water colors. This PC code was not optimized for consoles.


 * When Sonic the Fighters was released in the US and Europe, it was originally renamed Sonic Championship. In Gems Collection, the title of Sonic the Fighters was used for every region.


 * The hints for Sonic CD place the debug mode sound test code with the other hidden pictures.


 * The PlayStation 2 version contains both Japanese and American regional data, including different released manuals scans and alternate and differing versions of games (for example, Sonic CD has both the Japanese and American soundtracks). The game will load the data depending on the language the console is set on.  However, the European PlayStation 2 version does not have the Japanese-exclusive games at all, and Sonic CD is still set to the American music by default. Also, the manuals for Sonic Spinball and Tails' Skypatrol will always be the same regardless which language setting is used. This is because the Game Gear version of Sonic Spinball was released only in the U.S., and Tails' Skypatrol was released only in Japan.  The GameCube version only has the language for the region of release in the game data.


 * The "game demos" that are unlockable in the museum are actually the games in Sonic Mega Collection Plus with a time limit added. They skip to the final boss, (or final level, as is the case in Sonic 3, Sonic Drift, and Sonic Spinball) with said time to destroy it. Afterwards, the game starts over but an Act usually cannot be cleared due to the time limit. By using an Action Replay device, there are codes that will allow you to freeze the time limit.


 * This was the first time the Vectorman games were released in Japan.


 * An Xbox edition of Sonic Gems Collection was planned, but canceled for unknown reasons.


 * This is so far the only Sonic game to be rated by the BBFC, it was given a U (Universal) rating.

Reception
Reviews of Sonic Gems Collection were mostly positive, with most of the praise due to the inclusion of Sonic CD. Opinions were mixed on the remaining content in the compilation. It sold very well and received Player's Choice status for the GameCube.