The last time we saw Sega's upcoming compilation starring Sonic the Hedgehog, we got just a taste of what to expect from the collection of games culled from Sonic's wild past. The sassy blue hedgehog burst onto the scene in the early '90s and led Sega's grand and successful charge to unseat Nintendo as the undisputed champion in the console market. Though many of his finer moments were caught in the Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus compilations that were released earlier this year, Sega has managed to find some additional tasty morsels for Sonic aficionados to sink their teeth into. We got our hands on a fairly complete version of the collection, and it contained all the games and even much of the unlockable content, which offered some surprises.

Sonic the Fighters takes Sonic and company into Virtua Fighter territory.

Our last look at Gems Collection was at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where Sonic CD and Sonic the Fighters were available for play. Thankfully our updated build let us try out the time capsule of Sonic's exploits. When you fire up the game you'll see four options: games, manuals, museum, and extras. The games option contains the nine main games and, eventually, the unlockable games as well. You'll simply highlight the title of your choice and hop in. The manuals option lets you look at complete manuals of all nine games. Museum is a seven-page collection of 140 pieces of unlockable artwork. You'll also be able to listen to music tracks you'll unlock by playing the game, which you can toggle with the Y button. Finally, the extras option lets you read hints on the various games and check out the compilation's credits.

Now, if we can jump back to the games for a bit, we'll run you through the nine main titles, which represent highs and lows in the Sonic mythos. The first game in the collection is 1996's Sonic the Fighters, which was Sonic's second appearance in an arcade game. The game is notable for several reasons and marked a number of firsts for the versatile hedgehog, one of which was Sonic's debut in 3D. It's the only 3D Sonic fighter and, more incredibly, was developed by Sega's AM2 studio--yes, the Virtua Fighter people. The game is also one of the first to use Sega's Model 2B arcade board variant. Because of AM2's fighting pedigree, the game possesses a surprisingly solid fighting system that was in line with AM2's popular three-button system, which was introduced in the Virtua Fighter series. You'll be able to punch, kick, and block, although blocking was limited by a barrier system, so we could block only a certain number of times before running out of shields.

Though it sounds simple, the three-button setup allowed for a number of different combos as well as unique special attacks for each character. Like so many fighting games of the era, Sonic the Fighters actually featured a narrative that not only provided a solid excuse for a brawl between all the characters, but also tied in to the mythos of the console games. Basically, following the destruction of Dr. Robotnik's (as Dr. Eggman was known in those days) Death Egg station, the villain creates an even deadlier version of it called Death Egg II. Thankfully Sonic's faithful right-hand man, Tails, becomes aware of it and quickly builds a rocket to go confront Robotnik. Unfortunately, his ship only seats one, and it can be powered only by chaos emeralds, eight to be exact. So before you can say "Isn't that convenient?" the pair are setting up a fighting tournament to take on the guardians of the chaos emeralds and to determine which of the assembled is powerful enough to be sent out to take out Robotnik and Death Egg II. The game's eclectic cast of eight main fighters runs the gamut in the animal kingdom and introduces a number of new faces to the Sonic universe. Besides Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose, you'll interact with newcomers such as Fang the Sniper, Espio the Chameleon, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite. The colorful arcade game is re-created perfectly on the GameCube and has aged very well. The cartoony polygonal characters maintain the (at the time) cutting-edge look that caught everyone's attention back in the day with their real-time deformation. The backgrounds are equally appealing and showcase mind-boggling special effects such as real-time reflections and motion, which were eye-catching for their time.

Sonic R is a blast from the past that's worth a look.

The next game in the compilation is 1993's Sonic CD, arguably one of the most notable omissions in the original Mega Collection. The fast-paced 2D platformer hit in between Sonic 2 and 3 on the Genesis and is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the series because of the tight gameplay and a soundtrack that polarized fans. The game is a notable moment in Sonic history because of its use of the Sega CD peripheral for the Genesis console. The game's use of color and Red Book audio and its inclusion of an animated video clip are among its standout elements. From a gameplay perspective it offered some new spins on the traditional Sonic formula that had been established on the Genesis thanks to the added processing power of the CD peripheral, such as improved scaling and color. The game also introduced the concept of time travel to the mix, allowing you to warp into past- or future-themed versions of the level you were playing. The one point of contention some fans may have had with the title is that it didn't include the Japanese game's soundtrack, which some preferred over the US game's soundtrack. There is one nice perk to the game. Its animated sequence, which featured a plucky, pudgy anime-style Sonic tearing through a landscape, is full screen as opposed to the postage-stamp-sized one seen in the Genesis game. Though the game is pretty faithful to the CD version, there are load screens that we don't remember from the original Sega CD game.