Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Check your bargain bin"

Boros here, and this is the first time I've ever reviewed a compilation before, so I feel the best way to review Sonic Gems Collection is to review it game by game. This is how I'll review compilation games from now on, so with that out of the way, let's dive in to the first game.

Sonic the Fighters: 8 / 10

This game is mindlessly fun and addicting. Obviously from the title, this isn't daddy's Sonic game. This is a 3D fighting game, and I have a general rule about any fighting game. The harder it is to pull off the attacks, the less enjoyment I can get out of it. I don't like the completly insane combo games, like up, down, left, right, A, left, B, Y, Y, down, down, X, R, X, L, Z, left, then X to smell someones ass. By the time you've entered that s#!t, your opponent has punched your face out through your assh0le. If I want to b!#@hslap someone, just let me b!#@hslap someone!

This game pulls it off nicely, balancing the easy moves with more tricky ones. The tricky ones do more damage, so mastering those can make you really good really fast. It's also gratifying to smash someone so hard that they get smooshed into a pancake, then watch them try to fight like that.

For all of the cool stuff in this game, there are things that really piss me off, like that of the 8 characters, there is one bad matchup for each character. Knuckles can't fight Espio, Bark can't fight Fang, and Fang can't fight Sonic, etc. This is really frustrating in arcade mode, when you get to the round of your bad matchup, and if it's a later bad matchup in arcade mode, give up... You won't win in any way. Second, I'm throughly convinced that the CPU cheats. I normally don't say that, but hear me out. There is a reason. When I get late into a match and I haven't tried to grapple my opponent the entire match, why is it that when I finally do try to do that, then they automatically duck (which dodges grapples), then kill me? This sends me into a rage, and makes me bang electronics together. How in the HELL would anybody on this planet guess that with 100% accuracy? S#!t spewing madness.

To sum up this game, it's really fun, and kind of frustrating. Play at your own risk.

Sonic R: 7.5 / 10

I don't get it. I should hate this game, and I mean with PASSION,... but I don't. I actually like this game, but they don't get anything right. The gameplay is wrong, the graphics are wrong, the story is wrong, the music is wrong, and... why do I like this game? It's just a basic racing game, with 4 playable characters and 5 unlockable ones, and 5 courses. The gamplay has that weird "turn, then go straight" rather than the "just move in the direction I told you to go" to turn, so to perform sharp turns, you have to stop, turn very slowly until you're facing the right way, then hold straight to go the way you want. THAT'S STUPID! Especially since the game forces you at times to take sharp turns to find all of the secrets. That's like taking a dump in the trash can, just so it doesn't smell like garbage anymore.

You may think that the game is really hard, then, but it isn't. It's WAY too easy. I can 100% the game in less than an hour. The cockiness in me says that this is because I'm just that good, but the truth in me says that this is because the A.I. is crap. If they're not going in circles, they're flailing drunkenly around the most obscure path to the finish, and it's easy to find all of the secrets, erect a monument dedicated to your excellence, and still finish in first on the race.

The music deserves special mention. T. J. Davis is the vocalist of the songs in this game. Yes, this game's songs had vocals, and they were composed by award winning composer, Richard Jacques. They don't seem to fit a racing game very well, because all of the songs make me happy-ish, and racing deserves more, um... pulse pounding, I guess is the word... BUT, whatever it is... I like the music, a lot... Maybe award winning composer wasn't s#!tting around, and he's is that good. The vocals from T. J. Davis aren't great. The way she sings makes me think of a bad jazz singer, and yet... It works for me. It sounds great to me, all together.

Wrapping up, this is a serious guilty pleasure for me. This game gets so many things wrong, that it balances out, and becomes something fun, and memorable, if only for how bad it is. If having to give a general public review number grade for this game, I'd give it a 3 out of 10, but to me, it's good enough to get a 7.5 out of 10. I'm just giving my opinion, here, so agian, play at your own risk.

Sonic CD

Now, I'm going to wait 'til the end of the review to give my number grade on this one, because this is the main event. Sonic CD, the game that many consider to be the best Sonic game ever made, a game that a ton of people enjoy. Let's take a look.

The story involves Metal Sonic kidnapping Amy Rose, or at least that's what she looks like... I looked at the manual and it said that the pink hedgehog at the beginning of the game is named Princess Sally... I'm not joking, for the Sega CD version of Sonic CD, it says that the pink girl following you at the beginning is Princess Sally. The computer version manual said it was Amy Rose, so not only is it weird, it's inconsistant! This isn't the only weird story based thing in old games though. Mario pulled simular s#!t with Pauline, and Princess Toadstool.

Anyway, the story is barely there, and not important, apparently. We want to know about the gameplay. All of the old Sonic habits are still there, like bizarre jumping physics, and very slow acceleration. I've been quoted as saying that I don't like the old Sonic games very much, but I've actually had this game recommended to me by several Sonic fans, but as it turns out, not only does this game do all of the old things I didn't like before, it does new things that I don't like.

Let's take for example the time travel mechanic. An interesting idea, but a botched attempt. The requires being in a certain time period in order to beat certain level that change throughout the game. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't such a b!#@h to change time periods. Let's look at the minimum amount of effort it would take. First, you have to find a sign that says either future or past. Sometimes that's not an easy task, because they like to put these in hard to reach places, sometimes. Next, you need to find a good patch of running room. This is the hard part, unless the game decides to be generous, which is never. Basically, you have to run until these sparks start flying around you, then run for about 3 seconds like that, and if you succeed, you get an annoying cutscene of Sonic flying, then you have reached the time period. By the way, if the sparks start, but you have to stop running, you've failed, and you have to try agian. That can get really annoying, when you can't seem to find any running room, then just having to try it over and over agian, until it wears a big hole in your mind, then you wake up with blood on your face.

The time travels annoying, and that's not all. Sonic CD makes me really damn dizzy. There is almost constant circles at times, like in the trumpet zone. This zone makes me sick, and it's like a damned hedgemaze, trying to find the sign to the past, so you can beat the level. I never beat this game, because of the assinine "boss fight" with Metal Sonic, where you're basically racing him, and if you get too far ahead, then Metal Sonic rushes your stupid ass, then Eggman is behind him firing an instant death beam at random intervals down on the ground. I kept getting kill either by holes in the race track, or by being knocked into the instant death beam by Metal Sonic, and when that happened, small electronic parts flew out of a paper shredder.

That was the last straw! I hadn't enjoyed myself too much before that, then I wasn't enjoying myself at all! My final analysis is that I have no idea why this was recommended to me, because I've never played a game so damned confusing and assinine. It all sums up to frustrating and boring to me... If you like it, good for you, then keep enjoying it. It's not one of the worst games I've ever played, and I can at least see why someone would like it, but I just don't want to hear how I should like this game, because you'll hear why I don't. My final score for this game is 4 / 10.

Conclusion

Well, for what it's worth, I had fun playing the first 2 games, and had a good amount of fun with Sonic Gems as a whole. I know that I'm missing the Game gear games that were on here, but these three games were the main attractions, and that was all that was marketed, so the other stuff is just extras to me. They don't help much because most of the other games are crap, so I'm not holding them agianst Sonic Gems. Overall, you can have a lot of fun playing this, and especially if you're an old Sonic fan. Play it as much as you like!