Sonic Collection - GameCube

[MegaManFan]

Some of you out there, like me, may have bought the "Sega Smash Pack" for Dreamcast and found yourselves EXTREMELY dissapointed with the emulation of Sonic the Hedgehog. It looked decent to a degree, but it definitely did not sound right, and the play control left something to be desired. Perhaps more to the point though, it was barely a salve on the wound of Sonic fans, because the goodness of games like Sonic & Knuckles or Sonic 3 was nowhere to be found.

 

Well Sonic fans? Your prayers have been answered; I can say that because I bought the Sonic Collection for GameCube tonight and it was $39.99 WELL SPENT. There's a wide bevy of Sonic's greatest hits from Genesis, including the classics 1 2 and 3, Spinball (a personal favorite), the aforementioned Knuckles as well as 3-D Blast and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (a Puyo Pop clone). These are all availble right from the start, but there are MORE Sonic games you can unlock.

 

The best part though is that the emulation of these games is SPOT ON. Since nothing that's not a Genesis could ever be 100%, let's just call it 99.95% and say fair enough. Only one time did I notice something off - the flapping of the bat's wings in Sonic 1 seems a bit off, but it's such a small thing I'm not being picky. You can honestly fool yourself though when looking at the screens and listening to the music, and forget that it's not a Genesis - except of course for that GameCube controller in your hand. And SPEAKING of which, they've done something incredibly nice for this collection - they gave you the option to control Sonic with the crosshairs OR the analog stick, and that leads to some wicked good fun when you want to play good ol' Sonic a whole new way.

 

And what's a retro-games package without some bonus features? The extras section is chock full of goodies: scans of the manuals from the games, developer's artwork for the characters, and pictures of covers from the Sonic comics (including the one-off specials and misc. books with other characters like Tails). The only section that's a little thin is the movies. Including the Sonic CD one is nice, and the "history of Sonic" is good even though it could use a narrator - but one of the movies is just a blatant promo for Sonic Advance 2. I'm happy to see one is coming out, but I'd rather have interviews with Sonic Team instead to see what they have to say about the legacy of their creation.

 

I'm normally not one to endorse games or give rave reviews, but this ranks as the coolest collection of classic games on a new system since Atari Anniversary for Dreamcast, Namco Museum for PS2, and may even rival the forthcoming Activision pack for said same console. I hope Sega does the right thing and ports this to the other consoles as well, while preserving the high quality of reproduction existing in the GC version. Even people who don't own a GameCube deserve to enjoy these vintage Sonic games in such a well presented format. Three cheers to Sonic Team!

[ubersaurus]

Yeah it's a fantastic package...it was all me and my friend did friday. The hidden games are to my knowledge...

Flicky (have a Sonic Adventure 2 save on memory card)

Blue Sphere aka Sonic & Knuckles locked onto Sonic 1 (with a PSO save)

Sonic 2 with Knuckles

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Ristar

 

 

Those last 3 no one has unlocked yet. It's loads of fun though...my genesis isn't hooked up (no room), so this is a real timesaver.

[NE146]

I had a choice last night of picking that up or Namco Collection for Gamecube.. I chose the Namco. But I'll get the Sonic Collection someday

[Ze_ro]

they gave you the option to control Sonic with the crosshairs OR the analog stick, and that leads to some wicked good fun when you want to play good ol' Sonic a whole new way.

 

So, you can go slower by not moving the stick as far? That would be useful...

 

--Zero

[sdstuff64]

This game looks great and it is only $401Too bad the best Sonic game isn't on there,or it would be so much better.Sonic CD where are you?I know I know,it's only Genesis games but come on,I bet they had space for it.I will get this soon!

[Mikau]

i never had a genesis, but when i was younger i played alot of sonic, and enjoyed it. i cant wait to play them all!

 

those bonus game sound hard to unlock though! i dont have any of those game saves on my MC, so i guess i'll have to borrow or rent to get them!

[MegaManFan]

Yeah it's a fantastic package...it was all me and my friend did friday. The hidden games are to my knowledge...

Flicky (have a Sonic Adventure 2 save on memory card)

Blue Sphere aka Sonic & Knuckles locked onto Sonic 1 (with a PSO save)

Sonic 2 with Knuckles

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Ristar

 

Those last 3 no one has unlocked yet.

 

How do you unlock the first two? I don't get what you mean about "have a save" - do you mean I have to own those games and have saved games of them on my GC memory card just to unlock them? Bogus. I'm not spending $100 just for that. There must be some OTHER way to do it. Anybody find it, or unlock the other three?

[Tempest]

I read somewhere that if you watch all the movies (I think you have to sit all the way through them) it unlocks Flicky.

 

Tempest

[ubersaurus]

Nope, we tried, it needs a SA2 save file...one could easily get one from a friend (or just rent the game).

[MegaManFan]

I read somewhere that if you watch all the movies (I think you have to sit all the way through them) it unlocks Flicky.

 

Tempest

 

I tried this trick within the last hour and I didn't work. I patiently watched all the movies one at a time, from first to last, without skipping or cutting any of them short, and it still revealed nothing on the games menu.

[ubersaurus]

Ok, this also works, I read...

Essentially you have to go into a game, and then exit it completely. After a certain number of times (about 20+) it'll unlock the game associated with that title, assuming there is one ;p