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Sonic Gems Collection Mega Thread
- Thread starter Bartman3010
- Start date
wobedraggled
Banned
My copy is going back, just a sloppy compilation, damn you SEGA.
belgurdo said:
Yes, except being a 19 year old, I don't always have a couple hours to play through a game, in which case, there should be a save feature. My friend was incredibly annoyed that you couldn't save because he isn't that good at games. Sega only would have benefitted from it.
And trust me, they didn't not re-code the games because Sonic Jam didn't sell good. I highly doubt the sales of their Saturn compilation really affected the save feature in the GameCube compilation. The reason is the same as usual for Sega: dumb and lazy.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
You can beat Sonic 2 in less than an hour, it would be pointless if you could save your progress. If you don't even have an hour to play a game, then don't even bother doing it >.<. Sonic 1 is even shorter. Both games were designed without the save functin in mind, so it's ok to me to not have the possibility to sav.
Yoshi said:
Sonic 3 is just as long to beat as Sonic 2 and the save feature is in it. I don't know what you're talking about.
And I don't rush through my games. I'll beat Sonic games in a couple hours to get all the chaos emeralds, and I don't breeze through stages.
I can't believe how ridiculous some of you guys sound. You could do it in Sonic Jam and it was a GREAT addition. You could play for a little bit and continue later. What is wrong with that?
Azure Dream
Member
Zeo said:
Well, no, as a more technically-capable person mentioned to me once, the main reason Sonic Jam was able to do that was because the Saturn and the Genesis shared a similar processor design. (In fact, I think complete MD emulation would've been _harder_ for them to pull off, given the state of emulation back then and the power of the Saturn.) But there are no such similarities between the Saturn and the Gamecube or PS2, so porting again would be a huge undertaking and not worth it for a budget classics collection.
The demos/challenges idea is amusing, in that it's an easy way for them to include opportunities to practice and see "Good Endings" for Sonic games that some might not have ever beaten before. But it does seem foolish given that we know there's a timer employed, and if just one Action Replay code can disable it or mess it up, they've included the entire meat of SMC and the bonus aspect of SADX in addition to the Sonic Gems games. That... does seem like a mistake, especially in this budget-conscious and AR-friendly gaming era.
I finally got my import copy today (Yes-Asia took their sweet time, and the post mark lists a date three days later than when they told me, I think), and I've been amused by a few aspects, but there's definitely some rough spots. Truth be told, though, porting two PC games and an arcade game that never saw home release is a fair bit more work than the previous SMC games for them. And the extras area seems a fair bit meatier than I expected. (It was pathetic in the original SMC.) But the actual games... I hate to say it, but it would've been nice to have had the collection rounded out a bit more, with SegaSonic Arcade, and if they could've managed it, Knuckles Chaotix and the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast. (We've gone over the "emulating the Saturn is too tough for current consoles" thing, but there has been a PC version, but more importantly, Traveler's Tales has seemingly done a good job with the Sonic R conversion work, so maybe they could touch up the PC 3D Blast to restore the excellent Saturn elements (some of the effects, the 3D bonus stages, I think the PC version already had the excellent Saturn soundtrack...)
It's nice to finally get a home version of Sonic the Fighters, and get a chance to fiddle around with it at length, though. Just a shame I can't understand the move instructions since they're in Japanese. *cough* I was shocked that the in-game menus were right there in English, though, especially since that's something new added to the game.
Azure Dream
Member
jgkspsx said:
Possibly... but the call of the CAG is strong, and even if it's just little Billy and Jimmy just getting into Sonic games, they can still hear about all of the extra AR-unlockable stuff via friends or gaming magazines, meaning no reason to buy SMC. And ARs aren't as expensive anymore, I just picked up a PS2 one about a week ago as part of Toys 'R' Us's 50% off sale (to get to debug stuff and such, I'm not daft enough to cheat through the games I paid good money for), so while it may not be a huge hit, it would eat into the sales of a title that's already slowed down.
But Billy and Jimmy will be too busy fighting off crime organizations anyway. I swear I picked those names at random, and it didn't hit me at first.
By the way, the sheer amount of art unlockables for even some obscure games is surprising,
I just wish they didn't waste pages and pages on the abysmal Sonic Heroes CG, which most of the characters looked terrible in. And that's not even promo art, anyway, it's just a bunch of screenshots from the CG movies. SMC+ had rough drafts/planning materials for the intro and Team Dark CG, if you're going to include Sonic Heroes content, I was hoping it'd be more like that. All well.
Azure Dream
Member
One with all of the emeralds, one without, I'm guessing? (Not gotten the demos unlocked yet.)
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
@Zeo: I'm getting all the Chaos Emeralds in an hour and beat the game. But why exactly do you play Sonic games if you don't rush through them? Rushing makes the games REALLY fun. The whole concept is about running through the levels as fast as possible..
Yoshi said:
Because I don't think that's true. I liked being able to look everywhere in the Genesis games, something that wasn't really part of the Advance series, so I hated them.
Rlan said:
Yep. You pick the "demo" in the museum and it just starts up at the "final zone" in each game.
I got this yesterday, and I'm enjoying it, except the ports do scream of laziness...
SONIC CD:
- Why can't the time attack remember my initials like the Sega CD one?
- Why even show a loading screen when it's up for half a second?
- Why does it do the time warp cutscene, AND THEN go to a half a second loading screen? It can't load while warping like the SCD did?
- The sprites glitch a bit and disappear at times
- They seemingly changed the Quartz Quadrant boss, and made it take longer. Since really this boss is just a wait and dodge boss, I can only assume they did this to make it harder to unlock D.A. Garden. (was the PC one like this too?)
- The soundtrack option, or lack thereof
SONIC R:
- The controls feel off... rather stiff. Yes, I know people had problems controlling the Saturn one, but I didn't. Maybe I should play it again to compare.
- Why the fuck can't this auto save/load like Sonic CD and STF?
- Why couldn't they have given the option to let us play the original Saturn version? I miss the cool track fading.
The Game Gear game selection is random, and for the most part garbage. The GG games also play at a lower volumte than everything else.
STF is fun, but very hard.
And again, Sega sucks for taking out Streets of Rage.
SONIC CD:
- Why can't the time attack remember my initials like the Sega CD one?
- Why even show a loading screen when it's up for half a second?
- Why does it do the time warp cutscene, AND THEN go to a half a second loading screen? It can't load while warping like the SCD did?
- The sprites glitch a bit and disappear at times
- They seemingly changed the Quartz Quadrant boss, and made it take longer. Since really this boss is just a wait and dodge boss, I can only assume they did this to make it harder to unlock D.A. Garden. (was the PC one like this too?)
- The soundtrack option, or lack thereof
SONIC R:
- The controls feel off... rather stiff. Yes, I know people had problems controlling the Saturn one, but I didn't. Maybe I should play it again to compare.
- Why the fuck can't this auto save/load like Sonic CD and STF?
- Why couldn't they have given the option to let us play the original Saturn version? I miss the cool track fading.
The Game Gear game selection is random, and for the most part garbage. The GG games also play at a lower volumte than everything else.
STF is fun, but very hard.
And again, Sega sucks for taking out Streets of Rage.
Oh, I agree, but SMC/SMC+ is already a multimillion seller. It can't hurt 'em that much.Kulock said:
Damn straight. Even though I'm enjoying the compilation very much, and I'd definitely buy a "Sonic Pebbles Collection" or something provided it includes Saturn Sonic 3D Blast and SegaSonic Arcade, the collection would have been much stronger.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Didn't you play the Sonic Advances? In Sonic Advance you had to find the springs for the bonus zones which were hidden quite well, in Sonic Adcvance you had to collect 7 Super Coins, which let you play the bonus games when the level was completed and in Sonic Advance 3 you had to find 10 Chaos in each world, so searching for things is quite present in these games.Zeo said:
Azure Dream
Member
goodcow said:
Saturn emulation takes a lot of processing power and isn't as far along, plus porting the PC version made it easier and allowed them to make more modifications and tweaks to work better in the collection. I do miss things like the transparent track in Radiant Emerald, but it actually looks a lot better than I remember even as it is in Gems Collection, so that's still not too bad. Plus, the PC version has support for up to 4 Players in Sonic R, while I think the Saturn only supported 2.
goodcow said:
Sonic & Tails 2 (Triple Trouble), Tails Skypatrol, and Tails' Adventure are garbage? That's at least half. (Although I guess you could argue about Skypatrol, but that's one hell of a looker for a GG title.) And it's not random, it's the other six GG games that weren't included in the PS2 and Xbox Sonic Mega Collection +.
goodcow said:
Playing it again, I can kind of see why they had to, they're designed with a much more adult mindset, and with the violence, Blaze's panty shots, and even a small bit of pixel "jiggle" on a lady or two I noticed, they really don't seem to fit, even set against Sonic the Fighters. Sucks for the SOR fans, though, since this was kind of their "collection" too.
Bonanza Bros. involves crooks and shooting cops to stun them. Wouldn't have been a problem when it was made, but people have a different mindset now, so even though it's comical and SD... yeah.
But I really would've dug a preorder, T-Rated disc with those cut games included. That way SGC wouldn't have been stuck with a permanent T rating, but US gamers would've still gotten the games. (But then they would've complained because they'd be the cut SOR games, and not the original Bare Knuckle games, so they would've had to have gone back and translated those...) Alternatively, at the very least, Comix Zone and the Ooze should've been included to make up for the US GC version not originally having them. And we _know_ those games would still let Sega have an E for the game, because SMC+ had them quite openly and went through with an E. (Unless Comix Zone would now net them an E10? Ugh, I hate that extra little division the ESRB's put in.)
Bartman3010
Banned
Sega should just break down and release Smash Pack for GCN, XBox and PS2. Is that what we're getting at? =P
Still, I'm annoyed the US division did nothing in actually replacing the games, as other Gems owners across the world get Vectorman 1 and 2 in the package as well. Although I dont quite see what other titles would fit the complimation, other than the games not seen in the US Mega Collection (Ooze and Comix Zone) as others like Kulock said. The rest of the games are either arcade ports or just plain suck.
Its a decent package for what it is, but again, the problem with this collection is that Sonic R and Fighters are beaten out by better games. Its certainly what Sonic fans have been waiting for, but thats just it; the Sonic fans. Granted theres a number of them, and even older Sonic fans can get a kick of actually seeing Sonic the Fighters for a few seconds before putting the game down entirely.
Edit: Also, Sonic R for Saturn is easily beaten senseless by the PC version. Like with this version, you can now see the entire track, no fog at all. The four player mode is well implemented with it's "Stick a controller port anywhere and use whichever one you'd like" despite how Sonic R isnt quite multiplayer friendly (Its also the few Sonic titles with 4 player on a console. The only 4 player Sonic title on PS2 or GCN)
We really dont need to see the Saturn version anymore...
Still, I'm annoyed the US division did nothing in actually replacing the games, as other Gems owners across the world get Vectorman 1 and 2 in the package as well. Although I dont quite see what other titles would fit the complimation, other than the games not seen in the US Mega Collection (Ooze and Comix Zone) as others like Kulock said. The rest of the games are either arcade ports or just plain suck.
Its a decent package for what it is, but again, the problem with this collection is that Sonic R and Fighters are beaten out by better games. Its certainly what Sonic fans have been waiting for, but thats just it; the Sonic fans. Granted theres a number of them, and even older Sonic fans can get a kick of actually seeing Sonic the Fighters for a few seconds before putting the game down entirely.
Edit: Also, Sonic R for Saturn is easily beaten senseless by the PC version. Like with this version, you can now see the entire track, no fog at all. The four player mode is well implemented with it's "Stick a controller port anywhere and use whichever one you'd like" despite how Sonic R isnt quite multiplayer friendly (Its also the few Sonic titles with 4 player on a console. The only 4 player Sonic title on PS2 or GCN)
We really dont need to see the Saturn version anymore...
Azure Dream
Member
Wow, I forgot how close the draw-in was in some levels in Sonic R for the Saturn, but now that you post that shot, I remember that level specifically, literally not being able to see where I was going in spots (with walls and objects fading in relatively close, and if you got lost, which is possible given some of Sonic R's track designs, goodbye). No wonder it seemed easier.
Kulock said:
The shot he used is unfair, as it's two-player.
Yes, two-player Sonic R strained the Saturn to hell, and made the draw distance about two feet.
Single player Sonic R for Saturn had a very good draw distance, and 16 levels of fading for the course as you got closer. Plus, the transparency in Radiant Emerald, which is totally missing from the PC/Gems one.
I still have no idea how Travellers Tales managed to pull off the transparency the way they did, and that 3D spinning chrome head was great as well.
belgurdo said:
Well, they're made for both. You CAN explore, but the levels are also designed so you can just haul ass. Sonic CD is the most frustrating, but I guess rewarding in that sense, because there are so many bumpers and obstacles as you plow forward that knock you back, and you have to have great timing to avoid them.
Bartman3010
Banned
ZOMG ACTION REPLAY CODES AHOY
http://gscentral.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=1965
To save you some trouble, so far only codes to change the music in the FMV for Sonic CD were discovered, no word if the GCN version contains both sound tracks
Now for Fighters
Yes for Metal Sonic
Yes for SUPER Sonic
and for you Fighting Vipers fans, yes, for those who want their HONEY
NO.....
PS. Heres a hint
Theres another one...
http://gscentral.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=1965
To save you some trouble, so far only codes to change the music in the FMV for Sonic CD were discovered, no word if the GCN version contains both sound tracks
Now for Fighters
Yes for Metal Sonic
Yes for SUPER Sonic
and for you Fighting Vipers fans, yes, for those who want their HONEY
NO.....
PS. Heres a hint
Theres another one...
Azure Dream
Member
Have you gotten to the endings of Sonic R, Sonic CD, and StF?
Just Sonic the Fighters. Nobody's mentioned that as a requirement before. I've opened every museum panel that doesn't require beating the games, though.
I guess I could force myself to beat Sonic R without saving the game, but running more than one race at a time hurts my head.
I guess I could force myself to beat Sonic R without saving the game, but running more than one race at a time hurts my head.