Bebpo said:
btw, how was the Sonic Collection released earlier? Were all the games 100% perfect? And was there any difference between the US and Jpn releases?
They were emulations, so the game data itself was mostly original, it was just a matter of how well the emulator could reproduce it. There were basically three different "Collection" releases so far for current systems:
Sonic Mega Collection (GCN): Fine, other than the annoying unlock mechanic, and some limitations over Sonic Jam (which is a little unfair, since Sonic Jam actually ran a patched version of the original code, it didn't emulate game ROMs, so it was more open to changes and tweaks). I don't remember any big problems with sound, but the US version didn't receive The Ooze or Comix Zone. That was something they tacked into the Japanese release (and unlocked by codes). The GCN version also has different extras, a different menu theme, and the emulator can not save restart points (save states, basically) like SMC+ can. I think this WAS the only version that you can unlock multiple versions of Sonic 1 in though (US, Japanese, and a "Spike Fix" one, and one that was supposed to be just the US version with the Spike Fix, but it doesn't do that, I think it just refers to the Japanese version again).
Sonic Adventure DX (GCN): All 12 Sonic-related Game Gear games. Worked really well, and had the amusing feature of allowing any game to start up in a dual-emulated mode (I think just by pressing Z on controller two or something, it's been a while). This was supposed to be for Link games, but you could even just be annoying and play non-linked games against eachother. Also, if you switched the game's text to Japanese, it switched a few of the games to their Japanese version.
Sonic Mega Collection + (PS2/Xbox): The interface feels like it has more effort put into it (the SMC one wasn't terrible, but wasn't polished in spots), and it has multiple Sonic Heroes WIP depictions (early CG movies/animatics and storyboards) which are actually pretty amusing, but a bit ill-fitting. Which version you buy also determines which console's Sonic Heroes boxart you get. You could unlock every game in the Japanese SMC (although if you aren't willing to rent Sonic Heroes, it'll take some major work to get Comix Zone unlocked, people couldn't figure out for a week or two how to recreate it when a few did it by accident, myself included), and six of the twelve GG games. Unfortunately, the "second screen" option is menu-based this time, so no Sonic 1 GG competitions for you. The emulator was fine, I suppose, although I think it had problems with a few sounds, like some of the tricks Comix Zone tried. (But man is that an excellent game, just hard. I'd always avoided it before.) Also, it might've just been me or my Xbox, but it seemed like the output was slightly distorted, so you could see part of the bordering (which isn't black like in SMC, it's sort of a gray striping if I remember correctly), it's hard to describe, but it was just a bit annoying. The game allowed you to save restart points (emulator save states, pure and simple), which is handy, but I heard it took forever to save on the PS2.
And Sonic Gems Collection is going to contain the missing 6 GG games from SMC+ (which, again, GCN users either got all twelve with SADX, or didn't get any with SMC), along with PC ports of Sonic CD and Sonic R (eerie shades of Mega Man Anniversary Collection to me) and a port of Sonic the Fighters, and some other Genesis ROMs they're throwing in. We know the US version isn't getting the Streets of Rage games, and won't have the Japanese soundtrack due to "licensing issues," but it's not known if the Japanese version will have the US soundtrack as an option.
Too bad Sonic is on the title and on the cover because Sonic alone will get these assclowns off the hook for screwing up again!
