I grew up poor. My mom didn't have money to throw around on expensive electronics like a Sega CD, and I refuse to believe anybody in America owned a Sega Saturn, so I spent several years holding onto PC copies of Sonic CD and Sonic R that I was only able to play when I visited friends and family fortunate enough to own a PC. That changed when I moved in with my dad, but I was swiftly banned from using the computer after shorting out his Sony Vaio, which put me back to square one.
I didn't take good care of my games back then, and by the time Sonic Gems Collection released in 2005, I'm not even sure either of those discs would've worked. Not that I needed them to anymore. I could play Sonic CD at my leisure now. And yeah, Sonic R and a bunch of Game Gear crap... cool, whatever-- SONIC CD, hell yeah!!!
Regardless of my own situation, Sonic Gems made available several games that were becoming increasingly difficult to find and play even in the early aughts, and I think that's pretty cool. It's also far from perfect and falls short of being a truly great collection in a way that was so perfectly in-character for Sega not just then, but now and probably always.
Multiple Game Gear titles are absent, like the original 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Drift, though their direct sequels are part of the compilation. And again, no Master System versions because Sega has never deemed them to be historically valuable. I doubt preservation of media was at the forefront of Sega's mind when they put this package together in 2005, but even disregarding the significance of availability, being able to play the better versions of these games and having a more complete catalogue to choose from would've been nice!
Other notable exclusions include Bonanza Bros. and the Bare Knuckle (see: Streets of Rage) games, which can be unlocked in the Japanese version of Gems but were omitted from the American release, likely to avoid a Teen rating. Which, it's worth mentioning, is very stupid. SegaSonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles' Chaotix are also absent, though it wouldn't surprise me to find that difficulties in porting/emulating these titles made it more trouble than it's worth for Sega. All of this leaves Gems feeling incomplete and were it your intention back in '05 to build a comprehensive collection of Sonic's pre-2000s games, then both Mega Collection and Gems would've left you frustratingly short of your goal.
Despite being overpriced and underbaked, it let me play Sonic CD and Sonic R at my convenience, and it holds some importance for being the first home release of Sonic the Fighters after the Saturn port was unceremoniously cancelled. The museum also features a ton of key art and promotional material, much of which has been made widely available since Gems and in higher quality, but which was at the time harder to come by. So, it's not without its positives, even if its main draw is Sonic CD.
In fact, this is still the only way for me to play Sonic CD on a CRT. I never did get a Sega CD, and the high prices they fetch today coupled with how cheaply they were made makes it highly unlikely I'll ever get comfortable enough to invest in something so prone to failure. But that's alright, I can just pop Gems into my GameCube... or at least I'd like to, but it's scratched in just the right spot to cause the game to crash on the final act of Metallic Madness. I thought Gems was a bit too expensive at the time, so the idea of dropping at least 45 dollars on another copy today is unappealing. That means the only option left to me is loading the game off my Wii or PS2's hard drive. Even today I am jumping through an innumerable amount of hoops to play fucking Sonic CD. I guess some things never change.
I didn't take good care of my games back then, and by the time Sonic Gems Collection released in 2005, I'm not even sure either of those discs would've worked. Not that I needed them to anymore. I could play Sonic CD at my leisure now. And yeah, Sonic R and a bunch of Game Gear crap... cool, whatever-- SONIC CD, hell yeah!!!
Regardless of my own situation, Sonic Gems made available several games that were becoming increasingly difficult to find and play even in the early aughts, and I think that's pretty cool. It's also far from perfect and falls short of being a truly great collection in a way that was so perfectly in-character for Sega not just then, but now and probably always.
Multiple Game Gear titles are absent, like the original 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Drift, though their direct sequels are part of the compilation. And again, no Master System versions because Sega has never deemed them to be historically valuable. I doubt preservation of media was at the forefront of Sega's mind when they put this package together in 2005, but even disregarding the significance of availability, being able to play the better versions of these games and having a more complete catalogue to choose from would've been nice!
Other notable exclusions include Bonanza Bros. and the Bare Knuckle (see: Streets of Rage) games, which can be unlocked in the Japanese version of Gems but were omitted from the American release, likely to avoid a Teen rating. Which, it's worth mentioning, is very stupid. SegaSonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles' Chaotix are also absent, though it wouldn't surprise me to find that difficulties in porting/emulating these titles made it more trouble than it's worth for Sega. All of this leaves Gems feeling incomplete and were it your intention back in '05 to build a comprehensive collection of Sonic's pre-2000s games, then both Mega Collection and Gems would've left you frustratingly short of your goal.
Despite being overpriced and underbaked, it let me play Sonic CD and Sonic R at my convenience, and it holds some importance for being the first home release of Sonic the Fighters after the Saturn port was unceremoniously cancelled. The museum also features a ton of key art and promotional material, much of which has been made widely available since Gems and in higher quality, but which was at the time harder to come by. So, it's not without its positives, even if its main draw is Sonic CD.
In fact, this is still the only way for me to play Sonic CD on a CRT. I never did get a Sega CD, and the high prices they fetch today coupled with how cheaply they were made makes it highly unlikely I'll ever get comfortable enough to invest in something so prone to failure. But that's alright, I can just pop Gems into my GameCube... or at least I'd like to, but it's scratched in just the right spot to cause the game to crash on the final act of Metallic Madness. I thought Gems was a bit too expensive at the time, so the idea of dropping at least 45 dollars on another copy today is unappealing. That means the only option left to me is loading the game off my Wii or PS2's hard drive. Even today I am jumping through an innumerable amount of hoops to play fucking Sonic CD. I guess some things never change.