Sega and the GameCube have been partners since the Sega Dreamcast went to videogame heaven. First, the Sonic Mega Collection was released, but apparently it wasn’t that ‘mega’ because Sonic fans still missed out on Sonic R, one of those games that if you didn’t have, you ended up hearing about because of the soundtrack. Well, Sonic fans, it’s your happy day because Sonic Gems Collection has been released.

Sonic Gems Collection (and I use the term "Gems" loosely), includes nine Sonic related games from the Sega CD, Saturn, Arcade and the Sega Game Gear.

The first, and easily best of the bunch is Sonic CD. If you couldn’t afford the $250 price tag for Sega CD in 1991, the $29 price tag for this game is going to be more to your liking.

You have to go back in the wayback machine for this one but the graphics have held up quite well over the almost 15 years that it’s been since the original release of the game.

Gameplay is very similar to old school Sonic (always carry one ring to avoid death, use the spin attack to knock out bad guys, etc) with one big exception: you time warp in the game. You can go into the past, present and future. There’s a "Back-To-The-Future-esque" plot in that if you go into the past, you can change the future outcome of the game. In original Sonic games, mainly my strategy was get a few rings and keep pressing right with a spin dash and get to the boss. This strategy will do you no good in this game.

The game doesn’t seem to be as dated as the rest of the games in this collection. Sound and graphics still are pretty good. If you never had a chance to play Sonic CD, you’ll really enjoy this game.

Sonic The Fighters was an arcade game in Japan that may have made it into 3 arcades in America. Sega calls it a cult classic, while I call it Virtua Stupid. If you played Virtua Fighter 1, you’ve played this game already. It’s all Sonic-related characters fighting it out in a best of 3 round game. The graphics are not very good at all, and it’s hard to believe this was an actual arcade game that you dropped quarters in.

The instruction manual does you a favor in providing many of the character combos that do damage and thankfully because of it’s 1990s feel, there are not many twister-like button combos to perform – especially since you’re using a GameCube controller.

I can see there being some novelty value in including this game, but I just didn’t enjoy it at all. The next game in the compilation is Sonic R. Sonic R is a racing game, but involves ‘running’ rather than racing in a vehicle (unless you’re a bad guy, in which case you can use a vehicle). A recent variation of this game can be found in 2001’s Mad Dash Racing for the Xbox.

Basically you take your Sonic-related character and enter a race. You’ll run around a track, grab some power ups and try to win the race.

The graphics aren’t bad (although you can tell they are Saturn-esque), but what really sets this game apart is the soundtrack. It is so Japanese, you have to hear it to believe it. The words are all in English, but my goodness they are surreal: "Everybody Super Sonic Racing/Gotta keep your feet right on the ground/When you're Super Sonic Racing/There's no time to look around."

My personal favorite is "Can You Feel the Sunshine:" Can you feel the sunshine?/Does it brighten up your day?/Don't you feel that sometimes, you just need to run away?/Reach out for the sunshine./Forget about the rain./Just think about the good times/and they will come back again.

Uh, yeah, the first thing I think about when I’m in a big race is running away with the sunshine. Seriously, think of this game as a $29.99 music CD import from Japan, and it would be worth it.

The game itself has some fun moments, but control is very difficult and frustrating.

The other games included as part of the initial package are six other Sonic related games. They are all for the Sega Game Gear and include Sonic 2, Sonic Spinball, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventures.