Sonic Gems line-up in doubt

By Ellie Gibson Published 4 July, 2005

No Streets of Rage after all?

Last month, if you recall, we reported that the Sonic Gems Collection for PS2 and Gamecube will include the Streets of Rage games as well as a healthy line-up of classic Sonic titles.

Well, not in the States, according to a statement issued by SEGA US. "While Streets of Rage will ship with Sonic Gems Collection in other markets, the more mature game does not conform to the E-rating of Sonic the Hedgehog games in North America."

Instead, US gamers will get Megadrive games Vectorman and Vectorman 2 to unlock, along with previously announced bonus content such as artwork, videos and remixes of classic Sonic tunes.

However, the version of Sonic CD included in Sonic Gems will feature the US soundtrack only, thanks to tricky licensing issues. Many hardcore Sonic fans will tell you that the Japanese soundtrack is infinitely inferior, and they should know.

Course, the big question is whether SEGA Europe is included in "other markets", or whether they'll follow the Americans' lead and leave out Streets of Rage to ensure a lower age rating.

And it's a question they're not prepared to answer just yet - the line-up is "not set in stone yet, so we can't comment either way," a representative told us. We'll let you know just as soon as they can.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Aretak #1 7 years ago

    Damnit... they'd better include Streets of Rage.

  • mad_caddy #2 7 years ago

    It's still got Sonic CD......i'm still sold!

  • tomacwhite #3 7 years ago

    Isn't the Japanese soundtrack infinetly SUPERIOR? ;)

  • sephy #4 7 years ago

    um, why the hell do they need to chop and change games betwen regions? Doesn't this defeat the point of a compilation? theres no reason not to include all the games on each region. Theres certainly not a disc space issue.

    Oh and the Americans are obviously pansies to not include SOR. I don't recall the original release being content graded

  • Kon #5 7 years ago

    Seeing as PAL territories always get the games later than everyone else, i'll just say that we should get both the Streets of Rage games AND the Vectorman ones, not to mention the Japanese soundtrack for Sonic CD. I can say that i for one will not buy the game if it comes with the hideous yank songs. The original didn't when it was released here, so neither should this.

    But this is all becoming a bit silly now. I know that the name Sonic sells games, but wouldn't it be better to just call the thing Sega Gems and start putting some other Sega classic games in there? I sure wouldn't mind playing Eternal Champions CD again one of these days. (not to mention Flashback, Super Skidmarks and Snatcher, but i digress...) .

    Edited by 1 at 04/07/05 @ 16:42

  • smelliot #6 7 years ago

    AFAIK, Sonic CD Japan's music is a million times better.

  • raikov #7 7 years ago

    The US soundtrack was absolute cack, and a question mark over Streets of Rage? Good luck Sega, you were selling to a more 'hardcore' audience with this collection (compared to Mega Collection) and its simple faults like this that flaw it

  • AndyE #8 7 years ago

    Surely Sonic Gems will still have the Streets Of Rage games over here? So what if the rating says it's not suitable for young children, nobody reads those and this sort of retro collection appeals to older gamers anyway who are old enough to legally buy GTA games. If they are that worried about age ratings why give Shadow a gun?

  • caligari #9 7 years ago

    Gawd damn, Vectorman was cool, but it sure as hell doesn't include any piping to crack over punk's heads.

    Surely it's pretty easy to get hold of a Jap copy of the game? I already have a freeloader for my Resi 4 and Viewtiful action, but don't you need a Jap memory card to be able to save games from that region?

    I will arm wrestle people for the correct information.

  • 3william56 #10 7 years ago

    Personally, I'd have Vectorman over SoR any day. But I'm surprised at the reason -must be because they can't be ar$ed getting SoR re-classified: surely low rez minimally animated pixellated sprites poking each other wouldn't garner a high certificate nowadays.

  • Creedy #11 7 years ago

    I'm not sold if theres no Streets of Rage. I wasn't a huge fan of Sonic CD and the other sonic games don't sound to great either.
    What about Chaotix and Sonic 3d, the isometric Sonic game? Where are they to be seen?
    Edited by 2 at 05/07/05 @ 08:37

  • Jacko #12 7 years ago

    Well, Sonic3D has already been included twice in the previous SMC games.
    There's little reason not to include Chaotix in this compilation though. For shame, Sega!

    I don't really care much for SoR, although i'd happily take it over Vectorman.