Sonic Generations Collectors Edition: Unboxing & Review

If I think about all the Collectors Editions, or Limited Editions that I own, only four instantly come to mind, GTA 4, remember? It all came in a metal lock box that actually worked? There was also a large bag as well as a few other goodies? Bioshock 2, because it came with an LP soundtrack and the art book is one of the most amazing art books I’ve ever seen. The next is Demons Souls Deluxe Edition, if you own this; chances are the guide book blew you away. Finally, the fourth is the Catherine Deluxe Edition, who doesn’t want a half naked blonde on a pillow case? Or a spare pair of pants with your game?

What don’t come to my mind instantly would be the Hardened Editions of Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. Dark Souls (which only came out a month ago!), FF13 and even Bayonetta’s collector’s edition. You know what all those Collectors Editions have in common? They’re all sat on my shelf, with all my other games, and other than ‘I think there’s an art book in them’ I would struggle to remember their contents. Don’t get me wrong, I know what the games I like, I know how good they all are… but speaking about what makes them ‘collectors’ or ‘limited editions’ other than the art book and maybe a soundtrack, it’s difficult to remember exactly what extra they contained… and in some cases… what justified the extra price tag.

So when someone says “Oh there’s a Sonic Collector’s edition!” Your mind gets cast back to the miserable Sonic Colours collector’s edition, the one which came with a free action figure… not very exciting… but when you see that the RRP on it is nearly £100, the first question is why? When you get the answer to that, even if you don’t normally buy Sonic merch, the next question is usually “How do I order one!?”

When this was announced back in September, the Sonic fandom exploded, it looked absolutely incredible, the content, the presentation, the quality of the extras, just… everything about it. Well it’s out, I have it. With Generations costing in the region of £35 here in the UK, is Generations Collector’s Edition worth the £75-£100 price tag… Short answer… YES!

The CE arrives in glossy heavy duty cardboard with a plastic sleeve covering it, you’ve probably seen them on regular game boxes from time to time. The box itself is decorated with some very nice artwork of Classic and Modern Sonic staring at each other, the top of it has the game logo, it’s simple, but a thing of beauty.

Lifting the lid of the box, the CE gives you it’s first surprise. The front of the box flips down to reveal a larger Sonic Generations logo as well as the contents of the CE itself. The first thing you see is the game itself, only it has a nice extra, there’s a sleeve around it which has a holographic cover, tilt it and it shows Classic Sonic, tilt it the other way and you get Modern Sonic. Sometimes when you get holograms like this, they don’t do much; recall the Alien Vs Predator Survival Edition which has a hologram that doesn’t do anything.

What you could easily mistake for an art book is actually the OST and documentary, only it contains the second surprise of this CE, upon opening up the small book additional flaps open, very much like a popup book, there’s a small description of the documentary and a track list for the OST, 23 tracks, 23 various pieces of music, one from 23 different Sonic games from the last 20 years, including lesser popular titles like Sonic Rivals. The documentary itself is by far one of the better DVD bonus’ I’ve seen with a CE. Typically these DVD extras that come with CE’s are quite poor, often they’re barely 10 min long and don’t really contain anything that’s not been released during the creation of the game via dev diary’s and blogs. This documentary however is very well made; it’s around 35 min long and contains interviews with the original creators of Sonic, detailed information into how Sonic was created and why Sega created him. It even contains footage of the videogame event that Sonic was first debuted at.

There’s another smaller box in the CE, the top of it has the Sonic Generations logo, the 20th anniversary logo and the words ‘gold ring.’ Yup, it’s what you think. The display box that the ring comes it has the Generations logo etched into the plastic and the ring is mounted on blue felt. But, the ring has an additional surprise, it’s the only item in the CE which tells you what number the CE is, there was a lot of rumour regarding how many CE’s had been made, for some reason people got into their heads it was limited to 500, when the actual number is 12,000. There is something quite charming about having to actually buy the package and open it up to find out which number you have. The ring itself is made of metal and feels very strong, it even has the Sonic life icon carved into it with the number you have.

Although the plastic display case that it comes in appears to be scratched, this seems to be a common complaint, but it seems to be the only problem with the entire collection.

Next up is the art book, first thing you notice is how large it is, a lot bigger than these small A5 books we tend to get these days. A small introduction blurb in several languages tells you about the last 20 years of Sonic. The book itself isn’t what you expect, the artwork isn’t just from the game, it contains logos of different Sonic games from the last 20 years (including the Japanese logos) as well as the original Sonic concept art… look up the phrase “Sonic Madonna” and you’ll see what I mean. There’s pages dedicated to Sonic’s friends and enemies as well as promotional artwork from the last 20 years. Sadly there’s no annotations or even notes or interviews from developers, also its odd how for an art book which celebrates 20 years of Sonic, there’s virtually nothing for Sonic Generations itself, which is a shame since the game has tons of un-lockable concept art, it would have been great to get it in the book too.

I’d say that the book is something that fans who don’t actively search out old artwork will enjoy, there’s nothing too obscure or unknown here, it’s all very recognisable, however it is a welcome addition that they included old soundtrack covers, nice to see Sonic Dance Power get a mention, and even Fang has a small cameo in the book.

Now the last thing is the statue… and what a statue. The statue itself is a smaller version of a much larger promotional thing that’s been doing the rounds at various conventions. Only the CE version contains the final surprise of the package. Unlike usual statues that you get with CE’s this one has a rather clever party piece, you can remove the two Sonic’s from the base and position them however you like. They can stand of their own free will, although you may want to secure them with tape just to be sure. But they don’t need the base to stand, so if you have a Sonic shelf or a collectables shelf, you can display either Sonic without having to worry too much about space.

That said however, the base is a very nice structure. It too is plastic but it’s a solid build. The statues however are made of lesser quality plastic, almost like the kind you would expect to find action figures made of.

Whilst the blog banner says “Sonic Collectables” you’re going to think I’m a tad biased when I say this. But this CE really is one of the best CE’s ever made. The content fully justifies the extra price tag. Content is both practical as well as static display items, but what sets it apart is how customisable the statue and the ring is, there’s lots of ways you can display these things if you like. The documentary is one of the longest and most interesting documentaries which usually accompany games.

But what sets it apart is the presentation of the objects. The way the box opens up on its own when you remove the lid, the pop up Generations logo in the OST/documentary case. Somebody spent a long time designing this and they must have enjoyed the job at hand. It could so easily have been a plain box with everything neatly packaged inside, yet that would have been so forgettable. This CE is easily going to stick in your mind even when Generations is sitting on your shelf and you’ve moved onto other games, the quality of the items and the box design itself really does set it apart from other CE’s.

With many CE’s these days barely any different from the standard editions, or the bonus content being a ‘read once’ art book or the worst thing ever… digital downloaded content *glares at Dark Souls.* There’s and old phrase which I think needs a bit re-tweaking which really needs hearing by the people who decide what goes into a Collectors or Limited Edition these days. ‘Genesis does what Nintendon’t.’ When I look at this CE and look at other CE’s I can’t help but think, they’re still doing that… only now they’re taking on everyone else!