Video length: 23:41

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Geese, Mai and Zangief, using the C-groove and fighting Shin Akuma as the final boss. Since the Gamecube controller's button layout isn't very good for 2D fighters, Capcom figured a way around it by having an additional control scheme that lets you do special moves by moving the C stick in a certain direction, and having stuff like rolls assigned to the face buttons.

This leaves the shoulder buttons free for punches and kicks -you have to press them lightly or strongly to get the desired punch or kick. Movement is restricted to the thumb stick rather than the d-pad. So this is a really bad way to play the game and you'd be much better off getting any other version.

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of both the arcade city and the original city. For both playthroughs I use the arcade rules, which means to keep adding time to the timer you need to be dropping off customers as quickly as possible. For the arcade city I picked Gena, whilst I used Axel for the original city, but I don't think there are any differences between the characters other than looks.

The plan was to get S ranks ($5,000 or more) for each run. Whilst I prefer the arcade city's layout, for some reason I always seem to get higher scores on the original city.

Arcade city playthrough (13:24)

Original city playthrough (13:22)

Video length: 57:26

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the flawed version included on Sonic Gems Collection. I didn't get all of the time stones in this run since I'd already done that in my SEGA CD version playthrough. This version also lacks a 60hz option, so the best quality option for it is 50 frames per second.

My recording software unfortunately did some skipping when I recorded this, it's most noticeable in the first act of the Collision Chaos Zone.

The only hard parts of this game are the race against Metal Sonic, and I never like doing that short section in the final level where you have to get across a bottomless pit (which is the only one in the game, if I'm remembering it right).

Video length: 1:26:56

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Sonic, using the version of the game included on Sonic Mega Collection. I find Sonic's game more difficult than Knuckles', as he has more zones and bosses to get through. The descent to Lava Reef's second act boss is always nerve-wracking, and the Death Egg is pretty tough as well. Maybe this is just me, but I swear something sounds off with Sky Sanctuary's music in this version. The music seems ok for all the other zones though.

Video length: 17:33

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Bark, using the version included on Sonic Gems Collection. To beat this game, you need to deplete your opponent's barrier ASAP. The game features a rather stupid system where, by using certain attacks, you can knock off one of your opponent's barriers. Get rid of them all and they can't block any more, which makes it fairly easy to win. Although given that this is an AM2 game, the CPU can still be incredibly cheap regardless.

Using this strategy makes it fairly easy to get through the game, although Metal Sonic is very tough (harder than the actual final boss).

Video length: 1:02:13

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Sonic Mega Collection. This version plays ok, although I don't like the Gamecube's small d-pad for playing games like this. Some of the sound effects aren't right, the most notable ones are probably the sounds heard on the platforms that catch fire in the Marble Zone.

I just knew I'd die somewhere. i always seem to manage to die at least once in nearly every Sonic 1 playthrough I do. I struggled with the fifth special stage as well, it felt to me like the jump button wouldn't respond at times. I managed to get all the chaos emeralds in the end.

Video length: 58:29

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Sonic Mega Collection. I died once on the last boss, which sucks because the first time round I did a playthrough of this, I didn't die at all, but the video corrupted during the first act of Casino Night and was unusable. Boy was I mad when I died, as you can probably tell by how quickly I destroyed Metal Sonic the second time round. There is some seriously stupid enemy placement in Metropolis Zone, especially in the third act. I really don't like the special stages in this one either, and didn't bother doing any of them in this playthrough.

Video length: 1:08:45

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on Sonic Mega Collection, with all of the chaos emeralds collected. Sonic 3 is mostly very easy to get through, the more challenging levels are all in Sonic & Knuckles.

Video length: 1:55:11

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Knuckles, using the version included on Sonic Mega Collection, all chaos and super emeralds collected. Knuckles has some slightly harder versions of certain bosses to deal with when compared to Sonic, but overall his story is much shorter -he has no Lava Reef boss to fight in the second act, his version of Hidden Palace is only a few seconds long, his Sky Sanctuary is just a boss fight, and he doesn't have to deal with the Death Egg Zone at all.

Video length: 21:27

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Full playthrough of all 5 tracks, getting 1st place on each one. I use a different character for each track. For the most part this game is really easy, with only a couple of characters being a little hard to win with (I'd consider Robotnik one of these).

This version of the game is included on Sonic Gems Collection.

Video length: 15:35

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Nightmare. Soulcalibur II is a bit harder than the first one, the CPU seems to have been given a slight intelligence boost. But really even with that the only hard part is the game's boss, Inferno. It's a single round battle, so you've only got once chance to win, and Inferno can just be annoying sometimes.

Video length: See times on playlist

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

These videos are played in the co-op mode (thanks to Matt for playing this with me), which consists of most of the levels from Rogue Squadron II. This is actually a good thing because personally I like the RSII missions much more than the RSIII ones, mainly because you get stuff like the Death Star trench run, the Endor space battle, and none of that terrible third person on-foot stuff.

Most of the game's missions aren't too difficult, but there are a few where it gets pretty hard. We've also disliked the Bespin mission, but the hardest missions are the last two. The Battle of Endor has you fighting the entire Imperial fleet, so you have lots of ships flying around, and it can be easy to lose a life by colliding with them if you aren't careful. And then you've got to also take down not one but two Star Destroyers -even with the Jedi Starfighter this can be hard.

The final mission involves flying in and out of the second Death Star -getting in is hard since players have to try and cover each other, but the real challenge is getting out alive. You've basically got to get out at twice the speed you got in, otherwise the explosions will catch up and kill you.

The Imperial Academy Heist mission has two variants, with a day and night version, and which one you play depends on what time your Gamecube's internal clock is set at.

Video length: See times on playlist

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough of nearly every mission in the game, including all of the unlockable ones. The only I didn't do is the endurance level, where you have to hold out against wave after wave of enemies.

This game mostly isn't too hard, until near the very end of the game. The Battle of Endor can be tricky to do on one life, especially when you have to take on two Star Destroyers, and the assault on the Death Star's main reactor is hard, especially just getting to it -you really have to keep up with Lando or he'll get shot down.

The Imperial Academy Heist mission has two variants, with a day and night version, and which one you play depends on what time your Gamecube's internal clock is set at.