Rank

Ranks are grades that are obtained by comleting a stage or act in the games (sometimes mini stages), and represent how well you did in that particular event. The rank you recieve is determined by how many rings you collected throughout the stage, how fast you cleared the stage, the number of enemies defeated, number of tricks done, highest speed reached, and other such varying scores. Originally, ranks made their first appearence in the Sonic the Hedgehog games in Sonic Adventure, but they were called levels instead of ranks. Starting from Sonic Adventure 2 onwards, they were referred to as ranks. Since then, ranks have appeared in the majority of Sonic games released to date; but sometimes the scores are represented by Stars instead of Ranks. Since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), S-Rank became the highest rank, replacing A, and it has been this way in the most recent Sonic games that use letters for ranks. The exception to this rule is within the Sonic Riders series, where the highest rank recieved is an X and the lowest rank recieved is a C. The order of Rank grade was A to E starting with Sonic Adventure 2, and S to D starting from Sonic '06. However, in PS3 and 360 versions of Sonic Unleashed the E rank returned as the lowset rank and the results tuned plays badly just for the rank. In Sonic Colors, the E rank was no where to be seen, meaning in that game a D was the lowest rank that could be recieved; this is the same in Sonic Generations. The E rank may or may not return in future games.

Rank list (in order)

 * X Rank: Purple colored (Only appeared in the Sonic Riders games)
 * S Rank: Crystal colored
 * A Rank: Gold Colored
 * B Rank: Silver Colored
 * C Rank: Bronze colored
 * D Rank: Steel colored
 * E Rank: Rusty Metal colored
 * F Rank (It was supposed to appear in Sonic Heroes, but it later got scrapped, so the E Rank is the lowest of them all.)

Trivia

 * In the Wii/PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed, the rankings went from S to D, although the E rank is present in the 360/PS3 versions.
 * Since Sonic Colors, the rankings are now from S to D. Same thing happened to Sonic Generations. So this means that the E will be nowhere to be seen in recent games.
 * In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors, the ranking is given by the time score and most likely rings and your score. However, in Sonic Generations, even if you have at least one ring or just a short kind, you will get an S rank; but only when you don't lose a life in the stage. So this means that Sonic Generations, the ranking is given by time.