Rank

Ranks are grades that are obtained by completing a stage or act (sometimes mini-games) in the Sonic the Hedgehog series video games and represent how well the player participated in that particular event. The rank he/she receives is determined by how many Rings that are collected throughout the stage, how fast the stage is cleared, the number of enemies defeated and other such varying scores.

Overview
Ranks made their first appearance in Sonic Adventure 2. 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 (such as in Sonic and the Black Knight). Since Sonic Rush, 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 order of rank grade was A to E starting with Sonic Adventure 2, and S to D starting from Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. However, in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed, E returned as the lowest rank but was dropped again from Sonic Colors and onwards (where D was the lowest rank).

Rank list (in order)

 * X Rank: Violet colored (Sonic Riders games only)
 * SS Rank: Brass colored (Sonic Riders games only)
 * S Rank: Crystal colored/Platinum colored/Gold colored
 * A Rank: Gold colored/Purple colored/Red colored
 * B Rank: Silver colored/Red colored/Orange colored
 * C Rank: Bronze colored/Yellow colored/Green colored
 * D Rank: Steel colored/Green colored/Light Blue colored
 * E Rank: Rusty metal colored/Blue colored
 * F Rank: Purple colored (This was supposed to appear in Sonic Heroes, but it later got scrapped, so the E Rank is currently the lowest of them all.)

Sonic

 * A: "[Whistles] That was cool!"
 * B: "Too easy! Piece of cake!"
 * C: "Just made it."
 * D: "Huh. No problem."
 * E: "Barely made it."

Tails

 * A: "I did it, Sonic!"
 * B: "Very good."
 * C: "That was easy."
 * D: "That was a little tough!"
 * E: "I gotta do better next time."

Knuckles

 * A: "Yeah, this is perfect!"
 * B: "Yeah, I feel good."
 * C: "Not too bad."
 * D: "Whew, that was tough."
 * E: "I have to try harder."

Shadow

 * A: "Ultimate victory!"
 * B: "Hmm, too easy for me."
 * C: "That wasn't so hard."
 * D: "Maybe I didn't try hard enough."
 * E: "I guess I'm not at full power here."

Eggman

 * A: "Now you know why I am the best!"
 * B: "Hahaha, piece of cake!"
 * C: "Hmm. That wasn't so difficult."
 * D: "I should have tried a little harder."
 * E: "That was too close."

Rouge

 * A: "How was that? Perfect? Like me?"
 * B: "It's all too easy for me."
 * C: "Not too bad, I guess."
 * D: "I guess I took a little too much time."
 * E: "I'm ashamed to call myself a hunter!"

Team Sonic (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles)

 * A: "[Whistles]. That was tight!"/"Sonic! Knuckles! We did it!"/"Perfect!"
 * B: "Too easy!"/"Not too shabby!"/"Hmm. Not bad!"
 * C: "Barely made it."/"Guess that's that!"/"Guess that's about it!"
 * D: "Hm. No problem."/"A bit tough!"/"I didn't use all my strength!"
 * E: "Shoot. Not my day."/"We can do better..."/"Just enough to pass."

Team Dark (Shadow/Rouge/Omega)

 * A: "Perfect as always!"/"Perfect! As usual."/"I am Omega! The ultimate E-Series robot!"
 * B: "Piece of cake."/"Piece of cake."/"This proves my power!"
 * C: "Just average."/"Not bad."/"Satisfactory level."
 * D: "Not taking this seriously."/"I can do better."/"Power balance adjustments needed."
 * E: "What's wrong with me?"/"I'm ashamed to call myself a treasure hunter!"/"I couldn't even beat Gamma or Beta..."

Team Rose (Amy/Cream/Big)

 * A: "We're like awesome!"/"I'm so happy, I want to tell everyone!"/"Cause I'm super-duper happy!"
 * B: "I just knew we could do it!"/"As long as we stay together, we can do anything!"/"That was good!"
 * C: "Just this will do..."/"Cheese, you did great too. Thank you!"/"Not too bad, I guess."
 * D: "Guess we could've tried harder."/"That was pretty tough!"/"We should try to do better next time."
 * E: "We couldn't even impress Sonic like this..."/"Disappointing..."/"I'm feeling a little blue..."

Team Chaotix (Espio/Charmy/Vector)

 * A: "Impossible feat! Ultimate ninja power!"/"Awesome! Totally awesome!"/"Perfect! The work of professionals, heh!"
 * B: "Good job! Nothing more to be said."/"No problem!"/"No complaints!"
 * C: "Not bad. No complaints."/"Not bad, don't you think?"/"Not bad!"
 * D: "Be on guard! Focus, and prepare yourself."/"Maybe we could've done a little better!"/"Maybe... this wasn't our day."
 * E: "Insulting. Your training has been a waste of time."/"Ok, stop foolin' around!"/"Lackluster performance, I'd say."

Shadow

 * A: "Hmm. Perfect!"

Sonic

 * Act Stages: "Yes!"
 * Boss Stages: "Can we try this again?"
 * Unknown/Big Swell: "Is that it?"

Blaze

 * Act Stages: "How's that?"
 * Boss Stages: "Never get on my bad side."
 * Unknown/Big Swell: "My enemies always fall before me."

Sonic

 * S: "That was incredible!"
 * A: "Too easy! No sweat."
 * B: "Just made it."
 * C: "Hmph! No problem."
 * D: "Man! Today's not my day."

Tails

 * S: "Great! I did it, Sonic!"
 * A: "An "A" effort!"
 * B: "Well, not bad!"
 * C: "I had a bit of trouble there."
 * D: "I've got to do better..."

Knuckles

 * S: "Alright!"
 * A: "That felt good."
 * B: "Well, that wasn't too bad."
 * C: "Hmph. That took longer than I thought."
 * D: "Shoot! I still got ways to go..."

Elise

 * S: "I don't believe it!"
 * A: "I'm so happy."
 * B: "How was that?"
 * C: "I'm a bit tired."
 * D: "I need to try harder..."

Shadow

 * S: "Perfect."
 * A: "Hm. Not even a challenge."
 * B: "Guess that was alright."
 * C: "Need to stay focused."
 * D: "Maybe I wasn't strong enough."

Rouge

 * S: "What did you think of my beautiful technique?"
 * A: "For me, it was a piece of cake!"
 * B: "That was pretty good, I guess."
 * C: "I guess I took a bit too long."
 * D: "How can I call myself a treasure hunter?"

E - 123 Omega

 * S: "Perfect mission."
 * A: "Good performance."
 * B: "That was adequate."
 * C: "Expected time frame: not met."
 * D: "Has one of my systems broken down?"

Silver

 * S: "Perfect!!!"
 * A: "Looks like I'm on a roll!"
 * B: "That was easy!"
 * C: "That took too long."
 * D: "I need to pull it together."

Blaze

 * S: "Can't complain."
 * A: "All it takes is a little effort."
 * B: "That was so-so."
 * C: "I should have done better."
 * D: "That was weak."

Amy

 * S: "Just perfect!"
 * A: "Aren't I just incredible?"
 * B: "Yay! I rock!"
 * C: "Phew. That was close."
 * D: "I gotta do better than this."

Sonic Unleashed

 * PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions only.

Sonic (Day Stages)

 * S: "Piece of cake!" - "Beautiful!" - "Sweet!"
 * A: "Yes!" - "Cool!"
 * B: "How's that?" - "Not bad." - "Ha ha !"
 * C: "Eh, can't win 'em all." - "Yeah, I'm good."
 * D: "Hmph! Well that was lame." - "Oh, I've gotta try that again." - "Not my best run."
 * E: "No!" - "Oh no."

Sonic (Night Stages)

 * S: "Oh yeah! That's right baby!"
 * A: (Howls)
 * B: "Wow! I rule!"
 * C: "Hmm, not so bad."
 * D: "Hmph! Can I start over?"
 * E: "Darn!"

Sonic Colors (DS version)

 * S: "Amazing!"
 * A: "Great!"
 * B: "Very good!"
 * C: "Good!"
 * D: "Don't give up!"

Sonic Lost World (3DS only)
Sonic doesn't add any comments to his Ranks; instead he spins around and gives a "Thumbs Up" depending on the Rank received.

Trivia

 * In the Wii/PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed, the rankings went from S to C, although the D and E ranks were present in the Xbox 360/PS3 versions. Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes ranked A to E while Sonic 06 and Sonic Generations ranked S to D.
 * In Sonic Generations, almost the total score (and Rank) is calculated by the time taken to complete it. This means by completing an Act at a sufficiently fast time, it is almost always enough to earn an A or S Rank (assuming the player doesn't lose a life).
 * However, an orange bar counting as rings will extend off of the green bar (time).
 * In the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 versions of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and Chip look directly at the ranking. Depending on what the rank is, they will behave in a certain way. They will get annoyed if the rank is bad (E or D), remain calm if the rank is average (C or B) and will dance for joy if the rank is good (A or S).
 * Receiving an E in any act causes the results BGM to be very distorted.
 * Since Sonic Colors, after getting any rank, Sonic will do a pose for the player, but only when the time to interact with the results screen stops. In Sonic Generations, after getting your score results and your rank, Sonic will do a pose, perform a move or just dance (depending of what rank the player gets).
 * Rankings were supposed to be given in Sonic Adventure as well, but the concept was scrapped during development time for unknown reasons, howewer the system was implemented into the next game, Sonic Adventure 2 and almost every other Sonic game released after.