The DS version of Sonic Colours is sort of the third Sonic Rush game, featuring gameplay similar to them both while adapting elements from the console version of Sonic Colours, mainly the wisps. Boosting is gained from wisps and damaging enemies, which I think is a downgrade from the trick system, but the various wisp abilities translate really well to 2D and compliment the level design really well.
One interesting thing is that it has its own slightly different take on the story, with fewer jokes and an extra part at the end of the game, with a final boss that isn’t in the Wii version.
One interesting thing is that it has its own slightly different take on the story, with fewer jokes and an extra part at the end of the game, with a final boss that isn’t in the Wii version.
For many reasons I consider this to be the best version of sonic colors, let me explain.
2D and 3D
While this game is entirely 2D compared to the Wii version, I felt it handled 2D way better, the 2D in the wii version actually feels sluggish in comparison to the 2D in the NDS version, notably, the jumps feels way more smooth in the NDS version as it feels very floaty in the wii version, and the 2D sections are high speed while a lot of the 2D sections in the Wii version felt slow as you had to take your time with a lot of them. The Wii version, despite being a 3D game actually has A LOT of 2D segments, it does have some pretty good 3D sections, but with how much it's competing with the NDS version in 2D sections, the NDS version pulls ahead for me.
Filler levels
The wii version has more levels per act than the NDS version, but a lot of these levels end up feeling like filler to pad out the game, although they are short, they distract so much from the actually good full length levels that there were mods made to make it possible to just straight up skip the filler levels, I didn't use any mods while playing, but that sounds like a good idea. The filler levels just can't stand on their own and really should have been part of bigger full levels. When I describe a level as filler there is negative connotations to it compared to if I would call them bonus levels. The NDS version has bonus levels, to be more precise it has OPTIONAL missions featuring cameos from beloved characters. These cameos actually end up giving the whole interstellar amusement park a lot more personality and it makes it feel more populated.
Wisp powers
The wii and NDS have some overlapping wisps and some unique to each version. While the the wii version does have more wisps I still end up preferring the wisps in the NDS version because of the movement expression of the burst wisp and not being very fond of the exclusive wii wisps. You could argue the wii version uses the wisps better for puzzle solving to find the red star rings, but me personally I never went out of my way to come back to the levels to collect all red star rings in either of the games. I also felt a lot of the wii exclusive wisps were underutilized. Hover I think could have had some interesting ring trail sections where you have to do more than just hold down a button and you'd make it through the ring trail, there could have been more obstacles by the ring trails for example.
Bosses
The NDS version of this games has some of my favorite bosses. Each act has a unique boss and fun boss. The wii version opted to have 3 repeating bosses which means it ends up only having 4 unique bosses. The nega wisp armor in the wii version is pretty fun, but the NDS version ends up having an even better version of the boss, it's one of my favorite bosses in a sonic game too. The NDS version actually ends up one upping every boss in the wii version and has more unique bosses.
Style
What I will give the wii version is that it looks and sounds amazing compared to the NDS version. This is due to the wii having better hardware than NDS.
FINE
And that is why I believe the NDS version of the game to be the better and more fun experience
multiple edits to spruce up the review. Removed parts I felt weren't very interesting to talk about
2D and 3D
While this game is entirely 2D compared to the Wii version, I felt it handled 2D way better, the 2D in the wii version actually feels sluggish in comparison to the 2D in the NDS version, notably, the jumps feels way more smooth in the NDS version as it feels very floaty in the wii version, and the 2D sections are high speed while a lot of the 2D sections in the Wii version felt slow as you had to take your time with a lot of them. The Wii version, despite being a 3D game actually has A LOT of 2D segments, it does have some pretty good 3D sections, but with how much it's competing with the NDS version in 2D sections, the NDS version pulls ahead for me.
Filler levels
The wii version has more levels per act than the NDS version, but a lot of these levels end up feeling like filler to pad out the game, although they are short, they distract so much from the actually good full length levels that there were mods made to make it possible to just straight up skip the filler levels, I didn't use any mods while playing, but that sounds like a good idea. The filler levels just can't stand on their own and really should have been part of bigger full levels. When I describe a level as filler there is negative connotations to it compared to if I would call them bonus levels. The NDS version has bonus levels, to be more precise it has OPTIONAL missions featuring cameos from beloved characters. These cameos actually end up giving the whole interstellar amusement park a lot more personality and it makes it feel more populated.
Wisp powers
The wii and NDS have some overlapping wisps and some unique to each version. While the the wii version does have more wisps I still end up preferring the wisps in the NDS version because of the movement expression of the burst wisp and not being very fond of the exclusive wii wisps. You could argue the wii version uses the wisps better for puzzle solving to find the red star rings, but me personally I never went out of my way to come back to the levels to collect all red star rings in either of the games. I also felt a lot of the wii exclusive wisps were underutilized. Hover I think could have had some interesting ring trail sections where you have to do more than just hold down a button and you'd make it through the ring trail, there could have been more obstacles by the ring trails for example.
Bosses
The NDS version of this games has some of my favorite bosses. Each act has a unique boss and fun boss. The wii version opted to have 3 repeating bosses which means it ends up only having 4 unique bosses. The nega wisp armor in the wii version is pretty fun, but the NDS version ends up having an even better version of the boss, it's one of my favorite bosses in a sonic game too. The NDS version actually ends up one upping every boss in the wii version and has more unique bosses.
Style
What I will give the wii version is that it looks and sounds amazing compared to the NDS version. This is due to the wii having better hardware than NDS.
FINE
And that is why I believe the NDS version of the game to be the better and more fun experience
multiple edits to spruce up the review. Removed parts I felt weren't very interesting to talk about
The third and final entry of the Sonic DS series, by Dimps as usual. Plays similar to the Sonic Rush games, but Sonic can now stomp, walljump, and use 5 new powerups. Less linear than the Rush games, presenting some new challenges. The soundtrack is very good. Not as long or visually impressive as its Wii counterpart, but more fluid and faster-paced.
Well let me start off by saying that this game is a masterpeace. A masterpeace of AWFUL game design!!!!
So covering the story first, from what can tell, Sonic and Tails (the protagonists) are in space at a theme park and Eggman is there too. They go to different worlds but I don't really know why because I skipped all the cutscenes. As a result the plot was very confusing and didn't make much sense. Huzzar???
The game mechanics felt slow and clunky, particularly the Violet Void as it was by far the worst aspect of the game. A real shame too when it has such a goood counterart on the Nintendo Wii version of the game (a very good take and original story for the frnachise).
The worlds were very short as they only had 3 per world, though I did not do any of the optional side-levels. Also the game felty too much like a "hold-right-to-win" in places and as such I lost interest after second level. I still played though because Sonic is cool. I like Sonic.
Not only regarding the previous issues, but having beaten the game and thus all of it's boss fights, it should be noted that they are all really boring because 3 of them are repeats but with worse gimmicks making for an overall not very appealing experience.
One positive of this though would be the bonus stages to collect the Chaos Eemeralds. These were very fun and simple and really felt like a highlight of the game. I only did 3.
In conlcusion, this game was a mixed bag, with some highlights sprinkled in, but overall was a downgrade on the Wii version which was much more enjoyable and I shall be playing that after this in order to calm down.
Reviewed in October 2023.
So covering the story first, from what can tell, Sonic and Tails (the protagonists) are in space at a theme park and Eggman is there too. They go to different worlds but I don't really know why because I skipped all the cutscenes. As a result the plot was very confusing and didn't make much sense. Huzzar???
The game mechanics felt slow and clunky, particularly the Violet Void as it was by far the worst aspect of the game. A real shame too when it has such a goood counterart on the Nintendo Wii version of the game (a very good take and original story for the frnachise).
The worlds were very short as they only had 3 per world, though I did not do any of the optional side-levels. Also the game felty too much like a "hold-right-to-win" in places and as such I lost interest after second level. I still played though because Sonic is cool. I like Sonic.
Not only regarding the previous issues, but having beaten the game and thus all of it's boss fights, it should be noted that they are all really boring because 3 of them are repeats but with worse gimmicks making for an overall not very appealing experience.
One positive of this though would be the bonus stages to collect the Chaos Eemeralds. These were very fun and simple and really felt like a highlight of the game. I only did 3.
In conlcusion, this game was a mixed bag, with some highlights sprinkled in, but overall was a downgrade on the Wii version which was much more enjoyable and I shall be playing that after this in order to calm down.
Reviewed in October 2023.
It’s kinda just a dumbed down version of Sonic Rush, which I guess fits since the Wii game is a dumbed down version of Unleashed.
Not really a fan of the base game in general so I was hoping this would be more up my alley considering that I like rush gameplay a lot. It’s almost good but is honestly just held back too much by just being so short and easy. Not a lot of flavor outside of a few additional mechanics (homing attack, stomp, and wisps).
For as bullshit as the previous two games could get (especially Rush 1) they were very memorable unlike here where I can barely think back to any interesting design choices. And man, at least the Wii game has genuinely great presentation and music. This is just about as average as you can get.
The wisps were more fun to control in this game though so I’ll give it that.
Not really a fan of the base game in general so I was hoping this would be more up my alley considering that I like rush gameplay a lot. It’s almost good but is honestly just held back too much by just being so short and easy. Not a lot of flavor outside of a few additional mechanics (homing attack, stomp, and wisps).
For as bullshit as the previous two games could get (especially Rush 1) they were very memorable unlike here where I can barely think back to any interesting design choices. And man, at least the Wii game has genuinely great presentation and music. This is just about as average as you can get.
The wisps were more fun to control in this game though so I’ll give it that.
This is probably my most biased rating ever because I legit havent played this fully since i was a kid but i have extremely fond memories of this game (and the wii one too). The sonic colors soundtrack is already so good and hearing it with the ds sounds is really cool. This is like the first game with a music player in game that I played and now any game that has that I like way more. Also screw the button spam at the end of the game It was too much for little me I had to get my dad to do it for me LMAO.