I used to think this game was overrated. When I first played it maybe six months or so after it came out, I thought it paled in comparison to the DS version I had already played prior. It felt like a pretty standard 2D platformer with controls designed for a 3D speed-heavy Sonic game. So many level design decisions baffled me, and I could never get the hang of Sonic's weird, inconsistent jump. I beat the game at least twice, but I never went out of my way to get S ranks or collect the red rings because I didn't enjoy the game that much. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I went back to it after many years to see if my opinions had changed at all. And at first, that didn't seem to be the case. Tropical Resort is an uninspired level when you go through it for the first time. But one thing I did differently in this playthrough, wondering if it would change my mind at all, was revisiting every level to find all the red rings. And honestly? I think it made a pretty big difference.

I had plenty of time this time round to get used to Sonic's weird jump. Sonic's jump increases the longer you hold the button down, which is pretty standard in most platformers, but it feels weird in combination with a double jump that won't kick in at all if it's not timed at the apex of Sonic's jump. With some practice though, it came a lot more naturally. It was still kinda tough to land on small moving platforms, though. I'm looking at you, Planet Wisp conveyor belts.

The levels felt a lot better thought out, now that I was actively exploring them for collectables. Levels can change drastically when you take a different route or use a specific Wisp. I was even finding cool hidden routes all over the place, some which didn't even contain red rings, they were just neat little secrets.

The cutscene dialogue is incredibly cheesy, almost like this is a children's video game or something. It's got a real cartoony vibe that kinda fits the mostly low-stakes plot, and it actually knows how to play its occasional serious moments. I did skip a couple of the cutscenes, I can't lie, but most of it was palatable. Not nearly as disastrous as later games' plots where these writers attempt to write something with greater emotional weight.

So I guess I like Sonic Colours now? Don't get me wrong, I had my far share of bullshit deaths. But I don't know if it's my higher tolerance for frustration in video games, a case of stockholm syndrome, or if I finally got gud, but I still really enjoyed myself despite the many frustrations of 100%. I knocked the whole thing out in four consecutive days, and found myself looking forward to playing each day. I'm really glad I found a new appreciation for Sonic Colours Wii. DS is still better tho.

The level design in this game is uninspired and amateurish. I understand the focus is more on combat than platforming, but like... you know when you're playing a game and you see that one enemy that makes you go, "oh no, not THIS guy again"? That was my reaction to nearly every enemy in A Hole New World. The game's main gimmick, the upside-down parallel world you flip between, adds virtually nothing to the game and is never explored to its fullest potential. The bosses (with the exception of the final two) feel more like tests of luck than skill, with bullshit projectiles and attacks that feel impossible to predict, let alone dodge.

Look, it's not horrible. There's a decent sense of progression from the new abilities you collect after every level, and the spritework is surprisingly pretty. If I knew the person who made this game, like, if they were my cousin or something, I'd tell them they did a pretty decent job. Unfortunately, A Hole New World was not made by my cousin.

An interactive narrative game where your only dialogue options are saying 'no' or saying nothing at all. It's quirky and fun for a couple of hours, but after beating it I really struggled to find some of the remaining routes in each episode. It doesn't help that you only get 3 save states, across all the episodes. I couldn't even find the presidential storyline in episode 3, which I think was meant to be the main branch of the story. It's impressive how many branching paths they hid in such a simple dialogue system, but some of them are a little TOO well hidden.