As a fan of the original I have conflicting feelings on how Ultimate does as a remaster.
On the one hand, this is still Sonic Colors as I remember it, gameplay remains the same to its core, which is great considering I think Colors has some really solid movement abilities to help elevate the otherwise basic platforming design on top of possibly the most creative and varied stage themes and visuals in the entire series to this day.
The new features they added are hit or miss for the most part. The perfect homing attack is a seriously great addition, makes the homing attack a genuinely interesting mechanic , speeds it up and gives boost energy in a game that doesn’t really offer you much boost. Jade Ghost offers some fun secrets that otherwise weren’t there beforehand and on top of that it also streamlines certain levels in general like Sweet Mountain act 4, allowing them to be beaten much faster. The cosmetics were a neat idea and the boost/aura customization is cool, but the different gloves and shoes are kinda tacky pallet swaps and I feel they could’ve done a lot more with the customization options at hand. Tails Saves everyone complains about to no end but I don’t really die a lot in Colors to begin with so I don’t really get to see Tails Saves in action anyway. The remixed music I’m also on and off about. Some of these remixes are fantastic, but others (Sweet Mountain specifically) I’m…less of a fan of. Rival Rush mode could’ve been neat but ended up being a glorified time attack mode for only 6 stages. I feel they would’ve been more interesting as more of a battle than a race, like you could interrupt Metal by attacking him and he can do the same to you or something, I dunno. As it stands, they’re fine but nothing much more than a neat extra.
The game honestly looks stellar, I feel it looks a lot better in person than it does in screengrabs and youtube videos. I played the game on Series X too so I got the full 4K 60 fps package and it runs as smooth as butter, not much to complain about on that front. The amount of bloom is still a bit too much however but I feel for the most part all of these stages looked great
On the other hand though, this remaster is far from perfect. I encountered numerous graphical glitches including rampant pop in, certain effects flickering in and out, Sonic not entering the stage correctly in Starlight Carnival act 3, etc. Audio issues are present too, audio channeling and mixing is absolutely borked and oftentimes the music will just cut out entirely and you’re just left with sound effects and complete silence, either for wisp powerups or for the end result screen. I’ve also encountered my fair share of crashes, though on other systems these problems are nothing but exacerbated, Switch in particular is horrendous with some truly broken seizure inducing visual bugs (thankfully all of the seizure visuals were patched out as of recently). Needless to say this game needed WAY more time in the oven. I’m glad everything is getting patched eventually, but I personally wanted everything to be in solid working order before release. When the game came out, everyone was posting about how broken this remaster was and seeing all of it was truly disheartening as a fan of Colors. I think this remaster is fine as is and it’s gonna improve in the future via patches, but it could’ve been a lot better than what it is now.
SEGA if you’re wanting to remaster other Sonic games, please get someone other than Blind Squirrel to make it. Preferably get an animal that can actually see
On the one hand, this is still Sonic Colors as I remember it, gameplay remains the same to its core, which is great considering I think Colors has some really solid movement abilities to help elevate the otherwise basic platforming design on top of possibly the most creative and varied stage themes and visuals in the entire series to this day.
The new features they added are hit or miss for the most part. The perfect homing attack is a seriously great addition, makes the homing attack a genuinely interesting mechanic , speeds it up and gives boost energy in a game that doesn’t really offer you much boost. Jade Ghost offers some fun secrets that otherwise weren’t there beforehand and on top of that it also streamlines certain levels in general like Sweet Mountain act 4, allowing them to be beaten much faster. The cosmetics were a neat idea and the boost/aura customization is cool, but the different gloves and shoes are kinda tacky pallet swaps and I feel they could’ve done a lot more with the customization options at hand. Tails Saves everyone complains about to no end but I don’t really die a lot in Colors to begin with so I don’t really get to see Tails Saves in action anyway. The remixed music I’m also on and off about. Some of these remixes are fantastic, but others (Sweet Mountain specifically) I’m…less of a fan of. Rival Rush mode could’ve been neat but ended up being a glorified time attack mode for only 6 stages. I feel they would’ve been more interesting as more of a battle than a race, like you could interrupt Metal by attacking him and he can do the same to you or something, I dunno. As it stands, they’re fine but nothing much more than a neat extra.
The game honestly looks stellar, I feel it looks a lot better in person than it does in screengrabs and youtube videos. I played the game on Series X too so I got the full 4K 60 fps package and it runs as smooth as butter, not much to complain about on that front. The amount of bloom is still a bit too much however but I feel for the most part all of these stages looked great
On the other hand though, this remaster is far from perfect. I encountered numerous graphical glitches including rampant pop in, certain effects flickering in and out, Sonic not entering the stage correctly in Starlight Carnival act 3, etc. Audio issues are present too, audio channeling and mixing is absolutely borked and oftentimes the music will just cut out entirely and you’re just left with sound effects and complete silence, either for wisp powerups or for the end result screen. I’ve also encountered my fair share of crashes, though on other systems these problems are nothing but exacerbated, Switch in particular is horrendous with some truly broken seizure inducing visual bugs (thankfully all of the seizure visuals were patched out as of recently). Needless to say this game needed WAY more time in the oven. I’m glad everything is getting patched eventually, but I personally wanted everything to be in solid working order before release. When the game came out, everyone was posting about how broken this remaster was and seeing all of it was truly disheartening as a fan of Colors. I think this remaster is fine as is and it’s gonna improve in the future via patches, but it could’ve been a lot better than what it is now.
SEGA if you’re wanting to remaster other Sonic games, please get someone other than Blind Squirrel to make it. Preferably get an animal that can actually see