after so many mixed quality dimps games on gba and ds, i honestly didnt expect anything special out of sonic colors for ds. i was kind of worried about playing it because, well.. its a handheld version of a console game, and i was worried dimps would just make something cheap and rushed, no pun intended. what i got, might just be one of the best 2d sonic games, hell maybe even one of the best sonic games, period. i love the wii version, its a great game, but colors ds knocks it out of the park. this is the rush formula refined to its peak. no more style system, which felt weird at first and fucked me up a couple times but i got used to it. replacing it is an air-dash/homing attack tied to the jump button. now, air dash was in other dimps games, but it feels so much more natural just tied to the boost button. to compensate, you can get boost wisps throughout the level, and they're pretty common, and also enemies were made more common, but to the point that theyre everywhere. the level design is usually pretty well thought out. its very layered, with multiple paths, and in typical sonic fashion, higher = more skill and faster, lower = easier and slower, but with all the wisps, theres a new layer of depth on top of it all, levels feel like a linear maze where you know exactly where you are and where to go, if that makes sense, and the levels are big, but with a couple of exceptions, they aren't padded. an average level will take almost 5 minutes to complete, but most the time they just feel perfectly paced, and when there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it jump to an upper path, its like you can anticipate where it is and when it'll happen. the wisps themselves are used rather sparingly outside of a couple levels (aside from boost), and when they are used, its usually in a pretty okay spot, and most of em play fine. first one you get is basically a charge jump you can keep doing till the time runs out, theres rocket which just gets you higher then stops, then you got drill, which... okay that sucks, the controls are ass and you keep bumping into things, it just doesnt feel right, and the last wisp is one that just eats everything as you move across the screen. its weird to control, but neat. most of them dont really break the flow of gameplay. the exceptions being void and drill. void is slow but seeing everything get wrecked is at least cool, and they try to do stuff with the level design so youre not just eating things in a straight line (though there could be less insta-kill pits), the only real stinker is drill, and sadly planet wisp, the planet that introduces the wisp, is full of drill zones, which makes getting through the levels a pain, its easily the worst planet in the game. the bosses in this game are pretty good though. they're nowhere near as grindy as they were in the boost games, and they can get pretty creative, particularly the first final boss. the true final boss however is pretty lame and doesnt pose much of a challenge, but how often are super sonic final bosses fun, especially in dimps games. the optional missions of rush adventure are back too, and this time they're actually good oh my god. they have cutscenes for them with returning characters, they provide actually new objectives, there arent a fucking hundred of them, instead its just 3 per zone and they give you actual rewards, well kind of. also returning are special stages, but this time you just get the option to enter them automatically when you beat a level, and i think you have to be holding 50 rings too, idk. these special stages are okay, but they're kind of like an inbetween of rush's special stages and hero's, which is fine, but they're also just too easy, and the final emerald is a pain to get because of how cryptic it is. win a versus mode match against an ai while holding 50 or more rings in the game land. figuring that out was annoying. this game also adds red star rings, which i always did like in sonic games, it adds replayability to levels and allows you to learn the layouts just from the hunt. the optional missions also have their own red star rings. only 2 per mission, but i kinda don't like that they're in those stages at all.
overall, this game is some of dimps best work and they've really mastered the boost formula with this game. it may not be perfect but damn if it aint fun as fuck