Sonic Colors is one of the extremely rare cases of Sonic Team listening to feedback, implementing changes, and executing with enough skill and creativity to actually create a good video game. This has happened enough times since Sonic made the leap into 3D that I can safely count each instance on one hand, and all but two of my fingers were blown off in Nam.
Sonic Unleashed's division between good and bad is ever so slightly skewed towards "suckass garbage shit" that it's pretty easy to write the game off. Those day time stages, though, were touching on something interesting. Sonic Colors' gameplay focuses primarily on the parts of Unleashed that worked and completely does away with an element that had become a staple of the 3D series up to this point: different characters with divergent gameplay styles. Some people may not like that you can't play as Tails or Knuckles or Shadow or any of Sonic's dozens of friends, but Sonic Team focusing on doing one thing well is exactly what the series needed to finally find its footing in 3D.
The game is divided into six worlds with six acts each, culminating in a boss battle per world. Levels are mostly non-linear, some with more than one goal ring, and designed with such consideration for new and returning moves and power-ups that replays always offer something new. Colors also introduces Wisps, alien power-ups that act as this game's central gimmick (since all Sonic games apparently need one.) Whereas the shooting, racing, or brawling of past games often act as a detriment to the overall experience, Wisps are generally pretty fun to use and are woven in with the core gameplay such that they never break the flow. As you progress further into the game you unlock additional Wisps that can then be used in past stages, which in turn opens up whole new routes. It adds a lot of replay value.
Boss fights are one area where the game feels particularly weak. Each world ends with a boss fight, but really there's only three excluding the final boss. Halfway through the game the bosses repeat, and while these rematches are harder, they never innovate in a significant enough way to be interesting. Wisps are also not used to any creative or significant effect in boss fights outside of dealing increased damage.
While I find bosses to be the weakest part of the game, I'm sure plenty of people would argue that the story is much worse. Personally, I'm fine with it. People seem to take issue with the fact that it lacks any edge and is too focused on goofball antics to be compelling, and I suppose that's a fair criticism, but the series has been so tonally inconsistent that I remain unphased by Colors' strictly comedic narrative. I'm a true Sonic centrist and largely prefer the tone of Unleashed's story, which finds a good balance between setting stakes and poking fun of itself, and while this is very much not that I find it hard to join everyone else in frothing at the mouth.
This is also a review of the Ultimate version of the game, which is an upgraded port of the Wii original that boasts some graphical and mechanical improvements. It's certainly nice to play this game again with a proper controller, and the improved scenery looks pretty damn good. Having the game run at 60fps is another great selling point, though it is worth noting that this screws with the timing of some things. In particular, one boss has become agonizing to S-rank due to moving at double speed, and it's bewildering to me they haven't fixed this yet when there's a whole trophy dedicated to beating it a certain way. Some bizarre lag in the menus and a noticeable delay in selecting "restart" or "exit" while paused round out my technical issues. There were a lot more problems at launch, but by the time I got to it, it seems most have been ironed out. The Wii version still feels like the least buggy between the two, so there's pros and cons to whichever you play.
It's a shame that after finding their footing with Colors, Sonic Team almost immediately went back to being a crap factory. I could write a tome on why I think the current stewards of the franchise are completely unfit, incompetent, and oblivious, but I also can't deny that they're occasionally capable of putting out a genuinely good game. Colors remains a series high point, and is so fun that it's easy for me to overlook some of the shortcomings of this port.
Sonic Unleashed's division between good and bad is ever so slightly skewed towards "suckass garbage shit" that it's pretty easy to write the game off. Those day time stages, though, were touching on something interesting. Sonic Colors' gameplay focuses primarily on the parts of Unleashed that worked and completely does away with an element that had become a staple of the 3D series up to this point: different characters with divergent gameplay styles. Some people may not like that you can't play as Tails or Knuckles or Shadow or any of Sonic's dozens of friends, but Sonic Team focusing on doing one thing well is exactly what the series needed to finally find its footing in 3D.
The game is divided into six worlds with six acts each, culminating in a boss battle per world. Levels are mostly non-linear, some with more than one goal ring, and designed with such consideration for new and returning moves and power-ups that replays always offer something new. Colors also introduces Wisps, alien power-ups that act as this game's central gimmick (since all Sonic games apparently need one.) Whereas the shooting, racing, or brawling of past games often act as a detriment to the overall experience, Wisps are generally pretty fun to use and are woven in with the core gameplay such that they never break the flow. As you progress further into the game you unlock additional Wisps that can then be used in past stages, which in turn opens up whole new routes. It adds a lot of replay value.
Boss fights are one area where the game feels particularly weak. Each world ends with a boss fight, but really there's only three excluding the final boss. Halfway through the game the bosses repeat, and while these rematches are harder, they never innovate in a significant enough way to be interesting. Wisps are also not used to any creative or significant effect in boss fights outside of dealing increased damage.
While I find bosses to be the weakest part of the game, I'm sure plenty of people would argue that the story is much worse. Personally, I'm fine with it. People seem to take issue with the fact that it lacks any edge and is too focused on goofball antics to be compelling, and I suppose that's a fair criticism, but the series has been so tonally inconsistent that I remain unphased by Colors' strictly comedic narrative. I'm a true Sonic centrist and largely prefer the tone of Unleashed's story, which finds a good balance between setting stakes and poking fun of itself, and while this is very much not that I find it hard to join everyone else in frothing at the mouth.
This is also a review of the Ultimate version of the game, which is an upgraded port of the Wii original that boasts some graphical and mechanical improvements. It's certainly nice to play this game again with a proper controller, and the improved scenery looks pretty damn good. Having the game run at 60fps is another great selling point, though it is worth noting that this screws with the timing of some things. In particular, one boss has become agonizing to S-rank due to moving at double speed, and it's bewildering to me they haven't fixed this yet when there's a whole trophy dedicated to beating it a certain way. Some bizarre lag in the menus and a noticeable delay in selecting "restart" or "exit" while paused round out my technical issues. There were a lot more problems at launch, but by the time I got to it, it seems most have been ironed out. The Wii version still feels like the least buggy between the two, so there's pros and cons to whichever you play.
It's a shame that after finding their footing with Colors, Sonic Team almost immediately went back to being a crap factory. I could write a tome on why I think the current stewards of the franchise are completely unfit, incompetent, and oblivious, but I also can't deny that they're occasionally capable of putting out a genuinely good game. Colors remains a series high point, and is so fun that it's easy for me to overlook some of the shortcomings of this port.