What happened with Sonic Colours

[KingMan]

I remember playing it for the first time and by the time I was finished, I had the same reaction those mentioned before: I didn't want to pop it in again. I didn't hate it, but I had no desire to play it again.

Looking back, some of the design choices for the stages are just baffling to me. For example, one of the stages in Asteroid Coaster has Sonic running along the rings of a Saturn-like planet and has to either kill enemies or hit switches (I can't remember) in order to advance. This one section could've made a great intro to a stage, but instead, it's the stage itself. Every level in the game had an act of two that was like this, stages you could literally beat in ten seconds. What was the point? Why couldn't they stick them into the more completed acts? Also, if I recall correctly, the first half of an Act in Planet Wisp is a repeat of the second half of a previous act. Once again, why couldn't they combine the two?

For the positives, I loved the presentation. The game has some original worlds (Sweet Mountain being the biggest standout), the music is the best I've heard in a Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2, and the voice acting is solid. The story/script is, uh, decent. Not the best this franchise has, but I've seen worse.

Overall, not a terrible game (at least, not to the extent Jim Sterling makes it out to be), but Sonic Colors suffers from the same problem a lot of games this series has had since the fall of the Dreamcast. The potential of these games is very high and even the more gimmicky moments could have been entertaining if done right, but, sadly, Sonic Team does not have the time, resources or patience to fully flesh them out.

[Your Vest Friend]

Meh, I never thought it was that grand in the first place, it was decent but it was one of the least fun experiences with a Sonic game I've had in years.

My opinion hasn't changed since.

[Semi-colon e]

I play Generations much more than Colours, but I still love Colours. It's style and tone keeps me coming back more than Unleashed's as hard as that is to believe. Colours freed the series from the Adventure trappings. It's short and safe, but it cuts the CRAP.

In terms of the Sonic franchise, short and sweet beats long and padded out because most of the padding is complete arse. Sonic 3 and Knuckles doesn't count because they released it in two parts and not at the same time.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Toby]

Robotnik wasn't a fucking manchild in the Sonic Adventure games. He tried to destroy Station Square in SA1. And in SA2 he blows up military bases, comes up with a plan to get six of the seven Chaos Emeralds and very nearly kills Sonic.

[Mangoaxe5]

But the playroom doesn't affect the way his personality is shown in the cutscenes. That's why I don't think that it should count.

[Tornado]

We're talking about the same Eggman who spent most of the first Adventure hamming it up and overacting so much he might as well have been voiced by William Shatner, yes?

Edited September 7, 2012 by Tornado

[Semi-colon e]

Eggman in Colours wasn't just a manchild, he was really sarcastic as well when it was called for. One of my favourite moments in the cutscenes is where Orbot says "I think that was the wrong chip" and Eggman overdramatically goes "REALLY?!"

[Pawn]

We're talking about the same Eggman who spent most of the first Adventure hamming it up and overacting so much he might as well have been voiced by William Shatner, yes?

Edited September 7, 2012 by Pawn

[Cyrus]

Robotnik wasn't a fucking manchild in the Sonic Adventure games. He tried to destroy Station Square in SA1. And in SA2 he blows up military bases, comes up with a plan to get six of the seven Chaos Emeralds and very nearly kills Sonic.

[Your Vest Friend]

Have to admit, I might be more sour with this game than I used to just for the fact it cemented Tails as being a very dull character nowadays in my mind.

[no one]

I never got hyped for Colors but once I played it, I loved it. After a while, it gets a tad bland (mostly due to the mild lack of replay value) but it's still in the top 10 sonic games for me.

[Soniman]

Have to admit, I might be more sour with this game than I used to just for the fact it cemented Tails as being a very dull character nowadays in my mind.

[Cyrus]

Have to admit, I might be more sour with this game than I used to just for the fact it cemented Tails as being a very dull character nowadays in my mind.

[Your Vest Friend]

Funny enough, I feel the exact opposite. Chalk that up to the excellent bromance.

[Soniman]

Tails has passed that "idolizing Sonic" phase, so he doesn't see Sonic as an celebrity anymore, just a good friend. Chalk that up to actual character development.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Soniman

[Kiah]

What happened to Sonic Colors? Nothing really bad, per se. I think Sonic Colors' reception has dropped due to the perception of being pale in comparison to Sonic Generations, with Colors losing its appeal somewhat due to how impressive Sonic Generations was. Sonic Generations basically does nearly everything better in all aspects in comparison. I think the only thing that Sonic Colors had better than Sonic Generations was that of the story, and that isn't saying much actually.

Anyway, Sonic Colors is still one of my favorite Sonic games, short, yet sweet. Although I thought Sonic Team held themselves back by playing it safe with Sonic Colors, I think it's a great game and I still enjoy playing it to this day. This game was an real beauty to look at with graphics and level design. Everything, from Tropical Resort to Terminal Velocity was amazing to look at in my opinion and having Sonic ripping and running through them all with the Wisps was a lot of fun, being something different as well. The soundtrack for the game was outstanding. I still like to go back and look at the cutscenes as all the jokes didn't bother me any; I didn't really find them bad nor excessive. I enjoyed the jokes actually, as they gave me a good case of the giggles. The bromance between Sonic and Tails was brilliant as I found it well done by the writers along with Tails' characterization. Sonic had his good points in characterization too. I just wish there was more of it to enjoy with the game being so short...

I have tons of praise for this game, although it isn't perfect by any means. I think it has a lot of good to offer as well a lot of things in the game to enjoy even today.

[Skarlet]

It was okay. I think that people forget about games like this after the newer games are released.

[JezMM]

The first playthrough of Sonic Colours was utterly fantastic to me, but it's one of those games where the more you play it, the more formulaic and flawed you realise it is. I was so blown away by the freshness and envioronments first time through, it was only on replaying I realised how closed and simple they were, the 3D sections especially. Once the initial thrill of the eye candy has worn off, there's just really not enough to the game. Now I've played it through so many times, I find it hard to believe I sat back and went "Wow" after finishing Starlight Carnival Act 1 first time. Obviously Unleashed doesn't give me the adrenaline rush anymore, but I can still look back and see WHY it did. I don't get that as much in Colours for some reason.

And... yeah blocky platforming, enforced wisps and a storyline that really missed its full potential, as well as a general lack of extra content. After the whole day and evening of playing on the initial story, and months I put into the post-story of Unleashed, it was disappointing to beat the story in four hours and 100% clear Colours in a week or two.

It just doesn't have that lasting appeal or special something Unleashed and Generations did. Unleashed especially.

Edited September 7, 2012 by JezMM

[HexiDecimel]

I only really bought it just after it released out of pure interest. I played it, and had a blast with it. However...

It really isn't a very replayable game to me in terms of, well, replay value. It's fun, the Wisps are pretty cool even though I'm not that big a fan of them as sometimes I'd just rather be playing as Sonic, but, hey, they add something.

But the levels are so... 2 dimensional. Literally. There seems to be more 2d in the game that 3d, and on top of that, the 3d sections feel pretty damn empty. The 2d sections are also very blocky to me, and consist of almost Mario-ish platforming with a Sonic engine, and I just don't find it fun. The graphics and music are absolutely fantastic, there's no complaints there. It's just that I don't find going back to the game, because I don't like that many of the levels in it since they're so focused on 2d and they're so blocky. Plus, quite a few of them are practically the equivalent in length to some of the challenges in Generations, except that they're branded as full on acts, which is a problem I also had with the likes of Sonic Unleashed, both versions.

It's also not that difficult to get all the red rings either, so they don't extend the life of the game by that much. I go back and replay Sonic Unleashed more than I do Colours, and I think it's honestly because I find the gameplay, well, more exciting. I find that Colours' 3d level design is actually more shallow than that of Unleashed -- Unleashed felt like there was just more to do, in general I suppose.

[Burnt Ash]

I cannot form a solid opinion on Sonic Colors, no matter how much I try. Part of me says to dislike the game, and another part of me says that the game wasn't that bad. With that said, I think it's safe to say my liking towards Colors changes every now and then. I never really 'like' the game, but sometimes I find it okay. I'll elaborate on that, I suppose.

I first played Colors and immediately, I noticed the brilliant detail, the fantastic music, the stellar visuals, the precise 3D controls (well, for the few times you actually are in 3D), a double jump that I loved immediately, and creative level themes. All of these good qualities of the game would be carried out throughout the game, with little to no inconsistencies. For these qualities, I believe Colors is a fantastic game. However, my main problem with Sonic Colors deals with the utilization of the wisps and the level design. Unfortunately, these are some of the things that are supposed to make the gameplay fun, to me at least.

The wisps. I believe the main problem with the wisps for me was the...gameplay aspect of them. I did not like how most of them were only accessible in 2D. I didn't have much fun transforming blocks to coins and vice versa with the cube wisps, the initial 'wow' factor of the rocket wisp wore out fast, I felt the hover wisp felt a bit too tight with its movements, etcetera. However, that being said, I genuinely enjoyed playing with the drill wisp, the frenzy wisp, and the spike wisp. The drill wisp was pretty fun to use in stages like Aquarium Park and Tropical Resort, I forgot where the frenzy wisp is located, but it was fun destroying a bunch of things, and I kinda liked the spike wisp for the ability to spin dash and stick to ceilings. That being said, I felt as though the impact of the wisps regarding gameplay was a bit disappointing.

The level design. I can't say that I really liked the dominance of the 2D gameplay, the bottomless pits, the generally blocky platforming, etc. What little 3D was there was mainly linear, and the only wisps you could use, if I recall correctly, were the hover and frenzy wisps. All of these put together didn't give me a positive experience with the game.

While I commend the effort put into Colors, as much as I appreciate the aesthetics, the core of the game, the gameplay, falls flat on me.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Burnt Ash

[Rexy]

To be fair, my feelings on Colors is that it was to me one of the finest Sonic games to come out in years, and I remarked that so when I did a sub-hour Egg Shuttle run and hosted it on Youtube. I wish I could say "Generations happened" like most of the other posts here, but the only means that I could even play it was the PC version, which means the fear of it crashing at any time due to my CPU overheating, not to mention the broken Time Attacker achievement (I can NEVER load City Escape Act 1 in Ranking Attack mode).

I think part of the problem with Colors's appeal for the future now comes down to not really the fundamentals for the game itself, but rather that it came out pretty late in the Wii's lifespan. It doesn't affect my enjoyment since I somehow tend to enjoy games better when the console it's on is almost dead (!!), but it can be seen that way with Sonic 4 Episode 2, Sonic CD HD and even Generations not getting any Wii support at all and seeing more potential with the other two HD-based systems and the PC's digital download services.

In regards to replayability, it's definitely high up there for me if I want to randomly pick up a Sonic game that I once played and go through it all again, like I sometimes would do on occasion. However, there comes the burdening thought - once you've seen everything, you really have no desperate incentive to really go back to it other than for a casual replay. Either way, it is as it is - a nice, fun, arcade-ish platformer that anyone can pick up and play.

(...except maybe my 9-year-old cousin who keeps getting stuck at Starlight Carnival o_O*)

[Emmett L. Brown]

Nothing, really. It's still a great game. It's just you can get a hell of a lot more post content out of criticism than praise.

Praise: "It was good. I shall say some positive adjectives and how much I verb the gameplay"

Criticism: "Watch me write six paragraphs about how this game proves that innovation is lacking in the series. I've got like a thesaurus on this one!"

[Burnt Ash]

Criticism: "Watch me write six paragraphs about how this game proves that innovation is lacking in the series. I've got like a thesaurus on this one!"

I dunno, typically when critcising/praising something, particularly games generally regarded as good/bad (?), I like to justify it. However, I can see why it can be somewhat irritating to others.

[ArtFenix]

I never really understood why so many people said the game was the best 3D (3D? lol) Sonic game ever when it had just come out. It's an OK game with a short weak story, blocky 2D platforming and criminally short levels and replay value. It's the definition of playing it safe. I like the colorful world and levels' themes. I love the OST.. That's all there is to it. A good game for a couple of weeks and while it's pretty good, no way it's the best 3D Sonic game. (I'd rather call it a 2D game than a 3D game.)

[Scar]

I never really understood why so many people said the game was the best 3D (3D? lol) Sonic game ever when it had just come out. It's an OK game with a short weak story, blocky 2D platforming and criminally short levels and replay value. It's the definition of playing it safe. I like the colorful world and levels' themes. I love the OST.. That's all there is to it. A good game for a couple of weeks and while it's pretty good, no way it's the best 3D Sonic game. (I'd rather call it a 2D game than a 3D game.)

Replay value is subjective. See other people may just like the gameplay and stages enough to want to replay them.

Oh and there is Challenge Mode which I thought was a neat idea and should return in a future game.