Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors Extra Round - Final Thoughts

[Nepenthe]

The thing is, it's difficult to care about the cast in Colors as well to any significant degree because, well, nothing really happens to them to invoke meaningful empathy; being more in-your-face funnier just doesn't cut it. Any situation that would potentially force interesting conflict is waved off and never to be discussed again because the whole point of the story is to present casual situations and interactions. Eggman nearly made me and my best friend fight due to using a mind control ray he plans to use on Earth? Meh, let's continue exploring the park and dissing his cooking. Yacker's gone missing? Sonic literally denotes it a non-issue and Tails just goes along with it. If Sonic and Tails don't care about anything, why should I? These aren't developments that serve to make me care and get invested in anything, which is a shame because the dialogue is a marked improvement. Everything good about the writing is just let down by the awful narrative and plotting.

[Kuzu]

Well it honestly depends on what you value more in a narrative; writing or plotting. Ideally we should have both, but I find myself just not caring about the stories in the series and more about the characters themselves.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[Gabz Girl]

But in Sonic Unleashed, the Earth is torn apart, actually TORN APART by this gigantic monster that could rival Cthulhu and what do the human civilians say?

 

"OMFG, the planet has been torn apart?! ...Ah well let's just get on with our lives even though millions have probably died! 8D"

 

There was no panic, no threat, nothing! They didn't give a crap, which didn't make me care either. Same thing.

[Vertekins]

Well it honestly depends on what you value more in a narrative; writing or plotting. Ideally we should have both, but I find myself just not caring about the stories in the series and more about the characters themselves.

 

Plotting gives characters direction and gives gravity to how they behave. It is something that if of stupendous importance when it comes to influence on the characters. Colours fell flat in this regard, Unleashed facilitated development.

[Nepenthe]

Part of being a good character, I think, comes down to that character's reactions to events just as much as it does on their inherent personalities. Reacting painfully to heat raises empathy because I've also been burned before myself and can thus relate on a level of direct experience. A character sticking their hand in fire and not feeling anything is cool but inherently apathetic to me because I can't experience that, thus they need a reasonable reaction like intrigue or even fear, something that would make me say, "Yeah, I'd probably react like that if I that happened to me." Continued apathy would just serve to make the experience meaningless and thus the character would be worse off. In Colors' case, my bestie may not ever be hit with a mind control ray, but I know I'd be pissed if someone used something like that to manufacture physical drama between us, far beyond the length of time it was an issue for Sonic and Tails, and subsequently I'd be more concerned at the declaration that such a device would be used on the entire Earth. But these two characters were not, so how can I empathize and care for them as characters all that much as a result?

[Soniman]

Plotting gives characters direction and gives gravity to how they behave. It is something that if of stupendous importance when it comes to influence on the characters. Colours fell flat in this regard, Unleashed facilitated development.

 

Sonic Unleashed has a more focused plot, but it suffers due to having a bunch of boring and flat personalities for the Sonic characters who aren't Eggman, what's the point of having a decent story when the characters are uninteresting?

 

Colors has less direction but it has much richer characterization with Sonic and Tails actually having something of a personality instead of being selfless hero guys that only focus on stopping Eggman and nothing else.

[Kuzu]

Plotting gives characters direction and gives gravity to how they behave. It is something that if of stupendous importance when it comes to influence on the characters. Colours fell flat in this regard, Unleashed facilitated development.

You can give your characters all the direction they want, if their personalities and dialogue are boring you'll be hard pressed to reach out to a good amount of people. And considering the majority of people who play the games are predominantly children, I'd imagine they'd be more interested in the characters themselves than whatever is going on in the plot.

 

Part of being a good character, I think, comes down to that character's reactions to events just as much as it does on their inherent personalities. Reacting painfully to heat raises empathy because I've also been burned before myself and can thus relate on a level of direct experience. A character sticking their hand in fire and not feeling anything is cool but inherently apathetic to me because I can't experience that, thus they need a reasonable reaction like intrigue or even fear, something that would make me say, "Yeah, I'd probably react like that if I that happened to me." Continued apathy would just serve to make the experience meaningless and thus the character would be worse off. In Colors' case, my bestie may not ever be hit with a mind control ray, but I know I'd be pissed if someone used something like that to manufacture physical drama between us, far beyond the length of time it was an issue for Sonic and Tails, and subsequently I'd be more concerned at the declaration that such a device would be used on the entire Earth. But these two characters were not, so how can I empathize and care for them as characters all that much as a result?

 

Wouldn't both Unleashed & Colors fail then? The world gets blown up, and Sonic's gets mutated, yet it seems like nobody gives a shit at all. They try to make the world breaking apart seem like a big deal, but there's nothing to show it actually is. Sonic's Werehog form is never given any empathy, nor are Chip's memories. And unlike in Colors, Unleashed doesn't spend much time developing the relationship between Sonic & Chip, they just go from point A to point B and it makes the "emotional" scenes with them seem contrived because there was no time in developing these characters.

 

I'm not exactly saying Colors is the shining example of well written dialogue, but at the very least it developed the dynamics between the characters which made me far more invested than in Unleashed despite it's poor plotting.

[Nepenthe]

Many NPCs in Unleashed do express fear at the Werehog, incredulity that the Werehog is actually Sonic, or are in general just weirded out by him. When Amy fails to recognize him, Sonic has the first sad reaction he's probably ever had in the games, and for most of the time he believes the only thing saving him from full possession is Chip's influence, giving Sonic actual doubt for the first time too. I'd also disagree that there's no empathy being played with. While the Earth being torn to bits is no biggie, it's because it's not the ultimate issue: Dark Gaia's ascent is, and there were enough cutscenes and missions to get across the fact that the denizens were concerned, frightened, and directly affected by what was happening at night and near the ending.

The only thing I can agree with you on is that Sonic and Tails' relationship was elaborated on more in the middle than Sonic and Chip's was, but this doesn't mean there was a total absence of elaboration. Verte covered some of it in her post detailing the play fighting Sonic and Chip did, but we also have the unlockable shorts and the massive amount of dialogue from Chip in the hubs to get an idea about how their relationship functions, so I disagree that the sentimental aspects were meaningless.

Regardless, I'm not saying you we're arguing that Colors is a paragon of any kind. I'm arguing against the notion that Sonic and Tails are significantly empathetic characters in Colors.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Nepenthe

[Kamakai]

...*Sigh*  Ok, let's do this.

 

STORY

 

Unleashed's story was what 06's should have been. It had depth (to some extent), and it didn't take itself too seriously, which was a fatal flaw in 06. There was some Sonic "attitude" in there as well, and I actually liked the way they show Sonic and Tails' bond by having Tails be the only one able to recognise Sonic in werehog form. But the supporting characters didn't really do much, not even Chip had much relevance until near the ending. And even that was just unneccessary filler to make Chip more interesting. It works to some degree, but it really isn't anything special.

 

Colours, however, had a cartoony, wacky vibe that I think fits the Sonic world (and indeed, the Sonic characters) perfectly. I really don't think dramatic story goes with a blue hedgehog trying to defeat a fat animal abuser. I applaud this story for being simple, and entertaining. But, again, Yacker and the Wisps bore no relevance to the plot at all, which I felt was a missed opportunity. Eggman and Tails were more important, and neither of them even showed up on the front cover. Sonic and Tails' relationship is really shown in this game, and it's nice to see them just being like brothers. The smart, snarky coments of Sonic fit his character perfectly, and Tails always being there to deflate his ego humorously really shows that he has developed from being the clingy nuisance that he was in Sonic 2.

 

 

WRITING

 

Unleashed's writing... well... it's just writing. It goes with the story fine, and there are some memorable lines here, but, to be honest, it really wasn't anything noteworthy. The voice acting made this a lot better than the previous game in terms of plot. I really fell that the 4kids cast did a great job here. Although I did get some enjoyment from it, such as Chip having an orgasm over a chocolate chip sundae, there wasn't much in terms of characterisation here. Sonic's a nice, good guy here, with little to none of his attitude showing at all. Eggman is evil... that's it. The rest of the cast it just...there. They really don't do anything. So any opportunity they have of being developed in this game is destroyed. I can honestly say my favourite moment in this is the opening. It reminds me of a time when it was just Sonic vs Eggman, and Sonic shows off a lot, being the smartass he is. However, this is all severely downplayed later. Overall, the story and writing aren't exactly Oscar winners, but there is a lot of entertainment to be found here.

 

Colors' writing was kind of hit and miss. Thankfully, it ticks a lot of the right boxes. Sonic has attitude, Tails is level headed but not afraid to make a snarky remark, and Eggman is the humorous villian, being more like the original Team Rocket in the Pokemon anime.

Sonic and Tails had a lot of brotherly moments, but still take snarky and snide remarks. This fleshes them out, and makes them less 2D by giving them distinct traits. I LOVE Eggman in this game. He is humorous, but not to the point of being completely ridiculous. (Well, that's somewhat debateable.) His lines are some of the most memorable in the series for me, also.

"I know they look delicious, but please refrain from licking the rides. That would be disgusting."

 

Sonic the Hedgehog, please report to the main office. We've.. uh, found your keys! yes, we've found your keys. Nothing of malicious

intent going on here."

 

The writing in this is, for me, gold I just love it.

 

OVERALL

 

 

In the end, although Unleashed has memorable moments, good voice acting, and a far more fleshed out story, I find myself prefering the wacky, colourful(no pun intended) vibe of Colors. The more lighthearted tone, similar to Heroes, and the far superior characterisation make this the superior title in terms of story and writing for me. It was a close call, though.

 

WINNER: Sonic Colours.

 

...Wow, I typed a LOT.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Blue Streamer

[Vertekins]

Sonic and Chip have pretty decently developed and endearing interactions. There's this;

 

 

And there's the funny funny lines that Chip comes out with in regards to Sonic and his two forms when you feed him.

 

And even when Sonic was horrendously weakened by having Gaia energy forcibly torn from him and being forcibly reverted, his only concern was to tell Chip to run. No consideration was given to his own safety. This obviously inspires Chip to defend Sonic.

 

Even when he was effectively KO'ed from overuse of Super form, Sonic's vague thoughts were of Chip.

 

Not exactly related to the plot/story/writing of Unleashed but I thought I'd mention Night of the Werehog;

 

 

And whilst I said that the Werehog transformation wasn't given enough gravity in-story, the way Amy failed to recognise him and his palpable shame at being seen in that form/Reluctance to interact with her face-to-face did prove that no matter how minimal, the form did have an effect on Sonic's self image. It's even stated in-game via Pickle that Sonic likes the way he looks, likes what he can do and acts like he's in no rush to get rid of it. He just lapses into depression/shame when no one recognises him.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Vertekins

[Dr. Crusher]

I apologise for sounding as if I have a bias for Colours, but it wins again for me.

 

Don't get me wrong, Unleashed's story at it's core was a good one. After 06's abysmal clusterfuck, it was a massive step up. It all felt natural, the relationship with Chip was well done, the other characters like Professor Pickle were jolly good, the mythology of Dark Gaia was a step up from Iblis and Solaris, the Werehog highlighted how Sonic's personality works, and overall it was definitely one of the best in execution. I can definitely see why it's compared to Secret Rings and Black Knight.

 

...And yet, much like those two games, I can't bring myself to appreciate it as much as most people do. At the end of the day, it's yet another giant monster plot, and compared to something like a space theme park - as well as being right after 06 - it's a little tiring for me by this point. Colours might have been admittedly minimal, but... I don't know, I just liked it a lot more. Sonic might have been exaggerated in Colours, but I honestly didn't have that many problems with his personality, even the cheesy jokes didn't bother me (mainly because Robotnik's PAs compensated, but nonetheless) and merely reminded me of AoStH, which I happen to like very much. There's also Tails; while I'm not one of those people who accuse Chip of "stealing Tails' role" because that's just silly, he's a lot better in Colours. For the first time for ever, they feel as if they have a natural relationship - with Tails even getting to poke fun at Sonic every bit as much as vice-versa - and they don't pull the "Long time no see!" card. And while I do enjoy the settings in Unleashed, I like the ones in Colours way more.

 

I don't have that much against Chip, but he was a little bit annoying (and this is coming from someone who likes Marine), and his story didn't really interest me that much. On the other hand, the Wisps...  yes, they didn't talk, and Yacker mysteriously disappears and then comes back for no reason (in the Wii version anyways), but because of how I think and how I work, I just find more investment and more enjoyment in saving these cutesy aliens and magical worlds from Robotnik much more than I can with Chip giving Dark Gaia a time-out.

 

What can I say... I'm weird. Maybe it's the Sonic CD-ness of it. And also, as I've said in the past, unless there are specific plot points that really annoy me such as Metal Sonic being a traitor (or if it's really, really terrible like in 06), I'm more about the characters themselves and how in-character they are. I can tolerate a minimal story as long as I'm granted that.

 

(Oh, and I know that I'm going between "story" and "writing", but I figured I might as well talk about that too.)

Edited March 17, 2013 by Dr. Crusher

[Emmett L. Brown]

Now this one is a definite Colors winner for me.

 

But I admit that there's a bias. You see, Colors brought back something I've been missing since...well, forever, and that thing is a proper depiction of Sonic and Tails as best friends. Tails's hero worship characterisation was a good idea in Sonic Adventure when it was a major part of his character arc for him to step out of Sonic's shadow and save Station Square, then defeat Eggman all on his own. Unfortunately, that character development got completely forgotten for years to come. Tails's job was to compliment Sonic, provide exposition, and then step aside. Every game had a new character for Sonic to fight/befriend, leaving the interactions with Tails by the wayside. But Colors finally set it right: Finally showing me a character that I would honestly believe is Sonic's best friend - not a hero worhipper, but a strong companion whose company Sonic enjoys. The simple depiction of Tails as somebody willing to poke fun at Sonic did more for his character than expositing on a thousand cosmic horrors.

 

Sonic's interactions and character depictions alongside Chip were great, but he can't compare to Tails.

 

As for the main story of each of the two games, I gotta say Colors wins again. And once again it's the simplicity that does it. Sonic Colors is a throwback to the basic story of the first few games and it finally brings back the player-friendly environmental theme that's been missing ever since Eggman started harnessing monsters to do his work for him. Letting us see the beautiful Planet Wisp in the intro long before we arrive there to see it being destroyed by Eggman's industrial machinery is a stroke of genius. It gives you an investment right form the get-go: "Here's what you're fighting to save". Certainly the plot is a lot more light-hearted than even Unleashed, but even with Eggman being comic relief from start to finish, he's still shown as a calculating villain and a genuine threat. After all, why did Eggman lose? Because a chunk of giant robot got stuck in his secret planetary mind control laser cannon. Sonic didn't even know the doomsday weapon existed until it self-destructed. Bonus points for NOT introducing a new monster at the end but instead letting the man responsible for corrupting Planet Wisp (which, as mentioned, is your investment from the get-go) be the final opponent and boss of the game. Double bonus points for having the Wisps he was exploiting be the key to destroying his nasty final boss machine.

 

Oh, and the PA announcements are a hell of a lot funnier than anything Unleashed offers.

[Burnt Ash]

You know what? I've been thinking that I should probably make one more big post before taking a break or leave or whatever. Plus, I've been waiting for this particular topic, because unlike the other topics we've discussed in this thread, my views on the games' stories are much stronger than my views on other aspects of the games. But without further ado, I present you...Burnt Ash's views on Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors -- The Story.

 

Sonic Unleashed has always interested me in terms of story more than Sonic Colors. Personally, I found the presentation of the story and plot to be superior, as it engaged me into the story well. For example, events such as the CGI opening provided me with an exciting exposition, and the cutscenes also gave me some excitement out of it as well. While the plot fell flat during the middle: seriously, there was little to no rising action in Unleashed, but I did like the exposition, the "climax", the falling action, and the conclusion. Events like finding Professor Pickle or Sonic meeting Amy as the Werehog, or the various in game interactions between Sonic and Chip gave the story a little more dimension and substance to me. While it's not great, in comparison to other Sonic games we've gotten over the past 22 years, it's definitely impressive. The exposition specifically set the stage for the game nice, and it could have served as a brilliant foundation for a potential rising action. I definitely felt as if the exposition set up a sort of "grand adventure", something that I haven't felt in a Sonic game since the days of Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2. 

The "climax", the moment when Sonic discovered that Chip was actually Light Gaia, was a bit predictable, but at the same time, it served a great purpose for the falling action. It kind of gave off a melancholy mood (as did the rest of the cutscene) essentially telling us that the end of the story is near as are Sonic's adventures with Chip. The falling action, I thought was well-done, having an action packed scene before the battle with Egg Dragoon (seriously, Sonic grinding on the sides of freaking walls, why couldn't we do that in game) as a sort of last effort on Eggman's side. 

 

The falling action also included events such as the removal of Eggman from the scene (which I personally found to be kinda funny, despite it meaning yet another monster as a final boss), the permanent separation of the Werehog from Sonic, the rise and fall of Perfect Dark Gaia (man, that scene was...weird, to say the least), the gradual weakening of Sonic until Chip sends him back up to the Earth, and the final departure of Chip, as he turns to face Dark Gaia for eternity. It served as quite the ending, and like the exposition did for the rising action, the falling action served as a brilliant foundation for the conclusion. 

 

The conclusion begins Sonic (not Werehog Sonic this time) performing a faceground (where my amazingly beautiful avatar comes from and a pretty decent way to bring the story full circle), with Chip's necklace as a reminder of the adventures that occurred throughout the game. This scene in particular, while it starts off comical, it also is melancholy in mood, considering the events that occurred in the game. I think that's an interesting mixture of emotions, and ultimately serves the story and the scene well. Finally, the story ends with Tails riding on the Tornado and Sonic running through the apparent endless valleys of Apotos, giving a nice, sort of bittersweet mood to conclude the game. 

 

Other notable things within Sonic Unleashed's story is the background Eggman scenes, the comical scenes (Eggman getting hit with a rock for example), the extra CGI Sonic and Chip scenes (these were funny extras, and I thought they were nice addons to the actual story), and NPC Side Stories. 

Overall, however, this is something I preferred over Colors. It's not because of Colors's lightheartedness, because lightheartedness isn't necessarily bad (Unleashed was also able to incorporate this well), it's not even because of the lack of seriousness, which again, isn't inherently bad. It's mainly because I was disappointed in the execution. Unleashed, like Verte said, has its missed potential, and Colors has it as well with unexplained plot points. It doesn't seem to amount to much, and while it has more rising action than Unleashed does, I don't think it created a good foundation for the climax like the climax did for Unleashed's falling action (both stories seem to have a problem within the rising action, for some reason). There are definite points in Colors's story that I like, such as the general portrayal of Sonic and Tails's friendship, or the introduction, or the premise (nice, simple premise), or the Eggman/Orbot/Cubot scenes, or the ending (loved the ending -- that brofist with Sonic and Tails), but personally, as a whole, the narrative doesn't interest me, nor does the writing or direction of the plot in general.

 

Well, I personally had quite a bit of fun writing this, and I hope I elaborated on this  post quite a bit, or at least enough to justify my claim I made at the beginning about why I prefer Sonic Unleashed's story over Sonic Colors's story. However, regardless of all that, 'tis been fun. 

Edited March 17, 2013 by Burnt Ash

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Unleashed is the grander of the two when it comes to plot, but frankly that doesn't really mean anything when it comes to whether the story/plot is any good. Fortunately, it doesn't fail to deliver when it comes to good plot points, such as the Werehog and how Sonic handles the form, and Chip's curiosity of the world and his attempts to find his lost memory. The Werehog in particular does get a pretty good scene with Amy, the temporary sense of depression Sonic goes through after Amy fails to recognize showing just how much the Werehog

could have impacted the story.

However, the two above points are heavily compromised by a nasty flaw: A nonexistent middle. The lack of a middle after establishing so many good initial plot points cripples the development the two points could have had, and as a result, their resolution feels rushed, and while not necessarily bad resolutions, really ended up feeling like more could have been done. Another noticeable problem is the lack of danger throughout the story as a result of the planet being broken apart, but nobody really caring, and that Eggman generally doesn't really do anything besides complaining about how Dark Gaia fell apart.

Also, the Werehog was really weirdly executed, with a primary point being that Sonic was supposed to be affected by people fearing/not being able to recognize him, Amy being a major point for this in particular, but everyone is so apathetic to him that any impact is lost almost immediately.

Colors is the much simpler and lighter of the two stories, and it shows with all of the humor. The primary plot point is that Eggman is capturing Wisps to harness their energy in order to use it for a mind control beam; a straightforward, but potentially effective plan. There are also some other story points with thing such as Tails being subjected to mind control and being forced to fight Sonic, and the plight of the Wisps as they are shown to be forcibly transformed into Nega Wisps, which shows that there is still a darker element underneath the comedy.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the above end up being utterly botched by the structure of the plot itself, and the excess of "humorous moments". Whereas Unleashed had a beginning and an end, but no middle, Colors is horribly paced in general, with its primary plot point being dragged out far longer than necessary, thus dissolving any potential impact said plot might have had, introducing and resolving new plots points too quickly for the sake of a cheap gag, and generally just not having any sense of danger whatsoever.

The primary offender is the constant barrage of cutscenes that has Sonic and Tails constantly derping around the park, while asking "OMG WHAT IS EGGMAN DOING WITH THOSE ALIENS HURDY HURR," with the actual resolution being presented so late into the game that the scene has almost no impact and I frankly was just sick of the aliens at this point, so I couldn't bring myself to care. On top of that, there was the aforementioned mind control beam scene, which ends abruptly to pull a cheap nose hair gag, and also simultaneously demonstrate Eggman's incompetence for not bothering to bring more fuel for the mind-control beam.

Speaking of incompetence, Colors Eggman has absolutely no excuse for his blunder, both with his prototype beam and his giant laser. The former more or less downplays the effectiveness of the beam since it more or less shows the thing to be heavily depending on having enough fuel, so the fact that it ran out before the threat could be fully established really undercuts the threat of the beam.

The laser, in my opinion, is an even bigger blunder, because Eggman should have been able to easily prevent the destruction of the beam from happening, since the only thing that destroyed it was a limb from one of his own robots. He had the bloody screen in front of him, which could have shown that the leak was there, and yet for some reason he didn't notice it at all! At least with Dark Gaia you could argue that he couldn't have avoided the problem because Dark Gaia is unpredictable and a force of nature well beyond Eggman's comprehension, but the blunder he makes here is something easily avoided and something he should have seen coming!

 

Also, on the topic of humor, I don't mind humor, but frankly it feels like there was too much of it, with the focus on bad translator jokes, Sonic trash-talking bosses that don't even respond back, thus making Sonic seem like a dolt (though one scene where he gets caught doing this was admittedly funny) and the whole shtick with the mind control beam just plain undermines the more serious moments.

It's really a pity too, because Colors had the potential to be superior than Unleashed due to having some potentially good story elements and decent writing, but it was undercut by inferior plot structure and having plot elements resolved poorly for the sake of forced humor. Humor isn't a bad thing, but much like seriousness, you can have too much of it and make it far too forced. Unleashed could have done a lot more, but at least it was reasonably balanced. I might be rather annoyed at the lack of development due to having no middle, but I'd honestly rather deal with that than having my patience tested by an overly dragged on plot point like in Colors.

Overall, Unleashed wins for me.

EDIT: Oh, one more thing: I think Colors would have been more effective if the factory scene was presented early on, to drive home that Eggman is not reformed at all, give us a good reason to save the aliens (cardboard cutout personalities and all), and when the mind control beam is introduced later, it shows what the energy is being used for, and it also drives home just how dangerous Eggman can be.

Edited March 18, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[NocturnalTwilight]

Wow, okay let me think here.

 

I liked Unleashed, there are a few Pros and Cons I'm going to point out first, though. Same with Colors.

 

(All are in my opinion)

 

~Sonic UNLEASHED~

 

*Pros*

 

- Jason Griffith as Sonic

- Great Level Designs

- Awesome Drifting Technique (Minor, but a favorite)

- Great Music (Endless Possibility being a favorite of mine)

- One of my favorite Final Bosses of all time

- World Wide Adventure

 

*Cons*

 

- The Werehog (Obvious)

  > Slow

  > Had life bar, instead of the "One Ring Rule"

- Mandatory collecting Sun/Moon coins to progress to next levels

- At times, action scenes (with the buttons) can be too complex, a result from battle being too distracting.

- At times, unresponsive jump.

 

I'll be honest here, I sat staring at my Laptop for about 5 minutes thinking about Pros and Cons for Sonic Colors, I can't remember the game too much, so I'm just going to skip thinking about it and go with Unleashed.

 

Amazing game, but kept it from being perfect because of the Werehog.

 

Why, SEGA? Why?

Edited March 18, 2013 by OmegaXCL

[SenEDDtor Missile]

*Stuff*

 

Dude, the topic for this week is story, not gameplay. That's for much later.

Edited March 18, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[Old dead account]

Well honestly, I don't think either game has a very good plot but let's see.

Unleashed's is definitely the more fleshed out plot it starts out strong and ends strong too I think. Chip is a character who I never found annoying or pointless at all being Dark Gaia's brother and all, Prf Pickle was funny in his own ways, Tails was uh, there, and Amy was also...there. The big problem I have with this game is that with the fleshed out story it doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere until right after Adabat. In the beginning we establish the werehog, Dark gaia, Chip's memory loss, Tails and Pickle, and the restoration of the chaos emeralds. Then we go for a while and get... nothing, then suddenly right after Adabat Chip is suddenly Dark Gaia's brother and we have to stop the now resurrected dark gaia. Chip then goes back to sleep after the battle and the end.

Colors is much more minimalistic. We have mostly jokes in the cutscenes with very minimal plot progression, and it's much shorter too. We have Sonic and tails going to the park, rescuing Yacker, finding out about the aliens and then going to stop Eggman's plans and that's it. I think it does a better job minimalistically than Unleashed does as a fleshed out story.

We've also got character development (sort of). In Unleashed we have Sonic becoming upset that Amy doesn't recognize him, and him asking why he should need a reason to help out a friend, showing his cooler more generous side. Colors was mostly Sonic and Tails being more bros which was cool to see also. As for Eggman, I like him a lot more in Colors because he's actually in control of the whole situation for once and had a much more creative plan in Colors. I think because of that I'm gonna give this one to Colors once again.

Colors.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Prince Solaris

[NocturnalTwilight]

Dude, the topic for this week is story, not gameplay. That's for much later.

 

My bad! Sorry!

 

 

As for story, I'd have to go with Unleashed :3

[Dandp]

This is a hard choice, but I would to give this to Unleashed. While Sonic colours has a simple, comical plot similar to the classic games, that almost instantly makes it worse plot wise. Because Unleashed had a long, more in depth story, you really got to see how everything was effecting Sonic, including the Trauma of being the werehog and seeing everyone around him's reactions to this transformation. The story of unleashed gives you a chance to see everything in a deeper way.

 

However, if I was going by which story I prefer, I would say Colours. I like a short, but funny, story that doesn't need an in-depth story for you to understand it, and it feels like the most classic style game since Heroes. I easily prefer Colours story wise.

 

So, my money would be on Colours, the simple story is just more fun to me. I don't need a deep story to enjoy a sonic game, I just need an entertaining story, and Colours provides that, and more.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

This is a hard choice, but I would to give this to Unleashed. While Sonic colours has a simple, comical plot similar to the classic games, that almost instantly makes it worse plot wise. Because Unleashed had a long, more in depth story, you really got to see how everything was effecting Sonic, including the Trauma of being the werehog and seeing everyone around him's reactions to this transformation. The story of unleashed gives you a chance to see everything in a deeper way.

 

However, if I was going by which story I prefer, I would say Colours. I like a short, but funny, story that doesn't need an in-depth story for you to understand it, and it feels like the most classic style game since Heroes. I easily prefer Colours story wise.

 

So, my money would be on Colours, the simple story is just more fun to me. I don't need a deep story to enjoy a sonic game, I just need an entertaining story, and Colours provides that, and more.

So you choose both?

[KrazyBean]

Sonic Unleashed wins for me...as much as I loved Colours humor, it was too simple for my tastes and the humor definitely isn't enough to carry the whole plot. Unleashed strikes the perfect balance of what stories in a Sonic game should be like IMO (it's lighthearted, but gets serious when the situation requires it.) I will admit that Colours had better structure though.

 

Also, it had some of the best voice acting Jason could offer...I really didn't like the guy all that much until this game came TBH. I guess he wasn't so bad in Secret Rings. And just when he was getting good, he gets shafted...oh well.

Edited March 18, 2013 by KrazyBean

[Dizcrybe]

So, my money would be on Colours, the simple story is just more fun to me. I don't need a deep story to enjoy a sonic game, I just need an entertaining story, and Colours provides that, and more.

 

Couldn't agree more.

[-blank-]

I'm going to go with Unleashed in this one.

 

 

 

 

While I absolutely loved Colors' humor and despite the fact that Unleashed's story certainly wasn't perfect, the latter just had a lot more charm and depth in it. For all it's issues, I still adore Unleashed's story as a whole - it had a much better balance of light and dark tones and was much more fleshed out then Colors was.

[Phos]

Colors doesn't really have a plot so much as a series of events, so Unleashed kind of wins by default even though its main plot is 90% infodump in two cut scenes and its sub plots don't really go anywhere.  

[Soniman]

Round 5 - Bosses

 

 

This time we look at a facet in Sonic games that hasn't always been top-notch, the bosses. 3D Sonic bosses have never been particularly well designed or super engaging, so what Sonic Unleashed and Colors do is take some cues from a 2D game and have the bosses function in a auto-run manner, probably because they believe it's the only way a Sonic boss can function without falling to shit, though both games have exceptions Which game does it better? Guess we'll find out.

 

Final bosses are also included in the category by the way, hey they're bosses to aren't they? It's only natural.

 

 

Sonic Unleashed has two sides of bosses, the Sonic side, and the Werehog side. On the Sonic side you have essential one boss that you face three times with increasing difficulty. These bosses consist of dodging oncoming obstacles and projectiles until you're able to find the opportune moment to strike. These bosses get more and more intense as you face them again later.

 

The Werehog has more variety, most of its bosses consist of puzzle/problem solving to find the bosses' weakness and then wail on them, Dark Gaia Phoenix with water, Dark Moray with Ice, or Dark Guardian with.....boxes (the one time the Unwiished version is superior due to the Guardian boss of that version being just a straight up death match). As a result the bosses feel more traditional, akin to stuff like Banjo Kazzoie or Crash Bandicoot. The best is probably the famous Egg Dragoon boss, which is a pretty epic boss with a ride array of attacks that require you to think on your feet, it also has some good cinematic moments as well, though it's through the form of QTEs.

 

Then there's the final boss, Ugghhhhh. First you start out as the Gaia Colossus and you proceed to dodge rocks and then engage Dark Gaia in QTEs, then you go through a regular Sonic section then you repeat the process two more times.

 

Then the Super Sonic part starts up. It initially starts off like a 3D representation of Doomsday Zone with Super Sonic dodging meteors and collecting rings....then he gets pasted onto the Dark Gaia shield. All Sonic has to do is ram his small body into the tentacle shield generators and that's it. Really, that's all there is to it. Not particularly engaging.

 

And instead of landing the final hits yourself, you instead partake in a shit ton of QTEs (the most infamous one is having to mash on the X button 60 times) to finish him off, what a flaccid finish.

 

 

 

Since Sonic Colors doesn't have a Werehog, and using the same boss six times may be a bit to much, it does things a bit differently.

 

The first type of boss is the Ferris Wheel boss, you probably don't know much of what it does because it's insultingly easy to kill. The first variation is a simple boss which requires you to hope across platforms to attack the eye at the center he throws saw-blades at you to impede your progress but they're pretty easy to dodge. He goes down in 3 hits and getting the laser wisp will finish him off even quicker. The second variation tires to ramp it up with lasers.....but they still made it so he only dies in 3 hits so.....yeah.

 

Next are the Captains. The first variation has Sonic going through an obstacle course of sorts (think the final boss of Sonic Rivals) to get to a switch at the end, once you do that the Captain himself will engage Sonic along with his minions, you can attack him a variety of ways, though the most effective use is the Drill Wisp that you hit him from underground with. The second variation is quite different, this one require Sonic to navigate some missiles (underwater I might add) to a barrier which contains a switch, after you activate it you gotta home in on the Captain using the Underwater Drill, a chase ensues (this bastard is fucking hard to chase down by the way) and you finish him off.

 

Finally we have the Battleship bosses, which are probably the most developed of the three types. Similar to the daytime bosses, these ones have Sonic auto running/chasing a huge battleship that sends many projectiles in Sonic's way and it's up to him to doge and weave until you get right up in the boss' face and then wail on them. The second variation of this boss takes to 11 where they start sending building-sized meteors your way, and the cool part about this is that while in 3D you can homing attack the Asteroids and get some sweet air. The laser and Rocket wisp respectively come into play and are there for when you want to inflict extra damage.

 

For the final boss, Eggman returns with all his glory in the form of his latest creation, the Egg Nega Wisp. The final boss consist of dodging Eggman's wisp-powered attacks. Though he supposedly has all the wisps at his disposal, all you're going to see him use is Cube, Laser, Spike and combinations of those three (thought they are technically being powered-up by the Frenzy Wisp). With each successful dodge of the Egg Nega Wisp's attacks he gives you the change to homing attack the fuck out of him (and get a extra hit in with the boost). After repeated damage you finish him off in a flash fashion with the Final Color Blaster.

---

 

Hey guys guess what? COLORS WINS FOR ME YESSIR IM SO UNPREDICTABLE! Though believe it or not this was a close one for me. Speaking from a strictly Sonic standpoint, all the bosses in Unleashed are exactly the same from a design standpoint. Comparing the Sonic bosses from each game gives Colors an easy win because it has more than one boss type. Though to be fair, the Ferris Wheel bosses are lame-fully easy, and the Captain Bosses aren't to interesting (though the parts where you fight the captains themselves are enjoyable). The Battleship bosses however, I actually find better than the Daytime bosses, at least the Asteroid Coaster version. I love how you wreck the shit out of the Battleship as the fight goes on until it's a barely functional mess that only needs a single hit before going up in flames (and when it does it goes up in RINGS, which is just delightful)

 

The Werehog bosses are alright, but other than Egg Dragoon none of them particularly make me want to play them again. But hey, Egg Dragoon was so good that that's what almost tipped the scales in Unleashed's favor.

 

What ultimately gets my vote for me is how the final bosses are handled. While Perfect Dark Gaia is a dragged out QTE ridden borefest, Egg Nega Wisp is actually pretty darn fun. Like Egg Dragoon a lot of the Wisps and Wisp combination he uses can get you thinking on your feet (Cube + Lazers/Spikes come to mind). The one negative about this is that he doesn't use Rocket, Hover, or Drill, which sucks because I could imagine the deadly combinations that could have resulted from that. 

 

Oh it also does QTEs the right way, as in have none of them save for the final hit, and the Final Color Blaster sure as hell uses it fantastically, gives a great feeling of triumph.

 

So yeah, Colors wins for me.

Edited March 24, 2013 by Soniman