Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors Extra Round - Final Thoughts

[Kamakai]

Well. Colours and Unleashed share the same core mechanics for the daytime. However, Sonic is slower (but still fast) and far less slippery in Colours. Also, I find the wisps a far better gimmick than the Werehog, which I never even liked as a concept. So Colurs wins this for me. Again.

[Chaos Warp]

Colours by a long shot. Unleashed is fun, but way too linear and based on trial and error, not to mention the decent yet still unfitting alternate gameplay of the Werehog. On the other hand, Colours, while it may be blocky, has overall much more platforming, has way less reaction-time based stuff and a lot more exploration, and in general has much more balanced level design then Unleashed. Not to mention how gaining extra wisp powers in other areas grants replayability by going back and accessing new paths with them. Sonic also controls a lot better in this game, not having ungodly acceleration and being less stiff and all. Colours easily.

 

Generations is better then both though, just saying. 

Edited April 28, 2013 by Generations (Chaos Warp)

[Tornado]

I feel like I'm missing something. Doesn't this fall under the same general stuff as "gimmicks" and "level design"?

[Chaos Warp]

I feel like I'm missing something. Doesn't this fall under the same general stuff as "gimmicks" and "level design"?

This is bringing all those things together to see which is better at gameplay overall. 

[Tornado]

Then in that case,

 

*extremely caustic and angry statement about Unleashed; extremely measured, almost backhanded praise about Colors*

[Kiah]

Round 10: Gameplay:

 

Gameplay: I can definitely say that Sonic Colors wins this round, and rather easily. Of course I'll explain...

 

The gimmick of the Wisps were fun to play with, some more than others. I really feel that they enhanced the gameplay overall as opposed to inhibiting it amid the platforming. The Wisps provided temporary, yet fun quirks in gameplay. I also like how the Wisps created replay value after unlocking the Wisp forms and you can go back to previous levels with the new Wisp forms that you weren't able to use before. Exploring and discovering new routes and things is always fun.

 

Overall, playing with the wisps was fun 

 

The gimmick of the roller coaster in Asteroid Coaster was fun too.

 

My only complaint with Sonic Colors aside from the bosses not being great and minimal 3D gameplay is that the gameplay is short, but at least it was sweet and fun while it lasted.

 

In Sonic Unleashed the daytime stages are simply amazing, and they really get my adrenline flowing going a super fast speeds. Yet, as I mentioned in the previous around, going at such rapid speeds combined with my poor reflexes causes me to trip over obstacles, run into items such as spikes and walls, and into bottomless pits that I didn't see. That being said, it complicates for me what are otherwise some of the most fun stages ever in a Sonic game. And the quicktime events (QTE's) were annoying as well.

 

As for the night stages, simply put, I just didn't find them fun, while at the same time I appreciate the Werehog being in the game to slow things down and prolong Sonic Unleashed. The night stages just seem to drag on, taking up a lot of time. The whole "beat-em-up" gameplay isn't my cup of tea when it comes to video games, especially in a Sonic game. I just didn't like it and you won't see me ever replaying these night levels with the Werehog ever again aside from the initial go-around, which is because I have to play through them in order to progress and eventually finish the game in the first place.

 

As for the medal collecting, it was okay, and didn't bother me too much. I actually did like the flying Tornado sections as they did provide a nice challenge, switching things up a bit as well. Some of the bosses were fun too, but not all. I like some of the little gimmicks that Sonic Unleashed had such as:

 

 

 Bobsledding in Holoska

　

Riding on firework rockets in Chun-Nan

 

The day stages in Sonic Unleashed are interesting, fun and exhillarating, but I honestly can't even entetain the thought of giving Sonic Unleashed the victory this round, when I have the desire to skip half the game à la Werehog/Nighttime stages. One doesn't balance the other out to where it makes gameplay enjoyable as a whole, unfortunately. Issues withstanding in Sonic Colors with its gameplay, they aren't as much as problem where I don't want to replay any of the levels ever again. To this day I still like to go back and replay the levels in Sonic Colors.

 

Long answer short: Sonic Colors wins this round easily due to the fact that find pretty much all of the gameplay fun where in Sonic Unleashed I only find half of it fun with the daytime stages.

[Burnt Ash]

Well in Colors I ended up not really liking to play as the Wisps and I wasn't too fond of the level design, I can't say that I was really happy with Colors's gameplay in the end. Now, at the same time, parts of Unleashed were tedious for me, but in the end things like the Tornado stages I didn't really like or dislike. However, I liked a great majority of the Day/Night stages and some of the bosses were pretty fun as well. That being said, it'd be Unleashed for me, without a doubt.

[Dizcrybe]

Right, after playing a few levels of Unleashed, I can safely say that Colors wins for me.

 

Colors is just more involving and fun to play through, and it requires you to do something other than completely memorize the level, and mixes exploration with progression near perfectly. Using the wisps can be a lot of fun as well.

 

Much of Unleashed's day stages are just lines over which you boost until it's time to jump or you run into something or need to homing attack something. Like I also said earlier, sometimes the gameplay just becomes a glorified FMV game, like those on the Sega CD, in that you need to just press a button to not die or run into something. Ex. the rail grinding section in Empire City. If you don't hop off of every rail onto another rail, you die. This is also present in Windmill Isle Act 2 although the punishment wasn't as bad, as you would just run into some spike if you failed to railhop. There's also quickstep section in Empire City that comes after the rail grinding part where you have to dodge bombs, or else you fall to your death. However, if you make it far enough there's a chance you can save yourself if you fall, but it's not guaranteed you'll fall to safety instead of a pit. It's all very memorization-based. One could argue that once you memorize the stages, they become fun, but if I'm not having fun in the first place, why would I play them enough to memorize them fully?

 

Then there's the night stages. Now, I like beat-em-ups, I find them to be very fun, and to a degree, that extends to the Werehog as well, but some of these enemies are just a pain to fight. Take the flower guys, for instance. I'm over here beating up a bunch of dudes, then suddenly this flower dickhead shoots a projectile at me and I have to take care of him. But while I'm kicking his @ss, the other guys can gang up on me. Then there are the wasp things. Uuuugggggh, I hate those guys. You can't hit them normally because they just fly out of your reach (even when you're jumping), so you have to throw them, which isn't so bad, except that, again, there's other guys trying to attack you. Sure, you can take care of them first, but that just leaves you open to the wasp. It's even worse when they give you three wasps to deal with. The platforming could be pretty good, if it wasn't for the poor camera and sometimes finicky lock-on.

 

All-in-all, I have to say that Colors had the better gameplay.

[JezMM]

Unleashed obviously wins for me due to reasons already described in the Gimmicks and Level Design round.

 

 

Soooooo I'll take the opportunity to talk about "gameplay stuff" that didn't come up in those:

 

Firstly yes, I agree the medal collecting system can go suck a dick - I like the concept of collecting medals to advance through the game, but there should have been more ways to get medals, and medals should have been spread out equally rather than unlocking day levels being faster via replaying night levels (due to them having more sun medals) and vice verca.

 

HOWEVER as flawed as Unleashed was in its execution... Colours level progression is so... nothing.  They give you the option of playing zones in different orders*, and the levels are spread out in different directions on the map, but there's literally no benefit to playing the stages in anything other than the intended order.  Hell, in fact despite having the option to, playing Asteroid Coaster first results in a bit of dissonance as Sonic and Tails talk about how the planets are all going to go back to their rightful places even if Planet Wisp and Aquarium Park have not been dealt with yet.

 

*Was corrected on this that playing out of order does result in different Wisps being avaliable on your first runthrough of each zone.

 

Uhh... that's all I guess - I can't think of anything else that wasn't already covered in gimmicks or level design discussion (btw no-one argued with my final level design related post so I totally won the arguement Unleashed for best level design is now canon).

 

 

Overall I prefer Unleashed because, regarding gameplay, there's more of it, it's nearly my exact preference of difficulty (SLIGHTLY too hard I admit, whereas Colours is too easy for me, I'd take a little too hard over a LOT too easy), and it had way more replayability in terms of post-game content.

Edited April 28, 2013 by JezMM

[Soniman]

 

 

HOWEVER as flawed as Unleashed was in its execution... Colours level progression is so... nothing.  They give you the option of playing zones in different orders, and the levels are spread out in different directions on the map, but there's literally no benefit to playing the stages in anything other than the intended order.  

 

You can unlock wisps from the later levels if you played them out of order.

[JezMM]

You can unlock wisps from the later levels if you played them out of order.

 

Ahhh that's very true, totally forgot.  Yeah, that was a good idea actually.

Edited April 28, 2013 by JezMM

[Nix]

Sonic Colors.

 

Sonic Unleashed's day stages are pretty much an interesting idea in concept, but executed horribly.  The level design is horseshit (I've already talked about why) and Sonic's incredibly loose controls (and sometimes flat-out unresponsive on top of it) make for a pretty terrible experience as it is.

 

The Werehog isn't nearly as bad, but he's just too damn boring.  There's no balance with the Werehog's combos, there are a few that are quick and powerful and can tear the enemies a new one and there are many that are flashy but completely fucking useless.  The battles lack flow, a rhythm to fall into; they feel like chaotic messes and aren't engaging in the slightest.  The puzzles are as uninteresting as you can get (blue key goes in blue door, oh my), and the platforming is pretty much the exact same fucking thing Sonic Colors gets criticized for (blocky platforming, not making full use of gimmick's abilities, etc). 

 

Then we have how Sonic Unleashed is packaged together.  

 

Hey Sonic!  You can't get into here unless you collect 13 more Sun/Moon Medals! 

 

Fuck.  That.  Shit.  First off, this isn't a collect-a-thon like Banjo or the 3D Mario games, the goal of the levels are to get to the end of the fucking level not to go collecting shit.  Second, you never fucking told me I had to collect them in the first place.  Third, this is just blatant padding, even more so than the Werehog.  And even when I do start actively searching for medals while I complete levels, I get greeted with Jungle Joyride Day's asinine medal requirement.  Hey Sonic, you still need 20 more fucking Sun Medals to get into this (awful) level!  Better grab your medal detector, because you're doing some more Werehog stages baby!  Say what you want about Colors, but at least the optional collectibles are actually optional, and it doesn't constantly impede your progress for some bullshit reason.

 

But yeah, blah blah blah, Sonic Colors level design isn't horseshit, Sonic doesn't control like a bar of soap and actually works during platforming segments.  The Wisps don't interfere with the game as much as the Werehog does.  Red Rings are optional and actually have a reward for collecting them.  Bosses are better, everything else I said previously, etc.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Nix

[Soniman]

Round #11 - Voice Acting

 

 

 

 

Ah, voice acting, a fierce rival to gameplay when it comes to easy ways to cause a shitstorm in the fandom, and now we're discussing it here, lets hope it goes well.

 

 

For Sonic Unleashed we see another performance brought to us by the 4kids Voice Actors, Griffth reprises his roll as Sonic, having improved considerably over the years, Sonic's voice is a lot more stable and able to deliver the calm and chill side of Sonic's character relatively well, which is good for emotional scenes, you also have his Werehog voice which is growly, and really just a gruffer version of his Sonic voice, it does the job well enough. Amy Palant is once again Tails, trying her best to give Tails the voice of a young boy, once again she has also improved as Tails' voice is way less high pitched then previously, same can also be said for Lisa Ortiz who has Amy mellow out a bit. Eggman is great as always, delivering his lines with the utmost bombastic vigor and charm, expect no less from Mike Pollock. SA-55 (or Orbot) is a deadpan, sarcastic robot who always seeks to one-up Eggman in very subtle ways (mostly through various uses of ergo) and it's quite entertaining. Wow I almost forgot Chip, Chip is blah. He's much better in Japanese when he sounds like a little energetic boy as opposed to a....creepily deep voice that doesn't fit him all that much, not to mention it can get somewhat annoying sometimes, especially in the cutscenes.

 

 

Sega shocked the fanbase when they announced that Sonic Colors would be the first game to feature an all new voice cast for the characters, everyone gets a new voice save for Eggman, due to Sega knowing that replacing Pollock would be utterly dumb. The biggest change was Sonic, whom was previously voiced by Jason Griffith is now voiced by Roger Craig Smith. In addition to that Tails has received Kate Higgins as his voice actor, replacing Amy Palant. Roger Craig Smith brings a rather different performance to the table than Griffith to go along with Sonic's new character type. Roger brings out Sonic's more joking and witty side, bringing out a very snarky  performance. Tails' Kate Higgins give Tails a more innocent and yet still sarcastic flavor, the way he goes about explaining Eggman's schemes and yet still finds time to take the wind out of Sonic's sails has a very distinct persona from Amy Palant's performance. Eggman is still Eggman, though the wackier writing gives him the chance to act out more. Orbot has a very "Butler"-like voice a far different voice from his deadpan Robot voice from Unleashed, but I think it still works, his cultured and calm voice is a great foil to perhaps the real star of the game in terms of Voice Acting, Cubot. Cubot has 4 voices. Cowboy, Pirate, Brooklyn, and normal. All of these voices changes his voice as well as his general character and it's an ongoing joke throughout the whole story until it reaches the climax in the finale.

 

---
 

Sonic Colors, as per the norm. Roger Smith gives a great performance as Sonic, bringing out the sarcastic and fun-loving side of his character, it does well to make the character all the more entertaining. Ill be honest, while I believed that Griffith improved considerably since his debut in Shadow the Hedgehog, I still didn't find him all that great. Sonic voice is rather dull still and it barely seems to get all that energetic even in the most dire situations. Tails is also a huge improvement, he actually sounds like a little boy then a little girl/boy with a very high voice, not to mention he's given more than exposition to spout off so it works. Colors Eggman is equal with Unleashed Eggman due to same voice, Orbot is about equal with Unleashed Orbot for me both being great for diffrent reasons, and Cubot is just hilairous. Though I will say that Amy's voice was pretty decent as well as Pickle's.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Soniman

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Uuuuuuuuh...

Hm...

........

If we're talking about the quality of voice acting alone, and I can't believe I'm saying this, then I'd have to go with Colors on this one.

If we're talking about personal preference, then I lean more to Unleashed. No offense to Smith, but his Sonic voice feels...off to me.

[Tornado]

I always hated Griffith as Sonic, and the 4Kids cast in general; really. That being said, Unleashed was definitely their best effort, and there were areas where it seemed like the new cast wasn't completely comfortable with the roles yet despite being much better at it usually.

 

 

 

Gonna call it a push.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I always hated Griffith as Sonic, and the 4Kids cast in general; really. That being said, Unleashed was definitely their best effort, and there were areas where it seemed like the new cast wasn't completely comfortable with the roles yet despite being much better at it usually.

 

 

 

Gonna call it a push.

I'd say their best effort was either Black Knight or Unleashed, and we have opposite opinions regarding Griffith.

Edited May 5, 2013 by 743-E.D. Missile

[Kuzu]

The voice direction is definitely better in Colors, but I think the new actors are still getting a feel for the characters so they're going to sound rocky at first. Their first effort definitely wasn't bad tho and they left good first impressions so I have faith they can get better with age and make the characters their own.

 

I do slightly prefer Griffith to Smith, if only because his acting in Black Knight showed him at his absolute best, and that point he'd been voicing Sonic for so long that he basically was Sonic to me. He definitely started off rough tho, even after coming to the games in 2005. It took two years in Secret Rings before he hit his stride.

 

 

 

In terms of these two games tho, Colors without a doubt; the voice direction is just overall better and really makes the characters come alive.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Azure Yakuzu

[Maddnsk]

Hmmm... I realy dont like Roger Craig Smith performance, he sounds nothing like Sonic to me, maybe because i get used to Jason Griffith, i dont know, but im also keep in mind that this is his first time, so he will improve over time ofcourse, as for everyone else, i think they do much better job then previous cast, i really like Orbot voice actor in Colors.

[Kuzu]

Yea, I think a lot of people are going to go with Griffith on this one. Not because Smith is a bad voice or anything, but because the majority of Sonic media has him as Sonic, its really hard to picture Sonic as anyone else.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Hmmm... I realy dont like Roger Craig Smith performance, he sounds nothing like Sonic to me, maybe because i get used to Jason Griffith, i dont know, but im also keep in mind that this is his first time, so he will improve over time ofcourse, as for everyone else, i think they do much better job then previous cast, i really like Orbot voice actor in Colors.

I dunno, now that I think about it...Orbot feels off as well. It's not his voice that's the only thing, it's his personality which COMBINED with the voice, makes him feel...too subservient for lack of a better description. His previous self was kind of a nice foil to Eggman, so to see him so drastically change is rather jarring.

[Soniman]

Yea, I think a lot of people are going to go with Griffith on this one. Not because Smith is a bad voice or anything, but because the majority of Sonic media has him as Sonic, its really hard to picture Sonic as anyone else.

 

Easy for me when I never felt all that connected to Griffith, due to taking years to getting used to him and accepting him unlike Roger who I just clicked with right away.

[Faseeh]

I felt like killing myself when I released Roger was replacing Sonic at first.

 

I mean, Ezio as Sonic? ehhhhhhh.

 

Okay, then I watched the cutscene, one time, another time, and then slowly grew to like it.

 

Whereas, Jason always was liked by me (nostalgia maybe). 

 

So I'm just gonna pass this round saying both did a good job in fitting the Sonic the game was presenting.

[Kuzu]

Easy for me when I never felt all that connected to Griffith, due to taking years to getting used to him and accepting him unlike Roger who I just clicked with right away.

 

 

Well having grown up watching Sonic X, and playing every Sonic game up until Black Knight. You kinda have a hard time getting his voice out of your head, even when he was at his worst I had a hard time not imagining his voice on Sonic.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Had they kept Griffin more after Unleashed, he may have done somewhat better.

 

But nope, I'm giving this to Colors. Requiescat in pace, Griffin...time to move on for the next generation.

Edited May 5, 2013 by ChaosSupremeSonîc

[Solkia]

I like Griffith as Sonic, hate Amy Palant as Tails, and hate Lisa Ortiz as Amy.

 

I'm indifferent to Roger as Sonic, don't mind Kate as Tails, and absolutely fucking loathe Cindy as Amy.

 

Since Unleashed was mostly Sonic yapping with that flying turd thing Chip, Tails was drowned out by by Chip's ball-gratingly annoying voice, it was basically 20 hours of over-emphasized voice acting.

 

I've seen the cutscenes from Colors, delivery was nothing impressive, and both Sonic and Tails sounded bored to me the entire time (though you wouldn't know it from the shit-eating grin Sonic has throughout the whole fucking thing).

 

They both suck, but I'll go with Unleashed, I guess.

 

EDIT: Okay not really "bored", but I can't think of a word to descirbe it.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Solkia