Why is Sonic Colors so highly regarded?

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

I want to know what people mean when they say "people are turning on colors". Because I don't think the critical reception of the game has changed at all since it's release 10 years ago. I've heard this a lot and I flat out think it's false. 

It seems a lot more like Adventure Era fans voices just having grown louder since then. These same people were complaining about the game bck in 2010, and now hear their own collective echo across the internet because they tend to dominate these conversations these days with the "we need to return to adventure" commentary. That's all that's changed. I don't think anyone else has changed their opinions. The stench of 06 was stronger back then and thus the need for something like colors was stronger, and had less opposition from the people who never liked its direction in the first place. 

I didn't think the game was revolutionary back then and still don't, but I did think it was much better than most of the 2000s games, and certainly the most consistent one of them all. That alone made it rank relatively high in my book. And generations was even better, especially in regard to the level design. 

[Bowbowis]

4 hours ago, UpCDownCLeftCRightC said:

I want to know what people mean when they say "people are turning on colors". Because I don't think the critical reception of the game has changed at all since it's release 10 years ago. I've heard this a lot and I flat out think it's false. 

It seems a lot more like Adventure Era fans voices just having grown louder since then. These same people were complaining about the game bck in 2010, and now hear their own collective echo across the internet because they tend to dominate these conversations these days with the "we need to return to adventure" commentary. That's all that's changed. I don't think anyone else has changed their opinions. The stench of 06 was stronger back then and thus the need for something like colors was stronger, and had less opposition from the people who never liked its direction in the first place. 

I didn't think the game was revolutionary back then and still don't, but I did think it was much better than most of the 2000s games, and certainly the most consistent one of them all. That alone made it rank relatively high in my book. And generations was even better, especially in regard to the level design. 

It's largely a combination of two factors, both of which you've at least partially touched upon.

First, when the game initially released a lot of people saw it as another Heroes, a smaller lighthearted game to hold us over until the next big Sonic game. When it became clear that, no, there actually wasn't big game coming, and Colors was going to be the model for all Sonic games for the foreseeable future, a lot of people who initially appreciated the game for what (they thought) it was started to resent it for ushering in an era of low budget, low ambition titles with seemingly no interest in being anything more than technically competent.

Second, once the hype about Colors being the first technically competent 3D Sonic game (even though Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow and Unleashed were also technically competent, and Colors only had enough 3D for the trailer footage) wore off people started to take a harder look at Colors and saw just how relentlessly mediocre it actually was in terms of gameplay design and writing.

[Miles Storzillo]

I honestly always have to question why I'm one of (if not) the only people who think Unleashed is infinitely better in every possible way than Colors and Generations.  At best I think those games are decent.  At worst HD Unleashed to me is just great.

[Wraith]

21 minutes ago, Miles Storzillo said:

I honestly always have to question why I'm one of (if not) the only people who think Unleashed is infinitely better in every possible way than Colors and Generations.  At best I think those games are decent.  At worst HD Unleashed to me is just great.

You're far from the only person that feels that way in modern Sonic fandom. 

[CleverSonicUsername]

17 hours ago, Miles Storzillo said:

I honestly always have to question why I'm one of (if not) the only people who think Unleashed is infinitely better in every possible way than Colors and Generations.  At best I think those games are decent.  At worst HD Unleashed to me is just great.

The werehog stuff was really bad. Framerate was sludge and it just felt very weak at what it did. The "day time" segments were terrific though, and I do enjoy them more than Colors as a whole. The problem is, they didn't make a whole game of that. When looking at them as a whole, I'd rather play the still competent but more lackluster levels of Colors over the entirety of Unleashed knowing I have to play those garbage night stages.