Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[Sonikko]

Always love to see Dreamcastify being passed around, PkR did a great job on it and it was fun helping out, got fond memories of it.

I do think Ultimate compares to SADX in a lot of ways, it's not just Tropical Resort that got screwed up big time.

The water is missing ambient shadows in Planet Wisp in some shots, some of the upscaled textures have glaring issues, as someone else pointed out earlier, the 2D Trees have that black line at the top of the texture, and the skybox is messed up.

Aquarium Park has missing water reflections and effects on the glass tube, it's missing the green lights on the side of the track, big fish aren't swimming in the background.

Sweet Mountain has the seams in the normal maps.

Asteroid Coaster really goes hard on the bloom and given the overaboundance of neon green, it hurts my eyes. Also I'm pretty sure I've seen some of the green waterfalls in the background behave weirdly, they might have fucked up the transparency on those.

The specular lights are missing on game objects, the lightfields are completely broken so Sonic and every object not part of the terrain, are glowing at all times, this wasn't an issue in the original.

Sonic's model is not animated properly.

 

That's probably not even everything as I haven't paid much attention to this cause I never cared about Colours in the first place, but still. There's as many sins in this port so far as there are in SADX, they're very much comparable.

Funnily enough SADX also added the 60fps support lol, even though that's kind of screwed up as well as it doubles the animation speed of most objects.

 

EDIT:
Interesting thread 

 

[Edward850]

47 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

EDIT:
Interesting thread 
https://twitter.com/radfordhound/status/1404648247436664833

Wow... uhh... that's quite a bit missing? Professional opinion, unless that's an incredibly old build, I'm not sure that's getting fixed in 3 months. That's a drastic difference in rendering that it wouldn't be sensible to be a last minute addition.

[Sonikko]

Just noticed, the shimmering on the metal bits on the right here in this shot:

Really looks like the normal maps and new materials are being added without much thought about how they do end up looking.

It's nice that PW has metallic materials now but they're too reflective and sometimes ruin the scene altogether, coupled with the overall darkness of most scenes, it just ends up looking not great.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Hmm, was about to suggest perhaps Tropical Resort had a gimmick this time that the situation of the level changes in each act.
Like say, in act 1 it's all dark because it isn't activated yet, but in a later act, Eggman has fully turned it on and now has the regular lighting.
I mean, that would have been a neat little detail in this remake, that each act has a different time of day or some other thing going on, like Sonic 3 and Knuckles/ Sonic Adventure occasionaly did.

But yeah, then I look at the other levels and it's clear that's not what they're going for. Oh well.

[VO.SUPER]

May as well go over some of the press screenshots SEGA has been showing. Some bits look improved here and there, but it's hard for me to tell how much is bullshotry, or an EVEN later build than the gameplay footage.

Spoiler

Not showing off more Tropical resort aside from maybe the safest shot. I have a feeling things aren't changing much for that stage for the final product.

[PSI Wind]

Sonic has an orange tint in Sweet Mountain, which is how it should be. Man, what is going on with the lighting in this game? 

[VO.SUPER]

It's possible we've been unpacking several different builds over the course of these months. The earliest trailer was a hideous mess, these latest gameplay portrayals have been ok at best, and these screenshots are looking better off too. God knows what state the actual game is that isn't being shown to press.

Also note how the Drill Wisp has the bright glow around it unlike the Laser wisp, which is how it should be.

[JezMM]

I will say, I respect what they're going for with the Tropical Resort light changes - I think Tropical Resort looks way cooler and more atmospheric in the opening CG movie to Wii in-game, and Ultimate looks closer to that CG movie aesthetic - but it doesn't quite stick the landing, resulting in a situation where the simple, bright aesthetic of the Wii in-game visuals looks more pleasing than the half-baked attempt to match the opening CG atmosphere in Ultimate.

[simtek34]

New footage of Untropical Resort, this time of Act 3. 

 

[VO.SUPER]

This act certainly looks better than what we saw of Act 1. The hell is going on with this game?

(Laser still has the light issue, which i swear is a glitch they intend to fix. If drill is still bright then no reason to change laser.)

Also, were those new Tails voice lines I heard?

[StaticMania]

No, that was the tutorial.

[VO.SUPER]

4 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

No, that was the tutorial.

Were those lines always there? Huh, guess I never paid attention. 

[Blue Blood]

3 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Were those lines always there? Huh, guess I never paid attention. 

When you first start a file in Colours Wii, you're asked if you want Tails to be your navigator. Say yes and he'll give voiced tutorials, so no and there'll be no dialogue. But Tails only speaks when you find a hint icon, and that pauses the gameplay. I think this is a new feature of Ultimate, where he's warning you about bottomless pits. The dialogue in Ultimate plays at the exact moment where the warning icon shows up in the original (11:55 in this video).

I don't know if it's new dialogue, or if it's been recycled from one of his hints.

In any case... Tropical Resort still looks awful. 

__________________________

The main site has published an interesting article about Ultimate, including an interview with the producer:

Quote

• The game is standard controller focused. It will not use motion controls.
• Cutscene videos have been updated for HD and 4K resolutions.
• The game does not use all the technical features of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, but Roseman states it runs very well on both consoles.
• In addition to customising Sonic's shoes and gloves, you can also change his boost and aura effects. 

He also states that all of the music has been remixed. Some of the gameplay footage shows remixed music, but some of it doesn't. I'm wondering if they're only actually replacing the music on 3 of the 6 acts in any zone? That would be neat. But honestly the soundtrack for Colours didn't even need to be touched. They're potentially ruining something that was already brilliant. The remixed music in the gameplay of TR2 sounds... pointless.

Some people will be disappointed to hear that Tails Save replaces lives. I don't mind, but why couldn't it have just been an option?

On the subject of cutscenes though, the interview states the following:

Quote

We have taken all the raw files and we have updated all of them to a higher resolution. For XB, PS4 and PC users it supports up to 4K, so we will see higher fidelity in all our cutscenes.

That doesn't really say much though. It sounds as though they've just upscaled the Wii cutscenes or that they're using the original, higher quality video files that SEGA made back in 2010. And that means that the cutscenes will look like Wii graphics. Sounds pretty lazy. 

[JezMM]

Cut-scene thing is definitely a shame but if they don't have access to the original in-engine animation used to make those cut-scenes, it'd be a lot of work. If that's the case and SEGA didn't budget for it, then I guess it's on them.

Tropical Resort Act 3 does look better than previous footage brightness-wise but the colours are still a little washed out.  I also hate how at 2:02, that background waterway with the path going down the middle - the water texture is so subtle now as if to not be there.  Was one of my favourite little backdrop setpieces so that's a bit of an oversight.

At least though, Act 3 footage shows that we're seeing footage from various builds here.  I have a little hope that as hardcore fans we're just really good at spotting the stuff that isn't done yet.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

Has anyone else noticed that the new homing attack sound effect doesn’t always play? Like sometimes it’s the old one? I wonder why. 

[Blue Blood]

10 minutes ago, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Has anyone else noticed that the new homing attack sound effect doesn’t always play? Like sometimes it’s the old one? I wonder why. 

I think it's to do with time. The target reticule for the HA has two parts the line up to each other. If they're fully aligned, you get the new sound effect, rainbow aura and a small refill to your boost gauge. But if they're not lined up (i.e. you're just spamming the HA to wait too long), then you just the regular old version.

[VO.SUPER]

8 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

In any case... Tropical Resort still looks awful.

Edit: Whoa, nevermind. Looked at the old Act 3 footage, and I just forgot how colourful the original was. Sheesh.

I guess I don't think it's aesthetically horrible, but Idk.

[Jango]

Still looks terrible, the background during the final 2D section is almost completely dim, reminds of the temple levels in Crash 2, where the whole background is just a dark silhouette (althought that was the idea, and what we're seeing here in Sonic Colors is most likely an oversight).

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Edit: Whoa, nevermind. Looked at the old Act 3 footage, and I just forgot how colourful the original was. Sheesh.

I guess I don't think it's aesthetically horrible, but Idk.

Hahaha! Right? I think it's pretty poor aesthetically on its own, but seeing as the Wii original is right there for comparison, it looks even worse.

[Indigo Rush]

5 hours ago, Whatever the WhoCares said:

Has anyone else noticed that the new homing attack sound effect doesn’t always play? Like sometimes it’s the old one? I wonder why. 

One of the added new abilities is a rainbow homing attack that activates based off of when you time your button press. Its a reward for getting the timing right and you get more boost energy from it. 

[shdowhunt60]

4 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Edit: Whoa, nevermind. Looked at the old Act 3 footage, and I just forgot how colourful the original was. Sheesh.

I guess I don't think it's aesthetically horrible, but Idk.

Because it's not supposed to look like that. I mean, Sonic Team's art directors knew what they were doing, if Tropical Resort was supposed to be that dark in the orginal game, they would've made it that dark.

Like I know that we tend to have a callous attitude towards Sonic Team now, certainly Sonic Forces had some really bad art direction to it, but that wasn't the case back in 2010. This is the same art direction that went into Sonic Unleashed and Generations.

[Spin Slasher]

Sonic Colors Ultimate is like Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (SADX) in a way because They are both Remasters and has New Features (SADX has Mission Mode & Metal Sonic, Sonic Colours Ultimate has Tails Save Mode, Sonic Movie Boost and a Rainbow Homing Attack), and Sonic Colors Ultimate has Remixed Music but SADX does not. These Games are different in a Way.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

One of the added new abilities is a rainbow homing attack that activates based off of when you time your button press. Its a reward for getting the timing right and you get more boost energy from it. 

That’s a cool idea but... I mean honestly it’s a pretty harsh sound effect. I could be playing the game at a comfortable volume and that one sound would hurt my ears. 

And that gameplay... yeesh. I really hope they clean up Tropical Resort, or at least get the lazer to glow properly. Man. 

[Blue Blood]

Thanks to @Inkling Cooper for posting this in the statuses. We've got footage of Sweet Mountain 2 and 3, both with new music.

My thoughts? The music isn't good, although that's subjective. I just can't figure out why they've bothered with a remixed soundtrack. It's the same bloody game. It didn't need changing. I hope that they've only remixed 3 acts pet zone, so that now all six acts will have unique music (3 old, 3 new).

EDIT: Yeah no this music is bad and takes and massive dump over the original. Why the fuck have they changed the one thing that absolutely did not need to be touched in this remaster?

Tails' commentary is really shite. We don't need Tails telling us to be careful at pits or that enemies have appeared. In the original, he only spoke when you touched a hint icon and he paused the game to speak. And you had to have the hints/navigator mode turned on for this. There's no sign of hints being turned on, and Tails just talks whenever he feels like it.

And the colours also seem washed out here. Again it's like the contrast had been turned way up. I'm so immensely unimpressed by this game.

[frugaljoker8]

Oh my God, the remixed music sounds like absolute garbage compared to the original. No offense but it sounds like a fan made cover on Youtube and a not very good one at that. I think the tails narration is probably toggleable, we didn't hear any of it in the other clips if i remember correctly but they keep showing different builds and it's getting confusing as hell so who knows at this point