Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think there are *some* problems' with the game's graphics, inarguably. There are other changes specifically made to fulfill a vision that you simply may or may not agree with.

By-and-large, the complaints about the game are coming from a vocal minority. And not necessarily a bad one! But the game's not going to get delayed because of some texture mapping, or because you don't like a remixed music track, or even because Sonic's eyes don't move. At it's core, it's still meant to be a Sonic Colors rerelease, and SEGA is looking for sales and decent reviews here. At best, you'll see some reviews say "the graphical changes may not be everyone's cup of tea".

I'm not totally happy with everything shown, but I can't help but chuckle at how people are getting upset at these things in more-or-less the same manner as the game being a top-to-bottom unplayable trainwreck. I think we've all spent a bit too much time online, frankly.

[Blue Blood]

21 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

It looks just as fine, just different.

You asked.

It's gone from a dark tunnel illuminated by bright blue glowing light bars and spot lights

... to a tunnel that's as bright as the outdoors with lights that aren't illuminating the environment at all.

Where is the light source in the Ultimate screenshot? What is the light source in Ultimate? The lights are somehow darker than the surrounding area. You can't pull the "it's just different" card on this. You don't have to hate it, but it's supposed to be a dark interior tunnel lit up by LEDs (i.e. a service tunnel from an amusement park) to contrast the bright outdoors world that makes up the rest of the level. 

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

1 hour ago, Blue Blood said:

Hot damn look at this mess:

Anyone still wanna tell me that this looks just as good or even better in Ultimate?

Holy moly, just wow man. What happened?

[VO.SUPER]

Just now, Blue Blood said:

It's gone from a dark tunnel illuminated by bright blue glowing light bars and spot lights

... to a tunnel that's as bright as the outdoors with lights that aren't illuminating the environment at all.

Where is the light source in the Ultimate screenshot? What is the light source in Ultimate? The lights are somehow darker than the surrounding area. You can't pull the "it's just different" card on this. You don't have to hate it, but it's supposed to be a dark interior tunnel lit up by LEDs (i.e. a service tunnel from an amusement park or interior of a factory) to contrast the bright outdoors world that makes up the rest of the level. 

It's not as bright as the outside. It's mildly darker. I could say the level outside is just bright enough to seep into the very very small service tunnel. It makes even the inside of the tunnel feel more in line with the level on the outside and fit in more with the overall set piece instead of just an off beaten path. The light source I see is light bouncing in from the outside. 

Sonic hasn't changed his lighting from outside, which is an issue because the lighting around him in general has been an issue because his lighting is borked up.

I also kinda like how easy it is to make out the chocolate production this time.

 

[Dr. Detective]

Yeah, no, that tunnel looks like ass when compared to the original. Again though, I'm willing to bet I wouldn't have noticed had I not been shown that comparison. I would have run right on by it without giving it a second glance. I have a feeling that none of these complaints are going to matter in the end, which is sad, because this shouldn't be acceptable.

I mostly just don't want to see anymore side-by-sides though. I'm not a huge Colors fan but each new one of those keeps bumming me out. It's like one big omen for any future re-release.

I can't even be like "well maybe this is just a Bling Squirrel thing" because SEGA's allowing it to happen this way regardless. 

[McGroose]

1 hour ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

You play as Metal Sonic after a very broken mission mode whose requirements are glitched to hell and back. Also requiring the Chao Garden medals to complete for a Metal Sonic skin on top of regular Sonic who changes nothing but the cosmetics. Ultimate also has cosmetic changes too for Sonic without such a drastic requirement.

Those game gear games were useless content when played on the Gamecube's D-pad, and even then also were available on several Sonic collections at the time without the need to unlock them.

(If I'm wrong about any of the release dates or other information below, please let me know).

While I agree that I don't like how the added rewards are earned, their inclusion is significant nonetheless.  It was such a cool feature back in the day cause it would not be possible to play all these games (outside of owning a Gamegear and even then some of these games were region specific only) until Sonic Gems Collection released. Even then, having access to all of these games back then without owning SADX was somewhat of a chore. SADX came out in June 2003, Gems released in August 2005. Only then were you able to play all 12 of the Sonic GG games SADX provided without actually playing them on SADX. Sonic Mega collection, released in 2002, did not include the GG games. Mega Collection Plus did include half of the GG games that SADX had, but it was released a year later in 2004 and was only available on Xbox and PS2, not on Gamecube. Gems collection provided the other 6 Sonic GG games. There was a 2 year gap where all the GG games were available only by one means.

For a long time if you wanted all 12 of the GG games SADX included without playing them on SADX, you would you would need both Sonic Gems collection for half of them and a PS2/Xbox to play Mega Collection Plus for the other half. You'd need two consoles. You'd also have to wait 2 more years until Gems and Plus released. SADX was a nice little convenience for having it all in one package. 

I also don't see how the games are useless content just cause the controller's D-pad isn't the best, what does that have to do with the content itself? Again, it's all about what was available back at the time. I guess you can call them useless now when you have multiple means of playing these games nowadays, certainly much easier than what was available back then, but that's hardly fair now is it? This was by far the easiest and cheapest way to have all these games available back in the day. That wasn't useless by any means.

As for Metal Sonic, It's a significant cosmetic change, more than just changing the color of Sonic's gloves and shoes. Lots of people like these types of major cosmetic changes. One of the only things I'll credit Forces with is making Shadow playable in regular Sonic levels. I'll take a slightly more difficult to obtain completely different character model over an easier to obtain slight character reskin. That's not a debate for me at all.  I'd prefer it not be insanely difficult to get, and while SADX doesn't really meet that requirement, it's nice that such a big cosmetic change is included in the first place. It's certainly a much better cosmetic reward than what Ultimate provides. It's primarily about what's included in general, not about how it's obtained.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

After watching that Sweet Mountain gameplay, holy fuck is that “Perfect Homing Attack” sound annoying. Whose idea was it to just reward your precision with nails on a chalkboard? And it’s CONSTANT. Everyone’s talking about the music and visuals, and I can see why, but wow that sound effect is seriously the worst thing ever. Definitely not buying Colors Ultimate if there’s no way to turn this off (and why would there be?). Yes, I’m serious, and it bums me out. But it really is that bad. 

[phobs]

I agree that the complaints mostly come from vocal minority who are devoted Sonic fans who played or are very familiar with Colors. I think the criticism for graphics, music and Tails save is extremely warranted, HOWEVER, from what I've seen on Twitter people who are not very into Sonic like what they in the remaster. I've seen couple of people first saying that they really like the remaster until they saw the comparison with the original. What I'm trying to say that majority of people who are going to purchase the remaster won't care too much about the fans' complaints because they don't really care about the game looked in the first place and I don't think that our criticism will impact sales too much

[StaticMania]

People will complain about something and still buy it...

[Jango]

23 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

People will complain about something and still buy it...

Do not include me on this list. Haven't bought a Sonic game since Mania. Especially because this isn't even a new game, a new experience for me, it's the same stuff I've played 10 years ago, but visibly worse. Oh, and none of us has played it yet, imagine if the controls are busted too? Maybe heavier, or perhaps delayed, slipery...

[KingMario05]

44 minutes ago, Jango said:

Do not include me on this list. Haven't bought a Sonic game since Mania. Especially because this isn't even a new game, a new experience for me, it's the same stuff I've played 10 years ago, but visibly worse. Oh, and none of us has played it yet, imagine if the controls are busted too? Maybe heavier, or perhaps delayed, slipery...

Same. Only ones I've nabbed since Mania Plus are Unleashed/Gens on Xbox and the two Adventures on Steam.

The second of which won't even effing start.

Honestly, I haven't even been playing that much Sonic lately anyway. Why would I when I find Resident Evil 7, Microsoft Car Simulator No. 1 Billion Forza Horizon 4, and even Doom Eternal (which I suck at) more engaging?

[Sega DogTagz]

You guys are saying that like there have been a lot of Sonic games since Mania. Skipping one game isn't something to puff your chest out about lol.

 

[Graystripe2000]

Whoops! Someone accidentally caused the Sonic Twitch account to go live for a few seconds. My guess is that they were recording footage for a trailer or something when it happened. 

 

[SenEDDtor Missile]

9 minutes ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Whoops! Someone accidentally caused the Sonic Twitch account to go live for a few seconds. My guess is that they were recording footage for a trailer or something when it happened. 

 

Yacker at the end looks like he was going "You didn't see aaaaanythiiiiing..."

[KingMario05]

20 minutes ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Whoops! Someone accidentally caused the Sonic Twitch account to go live for a few seconds. My guess is that they were recording footage for a trailer or something when it happened. 

 

They don't even show Tails getting you out of the pit.

Come on, Sega, that's just sad.

[Soniman]

9 minutes ago, KingMario05 said:

They don't even show Tails getting you out of the pit.

Come on, Sega, that's just sad.

Ehhh wasted time when you just wanna get back into the game. I don't need a drawn out cutscene playing out everytime I die 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

4 hours ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

I think there are *some* problems' with the game's graphics, inarguably. There are other changes specifically made to fulfill a vision that you simply may or may not agree with.

By-and-large, the complaints about the game are coming from a vocal minority. And not necessarily a bad one! But the game's not going to get delayed because of some texture mapping, or because you don't like a remixed music track, or even because Sonic's eyes don't move. At it's core, it's still meant to be a Sonic Colors rerelease, and SEGA is looking for sales and decent reviews here. At best, you'll see some reviews say "the graphical changes may not be everyone's cup of tea".

I'm not totally happy with everything shown, but I can't help but chuckle at how people are getting upset at these things in more-or-less the same manner as the game being a top-to-bottom unplayable trainwreck. I think we've all spent a bit too much time online, frankly.

True. The actual gameplay is pretty much intact. While this remaster suffers the unfortunate fate of the majority of remasters, it still at least appears to function just fine. Highly doubt sales or reviews will take a massive tanking from the visuals.

One thing people may not like, but is the case is that ports like these are some of the easiest money makers, quality be damned.

It doesn't excuse the quality mind you, but companies know they can get away with this crap because of the nature of the port, especially if it's of a game you literally can't get anywhere else officially unless you go for the original console which can be a hassle in and of itself.

Part of the reason why I'm not big on remasters these days.

[KHCast]

I guess games like Metal Gear Solid  HD and KH 1.5 + 2.5 are the exception and not the rule to remasters nowadays. 

[VO.SUPER]

4 hours ago, McGroose said:

 

1. While the convenience can be worthy of something, it's still lackluster as a lasting reward when there are by and large better and more convenient ways to access those games, and in the end they don't necessarily add value to the experience of Sonic Adventure itself. Take SA2 for example: the extra costumes and modes you got for participating in single player would go into improving your experience in multiplayer modes which actually added value to your skill improvement in the game. You got better playing the game, and then you could put those skills to the test with the rewards in your multiplayer mode (provided you had friends).

2. As someone who as recently as last year 100% beat SADX on GC, let me tell you it was one of the most miserable experiences I've had doing 100% in a Sonic game. That glitchy mission mode on top of the tedious Chao raising without cheating was not worth the costume, and I shall never do that again. Some of those missions are so terribly implemented it shocks me that they escaped quality control at all. All it did was make the act of 100% just a worse experience altogether, and so horrible. So while the effort is appreciated, if it's going to be so terrible then it's hardly something I'd consider worth it.

[iambitter21]

3 hours ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Whoops! Someone accidentally caused the Sonic Twitch account to go live for a few seconds. My guess is that they were recording footage for a trailer or something when it happened. 

 

 

Looking at this tweet really makes me think. they hyped up tails having the ability to lift you out of pits so you don't lose a life, but in actuality it's an arbitrary version of the usual live system. All I gotta ask now is: what was the point of tails flying you out of pits in the first place? It doesn't really change much and it overall feels like wasted development time. I guess tails flying you out of a pit instead of falling to your doom would kind of make more sense, but it still overall feels pointless.

[McGroose]

55 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

there are by and large better and more convenient ways to access those games

We can go on and on about debating the value of cosmetics in video games and the means of acquiring them versus whether it was even worth getting them, but I'd say we're mostly in agreement. SADX was a buggy mess so it was pain in the ass to get the extras added, totally agree. Nothing wrong with extra stuff, but if you don't like the effort required to get it than you won't bother to get it. Again, obviously understandable. Now that that's done, It's just that this highlighted quote above that kinda baffles me.

The near entirety of my previous post was me trying to explain how, back in the day, this was not the case at all. At least, not for all 12 of them. How is requiring to own two consoles and two games to play all 12 games more convenient than owning one game that has them all on one console?  One is a matter of convenience in playing the game itself, the other a matter of several hundred bucks back in the early 2000s. They are not comparable inconveniences unless you had plenty of money to waste.

To be fair, if you had a PS2 then you could technically own Mega Collection plus and Gems for one console, but that's only if you live in Europe or Japan as it did not see an American release for PS2. Those points are all moot anyway if you were a kid living in 2003- late 2005 since nobody had both Mega Collection Plus and Gems during that time period anyway. It's all relative to the timeframe that it came out. Back in 2003, this was the shit. Nowadays, nobody really gives AF cause there are better ways to play the games, but that wasn't the case back in 2003.  

Besides, I think providing the first means of playing all GG sonic games (excluding Sonic Blast, which never saw a rerelease afaik) in one package adds a lot to the value of the game for me. It gave me a legit reason to want to hunt down the emblems as a kid cause I didn't have Gems or Mega Collection, I didn't know where to get those games since no local store I knew of had them (c'mon bro, just a kid with no understanding of the internet) and I didn't have the different console needed to play them all anyway. I was so fascinated with these different GG games that I wanted to spend a lot of time in SADX itself (Sonic Adventure is a great game to me, even if SADX added a few bugs so it wasn't a major chore) just to play these mysterious games.

Again, it's all about perspective. I didn't really think much about it now, but I have more nostalgic value attached towards those games than I do the costumes in SA2, which I also tried to get as a kid. Unlocking costumes in SA2B made me excited for a few seconds, the GG games left me excited for a while, while knowing that I would beat only one new game and had a dozen more to go. Besides, child me never thought it was that bad. A little tedious but not awful.

Come to think of it, I didn't give much of a rats ass about the costumes back then lol I was wondering why SA2B didn't have games you could unlock. I played SA2B after SADX.

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, KHCast said:

I guess games like Metal Gear Solid  HD and KH 1.5 + 2.5 are the exception and not the rule to remasters nowadays. 

Pretty much. Them and Nintendo most of the time. For all Nintendo's faults, for the most part, when they port and remaster, they genuinely improve stuff, adding more on top of the initial experience, as a remaster aught to.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Except Majora's Mask.

[StaticMania]

5 hours ago, Soniman said:

Ehhh wasted time when you just wanna get back into the game. I don't need a drawn out cutscene playing out everytime I die 

Ideally it'd take the same amount of time as that transition, like Beat from Megaman.

But considering where Tails put Sonic, it's slightly longer than just reappearing at the "checkpoint."

[Red Hot Jack]

I won't lie, I'm quite disappointed now that I've seen more of this remaster, I know it's just a remaster but the game was good, right? More than how the game looks, I'm disappointed that this was a simple task and they managed to screw it up again. 

Now I don't know if this will impact how future games will turn out (probably not), but I am losing faith again in SEGA. It was simple, Colors is an alright game, but no.

This is exactly why I'm more of a fan of comics, cartoons and movies. Maybe Sonic just works better as a media icon.