Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[Blue Blood]

Listening to the Aquarium Park 1 remix for Ultimate the next morning and... yeah, I don't think I quite like it as much as the original. It's still brilliant dgmw, but it lacks the punch that the original had. The second chorus and the breakdown before it just don't hit anywhere near as hard. The synth that the original used for its lead instrument was just so perfect, capturing both the Japanese and underwater themes perfectly. And it added such a mystical flare to it all at the same time. Plus there was a full second before the second chorus where the percussion stopped and the last piano note was held as it faded out. It was really powerful. In the remake, the percusion keeps going and has some electronic effects on it. It just doesn't hit as hard without that total break, and the lead instrument isn't as powerful either.

The original AP1 theme is perfection. I can't begin to tell you just how much I love it. The remix is definitely more in line with Ohtani's current style though, and he's done a great job of it too. It's kind of interesting to see how he's change over the past 10 or 11 years by revisiting the same pieces of music. I hope that both the original and remixed soundtracks are available in the game. Planet Wisp 4 at least still sounds like the original to my ear, so maybe the option is there?

[Sonicka]

I think the important thing to note here is that they’ve only screwed this up somewhat aesthetically here (but even this will vary on preference for Visuals and Music).  

Other additional modes might make people happy or mad, but overall the gameplay isn’t screwed, and the levels are not broken. There wasn’t anything wrong with Sonic Colours in the first place (again this viewpoint will vary) and there’s no strong indication this has been messed up.

The reason why I will continue to say this is not a legitimately comparable situation to SADX is because SA1 started off being a moderately ok game (and still littered with bugs) to becoming quite the broken mess once ported to SADX by Sonic Team as previously discussed. 

Sonic Colours Ultimate so far demonstrates no real visible issues in the gameplay department, no game breaking bugs, no deterioration of frame-rates or control issues or “falling through the floor” etc…  etc…

I understand people are unhappy with how the port has been handled (and I for one question a few things here too - I’m not saying it couldn’t have been done better), but really there are some extreme views or opinions coming out of this that even I end up going “…reeeally? That’s your beef?” - and I appreciate the vocal majority (albeit minority outside this place) have every right to complain. 
 

NOTE: Thank God Aquarium Park didn’t end up as bad as I feared. I love the soundtrack to this level - it’s sets the vibe and theme of the zone pretty much bang on and for reasons JezMM previously described. 

[Sonikko]

One more tiny issue, when Sonic comes out of a stage on the World Map, in Colours OG he literally jumped out of the stage panel thingie, as if he were exiting a portal.

In Colours Ultimate the model is not invisible at first, so it looks like he's just standing in place and then jumping on the spot.

Timestamped here for more clarity:

OG:

 

 

Ultimate:

 

Again, no lightfields on the world map either, and also the very notable difference in the animation speed on the world map.

[Jango]

I just like to add that besides the dead eyes and bad shading/ilumination, I quite like the Sonic model they're using. The longer quills always looked cooler in my opinion. I feel like his quills got smaller and smaller since Generations.

[NegaMix]

Huh. Just to go on a side-tangent for a second - has anyone noticed how, just before entering Sweet Mountain Act 3 in the video @Sonikko posted, a Rival Rush option pops up for that Act?

Considering it only seems to show up on this Act (it doesn't even remotely pop up when Sonic moves over Acts 1 and 2 in the video) I suspect this means that the new mode has you facing off against Metal Sonic in just some of the Acts across each world.

...

Oh, and if anyone's still wondering about the console/controller they're showcasing, I'm certain it's Xbox and/or PC. The buttons shown at the results screen (RB to restart and (≡) to continue) are definitely from an Xbox One/Series controller.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Makes sense Metal Sonic isn't racing you in all levels. That'd be super awkward in, for example, these levels that are just a trampoline moving across a gap.
Altough it would be hilarious to see Sonic and Metal awkwardly bouncing on the trampoline, staring intensly at each other.

[Dejimon11]

Most of the issues feel pretty small but when you combined them all it starts to become a big problem. The comparisons to SA1DX are pretty warranted. Although I'm sure when the game comes out the general public and reviewers who probably never played the original game probably won't even give a shit about all these changes.

[Wraith]

4 minutes ago, Dejimon11 said:

Most of the issues feel pretty small but when you combined them all it starts to become a big problem. The comparisons to SA1DX are pretty warranted. Although I'm sure when the game comes out the general public and reviewers who probably never played the original game probably won't even give a shit about all these changes.

And I sure didn't give a fuck about the SA1 changes when I was a kid either so it tracks.

[Blue Blood]

19 minutes ago, Wraith said:

And I sure didn't give a fuck about the SA1 changes when I was a kid either so it tracks.

Adding to this, as SADX on PC was the first time that I personally got to play SA1 in any form. But the only visual differences that I was aware of were character models, and I preferred SADX's models just because they higher point (eww).

Take that as you will.

[Sonikko]

I mean most of them aren't changes, they're downgrades.

The issue with this kind of stuff is that people are unaware of it when they buy the game.

If you look at Colours Ultimate on its own, it looks *fine*, as in, it seems to be functional, there's nothing outright glitchy about the visuals other than those transparency issues in Planet Wisp so far, and that's  more dangerous, ironically, than if it weren't like that.

It took people something like 20 years and PkR and his blog https://dreamcastify.unreliable.network/ (I will never stop bragging about being a part of that, so here have it again), to realize that DX is indeed not "just different", it's broken.

That's the way the discourse is swaying as of now as well, Colours Ultimate is "just different" when it really is not.

It's just missing graphical features (lightfields and some VFX on the Wisps, some particle effects here and there, the loading screens text looks hideous and is missing backdrop shadows), some stuff is broken (animation speed, transparency and more) and what visual upgrade is there (improved polycount in background scenery), just gets lost in the sea of desperation that everything else swims in.

The new rainbow rings models is a change. Not implementing lightfields which have been a staple of the series since 2008, and which Sonic Team boasted about with a whole presentation back then, is a downgrade.

The new homing attack timing thingie and the cosmetics are a change, the model not having rigged eyes is a downgrade.

 

tl;dr

The word "changes" isn't really appropriate imo and only serves to sway the conversation away from the truth, same way DX conversation was until a couple years ago, the truth being that it's  a huge downgrade from the original.

And someone who is only exposed to Colours via Ultimate, or who hasn't seen the game in 10 years, is probably gonna think it looks okay, and Sonic fans have the fame of being "nitpickers" or "impossible to satisfy", so there's that.

[Jango]

I gotta wonder... Do we know if you actually RACE Metal Sonic in real time, say, like Sonic CD, or just like... beat his ghost/time trial record? The former could actually be pretty cool, especially if Metal can attack you or something. Even better, use Metal's leitmotiv (SSZ Bad Future) in remixes of the zones you race against him. 

[VO.SUPER]

I'm guessing it'll be like racing a ghost/time-trial. Though the ghost in this case is going to try and kill you.

[Celestia]

If you actually physically race him, I hope Metal actually tries. I still remember how funny the races are in those Generations missions, especially the one with Knuckles where you can stop and watch him very slowly fly through the air lol.

[Sega DogTagz]

3 hours ago, Celestia said:

If you actually physically race him, I hope Metal actually tries. I still remember how funny the races are in those Generations missions, especially the one with Knuckles where you can stop and watch him very slowly fly through the air lol.

the bar was set really low for those missions, because they were partly tied to advancing the story. You did have to complete one or two of the side missions in each zone, so they more or less had to make them easy enough to be completed by novice players. Only a small handful of the side missions offered much in the way of a challenge.

Since this Rival Rush mode probably won't be tied to completion, they have much more freedom in upping the difficulty tied to it. Lets hope they push that envelope a bit, or barring that offer the opportunity to challenge each race at multiple difficulty settings.

[simtek34]

9 hours ago, Jango said:

I gotta wonder... Do we know if you actually RACE Metal Sonic in real time, say, like Sonic CD, or just like... beat his ghost/time trial record? The former could actually be pretty cool, especially if Metal can attack you or something. Even better, use Metal's leitmotiv (SSZ Bad Future) in remixes of the zones you race against him. 

I'm assuming you will be actually racing Metal Sonic. If you remember, the artist who posted all those gifs on his blog had one of a new Metal Sonic model.

[VO.SUPER]

The more I look at the shots to Colours Ultimate the more cemented I am in just liking them. However, this isn't the same thing as, "wow, I'm glad this was changed" but more like, "this is different but not bad."

Despite all this, it still just feels so pointless. Why bother going the extra step to make something that's just different, and going to piss people off?

I don't even think this is SEGA's doing for once. I just think that SEGA just asked Blind Squirrel to remaster Colours with added features from later titles, but Blind Squirrel decided to push things further so as to add a win to their resume after the disaster of the Mass Effect remaster. Like, you saw that one artist  proudly posting up their work on ArtStation and I wonder if that was something on the minds of everyone at the studio, to try and outdo the original vision with what little budget they clearly had.

Even in the best remakes you get clashes between old and new visions, like how in the Spyro 3 Remake the level of Cloud Spires completely missed the point of the original level's aesthetic by a long shot even though the reference was clear in the original. Sometimes these things just happen.

Because I listen to that Shacknews interview with the Sonic producer and I really don't get the vibe of a project that was made with laziness, I get the vibes of a lot of genuine work put into it, but it's all kind of misplaced and confusing for older fans. And even to the point the damn thing was unplayable, I'd place more blame on Blind Squirrel for that, not because they didn't have the time or money, but because they are trying to overcompensate for  what is just a rudimentary remaster project.

[BadBehavior]

I wonder how critics will react? Still blind overpraise like back in 2010, or will the context of a whole Era of games aping it's worst qualities combine with this remasters issues and probably knock the metascore down a few pegs?

[Wraith]

it'll be lower than when it came out, but not by a whole lot. worst case scenario it scores as well as forces did.

[Sonicka]

46 minutes ago, BadBehavior said:

I wonder how critics will react? Still blind overpraise like back in 2010, or will the context of a whole Era of games aping it's worst qualities combine with this remasters issues and probably knock the metascore down a few pegs?

If blind praise were a thing with Sonic games then we’d have seen a much higher Metacritic score over the vast majority of Sonic games available.

But the original only sits at 78 on that scale anyway - which is good-great, but not “amazing” or “blind overpraise”. 

Sonic Colours came at a time when consistency wasn’t part of Sonic Team’s vocabulary (technically it still ain’t), but at least the game provided a constantly engaging time than their usual “half and half” approach because they think the core Sonic gameplay isn’t enough.

IMO it’s one of there most fun and approachable titles of the “boost era” (which is probably why it’s seeing a remaster). But each to their own I suppose  

[McGroose]

I think the reviews will still be good, but probably slightly worse than the original. The same happened with sadx and sa2b. The bugs introduced by those ports werent the only reason why those versions recieved poorer scores than their dreamcast counterparts, but also because the gameplay didnt quite age as well. Colors did so well as it did partly because it did what everyone wanted from sega at the time: take the daytime stage boost gameplay from unleashed and make it an entire game, one single core gameplay style, no annoying friends, etc. Its a good game, but I think the good scores were partly based on the hype of Sega finally getting a 3D game mostly right.

Now its age will become apparent. People will see the flaws in the base game. Examples include how the actual 3D parts of the game are usually very linear and uninteresting and the writing isnt really that good. There are a few other problems, but those are the most glaring issues I had with the original. 

On top of that, Ultimate definetely introduces some problems. The graphical changes, primarily the lighting/bloom in some areas, are already being heavily criticized and some of the added remixes of original tracks just arent that good. We'll have to see if they fix or add any problems upon release. 

Id say to expect an average of 7/10. 8/10 at best.

[Milo]

The discrepancy between the original DC release for Adventure 2 and the GC Battle port on Metacritic is 16 points (89 --> 73); the former GameRankings was  slightly kinder with eleven points (83 --> 72). Adventure 1 (GR only) went from an even steeper drop of 22 points for DX: Director's Cut (86 --> 64). Wouldn't really call those "slightly worse reviews." Something like the recent 3D World + Bowser's Fury port (93 to 89/90) is what I would call slightly worse. (On another note, there some irony of the idea of the gameplay "not aging well" for Adventure 2 Battle, considering it was released only six-eight months after the original game.)

Between the change in context from the original Colors' release and the fairly minimal additions/changes to the content/gameplay, I'm mainly expecting lower reviews than the original as the default as others are saying. My main curiosity is exactly how much lower in particular Ultimate scores vs the original. I feel like a low 70s-high 60s is the floor, but depending on how much the presentation is (considered) butchered, it could go further (mid-low 60s). If Blind Squirrel somehow messed up the gameplay/technical stability as well (which would probably be the ultimate sin, given how robust the original game is), that would put it in Forces' territory (high 50s); but nothing about the gameplay previews indicates any negative changes on that front.

[VO.SUPER]

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2021/06/sonic-colours-ultimate-gets-amazing-anniversary-special-edition-in-japan/

Spoiler

That is a really nice box, and the book sounds interesting.

[Zaysho]

Sega of Japan: "Here's a cool package full of things that celebrate this series' world and its history"

Sega of America: "Nobody will buy these ugly keychains so we're going to get rid of them this way"

The only way they could discourage importing at this point is if they purposefully patch out the English tracks or something.

Hoping the book gets a standalone release at some point; I love Karasuno's illustrations and think a book of her work is great. Just needs a wider release. Seems exactly like the kind of thing Dark Horse could release too.

[JezMM]

It's still unclear to me as to whether we get the digital deluxe bonuses with physical deluxe versions or not.

[Blue Blood]

36 minutes ago, JezMM said:

It's still unclear to me as to whether we get the digital deluxe bonuses with physical deluxe versions or not.

I don't think you do. The Digital Deluxes bonuses (gold and silver outfits, exclusive music tracks however that works, early access) and the physical bonuses (the fugly Baby Sonic keyring) seem to be entirely separate. You kind of just have to take your pick.

Personally, I'm planning to import the Japanese version. I don't like digital editions, and the Japanese special edition is a lovely package.