Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[LegoFedora]

23 hours ago, KHCast said:

So with the game a few days away, if you’ll be picking it up, what are you most looking forward to experiencing? I never actually owned colors myself originally, so more or less I’ll be experiencing most of the game brand new! 
 

Also, did anyone else pre order from GameStop? If so, has your card been charged yet, cause my order hasn’t still 

I loved Colors as a kid, it was the Sonic Game for me. Reach for the Stars was my favorite song period for a very long time, so being able to play this game again now that I'm out of college will be a fun way to end the old carefree life of childhood/teenagehood. I'm just excited to finally have a boost game on modern systems that isn't forces. The cosmetics look fun, can't wait to hear the redone ost. I think the game itself looks really pretty too, so that'll be a blast to experience. The metal races (although i feel like they'll be easy) will be since, if only for the fact that metal is being portrayed as Sonic's rival again. Something we haven't seen since, well, CD itself in a sense.

 

As for gamestop, I did not preorder Colors from gamestop but I have preordered games from them before (Crash NSane trilogy). From what I recall, they charge you when the game ships to you, so you should be get charged either late this week or the weekend.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Not sure if it’s any other regions, but Ultimate on PS4/PS5 seems to have the incorrect date set for when it unlocks. Usually pre-orders should unlock at midnight on day of release (so tonight at midnight, in Ultimate’s case). However, it’s listed as now unlocking until 2pm tomorrow for me.

[Willsy]

6 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Not sure if it’s any other regions, but Ultimate on PS4/PS5 seems to have the incorrect date set for when it unlocks. Usually pre-orders should unlock at midnight on day of release (so tonight at midnight, in Ultimate’s case). However, it’s listed as now unlocking until 2pm tomorrow for me.

Xbox is also listed for 2PM, though the date is incorrect for Digital Deluxe (the 7th rather than tomorrow). 

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

8 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Not sure if it’s any other regions, but Ultimate on PS4/PS5 seems to have the incorrect date set for when it unlocks. Usually pre-orders should unlock at midnight on day of release (so tonight at midnight, in Ultimate’s case). However, it’s listed as now unlocking until 2pm tomorrow for me.

It's global. It unlocks 9am PST for Americans which translates to 2pm BST.

[Red Hot Jack]

Epic Games is also saying the 7th for some reason, any idea when it will unlock? I pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe too.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, Ming Ming Hatsune said:

It's global. It unlocks 9am PST for Americans which translates to 2pm BST.

Pretty lame choice tbh, and I'm not sure why it was implemented for Colours. Persona 5 Strikers had the same early access situation with the Digital Deluxe edition and just unlocked at midnight like every other game.

[Willsy]

Anyone else get a 10GB patch? Had it around midnight on Xbox. 

[PSI Wind]

 I see why Day 1 patch is 10 GBs....

[Remy]

On 8/11/2021 at 10:48 PM, Kuzu said:

Japanese commercial narrated by Aoi Yuuki (Sticks)

 

うわあああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああ！！！！！！！！！！！！

If only western gaming commericals were just a cute girl screaming WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! at you for 3 minutes. So awesome

Lmao. 

[Polkadi~☆]

3 hours ago, Remy said:

うわあああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああ！！！！！！！！！！！！

If only western gaming commericals were just a cute girl screaming WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! at you for 3 minutes. So awesome

Lmao. 

The trailer is basically "Here's a Sonic fan's professional opinion of the game: *incoherent fangirling*"

If only I could have such unbridled enthusiasm... if Colors Ultimate added the one thing I was hoping for ;n; (adding back the original unbroken level layouts)

[JezMM]

Early Access to the game is still not available on Epic Games Store, and when I contacted support about it, this is what I got.  Even if this is merely a case where the support staff there don't have access to information like *checks notes* the products they are selling as described by the customer-facing storefront, there is an utter lack of human common sense in this response that I've never had from Steam's customer support.  I'm definitely going to be specifically e-mailing SEGA's own support to give them direct feedback to please dear god never use this shit Steam wannabe exclusively like this ever again.

[Sonicka]

12 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Early Access to the game is still not available on Epic Games Store, and when I contacted support about it, this is what I got.  Even if this is merely a case where the support staff there don't have access to information like *checks notes* the products they are selling as described by the customer-facing storefront, there is an utter lack of human common sense in this response that I've never had from Steam's customer support.  I'm definitely going to be specifically e-mailing SEGA's own support to give them direct feedback to please dear god never use this shit Steam wannabe exclusively like this ever again.

I’m laughing - but only at the actual ridiculousness of this. 

But hey! At least you have the Ultimate Cosmetic and Music packs to not be able to use right? 

[JezMM]

Credit where it's due, I replied back with how bonkers thier response was and they did take it on board and admit they have no access to any info about when/if it is due to unlock today. I appreciate that sort of transparency so it's worth highlighting too.

[Red Hot Jack]

Congrats Epic Games staff (or someone at the customer service), you've proved incompetent.

In all seriousness, let's wait until 4 more hours when it's supposed to unlock and we will see.

[Jango]

That's so SEGA.

[Tornado]

 

I don't understand Sega is supposed to hire people who talk about how much Sonic games suck to promote their upcoming Sonic games.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

3 hours ago, JezMM said:

Credit where it's due, I replied back with how bonkers thier response was and they did take it on board and admit they have no access to any info about when/if it is due to unlock today. I appreciate that sort of transparency so it's worth highlighting too.

Late response - it unlocks at 2pm BST worldwide, at least on PS5. For some reason, SEGA decided on a worldwide release at the exact same time instead of the usual deal of letting people play at midnight.

Still absolutely ridiculous that Epic’s support couldn’t even say that, but yeah. Try at 2pm BST.

[Kuzu]

25 minutes ago, Tornado said:

 

I don't understand Sega is supposed to hire people who talk about how much Sonic games suck to promote their upcoming Sonic games.

 

That's Sega of America, Sega of Japan actually likes to talk positively about Sonic. 

[Red Hot Jack]

It has globally launched on all platforms, ready to launch... go ROCKET!!

 

So I played a bit of the game, Tropical Resort and a bit of Sweet Mountain (that remix is still meh) including several red star rings, enough to get Metal Sonic (pretty intense race but not too hard). I almost feel guilty in saying this... but I didn't stumble into ANY major glitch that makes the game "unplayable" or anything close to that. It works just fine and fluid on my pc. My nitpicks are: the blur when you boost is too much and I can barely see, the sound of the homing attack is annoying, and the Metal Sonic screen sounds like something an amateur made. That's all I have to say, the game is still lovely as I remember.

So about the new "features" none of them are really satisfying because it's not much.

The Tails save is okay but it's practically a fancy animation for a new life after falling. You can even not get it with a full walkthrough but seeing as there are some cheap bottomless pits, I don't mind it.

Metal Sonic races... as I said they are just fine, I was disappinted you can't hit Metal and he can't hit you, it's again a fancy time trial, I just wish you could have more than 6 races and better rewards for it. Still, a fun addition.

The Jade Ghost controls weird but hey, they actually moved a few red star rings locations that require you to use this very Wisp. Cool!

And the customization + park tokens might be my favorite thing, plus customizable controls of course, they could have gone crazier with custom parts but I like them, nothing mind blowing, also the icons are full of SEGA fanservice, yet they forget Cream, yep SEGA doesn't care about her, also no Rouge or Omega or Zavok, unlike TSR, the rest of the cast from that game has icons.

I was more disappointed by the lack of big new features, like Bowser's Fury to Mario 3D World (for example I wanted an expanded final boss, playable Tails, a proper Rival Rush mode or remade Game Land, something along the lines but not all of these features) but that sounds laughably insane to replicate so... I'm rather content, the game is still functional and awesome looking with the minimum of new additions.

[Graystripe2000]

@Tracker_TD Reported having several issues. @Jack-aldidn’t encounter a whole lot. So what’s going on? Tracker might be playing the Xbox One version on an Xbox Series X. 

Because I’ve heard some Xbox One games have some issues on Xbox Series X. Case in point. 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/20-years-later-conkers-great-mighty-poo-is-causing-havoc-on-xbox-series-x/

[JezMM]

Just finished the game.  Everything works enough but there's a severe lack of polish to this.  I've encountered all the issues in Tracker's tweet above, with audio issues being the most frequent and noticable problem.  Sound effects regularly come out of the left channel regardless of where Sonic is on-screen.  Uncommonly, the victory fanfare will come out the left channel only and/or be followed by no post-victory theme music on the score screen. Very rarely, music will cut out after a Wisp use (whenever this happened I was right near the end of the stage so it didn't affect much).

Beyond that, the perfect homing attack sound effect is horrible, and the audio levels in general are very annoying with sound effects often drowning out the music - I could barely hear whatever they've done with the music on the final boss and Terminal Velocity Act 2 due to the chaos of the sound effects in the foreground.  Just to be extra spiteful, voiceover has a distinct volume setting in the options menu, but music and sfx are tied together.

The choice to have the remixes play before the originals in each zone is awful.  They vary in quality - I really enjoy Planet Wisp's remixes for example, but universally they have less atmosphere than the originals, and your first impression of the stage is botched as a result.  Secondly, almost every zone has a gimmicky Act 2 that's heavy in Wisp usage, so you barely even get to hear the remix in that case.  The original versions of the vocal themes, Terminal Velocity, and boss themes are completely absent (all bosses use remixed music, the second half of the game doesn't use the originals as you might expect).  I'm really not a fan of the remake of Speak With Your Heart - it was really cool as a surprise ending to the live version during the Symphony, but the whole song being that way is a little repetitive and loses a lot of the oomph of the original.  The Reach for the Stars remix is great but doesn't quite suit the opening movie - the opening and ending are a bit TOO soft compared to the action on screen.

This one is entirely subjective but the Metal Sonic race music was a little disappointing.  It's a good, fun song, but quite wacky and not very Metal Sonic-y at all.  I don't know what I was expecting, we certainly didn't need another Stardust Speedway remix or anything so I was hoping for an original song, but yeah... wasn't quite what I imagined, I dunno.  Fits into the existing soundtrack well enough though.

As a final encore for all these audio woes, the credits sequence is now about 25-30 minutes long, and after the original 15 minute threesome of songs plays, the remainder of the credits have no music at all.  They couldn't even muster the imagination to just stick on Tropical Resort Act 1 or something.

Oh, on that note, unless you want the achievement for doing so, please dear god do not subject yourself to the full slog of that credits sequence - unlike the original, you get no reward whatsoever for collecting as many rings as you can.  I was expecting to be slathered in park tokens for my efforts since the original gave you a bunch of lives, but you get literally nothing now.  The credits minigame was bad to begin with but to let someone play it for 25 minutes and then practically mock them with a meaningless achievement and nothing more for that loss of time... Utter rubbish.  They should've put the new credits as a quick, traditional scrolling credits after the original mini-game.

 

Anyway, other than that, it's pretty much the same game.  As said, Metal Sonic is just a glorified time trial so he doesn't really add anything.  Jade Wisp is fine.  The cosmetics are all pointless padding.  If this is someone's first experience with Colours, the game is intact enough that they should have a good time just as people did back in the day... but I would still recommend the original over this remake.

[Cube]

Enjoying it so far. You can change the buttons in the options, the default of X to slide and B to boost (Xbox) just felt odd, so had to change them.

One thing I've noticed is that the pre rendered cutscenes (except for the intro with Reach for the Stars remix) seem quite low quality.

 

[Soniman]

Very disappointed to hear just how many technical issues still exist and how this is AFTER it being delayed a year (allegedly), game deserves better but this is what we get.

I have to ask is the day 1 patch given out to those playing on early access because I desperately want to hope it will clear some of this stuff up 

[castell-neath]

Three issues for me so far:

1. Cut scenes not remastered and look very dated.

2. No way to toggle Navigator off after starting a game. Glad i realised in Act 2 if TR, otherwise I would have had to start a new game from scratch to deactivate it. Why the heck was the simple option to toggle not made available in the options menu!!???

3. No way to use d-pad in 2d sections and thumb stick control is a bit off when trying to jump etc

The rest, after 2 hrs play seems great. No sound issues yet but i agree with sluggish menu speed.

 

[Jango]

2 hours ago, JezMM said:

but music and sfx are tied together.

No fucking way. What year is this, 1999? When (if) I get this game, I was planning on putting the SFX on mute because of that awful perfect homing attack noise, you're seriously telling me that this isn't an option? Holy crap balls.