Sonic Colo(u)rs Impressions, Help, and Discussion Topic

[Carbo]

Well in his defense; Sonic Unleashed DOES have RPG elements. But it isnt an RPG game.

Ratchet & Clank from game 2 and onward are closer to Action games than Platformers. Although Platformers is easily attributed to it due to being a subgenre, those games favor guns and tools above actual platforming, unlike the original game and arguably the Future titles.

It actually provides a pretty fun and similar contrast with Sonic, since both series eventually evolved from their roots and instead started relying on their main gimmicks as the main reason they're popular, but not necessarily the ones that are typically their strength, even though one can easily see the appeal in it.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Carbo

[SuperStingray]

Speaking of;

Although, The Escapist review things for their Review Supplement, and usually these are incorporated to MC aggregates.

Yeah, but Yahtzee's reviews are completely separate from The Escapist's. He often disagrees with them in ZP.

Still, though, if that's the worst he can say about Colors, I guess it won't be TOO bad...

[Snatcher2047]

The worst lines in the game come from the cutscenes surrounding around the bosses. Sonic's insult lines before and after the battles are just lame.

[JezMM]

I kinda liked the sushi resturant one in Aquatic Park. The worst was the "No copyright law in the universe is gonna stop me!" though. That was total "darkside cookies humour" - which is the name I give to forced humour, the most sterling example of which being the t-shirt phrase "come to the dark side... we have cookies". Dunno why it annoys me but if anyone agrees, know here and now I totally coined that name for it.

[Carbo]

I never really thought at any point in Colors that there was a line or scene that was necessarily cringe-worthy, it was just really stuff that didn't appeal to my tastes. The only thing that does come to mind though is a few of Tails' mistranslations.

Also Jez, there's already a name for that loltvtropes

[speedfreak]

I kinda liked the sushi resturant one in Aquatic Park. The worst was the "No copyright law in the universe is gonna stop me!" though. That was total "darkside cookies humour" - which is the name I give to forced humour, the most sterling example of which being the t-shirt phrase "come to the dark side... we have cookies". Dunno why it annoys me but if anyone agrees, know here and now I totally coined that name for it.

You may have coined it but no copyright law in the universe is going to stop me from using it.

[JezMM]

You may have coined it but no copyright law in the universe is going to stop me from using it.

Edited November 20, 2010 by JezMM

[SuperStingray]

The worst lines in the game come from the cutscenes surrounding around the bosses. Sonic's insult lines before and after the battles are just lame.

The only ones of those I thought were particularly drawn out or lame were the "did someone order a clobbering?", "he was calling Sonic 'nothing' and "yeah, I'm stretching." scenes. Oh, and "BBBE." That one was short but it was just terrible. When I first saw the copyright line, I thought that there was no way that joke wouldn't come off forced, but it wasn't half bad in that context. Also liked the bucket o' sushi scene, and the "we didn't bet" scenes, but my favorite by far was "are you talking to the broken robot who can't hear you?" I just missed that kind of brotherly relationship between Sonic and Tails.

Edited November 20, 2010 by SuperStingray

[Kuzu]

People have problems with the writing when you forget, it was meant for 10 year olds.

[Aquaslash]

Am I the only one here who had no problem with the writing whatsoever?

And I'm usually the FIRST one to find faults with the game writing :|

[jeremycarrier]

What, just becuase Ratchet doesn't spend 50% of the game jumping between little squares it's not a platform game? By the definition of 'platform game' you guys in here seem to have Mega Man and Sonic Colours are the only platform games in existence.

The series focus has moved away from platforming to the action/adventure genre(especially with Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked), but it still gets slapped the moniker "3d platformer", because appearently that's the only genre cute animal video game stars can get.

When it comes to recent 3d platformers, there's Super Mario Galaxy, and...uh...

Well then.

[SykoTech]

The series focus has moved away from platforming to the action/adventure genre(especially with Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked), but it still gets slapped the moniker "3d platformer", because appearently that's the only genre cute animal video game stars can get.

When it comes to recent 3d platformers, there's Super Mario Galaxy, and...uh...

Well then.

Have you caught up with the PS3 entries? A Crack in Time was very platform heay, especially on the space exploration side of things.

Not that I'd agree with DistantJ, though. If anything, I think Sonic should strive to be a more well rounded experience like the latest R&C. Not just be about "thrills".

Game's great, BTW. Kinda hard to say it's the best 3D game given the higher ratio of 2D gameplay, but it's definitely the best console Sonic title since the Genesis days.

[NiGHTS]

Am I the only one here who had no problem with the writing whatsoever?

And I'm usually the FIRST one to find faults with the game writing :|

I am actually with you on the storyline. I don't mind smaller storylines, cause normally Sega's big clunky storyline just gets confusing at times. Like 06, and the storybook games. Unleashed was alright, not I actually liked Colors storyline more then Unleashed. I think sometimes games don't need a complex story to be good, just like Mario games.

[SuperStingray]

Gotta say, I love Orbot and Cubot. They're like Scratcher and Grounder, except not yelling at each other half the time.

And it's funny- I thought I found two plotholes- Why did they play ominous music when they zoomed in on the giant robot arm that got stuck and what caused Eggman's laser to malfunction? Guess it wasn't an issue after all when I realized they were connected.

Also, I finished the DS version. After playing the demo, it seemed terrible; just Rush all over again- running without any real gameplay. But I was pleasantly surprised that it actually improved pretty quickly. The levels were pretty well set up, a decent blend of platforming with speed and it's a good companion to the Wii version. It was a bit too dependent on the wisps for gameplay sometimes, but the missions actually seemed to add something to the game rather than just padding it out like in Unleashed. But considering the amount of hidden levels and missions in Rush Adventure, it kind of leaves this one feeling a bit lacking.

I am actually with you on the storyline. I don't mind smaller storylines, cause normally Sega's big clunky storyline just gets confusing at times. Like 06, and the storybook games. Unleashed was alright, not I actually liked Colors storyline more then Unleashed. I think sometimes games don't need a complex story to be good, just like Mario games.

Mario's stories are a bit too simplistic for me, at least outside the RPGs. I really think, whether or not there's a focus on the plot itself, story has always been an important part of Sonic. Mario games just throw something out there to give you a reason to go from point A to point B, but with Sonic, the flow in the levels is all the better when its complimented by a well flowing story or a well flowing world. Think about S3&K- Sky Sanctuary just feels all the more epic when you know your approaching the final destination.

Edited November 20, 2010 by SuperStingray

[Blue Wisp]

Gotta say, I love Orbot and Cubot. They're like Scratcher and Grounder, except not yelling at each other half the time.

And it's funny- I thought I found two plotholes- Why did they play ominous music when they zoomed in on the giant robot arm that got stuck and what caused Eggman's laser to malfunction? Guess it wasn't an issue after all when I realized they were connected.

Also, I finished the DS version. After playing the demo, it seemed terrible; just Rush all over again- running without any real gameplay. But I was pleasantly surprised that it actually improved pretty quickly. The levels were pretty well set up, a decent blend of platforming with speed and it's a good companion to the Wii version. It was a bit too dependent on the wisps for gameplay sometimes, but the missions actually seemed to add something to the game rather than just padding it out like in Unleashed.

Oh wait, THAT's the arm? Holy shit, I thought it was just a piece of the blaster!

[SuperStingray]

Oh wait, THAT's the arm? Holy shit, I thought it was just a piece of the blaster!

Well, it came up right after they mentioned the arm, so it seemed like it would BE the arm.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Speaking of;

Ken Pontac, fool?

Eh. Even if it was 20 lines short, I bet my left nut that he would still hold the same opinion. Oh well...

Am I the only one here who had no problem with the writing whatsoever?

And I'm usually the FIRST one to find faults with the game writing :|

I had no problem with it either, but there were definitely some faults in it. You could argue that that was the freaking point, but the delivery was very on and off. Although to be fair, that's only talking about Sonic and he's still able to . Every other character is pretty a-ok.

And on top of that, it's not anywhere near as cheesy and horrid as Heroes. So that's an even bigger bonus.

[Speederino]

WOOT, just got the #5 spot for Game Land 2-1 on da leaderboards! And you know what, I was liking the game fine at first, but it's grown on me even more. I was willing to call it one of the better 3D Sonic's, but now I'm thinking it's even better than Sonic Adventure. I'm still torn as to whether I prefer this style of gameplay over Unleashed's day stages, but since there's no werehog in Colors I know which game I prefer as a whole.

Also, I love the writing. Yeah, not every joke works, but this is still the best writing of any Sonic game. Period.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Speederino

[-Mark-]

Well, it came up right after they mentioned the arm, so it seemed like it would BE the arm.

[Core]

DS version? Er, less so. It's hard to say whether I'd have picked up on it had I played the DS version first.

[Doctor MK]

Because I'm lazy and have a lot of other things to do, can someone tell me what exactly you have to do to get the seventh Chaos Emerald in the DS version?

I've got the other 6 but the final zone doesn't have a special stage... looks like I have to do something in Game Land instead? Confuzzled MK is confuzzled.

It's probably painfully obvious but as I say, I haven't had much time to work it out yet.

[-Mark-]

Because I'm lazy and have a lot of other things to do, can someone tell me what exactly you have to do to get the seventh Chaos Emerald in the DS version?

I've got the other 6 but the final zone doesn't have a special stage... looks like I have to do something in Game Land instead? Confuzzled MK is confuzzled.

It's probably painfully obvious but as I say, I haven't had much time to work it out yet.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Mahzes

[Doctor MK]

Go to the Sonic Simulator, play a versus race against the computer and win with fifty or more rings to get into a special stage as normal.

I know, it's annoyingly vague. I had to experiment for a bit before I figured it out. I figured the emerald was somewhere in the simulator due to there being an empty grey space for one on the menu screen.

[DistantJ]

The series focus has moved away from platforming to the action/adventure genre(especially with Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked), but it still gets slapped the moniker "3d platformer", because appearently that's the only genre cute animal video game stars can get.

I'm actually referring to Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time. I never played the PS2 ones.

When it comes to recent 3d platformers, there's Super Mario Galaxy, and...uh...

3D platform games:

Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

Crash of the Titans (Play it before you knock it)

Crash: Mind Over Mutant

Then come the Prince of Persia-esque platform games (They're about getting from point A to point B navigating obstacle courses and traps, avoiding pitfalls and jumping between structure; they're platformers):

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Mirror's Edge

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Amazing game)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2D platform games better than Sonic Colours' 2D platform sections:

LittleBigPlanet (About as much of a 3D platformer as Sonic Colours - it's all sidescrolling except you can move between 3 'planes' in 3D... Think about it...)

Rocket Knight (Some really good, challenging platforming later on in this one)

New Super Mario Bros.

Super Paper Mario

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension

Klonoa

Mega Man 9

Mega Man 10

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Donkey Kong Country Returns

A whole tonne on DS...

Not that I'd agree with DistantJ, though. If anything, I think Sonic should strive to be a more well rounded experience like the latest R&C. Not just be about "thrills".

I actually agree though, but what I mean is the thing that Sonic offers over Mario, Ratchet and other platformers are the thrills and in Colours the thrills are kinda gone. Ratchet offers crazy weapons and combat, that gives you good reason to want to play it over other platform games (even without those the platforming is better than that in Colours but that's not the point) and Sonic offers speed. Without them it has nothing over the other platformers and therefore no good reason to stick with the series through the 'difficult' times if you didn't like speed, and Sonic Colours' 'tiny rectangles dotted around the place' platform sections seem pretty poor in comparison to other straight-up platformers, the only reason I could see myself playing Sonic Colours over these games is because I am attached to the character, and that's silly... I just think they should keep the focus on what makes Sonic special, and in this game it's really toned down and automated. The exciting/thrilling sections all play themselves, so all that you're in full control over is a basic platformer, and there are way, WAY better designed, more fun and varied platformers out there. This is why I don't understand the people who say all the best parts from Unleashed are here - they appear to be if you're watching the game, but when playing it they're all either automated, on rails with forced quickstep or very straightforward.

Edited November 20, 2010 by DistantJ

[DaBatGuy]

3D platform games:

...

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Donkey Kong Country Returns

How are Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D platformers? Both are played only in a 2D perspective and KEY doesn't even have 3D graphics.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Da Goddamn BatGuy