Sonic Colors Review

[Zera]

Greetings, folks. Today I'm here to review Sonic Colors, a Wii game I very much enjoyed before encountering this ridiculous review by Jim Sterling on Destructoid. His review is so bad... that I decided to alter it to reflect my own experience with the game. Enjoy.

Sonic Colors, despite its status as a "3D" Sonic, complete with a focus on narrative, gimmicks and brand new colorful friends, has somehow convinced everybody that this is the legendary "return to form" that Sonic fans have been waiting for.

All I have to ask is ... how has Sonic Team managed to pull this off?

From the start, Sonic Colors appears to have finally done everything right. By taking the fun and speedy levels from Sonic Unleashed and leaving behind the dreary "Werehog" nonsense, Colors breezes through its first few stages with an empowering, thrilling charm. It truly does manage to convince one that Sonic has finally nailed it.

Then come the responsive controls ... and accurate homing attacks ... and genuine challenge ... and 2D platforming sections so well presented, you'd think they were patched together by artists. Then you realize that Sonic Colors is a case of the same old greatness, in a brand new package.

The simple fact of the matter is this -- Sonic Colors is terrifically designed. The level layout is amazing, putting the focus on real challenge instead of cheap pitfall deaths, and various platforming sections that were built for the game's very physics. There are blessings in Sonic Colors that have graced the series since Sonic Adventure first arrived on the Dreamcast, confirming once and for all that whoever works at Sonic Team, they just really know what they're doing.

This is complimented by the fact that Colors tries to be two games at once, and the fact that Colors is versatile enough for that. The engine is equipped for both 3D racing and 2D platforming, and the fluid way in which Sonic controls during these latter sections demonstrates this fact over and over again. Sonic floats in the air with every jump, making precision landing a matter of skill. The jumps possess an inertia that one gets used to over time, making these segments feel challenging and fun.

And this is all before we get to the controls.

First of all, the game allows for a wide variety of controllers to be used. Secondly, whatever controller you use, the layout is intuitive. For instance, you'll need to make liberal use of the double jump to correct your mistakes, but If you double jump when there is a homing attack target nearby, you'll whizz over to the target instead. Sometimes this can land you in trouble, especially during the sections where the camera zooms out to such a degree that you need to look closely to know where Sonic is. Sometimes, the game seems to require sheer attention in order to progress.

There are also sections where Sonic must quickly zip from left to right while running along a path. These were among my favorite parts of Sonic Unleashed, mostly because Sonic's movements used the left and right triggers, which felt rather satisfying. In Colors, you have to push the movement stick left and right, while still pushing forward to keep Sonic running. It takes some getting used to, but works surprisingly well.

Fortunately, the game gets some enjoyable moments thanks to the Wisp gimmickry. Usually, Sonic's gimmicks are the worst part of his games, but at least the Wisps of Sonic Colors have some merit to them. These little aliens are being used by Dr. Eggman to power his intergalactic theme park, and once freed, they bestow upon Sonic a multitude of special abilities. White Wisps allow him to dash, Orange Wisps turn him into a rocket, and Purple Wisps change Sonic into a giant maw of chomping death. These alien abilities are legitimately fun to use, helped by the fact that Sonic's various transformations are quite unique and even adorable at times.

The Wisps aren't always mandatory to the completion of a level, but they can open up new paths in order to collect more rings, find shortcuts, or collect red tokens for unlockable stages. Of course, sometimes the speed at which the game moves makes missing Wisp opportunities far too easy, and it seems Sonic Team expects you to replay levels over and over again to learn where everything is. Fortunately, the fun levels are so many that you'll be happy you played most of the stages once, let alone multiple times.

The best part is that, at times, Sonic Colors truly does show flashes of brilliance. Several of the levels are fantastic, finding as they do a perfect mix between speed and challenge. When a level works, it really works, and some of the boss fights are more unique and clever than your usual Sonic fare. The game's story is also fairly tolerable, and Sonic seems to have had a personality makeover, now becoming an affable idiot with a terrible sense of humor. His new voice actor, and this amusing personality shift, make for a much more enjoyable hedgehog than the "cool dude" we've seen in the past. The jokes don't always work, but the writing is vastly improved over previous games.

It seems, however, that the further the game goes, the more the developers cared, and every level soon gives way to the same meticulous, thought out construction we've witnessed a dozen times before. Even when a stage starts brilliantly, the game invariably finds a way to make it better with some sort of new environmental trap, or a slice of reflex-based gameplay that has been designed purely to keep you on your toes. To its credit, Colors manages to curb the frustration of pitfalls and platforming by flashing a warning sign before a jumping section, but if your reflexes aren't fast enough you'll die anyway.

The Wisp idea is pretty cute and remains fun throughout and there are a truckload of well crafted stages, and the rest of the game provides everything you liked in any other 3D Sonic game released in the past ten years. The strengths are exactly the same, and well designed levels are just as good as always, and platforming challenge is in as much abundance as ever.

Sonic Colors feels like a step in the right direction. If I had to pick a color for this game, it would be silver, for very obvious reasons.

8.5 out of 10 (Super Great!) *Not to be confused with 8 out of 10, which is merely great.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Zera