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Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors Extra Round - Final Thoughts


Soniman

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When I found out that "WHOOOA! CHECK OUT THE CONSOLES!" guy was gonna be Sonic's new voice I almost had a seizure. Thankfully, he turned out a lot better that I would have thought. Smith definitely had a better first performance as Sonic than both Griffith and Drmmond, that's for sure, but Unleashed (or rather Secret Rings) was the point that Griffith significantly improved after 06. I think I'll give this point to Unleashed just barely because I don't think Griffith deserves all the shit the fandumb gives him. Unleashed.

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The only thing I can really say about Sonic Unleashed's voice acting is that it's significantly better than Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06, which isn't really saying much.  I find it hard to call good because damn near everyone who isn't Eggman sounds kind of bored most of the time, and Sonic Unleashed is even more underwhelming being sandwiched by the likes of SatSR and SatBK.

 

I find Sonic Colors better overall for a few reasons.  The first is because I think Smith is a better fit for Sonic, can't exactly pinpoint why, but I think he comes off as more natural than Griffith.  The second is because I love what they did with Orbot's voice, giving him that snide talking butler kind of voice that fits his position as a servant to Eggman and his personal views of Eggman; Orbot was funny in Unleashed, but now his voice carries its own personality to go along with the clever writing.  The third is because Tails doesn't floss his teeth with my eardrums in Colors.  Admittedly, Tails doesn't have that much screentime in Unleashed, but I'm really not a big fan of Palant's Tails, so I was kind of excited when we got a new actor for him.  And I fucking love Higgins', she does a spectacular job with him.

 

The legendary Mike Pollock is absolutely spectacular in both of them, and he has proven time and time again that he can do no wrong as Eggman.

 

So yeah, Colors.

Edited by Nix
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Easy win for Colors, Griffith and Palant should never have been allowed to voice Sonic and Tails, and dear lord if Chip doesn't have the most grating voice since Pete Capella as Silver.

 

On the other hand, Roger Craig Smith didn't take any getting used to for me. He just was Sonic. Not to mention that Tails and Cubot's voice actors were literally perfect for their characters, to me.

 

So much Colors. So much.

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Probably have to say unleashed, all of the characters really feel fleshed out on here and jason just does sonic so well to the point where my ears are singing and all the other characters were really good too for their respective roles which overall made the 4kids VA's probably my favorite in the series which is surprising since 4kids always have sucky VA'd shows. Now while colors is good, it felt a little bit stuffy in some areas and honestly the lines weren't really delivered in the greatest way possible but once again as its been stated before, it was rogers first game so I can't really blame him too much. 

 

Unleashed wins this round for me.

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Roger has the better overall acting ability in terms of being able to emote a range of tones. Jason has a penchant for tapping into what makes Sonic....Sonic and bringing it out very well. I think Roger didn't have the best direction in Colours and made Sonic sound far too sarcastic. That aside, he makes for a really interesting and vibrant Sonic and I positively LOL'd at the following :lol:;

 

 

"Well when I feel the ground shaking under my feet and see plumes of dust rising and rubble tumbling and aliens running for their lives, yeah, I get a bad feeling. So how about you and me make like Eggman's hairline and recede?"

 

The combination of the motor-mouth and the way the words just roll of his tongue is just great and strikes me as being very funny. The brevity is fantastically pulled-off.

 

In Unleashed, Jason had a real way of convincingly putting across the sincerity of Sonic's words and his more contemplative demeanor. I think his rendition of the Werehog is great and made impressive by the simple fact that he was suffering strep throat at the time of recording. Unleashed's tone and story aspects gave Sonic far more range for emotional output and Jason met this very well. To me, Sonic as a character is at his best when he has a sense of sincerity and resoluteness that is such a vital part of his character. That strikes more of a chord with me overall, so I'll have to say that I prefer Jason's Sonic in Unleashed to Roger's Sonic in Colours.

 

Kate makes for a far more convincing and considerably better-acted Tails than Amy. Not only is her portrayal more convincing in that Tails actually sounds like a boy for the first time in a while, it gets across Tails' maturity and young age i.e Conversing with Sonic in equal terms, genuinely upset at Yacker's disappearance and the possibility that he may have been turned into a Nega Wisp. Amy's Tails voice always drove me to distraction concerning the overly girlish tone to it. Kate's Tails in Colours it is!

 

Mike Pollock is glorious as Eggman no matter what game he's featured in. But Colours' script including it's PA announcements ultimately gets to the essence of Eggman's most appealing characteristics of bombastic whimsy, temper and apathy and that's why the voice acting has more impact. Unleashed Eggman's VA'ing is still mighty fine though as well, it just doesn't have the distilled awesome of Colours' Eggman.

 

Chip's english voice was unexpected but suits him and was great. His Japanese voice is very....intriguing. It sounds surprisingly gender-neutral which I think is in-line with the fact that Chip has no gender despite Sonic referring to him as a male. It's also pretty cute.

 

Orbot's much less machine-monotone voice in Colours compared to his Unleashed incarnation is more befitting of the robot's servile snarker mannerisms. Unleashed Orbot's voice was more to-the-point regarding his criticism and the monotone played a part in that but then I like Orbot as a machine with expression, so Colours' voice wins out for me.

 

Cubot's a weird character yet his constant voice acting changes are an aspect of the writing and they mark him as being pretty unique as his character is never really 'set'. When he does get his real voice back, it's exactly what I expected given his overall ditzy, attention-deficit personality.

 

Colours overall wins in the VA'ing department for me.

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Colours wins for me. Jason Griffith was getting better in Unleashed, but Roger is still better. His tone takes getting used too after Ryan and Jason, but I think he's the best actor of the 3, and he really brings out the cocky side in Sonic well. He just needs a good script to really show his potential and how good he is. I also love Kate Higgins as Tails, and I like Orbot's voice in Colours better then in Unleashed. Cubot is hard to judge because his voice keeps changing. Mike Pollock is awesome in both games so that's a point in both game's facor. 

 

So yeah, Colours wins. 

Edited by Generations (Chaos Warp)
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I think Griffith's performance in Unleashed was great; much better than his previous performances (though I think that Secret Rings marked the point where he started to improve).I also liked how he was able to give the Werehog a different voice (if it means anything, the Werehog was played by a different VA in the Japanese version). I liked Smith in Colors too. Though his voice was a little deep for my liking, his acting was top-notch; not only does he manage to convey Sonic's sarcasm well, but he does a good job with his anger at Eggman for zapping Tails with the mind-control ray, but his concern for Tails after it wears off is also well done.

 

While Amy Palant did a good job making Tails sound like a boy in Unleashed, I feel her actual acting was not all that great. Kate Higgins, however, managed to give Tails an even better boyish voice while also sounding much more natural.

 

SU Eggman = SC Eggman. Next.

 

Honestly, I don't know how to compare SU Orbot and SC Orbot. SU Orb is a lot more sarcastic, but his voice is a robotic monotone. SC Orb has an actual human-like voice, but is a lot less sarcastic.

 

Now I have to give Dan Green props for his performance with Professor Pickle. As in, he uses a voice other than what is apparently Yami Yugi (I haven't really watched any Yu-Gi-Oh and I never will so I wouldn't know).

 

I also have to give Wally Wingert props for coming up with four different voices for Cubot. That's great acting right there.

 

 

Uh... overall... I guess I'd call it a

 

Harry-Potter-Corbata.jpg

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Everything that Carbo said is exactly what I think of the voice acting in Sonic Unleashed. Whilst Griffith improved a lot in Unleashed after the abysmal acting in Sonic 06 (ELIIIIIISE!), I didn't like his Werehog voice because it was so forced. Why didn't they use voice manipulation or something a la Beast in Beauty and the Beast? I never liked Amy Palant's Tails, sounds too girly. And I can't stand Chip because his voice just sounds weird. It's too low for such a little guy. Orbot just sounds monotone and Mike Pollock is amazing, so let's move on! XP

 

The great thing about Colours is that Roger and Kate are professional voice actors with a lot of talent to boot. Sonic's voice may sound low, but it reeks with charisma and brilliant sarcasm. Tails finally sounds like a boy, hallelujah! And Cubot and Orbot also have so much more personality. Plus I'm actually impressed to find out that Cubot's voice actor did all the different voices.

 

So yeah, Sonic Colours it is!

Edited by Gabz Girl
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Colours wins for one reason. Cubot.

All the voices Cubot puts on are done by one guy. That takes some serious talent and not many people are able to pull it off. There certainly weren't any vocal performances in Unleashed that quite stood out for me like that (mind you though Unleashed for the most part is decently VAed).

Edited by SiLeNtDo0m
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Griffith doesn't sound like a teenager to me when he voices Sonic. He wasn't a BAD voice actor, but his take on the character always sounded way too old in my opinion. Roger's voice may be more "generic," but it sounds like it could come out of a fifteen or sixteen year old. Griffith's Sonic voice always sounded more like your generic cartoon voice. And yes, Sonic is a cartoon, but I like how RCS' voice comes off as more natural?

Unleashed had all right VA all around, but I'm going to go with Colors because the voices as a whole sounded better in my eyes. Orbot didn't have an emotionless robot voice, Tails actually sounded like a boy, and Mike Pollock was as fabulous as ever.

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Round 11: Voice Acting:

 

I had a feeling that "Voice Acting" was going to be the next round...Anyway, here's my take now that I'm back from being out of town. So let's do this...

 

Tails: Amy Palant's Tails was okay in Sonic Unleashed, nothing spectatcular but was good especially displaying the emotion of fear when confronted with the Nightmarens. Kate Higgins on the other hand, wow! When I heard her Tails for the first time, I was immediately impressed. I believe Kate gets Tails' tone of a boy and young age spot on. Kate is great having Tails display various emotions and even has him being sarcastic at times. Sonic Colors' Tails wins without a doubt.

 

SA-55/Orbot: Sonic Unleashed's Orbot is voiced by Chris Collet and he sounds like a robot, especially with his mechanical voice. I love how he is hillariously sarcastic as well. Sonic Colors' Orbot is voiced by Kirk Thorton, and he sounds like a loyal butler. I may like Sonic Colors' Orbot voice better, but I find his Sonic Unleashed voice more fitting, as he is a robot and all. Sonic Unleashed it is then for Orbot.

 

Amy Rose: I liked Lisa Ortiz's rendition of Amy, especially since she wasn't annoying in Sonic Unleashed. Her warm, friendly, positive, non-"stalker of Sonic" demeanor just made her voice that more pleasant in Sonic Unleashed.

 

Chip: Tony Salerno gives Chip a goofy, yet friendly voice, which is fitting of Chip's friendly demeanor with him offering chocolate when he meets someone. I like it, as it fits.

 

Professor Pickle: I thought Dan Green was spot on portraying the professor as warm, polite, insightful and mature.

 

Cubot: Very impressive that Wally Wingert did all 4 of Cubot's voices with a Cowboy, Pirate, Mobster and original accent. That's fine range of voice acting right there.

 

Dr. Eggman: Here's an equation for you to sum up his voice acting in both games:

 

Sonic Unleashed's Dr. Eggman=Sonic Color's Dr. Eggman=Mike Pollock=Awesome

 

There really isn't anything else to say as you really can't compare awesome voice acting with awesome voice acting, especially when it's the same awesome voice actor voicing Dr. Eggman. Trying to make such a comparision seems pointless to me. wink.png

 

Sonic: This is where things get interesting...

 

After being out of Sonic for http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/9858-did-you-ever-get-out-of-sonic/page-5#entry621231<br />'>15 years, Jason Griffith's Sonic was the FIRST Sonic voice that I heard, and I was immediately drawn to it, as Jason's Sonic sounds like Sonic to me as he sounded older and actually sounded calm, which was something I really wasn't used to Sonic sounding like. I really liked the voice and can say he is my favorite Sonic voice actor. I thought that Jason's portrayal of the Werehog was excellent as I didn't find it too harsh. And from what I heard, Jason had strep throat at the time that he did the voice acting for Sonic Unleashed. So the fact that he voiced Sonic as well as the Werehog under that condition was deeply impressive. Overall I found Jason's voice acting of both Sonic and the Werehog to be superb.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reL293uPEYc

Here we have Sonic and the Werehog, along with Chip and some Dan Green as the Ice Cream Vendor!

 

I remember when I heard Roger Craig Smith's Sonic voice for the first time with the infamous 4th cutscene of Sonic Colors, I was honestly shocked to hear Sonic with a deeper voice, and at first it did bother me. I watched that cutscene repeatedly, and each time I watched it, Sonic's voice still bothered me, as I found it grating at first. It probably wasn't until I got halfway through a playthrough of Sonic Colors that I got used to Sonic's new voice. Roger is an excellent voice actor, as I'm not disputing that at all as he portrays Sonic being animated and energetic excellently; it was just that his Sonic voice took a while to settle with me (especially with Sonic sounding too deep as well as being too snarky and sarcastic) as it didn't click right away like it did with Kate Higgins' Tails.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsRFzY-Rte4

It took me a while to get used to Sonic's voice in Sonic Colors. Tails on the other hand, sounded great from the start. Dr. Eggman sounds great as always. smile.png

 

So in the end I have to give the victory this round to Sonic Unleashed, along with in my opinion Jason Griffth's excellent voice acting in the game, it basically boils down to the fact that I didn't find any of the voices jarring or unfitting in Sonic Unleashed like I did in Sonic Colors. As few as I found the voices to be jarring and unfitting, it's a few too many.

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I liked the voice acting in both of the games. In Unleashed, I felt Jason did a fantastic job with Sonic, putting a decent range of emotion into his voice. While not great, I did feel this was Amy's best portrayal of Tails and the voice of the character never really bothered me. Lisa made for a pretty decent Amy and I actually really liked Tony as Chip. Chris did a nice job making Orbot sound like all sarcastic, even with a monotone voice. And of course, Mike and Dan are absolutely fantastic as Eggman and Professor Pickle respectively. biggrin.png

 

As for Colors, Roger clicked with Sonic much easier and quicker than Jason did. Where it took Jason a few years to get good at voicing Sonic, Roger I felt got him right from the beginning. Same with Kate as Tails, who does a fantastic job. Kirk Thorton as Orbot was pretty good and Wally did a wonderful job as Cubot. And Mike was as great an Eggman as ever.

 

I'd have to go with Colors over Unleashed, but not by a whole lot.

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Sonic: I've gotta hand it to Griffith. I absolutely couldn't stand to hear him in Shadow or 06. Yes, he was the voice I grew up with, but it didn't age well with me at all. However, to my major shock, I actually enjoyed hearing him in Unleashed! He made Sonic sound like a 15 year old, had a lot of energy, and the right amount of humor. Griffith was arguably the most serious Sonic voice, but he really does taunt Eggman quite a bit in Unleashed. In fact, Griffith is officially my favorite Sonic after hearing his performances in Secret Rings, Unleashed, and Black Knight. Roger Craig Smith? Eh, he isn't half bad. I remember absolutely hating his take on Sonic when first viewing some of the cutscenes in Colors, but it's grown on me. He certainly has better voice direction than Griffith ever did, even though Griffith's acting began to improve tremendously around the time Secret Rings came out. My main problem with Roger's voice is that he sounded too deep, even more than Drummond ever did.

 

Tails: Kate Higgins, without question. Amy Palant did a much better job than William Corkery, but that's not saying much. Her take on Tails is just too girly for me to take seriously. Look, I know he is an eight year old, but she could have lowered her pitch a bit. Granted, Tails does sound a little deeper in Unleashed, but Palant still never did it for me. Acting is fine, but her voice... not much. Kate Higgins makes Tails sound like a boy! Not only that, he sounds sarcastic, intelligent, and actually his age! Hearing her was a breath of fresh air.

 

Orbot: Kirk Thorton, I guess. Chris' take is fine, but I find thorton's butler voice highly entertaining. They're two different takes: Chris is sarcastic emotionles, which fits as he is playing a robot, and Kirk is a reassuring British Butler. It's hard to compare them, but i get a real kick out of Thorton.

 

Eggman: Like everyone else has said, Unleashed Eggman= Colors Eggman. If I had to choose, I'd go with Unleashed Eggman. Colors Eggman was a bit too comical and over the top at times.

 

Overall, I prefer the voice acting in Unleashed slightly more. Colors was well acted, but Roger's voice hasn't qrown on me enough yet. Oh, and we also got to hear Dan Green as professor Pickle, and Lisa Ortiz as Amy, who does a fuckton better than Cindy Robinson. I'm sorry, but I can't hearing Minnie Mouse stuck in Amy's body. Unleashed had more characters to work with, and I prefer Jason as Sonic.

Edited by Knightofthewind417
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By sheer quanitity, I'd have to wager a guess for Unleashed. By quality...I dunno, I didn't play Colors.

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I actually downloaded a fair few of the Unleashed DLC and found them to be pretty fun in their own right, as well as some of the NPC town missions. Judging from that, I'd probably go with Unleashed with this, although Unleashed has the novelty of having far more extra content than Colors does.

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All Colors really had that every interested me at all was Super Sonic, and that got boring pretty damn fast surprisingly. Gonna have to hand this to Unleashed by sheer quantity.

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Unleashed wins in the extras department. While Colours may have had Super Sonic, Red Rings and those Sonic Simulator Stages, Unleashed had Bonus Acts, concept art, unlockable music, and a bunch of DLC acts. Unleashed wins on the virtue of having quite a bit more content, even if some of it wasn't fun/sucked. 

Also, slightly off topic but I love Red Rings and hope they become a series staple. 

 

EDIT:


 

 

 

See, I think that next time, instead of prioritizing details of the world over the design and polish of the actual side stuff you have to do, Sonic Team should focus on building side content that's fun and interesting and then work on building the game world around it.

I'd like to point out I really agree with this. 

Edited by Generations (Chaos Warp)
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Yeah, I'm going to go with Sonic Unleashed, too.

 

Certain individuals here will certainly explain why Unleashed is superior in this aspect far better than I ever could, but really, the only major extras Sonic Colors has going for it are the Sonic Simulator stages (which got old really fast) and Super Sonic (whose Wispless runs kinda kill half the fun of going through the levels).

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I'll have to say Unleashed. There's just so much to find, and a lot of it is pretty cool I suppose. Although I haven't played through the game much, the DLC acts look really awesome, too.

 

Granted I LOVE the Simulator (especially the dang ass music), and SUPER SONIC! was pretty cool, but (as Komodin noted) you couldn't use the Wisps and that was a real shame. Still, it wasn't all bad. At the very least, it actually helped me S-rank one or two Acts that I was having trouble with. (IIRC, one of them was Asteroid Coaster Act 6!)

 

Unleashed wins this one, I think.

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Finding Red Rings was fun, they were hidden well for the most part and I had a blast collecting them.  The Game Land missions were fun too, with some being homages to old Sonic stages.  Super Sonic sucked shit, but was fun to get.

 

I think Sonic Unleashed forgot the fun part, because honestly there's too much shit for its own good.  You got side stages (most of which I don't think are fun), side quests, hotdog missions, medals, souvenirs, records, tapes, food, tea, other trinkets, the list goes on, and these things tend to overlap eachother quite frequently.  It's a mess trying to actually complete something because in order to complete one thing you might just have to turn around and complete goddamn everything else while you're at it.  I honestly can't arse myself to complete Sonic Unleashed's list of chores because of how poorly laid out everything is.

 

So, watch me.  Watch me give the point to Colors because because I find its side stuff much more manageable than Sonic Unleashed.

Edited by Nix
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Unleashed wins due to it having more content. Even If some o the stuff is random or useless,or a chore, it's to me more enjoyable than what colors offered. Colors had the simulator which was okay at first but heavily began to loose interest as it went on. Plus multiplayer was pretty bad. And super sonic is boring as well. No wisp use is bull to me. It makes super sonic meh when playing as him. Unleashed had more, plus a art and music section. Which alone to me beats colors(which doesn't have either of those).

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Unleashed had piss poor overpriced DLC, consisting mostly of stages that just added more spikes and pits, drifting the whole time, and open stages that were nigh unplayable due to bad camera and slippery controls. But also offered videos, music, souveniers, etc. Colors offered super sonic... And that's it... Oh and gameland too I guess although aside from the music, it was pretty unimpressive.

Unleashed

(though both are rather unimpressive to me)

Edited by King Sombrero
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Well, on one hand, I'd vote Unleashed for the sheer amount of extra content compared to Colors. Unleashed has tons of side missions, silly quizzes, and optional acts for every stage.

 

However, since I haven't bothered with much of it, and I really enjoyed the simulator stages and thought they were a great idea (especially compared to the optional content I did try in Unleashed, very little - if not none - of which I enjoyed), my vote on that front goes to Colors.

 

So... I guess that makes it a draw? I dunno, both have their ups and downs.

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