Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors Extra Round - Final Thoughts

[Carbo]

The way RPG elements were implemented in Sonic Unleashed are fucking stupid. The sidequests had awful incentives. DLC was tripe. Finding collectibles was a chore due to the lame level design. Don't get me started on the souvenir hunting.

All those collectible elements would have fit better in Sonic Colors which has a strong lack of that stuff and Super Sonic wasn't all that good. I did enjoy Sonic Simulator for what it was though and hunting Red Rings wasn't too bad since I actually enjoyed replaying a lot of the levels.

I would say tie, but since you know me and I figure that less is more with all that unnecessary padding that Unleashed has I'll just continue my predictability streak.

[Vertekins]

Unleashed is the clear winner here by a landslide. 'Boring' is ultimately irrelevant to the fact that Unleashed's many extras contributed to the expansive image and developed the fascination for such an in-depth world and serve as one of the many testaments to the sheer degree of care that Sonic Team invested in the game's world to make it come alive. The DLC acts could be gimmicky, yes. And quite a few of them were clearly designed by people with a sense of sadism towards the player (I recall reading that Jezmm accidentally broke one of his laptops in rage over one of Shamar's Night DLC acts ) but then a lot of those DLC acts were immensely interesting, fun and utilized Sonic's abilities in some very creative ways.

 

Nothing is left to guessing in this game concerning it's customs and such. The items that you can buy from shops or Wentos and then give to Professor Pickle each have a story to tell. Even the countries flags are explained in detail regarding the meaning of their designs which just serves as a testament to the sheer imagination and creativity of Sonic Team. For instance, did you know that the stars on Empire City's flag represent the diverse people there whilst the stripes represent their interconnection? Or that the motif on Spagonia's flag represents the seal of the royal family that used to rule the region? Or that Eggmanland's flag epitomizes Eggman's obsession with self-representation, such a powerful image to make on a country's flag?

 

The other objects delve into the customs of the people. Jenny is just one example of the dolls that new parents of Empire City give to their children upon their birth, the doll serving as the child's first friend. Amusingly and interestingly, Adabat has the Chehaya Charm, a representation of the messenger of day and light. Two guesses who is represented in it   Items in Shamar attest to the reverence the people hold for day and night. Barely scratching the surface with these examples.

 

Additionally, Pickle's descriptions of these objects in such detail and with such character proves how worldly and refined the professor is and provides him with even more exuberant personality to top-up how endearing he already is. I personally found it very funny how he describes Eggmanland items with such distaste yet with a palpable sense of curiosity

 

People, bosses and enemies are delved into in admirable detail inside the directory within Pickle's lab. If the NPC's loveable personalities and interactions weren't awesome enough, no shit! It gets even better! And then there's the hints and explanation of enemy behaviour and personality. Those Egg Fighters who can use a chainsaw and a shield? Guess what? They're the elitists of Eggman's robotic army because they are the select few with the horsepower capable of lifting both of their arnaments and this makes them feel superior to 'lesser' robots. Nightmares and Deep Nightmares act of primitive drive, being motivated by the bestial instincts to harm because they don't know any better.

 

And it's not just the ornaments that get across the world's detail. It's the food as well. The fact that so many food items are stacked with cultural significance and that you are encouraged to feed Sonic and Chip them proved that Unleashed wasn't just a world adventure for the two. It was a culinary adventure too. Even the credits monopolizes on this concept, showing both of them sampling the delicacies with much enjoyment.

 

 

 

These aspects are a sheer testament to the kind of worldbuilding Sonic Team is capable of, a testament to the sheer imagination, care and thought they are capable of investing in their games to make them feel like expansive, fascinating and deeply endearing experiences. It's a real crying shame that this level of detail-orientation was practically abandoned after SatBK (Even SatBK when into detail with it's items and characters but that's not the argument of this topic so I'll drop it)

 

And you know what? The concept art and unlockable Sonic & Chip videos proves to me that Sonic Team are ecstatic about their game and want to show the player the effort they made.

 

Colours? Extras? Well the stimulator to me was just something to endure for the sake of 100% completion, which I was motivated to do because I am a Sonic game completionist of games that are actually good rather than being interested in the thing based on it's 'merits'. And Super Sonic was less of a prize and more of something simply to be unlocked considering how limited he is and how the already mostly uninteresting, sedentary level design has to become EVEN MORE uneventful to accomodate him. Having to fight the occasionally silly level design to get red rings just for that was a huge let down. Missed a red ring? Well screw you! Have an invisible barrier so you can't backtrack to pick it up and have to start all over again or an obstacle that requires laser-guided precision to bypass to get the ring inside it! See the Starlight Carnival mission with the one purple Wisp that demands perfect control of something that is uncontrollable and the Asteroid Coaster mission with the cyan and pink wisps. That one caused me grief of the like I've never experienced since I nailed both Storybook games and those ones are legendary in how frustrating they can be. The game is so thin that I can't recall other extras except for the Egg Shuttle. Replaying every level from the first to the last was extremely underhwhelming and samey.

 

Unleashed wins. Plain and simple. It has effort. HONEST TO GOD EFFORT invested in the extra's part of it. Colours tries and fails so hard that I can't help but shake my head at how far the development team have fallen when it comes to developing a truly expansive experience. It's bad because the very few extras that are there are so awful, so lacking, so epitomizing of the pandering. Where's your unlockable videos and concept art colours?

Edited May 12, 2013 by Vertekins

[Crash]

Unleashed has far more on offer, but it seems to throw stuff at you, rather than balance it well. I didn't like how you had to unlock most of the cutscenes, you should have them after you see them the first time. The extra cutscenes were good, but they weren't worth it for how much effort you have to put it in get them. The RPG elements weren't balanced well enough. It's fun to replay the Daytime stages, but you are not rewarded enough experience to upgrade by playing them. You had to play the Night time stages to get the experience points. I've never played the DLC stages because I don't buy DLC's, even if it's Sonic.

 

Colours has less to offer. Super Sonic gets boring straight away and is not worth getting the chaos emeralds for. The red rings are fun to get, but you are barely rewarded for them which defeats the purpose in getting them.

 

I can't actually pick. I think that they are both lacking and this has made it too hard for me to choose one, they both have more flaws than they do cons.

[Scar]

Unleashed wins by quantity. 

Not all of it was good, cause actually, most of it was pretty shitty, but at least they tried to do something extra.

[Wraith]

I'm going to give this one to Colors. A lot of Unleashed's side content wasn't even worth looking at. The extra acts were often flat out poorly designed. The rpg elements, like a lot of things in the game, were poorly implemented and felt they they were only there in the first place because every other big budget game was doing it. Collecting items also wasn't fun because of the insane speed you moved throughout the levels making you miss them more than anything else.


See, Colors may not have had much, but what was there I didn't mind doing because it was actually pretty fun. The gameland acts weren't that hot though, I'll admit. Red Ring collection was a good idea though.

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.

[JezMM]

Unleashed for sure.  I can understand why a lot of people are a bit "ehhh" about it, because it's more of the same gameplay after all, but if you do enjoy Unleashed there's SO MUCH TO DO holy crap.

 

I'll break this down though:

 

 

Extra Stages and DLC Stages vs Sonic Simulator

 

The extra stages in Unleashed often let you see the existing levels in new ways - either unique locations or different times of day.  Sonic Simulator was all bland, generic graphics.  They weren't bad but they weren't interesting either.  Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Advance 2/3 did the Virtual Reality trope way prettier.  Unleashed's extra stages tend to be fairly gimmicky or endurance tests on very hard courses, whereas Colours ones are fairly similar in difficulty to the regular stages, but are very bland and repetitive.  The stages based on Sonic 1 are good fun, but only on the basis that the level design is of course taken from an existing game.  There's no sense of wonder or excitement to the Sonic Simulator stages.  When I loaded up the DLC or extra stages I was always in for a little surprise - the best of which being how they re-arranged the "-2" acts for Windmill Isle Day 1, Rooftop Run Day 2 and Jungle Joyride Day 1.  And the unique extra acts provided interesting visuals and locations in themselves.  Meanwhile, the last Sonic Simulator stage looks just like the first, and I never expected it not to.  The one thing I will say though is that S ranking the extra stages in Unleashed required brutal levels of perfection, with no reward either.  Sonic Simulator doesn't even have ranking.  Honestly I think they're both bad in the ranking respect.

 

In conclusion, Sonic Simulator is inoffensive but nothing compared to Unleashed's extra acts.  Even with the same level design, I imagine Sonic Simulator's levels would have been five times more enjoyable if they had made them secret acts on the regular zones rather than characterless lego land levels.

 

Sun and Moon Medals vs Red Rings

 

On this I have to hand it to Colours for two reasons: the red rings are a lot more puzzley and satisfying to find.  In Unleashed they were generally just tucked out of the way - some fiendishly so, requiring fine tooth-combing of every level to get them.  In reality very few were cruelly hidden, but it was just enough to make you search EVERY area to that perfectionst degree, wasting time searching areas over and over again that "feel like" they might have a medal hidden, because that other level had a medal hidden in an out of the way place like this, etc.  Reason two is simply that the on-screen displays are much more user-friendly.  While you can never know when you've passed by a red ring, the fact that the 5 on each act are arranged on screen from first to last at least gives you a hint on where in the level you should be looking for the one(s) you are missing.  In Unleashed, you're totally flying blind, likewise for video casettes, records and books, which give absoloutely zero indication of whether you have them all on an act.

 

No Final Reward vs Super Sonic

 

Well really Colours should get this one on principal - though I still stand by the fact that Sonic Colours was the wrong game to bring Super Sonic back into the series.  He utterly invalidates the core gameplay of Sonic Colours in a way beyond how he was in the classics.  What's the point of a final reward that is inherently less fun and satisfying than playing normally?  And the looping music, ugh...  Still, better than nothing.

 

 

No Extra Gameplay Mode vs Egg Shuttle

EDIT: Forgot this one!  I really like the Egg Shuttle mode.  I think it should be in every game personally, with cut-scenes as optional too.  Unleashed should have totally had something like this - it could have even had different modes too:

 

Day/Night/Day & Night

Main Acts/All Acts

No DLC Acts/Unique DLC Acts/All DLC Acts

Bosses/No Bosses

Eggmanland/No Eggmanland

 

...Sorry that's totally off-topic but I like imagining things like this.

 

Missions, Unlockable Art/Music/Videos, RPG Elements, NPC Interaction, Souivineers, Food, Hot Dog Challenges vs Nothing Else

 

I 100%'d Colours within a week or two of getting it.

Edited May 12, 2013 by JezMM

[Dark Qiviut]

Without question, Unleashed factually wins.

 

Sonic Colors has a smaller package of extras, with Super Sonic's mission. But these days, extras are very important to make the player continue replaying. The Red Rings vary from simple to challenging, but the reward for Super Sonic is completely underwhelming and is completely unintuitive. The Sonic Simulator stages give you the incentive to grab the Chaos Emeralds, but once they're done, then its purpose is worthless and pointless. Furthermore, the lack of a soundtest as a reward makes wanting to go to the Options menu an easy choice to skip if you desire to keep the "Super-Sonic-in-stage" option off.

 

Sonic Unleashed HD, on the other hand, trumps Colors Wii's extra in every category, in both quantity AND quality. The extras are very hard to find, but once unlocked, they're very rewarding. The extra art, sound, and extra cutscenes are pieces that you can always go back and continually replay following. Furthermore, the DLCs have very well-done level design via both layout and atmosphere that takes previously done level design and switches the difficulty to provide a stronger sense of fresh air and greater challenge, in addition to the new stages that are also offered. For what the disks don't offer, the DLCs help you keep on playing.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Dark Qiviut

[Sami]

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.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. 

 

Unleashed had a lot more shit to do, but I hardly ended up doing any of it. To be honest, I just didn't care enough and I didn't find it very fun at all.

 

Red Rings, on the other hand, are one of the greatest additions to the series in my opinion. Absolutely loved searching for them in Colors and Generations, and I'll be severely disappointed if they don't become a staple. Those alone give Colors the win for me.

[Chaos Warp]

Without question, Unleashed factually wins.

 

Sonic Colors has a smaller package of extras, with Super Sonic's mission. But these days, extras are very important to make the player continue replaying. The Red Rings vary from simple to challenging, but the reward for Super Sonic is completely underwhelming and is completely unintuitive. The Sonic Simulator stages give you the incentive to grab the Chaos Emeralds, but once they're done, then its purpose is worthless and pointless. Furthermore, the lack of a soundtest as a reward makes wanting to go to the Options menu an easy choice to skip if you desire to keep the "Super-Sonic-in-stage" option off.

 

Sonic Unleashed HD, on the other hand, trumps Colors Wii's extra in every category, in both quantity AND quality. The extras are very hard to find, but once unlocked, they're very rewarding. The extra art, sound, and extra cutscenes are pieces that you can always go back and continually replay following. Furthermore, the DLCs have very well-done level design via both layout and atmosphere that takes previously done level design and switches the difficulty to provide a stronger sense of fresh air and greater challenge, in addition to the new stages that are also offered. For what the disks don't offer, the DLCs help you keep on playing.

You know, I'd just like to point something out..............what you're saying here isn't factual. It's fine, it's your opinion and you're allowed to have it and all that but......don't call it factual when it's just your opinion. 

Edited May 12, 2013 by Generations (Chaos Warp)

[Vertekins]

You know, I'd just like to point something out..............what you're saying here isn't factual. It's fine, it's your opinion and you're allowed to have it and all that but......don't call it factual when it's just your opinion. 

 

You mean it isn't factual that Unleashed has more extras? That it's extras such as concept art that shows the amount of creativity invested in the game and the sheer effort and even the funds invested in making mere extras just to entertain the player and therefore them standing out because of that doesn't scream true of being superior? When you consider the work that went into those unlockable Sonic & Chip videos? Compared to Colours' shit with it's Egg Shuttle and Super Sonic?

 

Having to find them is irrelevant to the topic when you're judging the extras based on their inherent merit and the effort, care, time and money invested into them, you know, what a fair evaluation amounts to? Colours has none of that, It has an Super Sonic unlocked by a bad unlocking method that turns out to be extremely banal and pointless, no concept art and no videos. Unleashed is chock full of it.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Vertekins

[Tornado]

It's factual that there are more in Unleashed and that more time was put into putting them there. It is not factual that Unleashed "wins" because of that.

[Vertekins]

It's factual that there are more in Unleashed and that more time was put into putting them there.

And it's fair to praise Unleashed for that without dredging up an ultimately completely irrelevant point ("I had to seek them out so they suck") to devalue them.

[Solkia]

The question was "which is better" not "which has more".  

 

Yes, Unleashed factually has more content. Whether that content is worth playing or not is subjective.

 

EDIT: I guess I'll put my views on it

 

I played Unleashed's extra content. The only thing I enjoyed were the Hot Dog stand missions. Everything else either bored me or flat-out pissed me off. 

 

Since I haven't played Colors, I'll base this off of Generations: I liked hunting for the Red Rings, and I'm extremely glad they finally implemented Super Sonic in 3D.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Solkia

[Chaos Warp]

You mean it isn't factual that Unleashed has more extras? That it's extras such as concept art that shows the amount of creativity invested in the game and the sheer effort and even the funds invested in making mere extras just to entertain the player and therefore them standing out because of that doesn't scream true of being superior? When you consider the work that went into those unlockable Sonic & Chip videos? Compared to Colours' shit with it's Egg Shuttle and Super Sonic?

 

Having to find them is irrelevant to the topic when you're judging the extras based on their inherent merit and the effort, care, time and money invested into them, you know, what a fair evaluation amounts to? Colours has none of that, It has an Super Sonic unlocked by a bad unlocking method that turns out to be extremely banal and pointless, no concept art and no videos. Unleashed is chock full of it.

Well, it's factual that Unleashed had more extras yes, but were they actually more fun then Colour's extras? That's not factual. Just because something has a lot of effort put into it doesn't mean it's good. All the stuff about Unleashed's collectibles being rewarding, that's not factual. 

[Tornado]

The amount/type of work required to access extra content is perfectly valid to bring up when rating that extra content as a broad talking point for the purposes of comparison; as is the subjective quality of that content. That inherent merit and money/time/effort expended to put them there doesn't amount to squat if they aren't worth the effort required to access them.

[Kuzu]

I can't say Unleashed because I haven't played it's extra acts or additional content yet, so I can't judge if they're good or not. 

 

 

I can say tho, Colors is kinda boring. Its not that the extra content is bad per se, but leaves a whole lot be desired. After you beat the main game, the only thing left to really do is collect the red rings and get Super Sonic, which at that point isn't much of a reward. The gameland stages are alright, but aesthetically they're kinda bland.

 

Welp, guess I have an excuse to get some DLC now.

[Vertekins]

Well to me, Unleashed was the last game aside from SatBK that seemed like an honest-to-god love letter regarding it's extras. The care that went into it was amazing. And they were so good that I was very compelled to seek them out. Unleashed was the kind of game that had merit regarding this because effort was invested in specifically making extras that served no purpose other than to expand on the game and entertain the player. And now that I'm getting games like Colours that haven't had a shred of that level of investment, it's such a fine example of how soulless Colours ultimately is to me, how the development team aren't bothered showing off the development and quirks of their game like they proudly did in Unleashed.

[Mr Useful]

It hurts Colours becuase all of the concept art and access to a sound test are DS exclusive. Unleashed has the DLC while Colours has the gameland stages. Unleashed has Extra Cutscenes  while Colours has Super Sonic.

Unleashed gets my vote.

.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Dom

[Wraith]

Is the side content in Unleashed good for world building? Yes. Did it have a lot of effort put into it? Sure, but it's meaningless if the extra stuff is poorly designed to the point that the player isn't going to want to do them. It's a game first and foremost after all. It needs to focus on engaging the player and not getting caught up in itself trying to be this living, breathing world.

[JezMM]

The awkward thing with judging Unleashed's content is that it's more of the same.

 

If you love Unleashed and its gameplay, the extra content is awesome as it is an extension of that same gameplay.

 

If you don't then it's awful, despite the fact that the exact same kind and amount of extra content (missions, extra acts set in new versions of existing locations, gallery unlocks etc) but in Sonic Colours would have been praised if you enjoy Sonic Colours more than Unleashed.

 

 

 

I'm honestly trying my hardest not to take it personally as an unfair dig towards Unleashed, but (FOOD ANALOGY TIME), it is kind of like going to a pizza resturant that serves pizza in a myraid of different ways with a huge expansive menu and saying "It's a bad resturant".  "Why?"  "Because I don't like pizza."

Edited May 12, 2013 by JezMM

[...]

I'll just take my two cents on this.

 

Yes, Unleashed has more content and extras and content. It's obvious that there was more time and dedication into putting them there than Colors. Does that mean it's better? No. I like Unleashed myself, but after finishing the game, I could never really get myself to look for other stuff. The only time I did was doing some of the hot dog missions, and I got bored and/or pissed off. I only ran into some mon or sun medals by accident, along with buying artfiacts for whatever reason. Colors on the other hand, I had a blast collecting all those Red Rings after hearing that I could get Super Sonic by getting them all, so I actually had some incentive to collect some extras in the game. Though time consuming, it was a fun hunt. The Sonic Simulator was pretty cool as a time-waster, even with a friend. It was so refreshing to finally have Super Sonic appear playable in normal levels since Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Seriously, it was just awesome hearing the announcer go "SUPER SONIC!" each time a transformed, blasting through most of the levels with infinite boost.

 

So yeah, Colors gets my vote.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Felix

[Nepenthe]

Unleashed had better extras. Artwork and freaking cartoons aside (as an animator, a cartoon means you've automatically won anyway), it has more engaging, challenging and relevant gameplay and hub content to do than Colors with its alternate five second acts do. And while I praise the game levels as being the absolute most interesting way to earn Chaos Emeralds this side of Blue Spheres, the problem is I don't care about gathering Chaos Emeralds by extension that I don't care about unlocking Super Sonic. Super Sonic is a lame end-game reward; why am I going through all this trouble to unlock something that's basically only two steps removed from normal gameplay?

[Chaos Warp]

Unleashed had better extras. Artwork and freaking cartoons aside (as an animator, a cartoon means you've automatically won anyway), it has more engaging, challenging and relevant gameplay and hub content to do than Colors with its alternate five second acts do. And while I praise the game levels as being the absolute most interesting way to earn Chaos Emeralds this side of Blue Spheres, the problem is I don't care about gathering Chaos Emeralds by extension that I don't care about unlocking Super Sonic. Super Sonic is a lame end-game reward; why am I going through all this trouble to unlock something that's basically only two steps removed from normal gameplay?

Because Super Sonic being playable outside of a final bossfight for the first time in FOREVER, and for the first time EVER in 3d, was fucking awesome?

[Tornado]

Eh... it was until you actually played him.

[azoo]

Because Super Sonic being playable outside of a final bossfight for the first time in FOREVER, and for the first time EVER in 3d, was fucking awesome?

It literally felt like nothing but having an endless boost gauge most of the time. Besides, I never have liked the concept of Super Sonic too terribly much. :V

 

Sonic Unleashed wins because of what Nep said. Look at all those cartoon shorts. Also the concept art and music you could unlock, the extra missions, the hubworlds and the stories you could do by interacting with the NPCs, extra acts, etc. It just wins IMO.