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Sonic Unleashed vs. Sonic Colors Extra Round - Final Thoughts


Soniman

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No one's denying Unleashed is more linear than Colors, and ultimately that's not what this tangent is about. What's actually being said is that Terminal Velocity is more linear than just about all of Unleashed.

 

No one's denying that either, seeing as that both acts are literal straight lines.

 

...sooo I guess this argument is pointless?

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What kills Terminal Velocity for me is that it starts out pretty damn intense but it ultimately ends up as nothing. Great music, fantastic scenario, really builds up the adrenaline in ways even the rest of the game doesn't.

And then... fade to white. No fancy last-second acrobatics, no pay-off whatsoever. Even before the end, you start to realize that it's getting sort of repetitive and it wasn't being as cool and breathtaking as the concept of running down a space elevator as it blows up should have been. It was completely unceremonious; it was like the game suddenly remembered, "Oh yeah, so are you bored yet? btw I forgot that this was the end of the stage."

It's an abhorent cocktease of a "finale." Even as a playable cutscene, it just falls flat.

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I actually liked the fact that it was fixed. Doing your best to make it down alive but getting slowly engulfed anyway amid the sights and sounds of cosmic destruction gave me a genuine feeling of dread and some semblance of respect for both the level and the finale at the time. And the last cut scene, specifically the bit where Sonic was saved, tied it together a little catharsis from the endeavor. For the most part, I think it worked, hence why I find Terminal Velocity the best part of the whole damn game.

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Yeah I liked the concept a lot but I feel like there could have been a lot more done with it. As much as I'm not a fan of the game, the entirety of Unleashed was more exciting and felt more rewarding than Terminal Velocity, which felt to me like it was building up to something great but didn't have the visuals or engagement of the player to support it beyond just sounding really neat on paper. You don't see the fade-out coming at all, all I thought was "That's it?" and I really wish it was played up to be much more spectacular than it turned out to be. Its anticlimax overwhelms the initial intensity I experienced when starting out.

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Again, I think that flaccid ending was to be made up with the Act 2 version, but once again it stops right before you really start getting into it, I know Sonic getting swallowed by the black whole was crucial to the finale, but it didn't need to swallow him right away, you could have spend lie 2 minutes in the stage building up to it, rather than have the us play it for a bit and then suddenly take control away again.

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The only time I actually try to defend Colors in this blasted topic and even Soniman disagrees with me. It's the will of the fates, I tell you. D:

At the very least, I remember the final act lasting a bit longer than what's being suggested here. I didn't feel it came out of nowhere, per se, mostly because it felt like the whole turn-around and actual fade out itself took its dear sweet time.

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Actually I'll agree with Nepenthe and say I quite liked Terminal Velocity.  Yes it's stupidly linear and simplistic, but at the same time it's such a stark contrast to the rest of the game and it's rather invigorating to play through just before you face the final fight.  And that 30 second segment after you defeat the final boss to me felt rather incredible.  The way it all built up and the fact that Sonic was running from a fucking black hole was just crazy for me.

 

Additionally, I still find novelty from playing as Super Sonic in Terminal Velocity Act 1.  It's the one level that makes him seem like such an invincible powerhouse that you don't even have to think anymore.  It's literally the god mode switch and all you have to do from then on is hold down boost.  Never before has "boost to win" been so golden and relentless.

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I sometimes wonder if Terminal Velocity should have been a glorified boss act somehow. Perhaps it could have a special boss who is a kind of amalgamation of all of the previous ones. Perhaps instead of sticking you to a three-lane straight line they could make it like Galaxy's planets, only in a tube form; allowing you to run either way completely in a circle around the structure.

 

In fact it might have been cool if the final battle against Robotnik took place there instead so it's a fight to get away from the Interstellar Amusement Park AND defeat Robotnik at the same time.

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Actually I'll agree with Nepenthe and say I quite liked Terminal Velocity.  Yes it's stupidly linear and simplistic, but at the same time it's such a stark contrast to the rest of the game and it's rather invigorating to play through just before you face the final fight.  And that 30 second segment after you defeat the final boss to me felt rather incredible.  The way it all built up and the fact that Sonic was running from a fucking black hole was just crazy for me.

 

Additionally, I still find novelty from playing as Super Sonic in Terminal Velocity Act 1.  It's the one level that makes him seem like such an invincible powerhouse that you don't even have to think anymore.  It's literally the god mode switch and all you have to do from then on is hold down boost.  Never before has "boost to win" been so golden and relentless.

It's funny since act 1 is probably the only level in this series where the boost to win argument is actually true.

 

But back on the subject, I really like the terminal velocity and asteroid coaster levels, probably because I really like the levels from unleashed and after a whole game of not too much speed (not that that's a problem or anything to major for me) but it felt good to finally go that fast during a level and feel so epic while doing it.

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I didn't mind that Terminal Velocity was literally a straight line, I just feel there should have been more spectacle to it, even if they weren't instances in which the player was in direct control. I can think of a lot of things that would have improved the experienced for me, most particularly an actually satisfying conclusion as opposed to an abrupt fade-out while I'm boosting through Motobugs. I don't view it as the actual last stage of Colors (which would be Asteroid Coaster) so much as an endgame spectacle, and I feel it should have wow'ed me a lot more. Add some explosions, some close calls here and there, just to reinforce that Sonic is in constant danger the entire time.

I guess a good comparison to make would be the clock tower in Unleashed, climbing that thing was genuinely satisfying and grinding back down felt like a great payoff. But in Generations Planet Wisp, you spend the finale of the stage climbing up this huge tower... and then nothing happens. Terminal Velocity is more like Generations Planet Wisp than it is Unleashed Rooftop Run.

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Wonderful thread overall Soniman.  Beautifully structured, well thought out and it all tied together elegantly in the end and what this thread has shown us is that both games definitely have their share of pros and cons and the results were very close.  I tip my hat off to you sir.

 

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I guess for funsies I'll post what minor changes I feel each game could have had to make them more fun for me:

 

 

Sonic Unleashed

 

  • Medals should have been collectable in a variety of ways - Hiding them in the stages is fine, but medals should have also been collectable by getting good Ranks, completing town missions, maybe even buying souvineers too.  Also stages should have had an equal amount of medal types - you shouldn't have to play lots of one time of day to unlock stuff in the other time of day.  I have no qualm with locking levels behind medal barriers, but the player should have a choice on how to beat those barriers.
  • Combos should have been unlocked automatically - The Werehog starts out slow and uninteresting, and if you don't know what to level up first, remains so until the end of the game.  There are a lot of great, fun combos that make the battles much more engaging, and these should have been unlocked very quickly.  I'd even go so far to say they should have been rewards for beating each stage, so you almost have the full set by the end of the game (with the four Night secret acts holding their own ones).  That way the player could focus on increasing the raw stats that they care about most, without having to sacrifice attack power and health upgrades just to make the game fun.  Of course, night stages should have been shorter - pretty much every stage has one segment that could have been cut out for drastic improvement (for example, in Rooftop Run this would be the winding streets with breakable doors before the second barrel roll).
  • It should have been reinforced by the game more that boosting all the time is bad - because a surprising amount of people took the "push X to kill all these enemies like a set of bowling pins" as "push X and keep it held down for the rest of the game".  But no, without being snarky there should have been more subtle design choices to show the player where it's safe to boost on a first runthrough and where it isn't, other than pits to the face on later stages.  I can defend the stage design and difficulty curve all I like with what I deem to be clear-cut logic but it doesn't change the fact that it didn't work for everyone.

 

Sonic Colours

 

  • Game Land stages should have been better - This is a kind of silly sounding one but yeah.  The level design just wasn't interesting.  It was really repetitive and they didn't feel like real rewards for getting Red Rings.  Of course I also think these should have been unlockable levels for the actual main game using art assets from the existing stages rather than being tucked away in minimalism-land.
  • The gameplay as a whole should have been more visually engaging - Not many levels at all feel like you're really engaging with the envioronment, they all feel like obstacle courses with the envioronment just being there to sit in the background and look pretty.
  • It shouldn't have relied on 2D so much - yeah duh but it should be said again here.
  • It should have rewarded platforming skill more - often than "can you hold onto this Wisp and work out where to use it" skill, offering multiple routes to both Sonic gameplay as well as Wisp usage.

 

I think I'll stop here or I'll start getting nitpicky lol.  Anyway I agree with the above, great topic Soniman, I mean it seems you might've started a trend and it allowed us to discuss things in a civilised manner, focusing on the real issues instead of throwing awful unrelated comparisons of wildly different game elements.

Edited by JezMM
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I didn't post nearly as much as I should have, or wanted to, but I still followed along and enjoyed this thread a lot. It was nice to see people's detailed thoughts on these games, with all the gushing and/or criticism, yet without any flame wars. Thankfully.

 

Things are usually a lot more brief in the statuses, and even discussions in other threads aren't as thorough as all of this was, due to the way this whole thing was organized. Debating about these two games by taking elements both games shared and comparing them that way made for some interesting discussion, which was really nice to see.

 

So, thank you Soniman!

 

This whole thing has made me appreciate both games more, now that I think about it. They certainly have their issues, but damned if I'm not fond of 'em anyway. 

 

I'd love to see something like this again, perhaps after Lost World is out? I'm not sure what two games we'd be comparing, though.

Edited by elementofchaos
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I like Unleashed, but Colours will always be much better overall for me, being one of my favourite Sonic games and I'm very happy to see it the winner. Honestly considering how much this board likes Unleashed I expected Unleashed to win, but I'm glad that's not the case. While I can give Unleashed having better atmosphere, I just think Colours is a better constructed game in almost every way. Colours will always be better to me. 

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Though I only posted a few times, I can definitely say checking up on this thread was a lot of fun. There were plenty of very well-written posts in here, and it was interesting to see the community's opinions on this stuff. 

 

Also I'm glad Colors won.

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Thanks for the topic Soniman, it was a good round of discussion. Overall, I think it's kind of odd, as I'm pretty sure I disliked both of these games at some point in time. Yet from there, Unleashed would go on to become one of my favorite games in the series, while Colors remains one of my least favorite games in the series. Not my absolute least favorite, but down low. I bought Colors sometime after getting Unleashed HD, and I believe this was around when I got frustrated with Unleashed and it's sheer difficulty in the latter half of the game. So I tried out Colors. For the most part, after the initial wow factor of some of the Wisps and other stuff I lost interest fast, and basically just played it for the sake of completion. Unleashed I took a good long break from since I thought the final boss was incredibly tedious. Went back to it later, somehow beat it, and I guess after replaying levels and seeing what else the game offered, I grew to like it. While I enjoyed the gameplay well enough, it's really all those non-gameplay elements that I'd like to see integrated in the series direction. And while I'm not too excited maintaining the boost gameplay for the future, I enjoyed it in Unleashed (and Generations) regardless. Taking this into account as well as considering everything else I like about Unleashed, it becomes a game that I like quite a bit. In the end, Unleashed gives me more of I want to see in the series, and as a result, I'll prefer Unleashed any day, but I still recognize Colors's merits, such as the art design or the enemy variety among other things. So yeah, I prefer Unleashed.

Edited by Burnt Ash
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I haven't posted at all in this thread, but I've been reading nearly all posts from the very beginning and all of you guys really presented some well constructed arguments, which made this thread an entertaining read. If you create another thread like this, I may try and participate. Awesome job Soniman.

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Well this topic was certainly interesting. Its nice to finally see just how divisive these games have been, just goes to show that that people love both of them an awful lot. It may have gotten heated a few times, but it was a fun little spectacle. Guess I'll go with Soniman's route of summation:

 

Sonic Unleashed: 

 

 

I'll be honest, I don't really like this game. The day stages can be frustratingly unfair at times, and the Werehog stages can get repetitive and boring really quickly. The NPC's aren't very interesting and the game doesn't give you much of a reason to interact with them or even show how the world splitting apart has affected them. The story suffers from an extremely boring middle part with nothing picking up from the time you leave Prof. Pickle's to Adabat. However, I do respect it for the amount of effort Sonic Team put into everything; marketing, visuals, environments, gameplay, etc. You can honestly tell they wanted this game to make up for 06's flop and that, contrary to popular belief, they do care about their fans and want to do their best to satisfy them. I hope some time in the future they put this type of effort in another game, and are able to iron out the problems.

 

Sonic Colors:

 

This game was really fun the first time through. Going through all of the amazing environments and finding out how to work each Wisp Power. I like how each act focused on using some of your natural moves as well. The writing finally has some charm to it that makes the characters feel more relatable, and as a result able to care about them. Sadly, after the initial wow factor wore out I found almost no reason to pick up this game again. There's just nothing that grabs me back to make me want to play it; the only extra in the game are the Red Rings and Super Sonic, but his inclusion undermines the entire point of the game so it felt pointless. The platforming is very basic which, while fun, doesn't fit a traditionally fast series like Sonic. The plot leaves a lot be desired with it dropping plot threads before they even get a chance to go anywhere and instead focuses on trying to force humor, which may or may not be funny.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

They're both incredibly flawed games that could have been way better than they were, but if I had to choose; I'd probably choose Unleashed(Le Gasp). Yes, I hated(and to an extent still do) playing it, but for some reason I can see myself playing it more than Colors. Colors feels like an arcade game than a full console one, which while incredibly fun, isn't really something you'd play long term. Unleashed just has so much crap to discover that its almost worth the frustrating experience....or I dunno, may I really am a masochist. But yea, Unleashed for me. Not too surprised to see Colors won tho.

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I often get the feeling that Colours was largely a stand-in for a third Storybook title and also a prototype Generations, in many ways. That may also explain why certain aspects felt thinner than Unleashed because the development wasn't as big or as focused. I think time and budget may go into a lot of the comparisons we see where Unleashed was pushed harder because Sega gave it more time and a bigger budget and also expected more out of it.

 

Considering how kid-friendly Colours was marketed, I wouldn't be surprised if Sega didn't expect it to be as much of a hit as it was, especially amongst older fans.

 

Perhaps if it's given the teams full attention, Lost World will essentially be everything that was missing from Colours.

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Sonic Unleashed should have had a Demo with a Werehog stage in it. And more of the moves unlocked too. Remove Medals, and it would have been a better received game

 

Colors just needed more content. In essence it had only 6 levels.

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My final thoughts?

 

Sonic colours remains one of my favourite games. People complain it has too many 2D sections, but I always fail to see how that's a bad thing? I don't know, people always make a point of that but it's not really a bad thing. I enjoyed most of the levels in the game and had genuine excitement during the final levels of the game.

 

Sonic Unleashed had a nice atmosphere, but the repetitiveness of it bored me and the Werehog stages left a very bad taste in my mouth. People often say they only like 50% of Unleashed, talking about the day stages. That statement is wrong, the Werehog stages take far longer than the daytime stages, so I can only say I like 10% of the game. The 10% that isn't a Werehog stage, or a hub world, or me walking through a stage to find the medals easier, or EggmanLand. That does not make a good game for me. I still haven't finished the game. (In fairness my Xbox just crapped out...)

 

Colours always seemed to be more fun to me, but I can't complain if people like Unleashed. If you find the fighting fun, that's 50% of the game made up for you. If you (for some odd reason) like the hub worlds, that's another 10%. I'm not going to question if you like Eggmanland, I know the answer.

 

To wrap it up, I'd play Sonic Colours over Sonic Unleashed any day. Or night.

hehehehehe

 

(For the record, I hold no nostalgia of fanboyism to either of the games, I genuinely find colours more fun. I apologise if I come of Fanboy~ish)

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Considering how much longer and longer both the day and night stages get in Sonic Unleashed, I think it's still fair to say that it makes up 50% of the game. Granted, the Werehog can still take longer, but I think calling the rest 10% is undercutting it.

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