Sonic 30th predictions

[Piko]

Colours is a pretty weird choice for a remaster. Idk I would’ve expected an older game to get the remaster treatment but hey, if this is real then at least Colours won’t be a Wii exclusive anymore.

[Blue Blood]

4 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

Given the pricepoint for the rumored limited edition, and with it being a physical release, I don't think it'll be much more than an upressed port.

Maybe they still have the cutscene animation files, with those they could re-render them, that's what Nintendo did with Galaxy on 3D All-Stars.

If limited is 35€/$, Standard will probably be 20€/$, and I don't see them pouring more effort than needed into it. I'm surprised they localized it in German tho, so maybe?

Nah, Nintendo didn't do that. They just zoomed, cropped and filtered the videos. Lazy. SEGA could possibly do the same though and I totally overlooked that option.

[Wraith]

4 minutes ago, Piko said:

Colours is a pretty weird choice for a remaster. Idk I would’ve expected an older game to get the remaster treatment but hey, if this is real then at least Colours won’t be a Wii exclusive anymore.

It's the safest way to test the viability of Sonic remasters so I'm not toooo surprised. I'm just not interested as an enthusiast. I wanted a deeper cut.

[Sonikko]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Nah, Nintendo didn't do that. They just zoomed, cropped and filtered the files. SEGA could possibly do the same though and I totally overlooked that option.

That's what they did with Sunshine, Galaxy was re-rendered!
Original cutscenes were rendered at 480p and had different lighting.

Galaxy:

All Stars: 

 

[Blue Blood]

2 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

That's what they did with Sunshine, Galaxy was re-rendered!
Original cutscenes were rendered at 480p and had different lighting.

Galaxy:

All Stars: 

 

Before we go too off topic with this, are all the cutscenes in Galaxy pre-rendered? I know that at least Sonic are, but aren't some of them in-egine and real-time?

[Sonikko]

Uhm... Just the opening one and the one I timestamped which is the ending.

Guess Colors does have a lot more in comparison, so who knows. 

[Piko]

4 minutes ago, Wraith said:

It's the safest way to test the viability of Sonic remasters so I'm not toooo surprised.

That’s fair. Out of the games that haven’t been re-released yet, Colours is one of the most critically acclaimed ones so I guess it makes sense in that regard.

[Jango]

46 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

https://www.sogamely.com/shop/advanced-search?search=SONIC+COLORS+ULTIMATE

It's called Sonic Colours Ultimate and it's (currently) only listed for PS4, XB1 and Switch. Nothing about PS5 and XBX, yet at least.

This is the first 3D Sonic game to get a re-master/remake since SADX and SA2B on the Gamecube. Furthermore, it seems like it's being dubbed in German, which is new. SEGA didn't start dubbing the games in languages other than English and Japanese until Generations. 

No idea what this game will entail,.whether it'll be a remake, remaster, direct port or whatever. But it's at least got dubs in new languages. 

I'm trying to get more info about it, but I doubt the person I've talked will spill more beans than he's already have. SEGA is localizing their games more often lately, Yakuza, Mario & Sonic at Tokyo, SoR4, all got localized in Brazil, and after learning that there's now an official Sonic twitter account in Brazil (and LATAM), I've followed a few tracks... Nothing super major, but there's stuff about to be announced.

[Zaysho]

24 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Concerning the voices... Think about it this way. Colours cutscenes are all pre-rendered, 30fps, 480p videos compressed for Wii playback. SEGA are lazy when it comes to Sonic, but fuck I don't think they'll put those cutscenes in a remastered HD game. We'll be seeing the cutscenes re-rendered for this release, maybe the original videos that were compressed for Wii playback. If there are any changes to the cutscenes or the rest of the game at all that requires new voice work, it'll be a whole new dub. Sonic and Tails VAs from Colours have both left the series now.

Yeah, I figure if there's a new scenario or some addition that requires it it'll make the most sense to just replace Smith and Higgins but if it's just a normal remaster with no extras I assume the old stuff won't be touched since there's not a reason for it beyond consistency. It ultimately won't be a deal breaker since the last time I played Colors at all was in Japanese anyway, I just think it'd be a shame if Sega decided to mess with the old stuff for no reason.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Pretty eh about a Colours remaster. Not that I don't like Colours, it's a decent game and I'm happy to play it at 60fps in HD, but I would've liked a proper Colours/Generations collection. Getting Colours on modern consoles (and Switch for portability) but not Generations is pretty disappointing IMO.

[OwlEyes]

[Salamander]

Seems like an odd choice of remaster, compared to the rapturously-received Sonic Generations; but Colours was a success too, and more to the point, players on non-Nintendo platforms won't have played it (whereas I think Generations is backwards compatible on the current Xbox?), so there it is.

Though of course without the DS content it's only a remaster of half of Sonic Colours.

[LukA8]

Colours was always weird in how the DS version felt like the definitive version, while the Wii version was more short-lived and missing chunks of the story that have been referenced in more recent games. If they're going for "ultimate" in the title, there's definitely potential here to include the Nega Mother Wisp and the encounters with the side cast.

The art and music in the game are both top-notch and absolutely deserve the HD treatment, but as a standalone re-release it feels a bit odd when they could bundle it with Generations.

[Jango]

42 minutes ago, OwlEyes said:

Ahhh, missed these days! Here we go!

[Winston]

I'm excited for a Colors remaster/port if they add some new content or make it look on par with Generations or Unleashed, but I don't see that happening if the prince point is only $30. I think it'll probably look better though, but it's really not that exciting just to get Colors even if it is one of my favorite Sonic games despite the terrible writing. I guess it's nice for people that never owned a Wii or didn't want to get Colors on a weak system, but I would have preferred a 3D Sonic collection instead of just one title. Colors/Generations tie into one another storywise anyway (even if loosely) so it's a bit of a missed opportunity to not include that one at the bare minimum. At least SEGA isn't going to charge us $60 for it I guess. 

[azoo]

I really didn't want this year to be thrown away to a port or remaster, buuuuuuuut Covid I guess. Yup. Sigh.

I'm just hoping there's more they're planning than just this, in the long run. Would be wild if this was the big thing they were planning all along. And if so, would it be more than a basic port or remaster? I can't see why this would get a limited edition release or be labelled "ULTIMATE" if it were just the same game again bar a higher poly model..

..Is this another attempt at a "director's cut"? I mean likely not, but worth stating just to get it out.

[Indigo Rush]

Sonic Colors actually makes a load of sense for a remaster. 

It was a very critically acclaimed game when it released (people talked about how much it broke the 'Sonic Cycle' and whatnot) and holds up rather well, but also desperately needs that graphical boost in the 2020's. It's ten years old, and is not available on anything other than the Wii and DS. 

I've heard people asking for Unleashed to get ported, but I don't think folks really have considered how much it was thrashed and trashed on release, so no clue why you'd think SEGA would mess with that. Additionally, I was able to download it on my fiancee's Xbox One for $20 and play through it (until I couldn't stand it anymore) so it's not like it's unavailable to consumers on relevant hardware.

Colors needs some serious polish in a few areas, but it's art direction is gorgeous, the good faith it restored in the franchise is undeniable and it can only benefit from being brought back into focus, especially after Forces unceremoniously wet the bed and became the latest "bad Sonic game" of the generation. The modern branch of the series needs a pick me up.

[KHCast]

7 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

so it's not like it's unavailable to consumers on relevant hardware.

Yeah I play on PlayStation. Just try and convince me playing it through PSNow is good enough 

if the only option for a decent method to play unleashed is to just buy and Xbox One/X, I think that’s grounds to suggest it’s maybe fair game to give it full port treatment. Especially when stuff like Last of Us can get a full PS5 remake despite being only 8 years old, and getting a remastered version not even that long ago 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I would have preferred a collection with Unleashed, Generations and Lost World, but then I would also have preferred if all four games got all the levels from their alternate versions added into the main game, so maybe I'm just picky.

I hope it's more than just "like Dolphin but costs $30" though.

[Indigo Rush]

8 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Yeah I play on PlayStation. Just try and convince me playing it through PSNow is good enough 

It's on PSNow? So it's technically available on relevant hardware, then. It may not be ideal, but my point stands: Sonic Colors does not have this, even.

And again, I want to reiterate that it's availability is only half the equation; it's also one of the 'bad' ones, and SEGA is not so dumb that it would put in the R&D into repackaging a game that they know is not going to review well. 

Sonic Colors was reviewed well, Sonic Colors isn't available on modern hardware, it's been ten years, SEGA needs a safe bet for their efforts. It's time for an upgraded port. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

16 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I've heard people asking for Unleashed to get ported, but I don't think folks really have considered how much it was thrashed and trashed on release, so no clue why you'd think SEGA would mess with that. Additionally, I was able to download it on my fiancee's Xbox One for $20 and play through it (until I couldn't stand it anymore) so it's not like it's unavailable to consumers on relevant hardware.

I imagine because people wanted a collection of games instead of just one game. Beyond that, Unleashed has not only garnered more praise and appreciation in the intervening years for what it did right, and what it tried to do right, but frankly - if it was basing itself on responses from the time, then tons of Sonic games would never get re-released. Unleashed was released smack-dab in the period where despising Sonic was the cool and fun thing to do following 06 and reviewers would purposely try to make them look as bad as possible to an unfair degree (IGN's infamous review, for a start). 

Unleashed is also infamous for being a game just not built for the hardware it was on. It took the Series X and it's BC in order to finally get the game running consistently without drops. Out of all of the games that could arguable benefit from the remaster, Unleashed would be the one that could actually use optimisation work. Colours has been on Dolphin at 60fps for a very long time, and Generations had a PC version to push it to 60fps. 

Unleashed is the game that stands out with no easily accessible version that runs perfectly. While you can achieve 60fps on a 360 emulator on PC, the game crashes incredibly frequently, and while RPCS3 can also run it, it doesn't reach 60fps whatsoever.

It just sticks out like a sore thumb. For a 30th anniversary project, why not just go the extra mile and do a collection with these three games? All three have similar styles, similar gameplay, and two out of three have had resources available for ages that should arguably help with a Remaster (Hell, Gens still looks pretty great on PC right now). Just having Colours is incredibly strange, even if it's the only one not readily available.

Even if you wanted to discount Unleashed from the equation, what on earth is Generations' excuse? It's already got a port that's capable of 60fps 4K. I'm sure it would've taken a little more work to get it on Switch, but I genuinely can't see it taking much effort on their part to get it to Xbox One/PS4, and also get PS5/Series X via BC.

[Sonikko]

Take it like this, you wouldn't expect SEGA to remaster Black Knight.

Now while Unleashed wasn't as... let's say divisive, in the fanbase, it still got panned by critics the same way.

It's not about fan demand, it almost never is. It's about what makes sense business wise, and Colours makes a lot of sense, even if it's not what I personally want.

[Wraith]

13 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

It's on PSNow? So it's technically available on relevant hardware, then. It may not be ideal, but my point stands: Sonic Colors does not have this, even.

And again, I want to reiterate that it's availability is only half the equation; it's also one of the 'bad' ones, and SEGA is not so dumb that it would put in the R&D into repackaging a game that they know is not going to review well. 

Sonic Colors was reviewed well, Sonic Colors isn't available on modern hardware, it's been ten years, SEGA needs a safe bet for their efforts. It's time for an upgraded port. 

You're making sense, but I don't think any Sonic fan is obligated to give a fuck about SEGA's finances/rep, especially these days where they seem to do fine in both departments whether Sonic is in the picture or not. It's really NOT a big deal when an underwhelming Sonic game comes out anymore. Forces wasn't a big deal. TSR wasn't a big deal. Unleashed wouldn't be a big deal.

They string fans along with references to the "untouchables" across all of their media all the time. They can afford to polish out some kinks on Unleashed and do a reissue. Capcom does it with their bad games often enough for everyone to understand it's not some big risk. The cost for the whole thing shouldn't be understated, but it's still low enough that niche fans can make up the difference.

[Indigo Rush]

2 minutes ago, Wraith said:

You're making sense, but I don't think any Sonic fan is obligated to give a fuck about SEGA's finances/rep, especially these days where they seem to do fine in both departments whether Sonic is in the picture or not.

They string fans along with references to the "untouchables" across all of their media all the time. They can afford to polish out some kinks on Unleashed and do a reissue. Capcom does it with their bad games often enough for everyone to understand it's not some big risk. The cost for the whole thing shouldn't be understated, but it's still low enough that niche fans can make up the difference.

I do understand that. I guess I don't see a need to remaster it either as it's a gorgeous game that isn't really hurting to be significantly changed (medal hunting aside) and my argument is more about why Colors needs it more.

I can see why fans want a collection, though. I can get behind that.

[azoo]

Gonna be real with yall, I don't want any remasters or a collection as the main meal. I'm so tired of talking about these same games, man. lol