Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[VO.SUPER]

I think the change in the background from blue to spacey is an artistic choice than just bad design. The fact they never fixed it suggests to me that they did it on purpose. Even if it doesn't make sense, when Tropical resort has a clear dome around it.

  

1 hour ago, KHCast said:

Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by remasters like Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5/2.8 and MGS HD, but yeah this game is really just barely passing decent enough in terms of what it needs to be considered an “upgrade” from the wii version. The new additions and updates don’t offend, but at the same there’s still not enough that makes this version stand out much or make it feel “definitive”

I'd agree that it certainly doesn't stand out. The only thing I think would make it "definitive" is just that it's on modern consoles and modern resolutions as far as official ports go.

[McGroose]

FFS man the lighting looks like ass in Ultimate, they haven't fixed it at all from the build in the reveal trailer. I've seen better lighting with customized reshade/bloom mods for games made in the early 2000s.

My frustration is only amplified by knowing that, upon being released for PC, a mod to make this game have proper lighting will be made by one person to undue the mistake of an entire game dev studio. 

[FloweringFox]

I don't mind the lighting on the environment, but boy does Sonic's skin look awful. It's way too light and it looks like it's a glowing light.

[Slashy]

Change my mind Sonic Adventure DX had more effort put into it than Sonic Colors Ultimate.

[VO.SUPER]

6 minutes ago, Slashy said:

Change my mind Sonic Adventure DX had more effort put into it than Sonic Colors Ultimate.

It did. In a lot of the wrong places. I'll take a different take on lightning over half assed remodeling, broken lighting, a glitchy mission mode, and terrible new textures.

And in exchange I get a cheaper product that will be more rounded out. 

[Slashy]

1 minute ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

It did. In a lot of the wrong places. I'll take a different take on lightning over half assed remodeling, broken lighting, a glitchy mission mode, and terrible new textures.

And in exchange I get a cheaper product that will be more rounded out. 

Colors Ultimate is only 10 dollars cheaper than when Colors was released new.

You forgot Game Gear games, playable Metal Sonic, and a greatly expanded Chao Garden.

[VO.SUPER]

Just now, Slashy said:

Colors Ultimate is only 10 dollars cheaper than when Colors was released new.

Cheaper than the full price DX was asking for in exchange for breaking the game and giving lame Game Gear ports, (especially when you could get those ports with better collections).

[Slashy]

1 minute ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Cheaper than the full price DX was asking for in exchange for breaking the game and giving lame Game Gear ports, (especially when you could get those ports with better collections).

I think you are exaggerating how bad the Gamecube port is. The game didn't get problematic until the later ports.

[VO.SUPER]

Just now, Slashy said:

I think you are exaggerating how bad the Gamecube port is. The game didn't get problematic until the later ports.

You brought it up in comparison to this port, and frankly yeah its a worse product than its original for its extra effort when the dev team clearly didn't have the time to give ambitious features. 

Colours Ultimate on the other hand knows its limits and chooses to keep the product as rounded as possible. If the time and resources aren't there, then don't bother going all out on shit that just makes it sloppily. 

[Jango]

I'd say Planet Wisp looked pretty alright when we saw it earlier, but Tropical Resort is just EW.

[Dr. Detective]

Yeah, it still looks like Sonic Colors. 

The main thing I'm interested in seeing are the cutscenes. I seriously wanna know if they still have those weird jaggies and aliasing on their bodies and eyeballs or if those got updated. I don't want to consider that they'd just be copy and pasted in but after how bad the cutscenes in Forces looked, it's something I feel the need to consider. 

[PSI Wind]

I heard some new grunts from Roger in the Asteroid Coaster video, or at least I think I did. I'm assuming the game may have been re-recorded in some areas, mainly cutscenes, or even somewhat rewritten, especially with the Jade Wisp

[Edward850]

7 hours ago, Jango said:

Weird, that doesn't quite look like 60FPS to me. Maybe it's my computer, IDK.

No it's not you, it straight up isn't 60FPS. The video itself is but the capture source they have appears to be 30. Doing a frame by frame advance shows every second frame is duplicated, sans compression artefacts from somewhere in the encoding process.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

It's insane how awful that model looks. I genuinely can't tell if it's the model itself or the lighting on it, but it just doesn't look particularly good.

[Slashy]

Why does Planet Wisp from Colors Ultimate look worse than Planet Wisp from Generations?

[Polkadi~☆]

This is just incredibly disappointing. When first hearing about this game, I was ready for the definitive version of Colours. Higher quality textures, higher poly count, the new lighting provided by Hedgehog Engine 2, so many different things... And that's without touching or changing the foundations of the game.
If I were to go truly nuts with my wishes, I'd make it so the old two act and boss structure is back, then complete two of four different side missions from the original game to advance to the next planet.

Yet we have the same game again, to a fault. There is some new bloom slapped everywhere, yet basic visual elements that really could have used an upgrade remaining left in the dust (or touched up without realising there were better options, i.e Sonic's model.) No remastering work, just shallow new effects.
All I see here is just a lazy port. There are some new dressings over it, but it's ultimately no more than just, and I cannot stress this enough, a basic and barebones PORT.

I'm not even angry about any of this, just completely deflated and disappointed.

[shdowhunt60]

1 hour ago, Slashy said:

Why does Planet Wisp from Colors Ultimate look worse than Planet Wisp from Generations?

Because it's basically just Planet Wisp from Colors, but with worse lighting.

I'm really not feeling this one gang. I don't even like any of the remixes. Sorry Sonic Team, but I'm pretty firmly in the camp of "wait for this to come out on the steam and for fans to fix it", because I'm pretty unimpressed.

[StaticMania]

6 hours ago, Son-icka said:

Ok, I'll give y'all that something was a little weird with that Tropical Resort Act 2 gameplay they just showed off.

Why was the Laser Wisp's laser no longer bright neon? One of the things that should have its own independent and striking light source in this level has oddly been dulled it down when sonic was pinging everywhere, I couldn't even see the ping line at one point.

Edit: Ok it seems to glow at the end of the line, but I'm sure that's not right unless I'm misremembering? 

The screen is a lot darker when the laser is activating and they seem to have forgotten to make it so the laser trail itself isn't affected by that.

[Zaysho]

I'm curious if the stuff being shown off at E3 is still in an unfinished state. Stuff like Sonic's model looks really weird to me, probably more so than the muted colors and lighting.

This post is the best example I've seen because it's an immediate close-up of Sonic, so I don't think it was really apparent in the debut trailer:

Sonic's eyes are just dead center, not really looking at anything. His mouth is also a painted on smirk and you can see it when he goes on the trick ramp. Sonic's mouth opens in the original, it doesn't here. And then there's the general lighting looking off. The assumption is that it's not done, but with the uneven look of the rest of the game from recent footage and screenshots, I think it just is what it is. Nothing dire that I think most people will care about, just kind of a shame. Feel like it would've been better if the Wii game was just up-rezzed because the game's art direction carries it fine already.

[JezMM]

3 hours ago, Slashy said:

Why does Planet Wisp from Colors Ultimate look worse than Planet Wisp from Generations?

This was always more likely to be the case than not - it's a port, not a remake.  They're trying their best to doll up the last-gen visuals with bloom and contrast adjustments but as the discussion goes - it's ultimately looking worse than just displaying the original game in HD.

 

Tropical Resort makes 3 remixes - one more and we can confirm a reworked soundtrack.  Interesting they didn't plug that as a feature.  I've no qualms with the remixes so far to make the game feel fresh to veterans, but I hope the original soundtrack is included as an option too for those who prefer it.  Actually, considering every stage/boss song (bar Terminal Velocity) is used twice over in the game, it'd be cool to have a mix option where the first use is the original and the second use is the Ultimate rework.

[VO.SUPER]

I will say this port, for as understanding I try to be, really prioritized the wrong areas I feel. 

They try to doll things up with new lights when they could have prioritized smaller and more meaningful changes like cleaning up the animations, eliminating Wii pop-in, or changing up textures. 

But instead they had to turn Tropical Resort inside out to make it "look next gen".

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

I'm curious if the stuff being shown off at E3 is still in an unfinished state. Stuff like Sonic's model looks really weird to me, probably more so than the muted colors and lighting.

This post is the best example I've seen because it's an immediate close-up of Sonic, so I don't think it was really apparent in the debut trailer:

Sonic's eyes are just dead center, not really looking at anything. His mouth is also a painted on smirk and you can see it when he goes on the trick ramp. Sonic's mouth opens in the original, it doesn't here. And then there's the general lighting looking off. The assumption is that it's not done, but with the uneven look of the rest of the game from recent footage and screenshots, I think it just is what it is. Nothing dire that I think most people will care about, just kind of a shame. Feel like it would've been better if the Wii game was just up-rezzed because the game's art direction carries it fine already.

I'm glad someone else noticed that Sonic's eyes aren't moving in the Ultimate footage. It all looks so cheap and nasty. Sonic's painted on smirk is especially strange, because you can actually see his mouth open during the results screen. The game likely isn't totally finished yet. But, I agree with you and think that it's naive to say that "it's just unfinished". We can see more than enough to know what they're going for.

Interestingly you can see that they've touched up the geometry a little on those images; the canopy of the tree above Sonic is very polygonal in the Wii game but totally smooth in Ultimate. They're clearly touching up some things, but all of their efforts seem to be misplaced and half-baked. The music didn't need any adjustments, but it's all been remastered and possibly even remixed. They're using a higher-poly model for Sonic, but his animations haven't been smoothed, his mouth looks lazily painted on and his eyes aren't animated anymore. Bloom and other lighting effects have been implemented, but there's still a ton of pop-in and the colours look washed out, especially Tropical Resort.

Nah, this is bad. Not dreadful or anything, but seeing as I already thought so highly of the original, this does not look good. 

[shdowhunt60]

Also did anyone else notice that for whatever absolutely cursed reason, rainbow rings and dash panels now make the spring sound?

[SenEDDtor Missile]

2 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I'm curious if the stuff being shown off at E3 is still in an unfinished state. Stuff like Sonic's model looks really weird to me, probably more so than the muted colors and lighting.

This post is the best example I've seen because it's an immediate close-up of Sonic, so I don't think it was really apparent in the debut trailer:

Sonic's eyes are just dead center, not really looking at anything. His mouth is also a painted on smirk and you can see it when he goes on the trick ramp. Sonic's mouth opens in the original, it doesn't here. And then there's the general lighting looking off. The assumption is that it's not done, but with the uneven look of the rest of the game from recent footage and screenshots, I think it just is what it is. Nothing dire that I think most people will care about, just kind of a shame. Feel like it would've been better if the Wii game was just up-rezzed because the game's art direction carries it fine already.

Minor quibble from me, but the text in Ultimate lacks the small drop shadow (or if it's there, it's really small compared to the original), which makes it blend in with the background of the stage and a bit harder to read, especially with the Planet Wisp part.

[Blue Blood]

27 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

Also did anyone else notice that for whatever absolutely cursed reason, rainbow rings and dash panels now make the spring sound?

Urgh, Christ that's going to get really annoying really quickly. I make no odds about the fact that I already hate the sound effects that they've been using for springs (and other things such as grind rails) since '06, but now they've been misplaced on top the rainbow rings. I hope that gets fixed, but something tells me that it's actually intentional to go along with their new design.