Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[VO.SUPER]

Judging by the Amazon sales charts, where the only version of Colours Ultimate in the TOP 100 is the Switch version. It makes you wonder if SEGA should have demanded that version get priority. I dont imagine NPD next month will show any different results. 

[Graystripe2000]

Ehhh, it’s too early to call right now.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I have to wonder though.  Why did SEGA release review copies of this game before Blind Squirrel did the patches or before they checked to see if there were any glitches first?  I mean, if there were glitches in the game during the testing process, SEGA (well technically Blind Squirrel) could have done the patch work first before sending it out to the public.  Even if some of the glitches remained, then it wouldn't have been so bad because at least most of the glitches would have been fixed during testing.  

It just feels like ever since Sonic Generations, SEGA has been rushing out Sonic games without doing patches and it's been hurting the brand ever since.  So, why is SEGA constantly rushing these games out and do you think this whole situation with Sonic Colors Ultimate is going to ruin SEGA's reputation?

[VO.SUPER]

1 hour ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Ehhh, it’s too early to call right now.

It may be too early to call just how badly the other versions will sell, but I don't think its a stretch that the "lowest common denominator" is going to sell more again. 

Its the version that should have been given priority with this port, and going up from there, but clearly someone at SEGA or Blind Squirrel felt otherwise. 

Now that is the version suffering the worst bugs and glitches because it was clearly the one left behind. 

[Sega DogTagz]

51 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Its the version that should have been given priority with this port, and going up from there, but clearly someone at SEGA or Blind Squirrel felt otherwise.

How do you figure? In the original press release, Sega pointed out that one of the primary reasons for porting the game was because it was hard locked to the Wii and thus inaccessible to anyone without that console.

I would imagine Switch owners were more likely to own a Wii back then, thus the accessibility angle clearly targets gamers on other consoles.

 

Why would it make sense to prioritize the Switch anyway. Thats working backwards.

[TheOcelot]

I was lucky that I didn't really encounter any glitches in my first playthrough of Colours (on Friday). However, yesterday I encountered two significant glitches; one which caused me to get trapped in a Planet Wisp act (so I had to restart the act) and the other was gaming breaking-the game froze and I had to restart the game as well as my youtube stream. The game froze again today after I'd completed Game Land  just before I was able to show-off Super Sonic, so I again had to restart the game and my stream. Also when I did eventually play with Super Sonic the music for super didn't even play in one of the acts.

I'm so happy to be able to play Colours on current-gen consoles but these glitches are fucking annoying and embarrasing. Blind Squirrel seriously need to fix this mess.

 

 

 

[Kuzu]

Anyway, people are modding the levels together as god intended. Aquarium Park Acts 1 and 4.

 

[shdowhunt60]

6 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Judging by the Amazon sales charts, where the only version of Colours Ultimate in the TOP 100 is the Switch version. It makes you wonder if SEGA should have demanded that version get priority. I dont imagine NPD next month will show any different results. 

I would have thought that would've been the case just because Sonic historically has had very favorable performance on Nintendo consoles, but the inner machinations of SEGA are truly an enigma. Who knows what they were thinking.

[VO.SUPER]

3 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

How do you figure? In the original press release, Sega pointed out that one of the primary reasons for porting the game was because it was hard locked to the Wii and thus inaccessible to anyone without that console.

I would imagine Switch owners were more likely to own a Wii back then, thus the accessibility angle clearly targets gamers on other consoles.

 

Why would it make sense to prioritize the Switch anyway. Thats working backwards.

Because the Switch version is the one historically likely to sell best. It should make sense that version should be the first to be made stable and the others build on from there. Instead its the glitchiest and poorest optimized version. 

Even Forces ran decently well on Switch hardware that if you didn't care much, you'd have a solid technical experience. But this hardly counts as stable. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Tails model swap!

[Jango]

Happy launch day:

 

[PSI Wind]

The Wisp Capsule at the start of AC Act 1 that was moved to the right? It IS obtainable, but in the dumbest way possible.

[KHCast]

Alright time to play the game now lol. Will definitely post my thoughts throughout my playthrough. Hopefully don’t get any bugs or glitches since I’m currently downloading the update 

 

Edit: So there are a lot of audio issues I’ve experienced, ranging from Tails being way too quiet occasionally in his help screens, the wisp music not playing or the result theme not playing. Aside from that, the game occasionally does a half second freeze when sometimes picking up something like a tails save or red ring, which definitely can be distracting in certain fast paced situations. Hopefully that gets fixed soon

[Red Hot Jack]

The voices are kinda low I can't hear them. And I may have missed some music, the annoying boost blur, plus various things not polished enough, and the game crashed when I opened other windows on PC. That is still about it. My experience so far is great, I played 5 zones.

I'm not saying it is a good remaster because it could be better, I see a lot of scrapped things, Metal Sonic was gonna be playable and Jade Wisp wasn't added in the final color blaster. 

I can't say for sure because I'm definitely not buying the Switch version, but it's nowhere near to unplayable. I undetstand criticisms, they need to fix all the shit there is but it's not that big of a deal people are making, it"s not polished but you have to look for the major glitches, you have to find them.

I can't help but feel like other people will say "lmao Sonic bad as usual".

[Sonikko]

So...

This is a thing.

The thread has some more reviews from Glassdoor, some of them are from 2021, some from 2020 and some from 2019, all of them before Ultimate came out, so it's safe to assume it's not some crazy Sonic fan.

Apparently they boast a great work-life balance during interviews and on their website when that's far from the truth, and their management is just bad at managing lol.

Most of what's written in those reviews lines up with how Ultimate looks, they like to put people who are qualified in other fields, work on stuff they shouldn't be working on.

Like, let's say an environmental artist was put in charge of making the new UI...

Would they accept?
X Yes    O No

[NoKaine]

The person who made the big thread predicting that Colors Ultimate would fail because Blind Squirrel Studios had "anti-SEGA practices" like no crunch and having fun certainly had a 180:

EDIT: I also found this neat thread that may explain why the remaster in general is so laggy and takes long to load:

TL;DR: Their method of making background details (all background details), while not a bad idea, slows down the game. They likely did not have actual HD assets to use, either because SEGA didn't give them any or they flat-out doesn't exist. I know for the 3DS it was common to make HD models because it's easier to scale them down to the 3DS's resolution, but I don't know if that was a thing in 2009 - 2010.

I think this confirms a theory I had, that the PS4 and Xbox One versions run better not because they're better optimized but because the systems just brute-force whatever problems the game has, and the Switch can't, which is why it suffers.

It's especially egregious because this is a game where you would only see most of those assets for less than a second; I guess they were really concerned with people seeing a low-poly teapot.

[Red Hot Jack]

IF this is true, then a lot is explained.

Basically the project was under SEGA's management until it was playtested and called "unplayable", it was set to release last Christmas and SEGA called Blind Squirrel to try to save it. They failed obviously, but if this is true, I'm sorry that I blamed Blind Squirrel, it's would mean SEGA is really incompetent in making Sonic games, and I am scared for the future plus Rangers.

[NoKaine]

10 minutes ago, Jack-al said:

IF this is true, then a lot is explained.

Basically the project was under SEGA's management until it was playtested and called "unplayable", it was set to release last Christmas and SEGA called Blind Squirrel to try to save it. They failed obviously, but if this is true, I'm sorry that I blamed Blind Squirrel, it's would mean SEGA is really incompetent in making Sonic games, and I am scared for the future plus Rangers.

That report doesn't detail who was making the game before Blind Squirrel Studios because "SEGA" doesn't make games. It does align with past rumors, and BlazeHedgehog (isn't he on this forum?) also says these are just a collection of rumors.

But the idea that Blind Squirrel Studios took up the game after the game is considered dead lines up with the Glassdoor reviews that states that they pick up "Dead in house game that is 5 years too late."

So the question is where did SEGA's oversight go, from delaying a game and getting a new studio to letting Colors Ultimate release the way it did?

[VO.SUPER]

Quote

https://blazehedgehog.tumblr.com/post/661600362209443840/so-how-about-that-sonic-color-port

"I mean, we knew going in to this that the port looked a little funky, based on videos Sega was putting out that featured clearly broken effects. Sure, there was the hope that things would get fixed before release, but that’s all it should have been: hope. Cool your jets, wait and see. But you don’t have to go full Skeletor.

Based on what I’ve heard, from people I know and from what other rumors have said that seems to line up, it sounds like Sonic Colors Ultimate was a victim of covid-19. I was first informed that Sega was prepping a Sonic Colors remake/remaster in 2019, and it seems like the originally targeted release date was Christmas 2020. However, apparently, in early fall 2020, a performance evaluation revealed the game was in no state to release thanks to covid guidelines gumming up the development, and apparently Blind Squirrel was brought in to rescue the project.

That’s probably why Sonic Colors Ultimate is this weird mishmash of original game code + an implementation of Godot bolted on over the top of it. Blind Squirrel tried to clean up the mess as best they could, but it wasn’t good enough. The Switch version caught it the worst.

This isn’t an excuse for the quality of the remaster. It sucks and we deserve better, but you could say that about a lot of things during this pandemic. We just don’t need the big theatrics and the bickering over what is just another mediocre remaster."

The original blog

If that's the case, then I feel bad for all parties involved, yes, even SEGA.

Because if they started this in 2019 internally, then yeah that does align this project for getting gummed up by the pandemic. Each team had only one year to put this together. The SEGA team just couldn't adjust, and then Blind Squirrel got saddled at the last minute to salvage the thing. And well, Blind Squirrel did salvage the thing. It is playable and works well enough if you just play normally, even if it's far from perfect.

I mean, in many respects the best thing to do would have been to just cancel the project outright instead of this patch job.

[Milo]

If it’s true that this remaster was made in-house before being given to Blind Squirrel, it makes things all the more odd considering the other remasters Sega’s internal departments has done. The Yakuza team have done a pretty good job with both their Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball re-releases; and M2 has a solid track record between their VC releases, the Sega Ages Switch ports, and the Mega Drive miniconsoles. That’s not to say all of the recent re-releases are winners (Shenmue 1&2 for one), but unless this is specifically another clownshow on Sonic Team’s/CS2’s behalf, I would had expected a more competent effort otherwise.

At this point though I don’t know what to think. It kinda seems that there’s a blame game going around for who bears (the most) responsibility for Colors Ultimate turning out as it did. We probably won’t have a clear picture until a couple of years later after the dust has settled, like with Rise of Lyric.

[Jango]

Man, I can't wait for Sonic Origins then /s

[Graystripe2000]

3 minutes ago, Milo said:

If it’s true that this remaster was made in-house before being given to Blind Squirrel, it makes things all the more odd considering the other remasters Sega’s internal departments has done.

The original dev may not have even been an in-house studio AT ALL.

[NoKaine]

I don't fault the Blind Squirrel devs at all, it was a surprisingly arduous task with all things considered.

I am still curious about their management though.

[SBR2]

So I guess this means it's not entirely on Sega how things turned out. 

This is what happens when you name your company after an idiom which means you're only on the mark once.

[Milo]

Digital Foundry has their hardware analysis for Colors Ultimate up.

Summary (originally written by Lant_War from ResetEra):

- Higher resolution textures and remade assets, more modern effects like bloom, specularity in certain materials, shading, etc.
- UI is redone for higher resolutions.
- These changes definitely make it look differently, and some might prefer the original look.
- Some small visual glitches on PS5, objects popping, effects flickering, distant geometry missing.
- Cutscenes have been upscaled using AI, results are not perfect but still an improvement over the original.
Differences between platforms:

• PS5: 1440p at locked 60FPS.
• PS4: 1080p for the base and 1440p for the Pro, at mostly locked 60FPS with occasional hitches when running through the stages.
• Xbox Series: 1080p on the S / native 4K for the X, with x16 AF applied on the Series X version. Both at locked 60FPS
• Xbox One: 900p for the S / native 4K for the X, also 60FPS but with hitches being longer and occurring more frequently. They note that the actual framerate is fine, since it reaches 60FPS constantly when the hitches aren't occurring.
• Switch: 600p portable / 900p docked, targeting 30FPS but also with occasional hiccups. Lower asset quality and much longer loading times than even the original Wii release.

- John recommends the game on next gen, but recommends waiting for a patch on last gen or Switch.