Sonic Colors Ultimate Review Scores Thread

[KHCast]

9 minutes ago, Jack-al said:

Okay, let's keep roasting SCU but can we drop the Rangers overhype? We have barely heard info in leaks about it and it looks the anti-Forces, a game that rips-off a masterpiece with Sonic slapped onto it and no other elements from the core franchise. I would rather play Colors again which I know to be decent than a mystery utopia game.

…huh? I didn’t even see any Rangers talk. Are you in the right topic or…lol?

[Red Hot Jack]

12 minutes ago, KHCast said:

…huh? I didn’t even see any Rangers talk. Are you in the right topic or…lol?

 

9 hours ago, Jango said:

Mygodyouguyswritesomuch

Thinking about getting this on sale tbh, considering I already played it on Dolphin years ago, eventhought my computer ran some zones like, at 15FPS, but ok. 

I would probably be more interested in this if it was a remaster more like Crash and Spyro, were you could see an actual upgrade, but Ultimate? Man, they couldn't even make it run at 60FPS on the Switch, get the fuck out of here. Like many have said over the past months, you can get the same results on Dolphin if you have a good enough PC, maybe even better because at least Tropical Resort and Sonic's model doesn't look like ass.

$9,99 that's the best I can pay SEGA, gimme Rangers.

 

 

 

Plus some status updates

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Extremely interesting that you thought either of those things would somehow make your other post look better instead of worse

[KHCast]

11 minutes ago, Jack-al said:

 

Plus some status updates

That post was primarily about colors tho? They only briefly brought up rangers to say it still seemed like the more interesting game for them between the two.

 

As for talking about Rangers in the statuses…okay, those are the statuses, I don’t see what that has to do with colors or colors reviews

[Red Hot Jack]

Yeah I'm sorry, I just dislike Rangers hype so I brought it up again after a couple of small mentions. Let's keep it to Colors talk.

[Jango]

My dude, I'm the least hyped member of this forum these days, the hell you're talking about lol I was being more ironic than anything. I'm not hyped for Rangers because there's nothing about Rangers that we know for sure besides the usual 4chan leaks, let's not fool ourselves.

We don't.

Even know.

THE ACTUAL. NAME. OF. THE GAME.

[Sonicka]

10 hours ago, Jango said:

As a graphic designer, I'm offended by this screen:

Seriously, WTF happened here? They made this on Canvas in 5 minutes or what. This is REAL. There are better templates you can download for free all over the internet, this is someone's nephew work. Man this game has its uglyness everywhere.

I mean... unless they were intentional about it looking like a reeeeal dodgy internet pop up ad for Eggman's amusement park? 

Actually, has anyone on the internet discovered the parameters to unlock Metal Sonic as a secret skin or anything yet? Because if he's not... then that would be the real missed opportunity here, especially with the model in the game.

[Dreadknux]

I'll be honest, I thought this topic would talk more about review scores about Sonic Colours Ultimate from a range of websites rather than something to do with Pokemon(????????) for three pages. 

It might be worth updating the OP with a list of scores from different places.

TheGamer seems to really like the game! They gave it 4.5 Stars!
https://www.thegamer.com/sonic-colors-ultimate-review/

Currently the highest-rated review for the game so far.

Quote

From the enhanced graphics and extra customization, to the addition of the Tails Save mechanic, Rival Rush, and a brand new and elusive Wisp, Sonic Colors: Ultimate has proven to be the most colorful remaster in Sonic's history.It may be a rehash of a decade-old game instead of an entirely new one, but Sonic Colors: Ultimate still manages to pass the test with flying colors.

 

44 minutes ago, Son-icka said:

I mean... unless they were intentional about it looking like a reeeeal dodgy internet pop up ad for Eggman's amusement park? 

Actually has anyone on the internet discovered the parameters to unlock Metal Sonic as a secret skin or anything yet? Because if he's not... then that's from would be the real missed opportunity here with the model in the game.

I'm not sure about a skin per se, but you can unlock a 'dark' aura and boost customisations by beating Metal Sonic 5 and 6 times respectively.

[Jango]

Well, the reviews being basically the same as 11 years ago, minus the jokey Destructoid review obviously, gives me no hope that a Unleashed Ultimate would be better received by the "gaming journalists" all around. It would only be a reminder of "that time Sonic turned into a werewolf lmao". It might even score much lower than in 2008. 

That been said... There's literally no other 3D Sonic game that SEGA can choose to remaster, except Generations. Colors was the safest best.

So I guess we're done here.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

3 hours ago, Jack-al said:

 

Plus some status updates

I mean, that's pretty much just one person ranting up a mess, so it's not like it overtook the thread. 

It's honestly best you just ignore the rant(s). It'll save you a lot of trouble.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

23 minutes ago, Jango said:

That been said... There's literally no other 3D Sonic game that SEGA can choose to remaster, except Generations. Colors was the safest best.

So I guess we're done here.

I don't understand what's so wrong with doing game collections for any game past the 16-bit era nowadays. Does nobody want to be Kingdom Hearts or Metal Gear Solid? I seem to remember the "get every game in the timeline at once" collections for those being pretty well-received. There's a lot less expectations for making a "good remaster" with a bigger collection, and if you bundle bad games with the good ones, you can at least make the excuse of simply preserving the series' history (lord knows the collections did not make Chain of Memories less of a chore).

And even then, if your port job is anything more than just emulation, it's a guarantee that someone will try to mod most of the problems out. I know if Shadow were on PC we'd have some project for merging all the routes and cutscenes together as best as possible, and depending on what changes you could make to the level design and physics, you could almost craft a half-decent experience out of it...maybe.

You can't even make the "they're splitting them up for more money" argument like with Nintendo and Zelda, because Colors is the first 3D game to get any sort of remaster since SA2B, and as much as I hate the Adventure ports, they made SEGA a bunch of money by introducing Nintendo buyers to the series.

Which is why, even though it's got some obvious issues, I'm glad that Colors Ultimate exists and doesn't fuck over the game's reputation like the Adventure ports. It's a net positive.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Which is why, even though it's got some obvious issues, I'm glad that Colors Ultimate exists and doesn't fuck over the game's reputation like the Adventure ports. It's a net positive.

And that's why some people who act like this game being received well, treat it like the end to all other things,  don't make sense in the slightest.

[TheOcelot]

45 minutes ago, Dreadknux said:

It might be worth updating the OP with a list of scores from different places.

I've updated the OP.

Metacritic score is currently 76 based on 31 reviews of the PS4 version which I think is respectable for a solid (not spectacular) remaster.

The switch version has a higher Metacritic score of 80...but that's based on only 1 review so far 

[Jango]

Shoving every 3D game in existence in a single disc isn't the same as remastering a single game. You're right that having some bad apples between good ones will be less damage than re-releasing a Shadow or a Black Knight stand alone remasters in the wild. I would be OK with such collection, as I stated MANY times already in this forum. 

The thing is, Colors was well received in 2010. Unleashed was not. Unless Blind Squirrel fucked up amazingly, as in the game is full of glitches and technical issues that were not in the original, the game will always score the same. 

I mean sure, fix some of Unleashed's most obnoxious issues like the medals and the "talk to Pickle" confusing progression. It's still that game were Sonic became a werewolf to the vast majority of critics and it will be bombed again. 

Seriously, why do you think SEGA choose Sonic Colors of all games? 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

3 minutes ago, Jango said:

Shoving every 3D game in existence in a single disc isn't the same as remastering a single game. You're right that having some bad apples between good ones will be less damage than re-realising a Shadow or a Black Knight stand alone remasters in the wild. I would be OK with such collection, as I stated MANY times already in this forum. 

The thing is, Colors was well received in 2010. Unleashed was not. Unless Blind Squirrel fucked up amazingly, as in the game is full of glitches and technical issues that were not in the original, the game will always score the same. 

I mean sure, fix some of Unleashed's most obnoxious issues like the medals and the "talk to Pickle" confusing progression. It's still that game were Sonic became a werewolf to the vast majority of critics and it will be bombed again. 

Seriously, why do you think SEGA choose Sonic Colors of all games? 

Well I know all that...I guess I just don't understand your original post then. Either they rerelease the bad ones or they don't. Are you saying that they should do more to make the remasters different? That it's pointless to rerelease Unleashed? I don't get it. It is nearly 6AM for me and I should probably have been asleep several hours ago, so sorry if I'm fucking something up here.

[Jango]

19 minutes ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Well I know all that...I guess I just don't understand your original post then. Either they rerelease the bad ones or they don't. Are you saying that they should do more to make the remasters different? That it's pointless to rerelease Unleashed? I don't get it. It is nearly 6AM for me and I should probably have been asleep several hours ago, so sorry if I'm fucking something up here.

Anything can be a valid point to make anything in life. My post was more an exercise, I'm thinking like SEGA. They care about the public reception for Sonic more than they did before. I would love a Sonic Unleashed remaster. I would LOVE a Sonic Heroes remaster. I would take a Riders remaster. But there's a reason why SEGA cherry picked Colors. And that was its already pretty good reception. I'm not saying the doors should be closed, much less "because Colors Ultimate's reception has been solid" lol. But from a more "SEGA" point of view, I'm not feeling more 3D remasters coming tbh...

[Empire88]

Basically. Sonic Unleashed for example got around 60% metacritic (lower for PS3 versions). And again, no matter how much the fanbase likes to clamor for it these day, the matter of the fact is that it was not positively viewed when it came out. Heck that is half the reason why Colors got the reception it did, because people saw it as a turning point after Unleashed. 

That's not to say there is anything wrong with enjoying Unleashed or thinking it is a good game. It's just that with Colors, there was very little work needed to bring in positive reviews and attract more fans. With Sonic Unleashed, if all they did was improve the visuals, there would be a lot of division and more people talking about how the werehog gameplay isn't as fun as the regular gameplay etc, which brings in a more mixed pool.

Same with Heroes. I am a fan of that game. That being said, the controls are also wonky. If it got a rerelease, it would need more of a touch up than Colors. Like Jango said, I am not saying the door should be closed to those things, and I hope they can maybe get an updated rerelease one day. But from a "boost the reputation of our series" strategy, Colors barely needed any work and was guaranteed to at least hit 8 or 7/10 in most reviews. 

[Sonikko]

If anyhing I think a Generations remaster is not off the table, but I wouldn't expect anything after Heroes and before Colours.

A SA1/2 HD pack thing would make sense, a Sonic Heroes re-release too I believe, since it was relatively well received and it's not available to play anywhere at the moment, except the pc release which is abandonware by now.

Unleashed's reception is not good enough to warrant a remaster, I believe, no matter how much good will it has earned within the fanbase during the past few years.

As @Jangowas saying, if Colours Ultimate, despite being janky and pretty much a broken port of the original, got roughly the same scores and reviews as the OG release, it is very likely that Unleashed would probably do the same, even if the remaster improved on things.

Sonic games are kind of the low hanging fruit for the gaming community as a whole, the series has and has had very little credibility since the early 2000s, so it really makes no sense for SEGA to re-release Unleashed, or any of the games that came out between 2005 and 2010, as much as I would absolutely love that.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

49 minutes ago, Jango said:

Seriously, why do you think SEGA choose Sonic Colors of all games? 

Well, it is undoubtedly and full-heartedly a better game than Unleashed for starters.

[Shiny Gems]

4 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

Well, it is undoubtedly and full-heartedly a better game than Unleashed for starters.

I can agree to that, even though I liked the Werehog, though that is not changing much as you know.

[Wraith]

Sega ignored the crying for an Unleashed remaster and made a beeline for a game no one was asking for instead because their point never was to give hardcore Sonic fans an archival rerelease they'd been asking for. They chose Sonic Colors and marketed it like a new release because it was an easy stepping stone for new players into playing Sonic games after the movie. This is the main reason they even bothered with this release after 10 years of ignoring their back catalogue. They never saw the point in bothering beforehand. Clearly just having old Sonic games out there for the sake of it isn't a thing for them. They need it to serve whatever strategy they have for the brand.

What other Sonic games are good for this? The Adventure games are buggy, unpolished, visually unappealing and overall don't play anything like modern Sonic games typically do nowadays and almost every other 3D Sonic game is worse in that regard. There's not even any relevant characters or lore to introduce in either game besides Shadow.

No other 3D Sonic game actually compliments this goal other than Generations, so nothing besides maybe Generations is getting a remaster. Sonic's 'ongoing story' is deliberately underminded at every opportunity for the sake of making every Sonic product easy to access, so they won't use that as a selling point. They don't think 'hardcore 3D Sonic fans' alone are a lucrative target demo, else Sonic Unleashed Ultimate would have been out before Colors.

I agree that just putting the bad games on a disc and shipping them out is the right call, but I'm convinced sega will never feel this way. It's always cold, calculated, cynical grasps at stabilizing Sonic's popularity without alienating anyone now.

[Dr. Mechano]

The late 2000s shook a lot of peoples’ confidence in the series. We were getting one highly contentious game after another, each with its own unpopular gimmick.

Sonic Colors largely avoided this, and its back-to-basics approach was hailed as a return to form for a lot of fans and critics at the time. 
 

That this reputation has held up over the last decade isn’t surprising. 

[Remy]

2 hours ago, Jango said:

Well, the reviews being basically the same as 11 years ago, minus the jokey Destructoid review obviously, gives me no hope that a Unleashed Ultimate would be better received by the "gaming journalists" all around. It would only be a reminder of "that time Sonic turned into a werewolf lmao". It might even score much lower than in 2008. 

On one hand, unleashed had the "sonic is good again" attitude/momentum boosting it after trashy 06.

On the other hand didn't the werehog stages have performance issues to the point they were p much unplayable? Games with busted performance usually get a review score boost if they get a re-release thats smooth.

If any game needs one, I'd choose  unleashed. No modern PC release, and ps3s and xbox 360s are fading into obscurity

[Ryannumber1gamer]

5 minutes ago, Remy said:

On one hand, unleashed had the "sonic is good again" attitude/momentum boosting it after trashy 06.

On the other hand didn't the werehog stages have performance issues to the point they were p much unplayable? Games with busted performance usually get a review score boost if they get a re-release thats smooth.

If any game needs one, I'd choose  unleashed. No modern PC release, and ps3s and xbox 360s are fading into obscurity

Not just the Werehog, most aspects of Unleashed have performance drops, especially when you hit Eggmanland and Adabat. Given that it took until the Series X and Series S to allow it to run at consistent 30FPS via BC mode, Unleashed bare minimum is a game that would highly benefit from being better optimised.

[NoKaine]

8 minutes ago, Remy said:

On one hand, unleashed had the "sonic is good again" attitude/momentum boosting it after trashy 06.

On the other hand didn't the werehog stages have performance issues to the point they were p much unplayable? Games with busted performance usually get a review score boost if they get a re-release thats smooth 

Unleashed had the "If only the Werehog wasn't here, Sonic would be good again" attitude. People didn't think Unleashed was good, they thought part of it was good, which is why Colors exist.

A performance boost isn't going to help its review potential either.

15 minutes ago, Wraith said:

Sega ignored the crying for an Unleashed remaster and made a beeline for a game no one was asking for instead because their point never was to give hardcore Sonic fans an archival rerelease they'd been asking for. They chose Sonic Colors and marketed it like a new release because it was an easy stepping stone for new players into playing Sonic games after the movie. This is the main reason they even bothered with this release after 10 years of ignoring their back catalogue. They never saw the point in bothering beforehand.

What other Sonic games are good for this? The Adventure games are buggy, unpolished, visually unappealing and overall don't play anything like modern Sonic games typically do nowadays and almost every other 3D Sonic game is worse in that regard. There's not even any relevant characters or lore to introduce in either game besides Shadow.

No other 3D Sonic game actually compliments this goal other than Generations, so nothing besides maybe Generations is getting a remaster. Sonic's 'ongoing story' is deliberately underminded at every opportunity for the sake of making every Sonic product easy to access, so they won't use that as a selling point. They don't think 'hardcore 3D Sonic fans' alone are a lucrative target demo, else Sonic Unleashed Ultimate would have been out before Colors.

I agree that just putting the bad games on a disc and shipping them out is the right call, but I'm convinced sega will never feel this way. It's always cold, calculated, cynical grasps at stabilizing Sonic's popularity without alienating anyone now.

No one makes remasters for "archival" or lore. That's a lot of money to waste on nothing. 

You're completely right that Colors rereleased because it's easier to access and it's also because people actually think it's good and the 2% of people unironically clamouring to play Sonic '06 again is a non-existent market. Hardcore fans would buy anything anyway.

Every game they make is to make money. Yes, even the ones you like. Making a collection of explicitly shitty games with no changes is the kind of decision a SEGA would made those shitty games in the first place would make, and I don't know why there's nostalgia for that kind of SEGA. 

Why do you think that a "Sonic's Garbage Collection" would be less cynical and calculated than Colors Ultimate, as if the former wouldn't be marketed entirely around self-depreciation and jokes about Sonic's reputation, because that is literally the only way you can market an idea like that? At least they can market Colors Ultimate with "hey, you will actually have fun playing this."

Now we have a SEGA that actually seems like they want to control the brand and stop making crap (even if their answer seems to be to not make many games at all).

Edited September 2, 2021 by NoKaine