News Sonic Colours Ultimate Patch 3.0 (Audio Toggle/Cosmetic additions/bug fixes)

[VO.SUPER]

Felt this was worth a new thread, for anyone still interested in Colour's Ult. I'm still shocked the Starlight Carnival glitch is still a thing, but at the least a lot of other terrible stuff is generally fixed. It's good that we're finally approaching a more than servicable version of Colours Ult (too bad it wasn't like this from the beginning.)

 

[ZinogreVolt]

Better late than never, as they say. It's disappointing that Colors Ultimate launched in the state that it did, but I'm at least glad they've been so transparent in what specifically is being fixed and improved. It's not quite where it ought to be just yet, but it's getting there steadily. Colors is one of my personal favorites, so I'm glad they're making sure that the game won't be left as the laughing stock it was when it first released.

[KHCast]

Are the menus still laggy as shit? That’s the one thing that’s been really bothering me 

[VO.SUPER]

25 minutes ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Better late than never, as they say. It's disappointing that Colors Ultimate launched in the state that it did, but I'm at least glad they've been so transparent in what specifically is being fixed and improved. It's not quite where it ought to be just yet, but it's getting there steadily. Colors is one of my personal favorites, so I'm glad they're making sure that the game won't be left as the laughing stock it was when it first released.

Progress is progress I suppose. The next thing I really want addressed are the Metal Sonic races. It's too much to have more I bet, but the least that needs to be done is fixing their presentation to something passable.

If they do that, THEN this product is fully where it should've been at launch.

And I'm confident SEGA will do more, since they've not announced this as the final patch yet and have been transparent with the fixes.

[Blue Blood]

16 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Are the menus still laggy as shit? That’s the one thing that’s been really bothering me 

I believe so, yeah. 

So the problem with this patch is that:

1. It's solving problems that should never have existed in the first place. 
2. It doesn't address other issues, be they the laggy menus or how cheap and nasty the implementation of Rival Rush is, despite it being a full three months since the game came out. 
3. They've prioritised adding in new cosmetics without first fixing Sonic's eyes. 
4. It's still a shoddy port of a Wii game that runs poorly on Switch.

Colours Ultimate isn't awful. It's not like it's a broken port, and the game is still fundamentally the same game it was 11 years ago. But it's such a poor effort. SEGA and Blind Squirrel don't deserve any good will for this. 

 

[ZinogreVolt]

The menus unfortunately feel especially poor on the Switch version. The world map, customization menus, stage select, etc. all ran at 60FPS in the Wii game. Getting the menu framerate cut in half on Switch in conjunction with the lag that exists in all versions is pretty bad and one of the main things stopping me from playing this over the Wii version. 

[McGroose]

I'm still pretty amazed that this game Is still getting patches and will likely get more, I thought they were going to jump ship on it after the acid trip glitch was fixed. It's nice to see them still working on it, but it needs way more fixes to it before I'll buy it. This is a good start though. 

[Sonicka]

Yup, having now play tested I can say it feels slightly better (running on PS4Pro). There are a few technical aspects on show that certainly have the game running better on certain platforms for sure. But still, the way they went about this port certainly feels messy, unplanned and disjointed in design choices for all the updates.

On the positive, the illuminated line of the Laser Wisp alone being fixed has pleased me. The boost effect wasn't that much of a problem personally, but it is definitely better without it (in Ultimate at least anyway). 

The main difference that gives the game it's tingly Colours feel back is the music for the corresponding acts. Because whilst not everything was bad in the remasters... there were some godawful replacements for the main levels. But at least we have 3 options to select from now. I will say that I would have thought they'd do it like Generations so you can select the music when you choose the Act as weirdly the option is hidden away in the still dreadful laggy menus. ...actually, even the menu operation to switch the music felt like a weird tacked on thing - like it was a select screen designed for PC users. Very out of place, but meh - at this point I'll take it if it gives me what I want.

I am still hoping they can separate out the Music Volume and FX volume someday. Especially since a new issue I have discovered is that Eggman seems to be a whimper in the background with his commentary now.

Sonic Colours is a game I adored in the series, and I still do. But I still feel quite let down by the overall product now I've had some time with it over all these months. Ultimately (ha!) The Wii version of this game is still far superior, but this port is certainly not so "broken" or "buggy" that renders it any worse off in terms of playability in comparison to the likes of other efforts like Sonic Adventure DX. 

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

At least the original soundtrack is back and the main bugs are fixed.

[JonoD]

Was happy to see that a number of stuff is running better in Colours Ultimate now. Some annoying stuff remains, but it's at least more like what I was hoping for.

The ability to turn off the remixed music was very welcome indeed. Being to run through Tropical Resort 1 properly was definitely a much more enjoyable experience, and the fixes they made to the Hover and Laser wisps makes a lot of stuff regarding them a lot smoother. I'm also noticing the audio dropouts becoming a lot less frequent too (especially in the post-level results screen and the wisp themes are now playing much more reliably).

I saw in the patch notes that you could turn off the Tails save, but I haven't been able to find an option anywhere. Anyone know where you can go for that? I didn't see it in the options anywhere.

That said, the options screen still lagging terribly and Sonic's animations and other graphics randomly disappearing is still not great. But hey I definitely have a more optimistic view that more fixes will come.

[Jango]

They did the stuff people have been asking since it was announced Are the sfx volume still tied to the bgm? Because that was another stupid decision that should've been fixed at this point.

[Stasis]

Flickering smoke in Planet Wisp not fixed.

Momentary pauses in game still present. 

Menus still slow.

Act select run animation not fixed.

Sonic Simulator 'speed' animations not fixed. 

Not looked at any others just yet. Why aren't these being fixed? 

[Blue Blood]

4 hours ago, JonoD said:

I saw in the patch notes that you could turn off the Tails save, but I haven't been able to find an option anywhere. Anyone know where you can go for that? I didn't see it in the options anywhere.

It's not Tails Save that can be turned off, but instead Tails Navigator. You got the choice to have the navigator (hints) on our off when you start a new file. In the Wii version, you could toggle these at any time via the options menu, but in Ultimate you were stuck with your choice until now.

Nice that they finally added this feature back, but have they corrected it to apply to all of Tails gameplay dialogue in Ultimate? They added new Tails dialogue over gameplay in Ultimate for some reason, and he says stuff when you're over a bottomless pit or press a switch. Annoyingly, this dialogue would play even if you had the navigator turned off. Is that still the case? 

Anyway, I can't seem to update the game yet. I only have the Japanese version. Kind of annoying, but not a big deal.