Sonic Colours HD

[DistantJ]

^ I feel that, even with the flat, low-res textures, Sonic Colours is beautiful enough to work on HD systems without any alterations.

So, I have a Wii, and I still play it, and I'm looking forward to Sonic Colours. However I also think it's such an awesome and beautiful game that it deserves HD support, and people who don't own a Wii deserve to get to experience Sonic's apparent rebirth into amazingness. It's a pretty beautiful game, so a simple increase in resolution would suffice if you ask me, like Crash of the Titans, Mini Ninjas, All-Stars Tennis etc. where the graphics are the same but crisper on the HD consoles would do the trick with this I think. I've always felt that because of development time for a game which runs at 300MPH, Sonic should be done this way - develop the Wii version then up-port it to HD as is. Most people, on whatever console, would prefer a Colours-quality game with modest graphics to another cut-corners game which looks all pixar.

^ Many 3rd party mascot games are created for Wii and then up-ported with no actual changes aside from an increase in resolution, and they can still look beautiful because of their choice of art style.

So out of curiosity, is anybody else here wishing there was an HD version of this? Perhaps you don't have a Wii but really want this game, or perhaps you do but you'd love to see the game in HD, or, like me, you'd love for other people to be able to experience it? If enough people are interested in that, perhaps a letter to SEGA or petition or something would be worthwhile? I know, no HD support, not everybody can play it, not the end of the world, but this does appear to be Sonic's return to brilliance and it'd be more futureproof on the HD consoles and I can imagine a lot of people's interest in the Wii dropping with motion controllers showing up on the other two now.

Anyway, just interested to see if anybody else thinks like me for now, but if it gets a good turn out, perhaps some letters to SEGA might be a good idea. Since they're "listening to the fans" now, perhaps it's actually a somewhat worthwhile idea.

Edited September 20, 2010 by DistantJ

[Saint Nathan]

Filter =/= HD.

It could run without the filter easily. It doesn't need to be of a certain graphical quality to work on an Xbox.

That being said, yeah no. Let's stick with the Wii. Xbox is getting Free Riders, which looks pretty fun, and then chances are the next major Sonic game will be on XboxPS3 too.

Also this can't be delayed for a half-ass filter port. I won't allow it.

[DistantJ]

Filter? There's no filters involved in this process. Play Crash of the Titans or Mini Ninjas - it just outputs the games at high resolution, so there are no jaggies etc.

[EuroMIX]

The game looks fantastic as is, I feel that adding in HD would just add a lot of unnecessary cost and ultimately just end up as pointless eye-candy. I still don't, and probably never will, understand why a lot of people are more likely to discount a game just because it isn't in HD and then require it to be in HD in order for it to "fulfil its potential" or some such.

Perhaps one of the reasons Sonic Colours is succeeding is BECAUSE it isn't trying to meet anyone's expectations, especially as far as games using the "in HD" thing from this generation in order to help sell them. By focusing simply upon making a solid fun, and colourful game Sonic Team have potentially made something rather special.

HD is nice yes, but I doubt that it would make any significant change to the quality of this game.

[speedfreak]

Nah, the HD twins get tons of great 3rd party games that Nintendo doesn't. I think it's nice when the (extremely) rare 3rd party gem appears on the Wii. It's understandable to want an awesome looking game on your system of choice (the same thing happened with Epic Mickey) but I think the Wii really needs some decent 3rd party exclusive titles.

[Saint Nathan]

Filter? There's no filters involved in this process. Play Crash of the Titans or Mini Ninjas - it just outputs the games at high resolution, so there are no jaggies etc.

Isn't that a filter? Or am mixing words.

Even so, it would look really bad compared to other games on the HD consoles. I don't think it would look good at all.

And honestly I don't think it would sell very well.

[DistantJ]

Bummer.

Well I dunno if you played All-Stars tennis, the idea was like that. The game was built so that it could go on all systems, but was pretty enough with it's flat textures etc. Crash of the Titans for example looks really beautiful on the 360 even though it's only the resolution which is increased, all the textures, models etc. are the same. I just thought it'd be cool to see that with colours since anyone with a big HDTV like me will tell you how awful Wii games look on them.

Speedfreak, yeah I see what you mean but don't you feel like the Wii is starting to have run it's course? I mean I'll be surprised if next E3 doesn't see the new Nintendo, I feel like I'd prefer a game like this to be on something where it's going to last for longer. Also I've often kinda resented the whole 'exclusives' thing, I look forward to the day that choice of console becomes more like choice of DVD player - where almost everything is available for all and it's only really about which features you like. I always think we should judge games individually rather than group them into the console.

Still I can see where all you guys are coming from.

[Hero of Legend]

I'm also tired of seeing people ask for HD versions of great Wii games, you don't see people asking for FFXIII or Bayonetta on the Wii do you? Not that I've seen anyway.

Do I want Free Riders on Wii? Hell yeah! But only because it makes sense (Sonic on Nintendo, etc), and obviously you'd be able to play it with an actual controller.

But I've learned to not ask for Wii versions of big HD AAA titles, because it's like a "knowing your place" sort of thing for Wii owners. We're used to it.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Hero of Legend

[Diogenes]

Having a Wii, but not a 360 or PS3, personally I wouldn't give a shit about an HD version.

But I don't mind sharing.

(as long as we of the Wii get the 2011 game, too)

[EuroMIX]

Speedfreak, yeah I see what you mean but don't you feel like the Wii is starting to have run it's course? I mean I'll be surprised if next E3 doesn't see the new Nintendo, I feel like I'd prefer a game like this to be on something where it's going to last for longer.

Um, what? In my opinion support for the Wii has gotten BETTER, not worse and in turn this has brought out the best in the console and is really bringing it into it's own.

If what I hear is true, Vicarious Visions have unofficially introduced their own take on 360 "Achievements" and PS3 "Trophies" by making "Awards" for the Wii version of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, which includes the ability to link to your Twitter and/or Facebook account and update automatically when you gain a new award. So , from what I gather, it effectively emulates Live with the same set of achievements but without gamerpoints and using the aforementioned social networking sites instead; which is pretty damn impressive for a console with usually weak online features and that's not even mentioning how good the game itself will be.

In the same way, Sonic Colours is showing how good a Wii game can be when it gets proper focus and development. It's what Unleashed Wii could have or should have been had it been given the time of day.

These are games which take advantage of the strengths of the system and do their best with them, that's why they are impressive.

Also, the PS2 lasted a good ten years, the Wii has been around for about four; I think that it has some time to go yet.

Also I've often kinda resented the whole 'exclusives' thing, I look forward to the day that choice of console becomes more like choice of DVD player - where almost everything is available for all and it's only really about which features you like. I always think we should judge games individually rather than group them into the console.

I understand your point but I can never see games made by Nintendo going multi-platform until the company itself goes out of the console business like how Sega did. Unless you meant 3rd party games in which case I apologise.

EDIT: I apologise if this post comes off as "weird", my head isn't screwed on right today, nor ANY day in fact but meh...

Edited September 20, 2010 by Xavious

[Aries]

Buy a Component cable for the Wii! its the best it can get graphically!

[speedfreak]

(as long as we of the Wii get the 2011 game, too)

I'm almost positive it will. We didn't think it would get SU, it did. We didn't think it would get Sonic 4, it did. With the exception of 06 (who cares anyway) and Riders 3 (not even PS3 is getting it because it's Kinect exclusive) every Sonic related game has appeared on Wii. Though I wouldn't expect Colors quality for the Wii version of the 2011 game. It might end up being a SU type deal again.

Edited September 20, 2010 by speedfreak

[DistantJ]

What gave me the idea for this topic was playing the demo of Mini Ninjas on PS3. I had thought that was a Wii exclusive but there was the demo on the PSN marketplace. So I download it and it's completely untouched from the Wii version aside from the console rendering it at a much higher resolution by default, and yet it looks beautiful. A lot like Rocket Knight, a game which is HD consoles only but it's art style choses not to use multi-layer textures etc. so it could easily be pulled off on Wii and yet, again, it looks really good.

Support for the Wii has gotten better yeah, but I mean the hardware, having received PS Move from my girlfriend for my birthday, I'm feeling that when I go to the Wii it's starting to feel like it's time to move on from it, since it now officially has no system-side advantages (the advantages are in the fact that it has Zelda and Metroid, those games are amazing, imo), it feels like the Wii is ready to be replaced with a more current, firmware-upgradable system. For example the PS3 and 360 have redefined the way console 'generations' work, with the new 'generation' having started with their new controllers, 3D support, etc., upgrades which would have required a completely new system before, but the Wii doesn't have the capacity for this kind of update, and I dunno, with Blu-Ray taking off and the 3DS showing up and stuff to me it feels like the 640x480 rendering Wii might be passing the baton onto a new system soon, and yeah, just after it's started getting a good selection of games.

games which take advantage of the strengths of the system and do their best with them, that's why they are impressive

Yeah, see I like those, like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for example, before getting PS Move I couldn't imagine it on anything else and it's probably my #1 game ever made, or at least close to it, but Sonic Colours doesn't seem to make use of the Wii much aside from the fact that it can be lower budget without looking graphically inferior. I mean you shake the remote to activate a Wisp, that's all.

If you have an SDTV or a small HDTV most Wii games look awesome, with Mario Galaxy and the like looking almost indistinguishable from HD games, at my girlfriend's house we often play Wii and the stuff looks amazing, but at my place the HDTV is large and these games can look really nasty and it's becoming quite distracting particularly recently with so many previous-generation games showing up in HD collections now and everything. Just feels like it's ready to move on to me, and putting Sonic Colours Wii exclusive seems almost like boarding a cruise while the ship has started sinking. I mean I'll be surprised if next E3 we don't see the followup console. I just hope it's backwards compatible, I don't want Metroid Prime to be on the dust-gatehring tertiary console, heheh.

its the best it can get graphically!

That's the problem! The component cable is what I use. I have to set the sharpness to 0 to try and feel like I'm playing a game rather than a series of squares, heh... Like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for example, it's so immersive, until you turn the sharpness up and realise you're walking around pixel-world, it's strange, like Harry's phone goes from this phone in his hand to this strange lego object with zig-zags running up and down the sides, destroys the immersion for me.

The Wii used to have the trade-off of having great controls over the graphics, but since the other systems have now launched their motion controllers (well, the 360's to come soon) it feels like it's only advantage is, what, the Wiimote speaker? That's not to bitch the Wii out, none of this awesome motion control stuff would be possible without it, it's the pioneer, the original, but it's obviously starting to be at a disadvantage now that the others have managed to rip it off.

Edited September 20, 2010 by DistantJ

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm also tired of seeing people ask for HD versions of great Wii games, you don't see people asking for FFXIII or Bayonetta on the Wii do you? Not that I've seen anyway.

lol yes you do. I remember when people on this forum where asking for Wii versions of Sonic 06. I've lost count the number of people who comment on this video of mine asking for a wii version.

The fact is that this game should be getting a version other than the Wii and the only reason it isn't getting a Wii version is that Segas research people are idiots. The justification is that the Wii and PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed sold tons more than the HD counterparts... Wow I wonder why that was?

Could it be that the PS3 version was delayed by a month putting it's release to only a few weeks before Christmas?

Could it be that less than two days after it was released the PS2 version was selling for £10 and the Wii for barely £20?

Could it be that the majority of PS3 owners had backwards compatability on their PS3's so £10 for a new game was quite a tempting offer? Then considering that the PS2/Wii version was god awful to look and play might have put off more mainstream gamers?

Could it be that the 360 version had no price cut?

The whole argument is that Unleashed sold better on the Wii, yet what did they expect? You release any new game at christmas and sell it for less than half the price of any other game out on the market of course it's going to sell well! It's a trend to just about every Sega game released on the Wii in the last 2 years, Stormrise, Black Knight, Unleashed, Conduit, any game that has the word Sega slapped on the box will get a huge price cut within a week or two of it's released.

Then you get the more widespread argument, "Well Sonic games sell better on the Wii" Huh!? How do you come to that conclusion. Every Wii Sonic game has never been released on any other system, Secret Rings came out when the Wii had utterly no good games worth spending money on so of course it did well, and Black Knight had it's price cut to only £15... JUST A WEEK after it's release. And before anyone says Unleashed was released on all systems, Yeah and Ghostbusters on the Wii is the same as the other two versions... like fuck it is.

There is no reason at all why this shouldn't be getting a release on the other two consoles, no reason at all, heck with Move out now, why on earth have they not announced plans to port it already?

[DistantJ]

Good point... Unleashed Wii sold to both Wii-only owners and people who owned both systems who wanted to try both versions as well. In fact they kept saying pre-release "The Wii version is so different that fans should get both versions".

Nice to see you see it from my point of view, Gnasher (Oh, The Beano! Childhood memories!).

What I've always said, since back when they started using the "the games take too long to develop for us to just do Sonic levels we need to pad them out and slow them down", that they should develop the games 'flat texture style' for Wii and then port them up into HD. A lot people here don't appear to have seen the result but it can still look really nice. Crash of the Titans looks superb on the Xbox 360 even though it's not doing anything which wasn't done on the Wii version, same with Mini Ninjas and All-Stars Tennis, or the up-port from PS2/PSP of OutRun Arcade to XBLA and PSN...

The whole 'filter' thing - this only applies to 2D sprite-based games, where the graphics are drawn in specific pixels, where you need to use a filter to smoosh the pixels together if you want to hide them. 3D games are all vector-based, so rendering them in higher resolution just means the console draws more pixels into everything, so there's no filtering involved, you just get a much sharper picture by default.

Can anybody imagine Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3 running in HD? Those would look absolutely amazing regardless of how many texture layers were involved.

For reference:

^ Super Mario Galaxy running in HD on a Wii emulator.

Edited September 20, 2010 by DistantJ

[PSI Wind]

Most of the Wii's library is (sadly) lacking in good/great exclusives. Let it have exclusives, 360/PS3 owners. You have shitloads more than the Wii .

Edited September 20, 2010 by PSI Wind FTW!

[Agent York]

Most of the Wii's library is (sadly) lacking in good/great exclusives. Let it have exclusives, 360/PS3 owners. You have shitloads more than the Wii .

I don't know why people say this now, especially with a good line-up of titles that have come out recently and are coming out soon.

That said, this is Nintendo-Exclusive and like other exclusives will stay that way most likely. It is true I hear more moans when a good title is coming out for the Wii it should be ported to the other consoles since the Wii is "limiting" it or something like that when you need to realize it as made with Wii in mind. It is their choice what consoles it is for.

[agoodusername]

Can anybody imagine Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3 running in HD? Those would look absolutely amazing regardless of how many texture layers were involved.

For reference:

^ Super Mario Galaxy running in HD on a Wii emulator.

I've got a keen eye when it comes to screen resolution... but that doesn't look any different from the SD version I'm playing on my 20 year old TV... which looks no different from it on my HD TV minus the fact that the HD TV has wide screen.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Edge

[PSI Wind]

I don't know why people say this now, especially with a good line-up of titles that have come out recently and are coming out soon.

That said, this is Nintendo-Exclusive and like other exclusives will stay that way most likely. It is true I hear more moans when a good title is coming out for the Wii it should be ported to the other consoles since the Wii is "limiting" it or something like that when you need to realize it as made with Wii in mind. It is their choice what consoles it is for.

Well, I should've said "keep". Too many Wii games have gotten ported (With more, like a possible Murumasa port).

[Hero of Legend]

Oh hey, if you want it in HD, why not ask for it to be on...

The Wii's successor!

[Badnik Mechanic]

Oh hey, if you want it in HD, why not ask for it to be on...

The Wii's successor!

I take it thats your way of saying that you don't have anymore reasons or a counter argument as to why it shouldn't be ported?

Well, I should've said "keep". Too many Wii games have gotten ported.

So what? As someone who owns a wii I really couldn't care less how many games get ported to other systems. Only this one looks like a game that would actually sell pretty good if it was on other systems. Unless your on the Nintendo payroll, why the heck should anyone ever batter an eyelid?

Edited September 20, 2010 by Gnasher

[Aquaslash]

lol yes you do. I remember when people on this forum where asking for Wii versions of Sonic 06. I've lost count the number of people who comment on this video of mine asking for a wii version.

The fact is that this game should be getting a version other than the Wii and the only reason it isn't getting a Wii version is that Segas research people are idiots. The justification is that the Wii and PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed sold tons more than the HD counterparts... Wow I wonder why that was?

Could it be that the PS3 version was delayed by a month putting it's release to only a few weeks before Christmas?

Could it be that less than two days after it was released the PS2 version was selling for £10 and the Wii for barely £20?

Could it be that the majority of PS3 owners had backwards compatability on their PS3's so £10 for a new game was quite a tempting offer? Then considering that the PS2/Wii version was god awful to look and play might have put off more mainstream gamers?

Could it be that the 360 version had no price cut?

The whole argument is that Unleashed sold better on the Wii, yet what did they expect? You release any new game at christmas and sell it for less than half the price of any other game out on the market of course it's going to sell well! It's a trend to just about every Sega game released on the Wii in the last 2 years, Stormrise, Black Knight, Unleashed, Conduit, any game that has the word Sega slapped on the box will get a huge price cut within a week or two of it's released.

Then you get the more widespread argument, "Well Sonic games sell better on the Wii" Huh!? How do you come to that conclusion. Every Wii Sonic game has never been released on any other system, Secret Rings came out when the Wii had utterly no good games worth spending money on so of course it did well, and Black Knight had it's price cut to only £15... JUST A WEEK after it's release. And before anyone says Unleashed was released on all systems, Yeah and Ghostbusters on the Wii is the same as the other two versions... like fuck it is.

There is no reason at all why this shouldn't be getting a release on the other two consoles, no reason at all, heck with Move out now, why on earth have they not announced plans to port it already?

I agree with this man completely! While I own both a Wii and a 360, the fact of the matter is I just don't play my Wii as much as the 360. In fact, it seems to be always in the pawn shop XD. If this were multiplatform, I'd be getting it on the 360, hands down, just like ASR.

You call Free Riders a worthwhile exclusive? I still have to pay for a $150 piece of slag add-on just to play the damn thing. Exclusive ripoff is more like it.

[Robogaman]

So far this is the only game that makes me regret selling my Wii (besides Brawl). Personally, I would love to see Sonic Colors on 360 or PS3, but looks like I'll be missing out on (whats said to be) the best Sonic game ever. Well, looks like I have to buy a new Wii soon.

[Tornado]

Remy said this way way back in the days of the original million page-Project Needlemouse thread, and I think this topic makes it worth repeating:

The sense of entitlement from Wii owners is amazing.

Every god-damned time a mildly-important PS360 third party game comes out that could probably be ported to the Wii without that much trouble, all I ever hear is bitching about how the poor Wii never gets any love from developers and wah wah wah. And then, lo and behold, when the Wii gets a game that people can genuinely look forward to, people come out of the woodworks stating "Well, I don't want this game to be on the PS360 because the Wii needs more exclusives." What. The. Fuck.

This is the first Sonic game that looks like it was actually built to a standard of quality since 2004 (arguably 2001), and people seriously don't want it to show up on the other two systems just so they can have a bigger e-penis in regards to what system they bought?

Isn't that a filter? Or am mixing words.

It is being rendered at HD resolutions rather than Wii resolutions. It is not being upscaled and smoothed like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection or anything like that.

And honestly I don't think it would sell very well.

STH '06, the shittiest of the shit Sonic games, is a Platinum Hits title on the Bro-Box 360.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Tornado

[Aquaslash]

Every god-damned time a mildly-important PS360 third party game comes out that could probably be ported to the Wii without that much trouble, all I ever hear is bitching about how the poor Wii never gets any love from developers and wah wah wah. And then, lo and behold, when the Wii gets a game that people can genuinely look forward to, people come out of the woodworks stating "Well, I don't want this game to be on the PS360 because the Wii needs more exclusives." What. The. Fuck.

This is the first Sonic game that looks like it was actually built to a standard of quality since 2004 (arguably 2001), and people seriously don't want it to show up on the other two systems just so they can have a bigger e-penis in regards to what system they bought?

YES. THIS RIGHT HERE. I was totally thinking the same thing, but was unsure how to word it. Then again, I think the whole "console exclusive" bit is a load of bullslag anyway.