Sonic Colo(u)rs Impressions, Help, and Discussion Topic

[Blue Blood]

It seems excessive to make a post on this, but I can't help but point out how dim I feel for failing to notice until now that the racing robots in the sidestep sections are in fact the motorbug, the very first enemy from the very first Sonic game. Of course I'd noticed the crab bots and the bees, but the motorbug... Ugh, I'm gonna facepalm myself. Ow!

I love the fact that they included the majority of the robots from Sonic 1 in this game in addition to the now-standard eggman robots. Crabs, bees, motorbugs, and the fish from Labyrinth Zone. Any I'm forgetting?

Would you say the caterpillars in Asteroid Coaster are Caterkillers, Sandworms or Crawltrons? I think they're Sandworms but it's hard to tell because they didn't pull an S4 and rehash the badniks, rather they redesigned them. Like the Motobugs in colours are insanely fast, have pointed faces and they're all spotty and the new Jawz have that insane drill attack. Crabmeat and the new hermit crab in Aquarium Park are basically reskins of the Egg Launchers and Interceptor from Unleashed, but it's actually quite cool to see them in Badnik-form.

[the blu blur]

I'm sure many are already aware of this (thanks in part to the playthrough above) but...

I kinda like that about this title screen. Pretty unique. I discovered this by accident when I moved the analog stick to get it out of Burn-in protection mode. Its a nice touch, and a cool easter egg for those who do press a lot of buttons even when its a title screen.

Edited December 1, 2010 by the blu blur

[Emmett L. Brown]

Would you say the caterpillars in Asteroid Coaster are Caterkillers, Sandworms or Crawltrons? I think they're Sandworms but it's hard to tell because they didn't pull an S4 and rehash the badniks, rather they redesigned them. Like the Motobugs in colours are insanely fast, have pointed faces and they're all spotty and the new Jawz have that insane drill attack. Crabmeat and the new hermit crab in Aquarium Park are basically reskins of the Egg Launchers and Interceptor from Unleashed, but it's actually quite cool to see them in Badnik-form.

Oh yeah, those too! This game does a nice job mixing the classic badniks with the modern egg robots.

Heh, I was about to say "they're mainly missing the orb bots" from the first game, but then I remembered that there is one. Just the one.

[Blue Blood]

Orb bots? You mean Orbinaut or something else? Cause I've only seen them in the DS version.

[-Mark-]

Regarding the potential Caterkillers, it's hard to say.

If you look at some of the concept art in the DS version, for some of the fish badniks (Chopper, I think?), they've actually created their new design based on a hybrid of the various classic versions.

That said, Sandworms are basically long blue Caterkillers anyway, and as far as I can remember, all of the 'classic' badniks that show up are from either Sonic 1, 2 or 3 (okay, 3&K were originally meant to be the same game, but eh). Also, they're not in sand! Thus, I'd go with Caterkillers, personally.

[Blue Blood]

Regarding the potential Caterkillers, it's hard to say.

If you look at some of the concept art in the DS version, for some of the fish badniks (Chopper, I think?), they've actually created their new design based on a hybrid of the various classic versions.

That said, Sandworms are basically long blue Caterkillers anyway, and as far as I can remember, all of the 'classic' badniks that show up are from either Sonic 1, 2 or 3 (okay, 3&K were originally meant to be the same game, but eh). Also, they're not in sand! Thus, I'd go with Caterkillers, personally.

Caterkillers and Sandworms are identical bar their colours (same sprite sheet even), but some badniks in Colours had their Colours changed anyway (Chopper, Jawz, Crabmeat). And then the whole hiding away before striking an attack behaviour is quite like that of the Crawltrons in S2 who, like the Sandworms, were blue to begin with. And even if not in sand they are in still in the ground.

Don't forget this guy btw, who for some reason didn't make it to the final game. He's from CD.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Blue Blood

[Emmett L. Brown]

Orb bots? You mean Orbinaut or something else? Cause I've only seen them in the DS version.

Just a silly joke on my part.

There are orbinauts in the DS version, eh? Neat.

[Sega DogTagz]

There are orbinauts in the DS version, eh? Neat.

The Orbinaughts are even nastier now then when they were back in the classic's. Those guys are essentially "boost proof". They stonewalled me many-a-times. Still a pain in Sonic's rear end all these years later.

First the Electro-shield EggPawn and now this. They days of boosting through all badnicks unchecked are numbered my friends.

[Aquaslash]

First the Electro-shield EggPawn and now this. They days of boosting through all badnicks unchecked are numbered my friends.

I'll say! You know the electric spinnys? Yeah, Super Sonic can't even kill those bad boys...or the metal ones either!

[Djawed]

The Orbinaughts are even nastier now then when they were back in the classic's. Those guys are essentially "boost proof". They stonewalled me many-a-times. Still a pain in Sonic's rear end all these years later.

First the Electro-shield EggPawn and now this. They days of boosting through all badnicks unchecked are numbered my friends.

Just simply bad design if you ask me. I used to kill them mofo's with the instashield. Now their just anoying, I mean why would you even make them boost proof in a game where you're encouraged to boost all the time in order not to get hit, since you don't know wtf is coming ahead.

I really don't like the rush style that much no more. It should be banned

[Sega DogTagz]

Just simply bad design if you ask me. I used to kill them mofo's with the instashield. Now their just anoying, I mean why would you even make them boost proof in a game where you're encouraged to boost all the time in order not to get hit, since you don't know wtf is coming ahead.

I really don't like the rush style that much no more. It should be banned

[speedduelist]

Here is my S-Rank speed run of aquarium park act 6 if any 1 is intersted :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tizzDi7qbw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tizzDi7qbw

would be thankful if you post your thoughts here or on the video comments

Edited December 4, 2010 by speedduelist

[Djawed]

Lol wow, that is actually pretty darn good . Where are the soundeffects?

[Sami]

Lol wow, that is actually pretty darn good . Where are the soundeffects?

He sped it up for some reason, and edited in the music. >>

[Djawed]

Yeah well, still a nice speedrun even though the weird way of editing :S.

Anyway, I just want to say that the challenge mode(egg shuttle) should be in every 3d sonic game from this game on. It really keeps me replaying the game and I like how it encourages(kinda like the classic 1 player modes of course) to experience all stages over again. If they won't stray of this road of no alternate gameplay styles that is

[speedduelist]

glad you like it. I might redo this run with even a better time and with the sound effects

Aquarium park act 6 is one of the most well designed stages in the game.

[Diogenes]

So it's been a few weeks, I've had time to play through the game quite a bit, let the hype wear off, and have it all settle. So I figured I'd write up a big long...well, not so much a review, as where Colors stands with me, and what I think can/should/must be fixed in the future.

-:THE GOOD:-

Overall Gameplay:

Holy crap, a gimmick that actually works! The wisp powers are actually well designed and well implemented, aside from a few annoying details. Most importantly, they work with Sonic's gameplay, rather than being an unrelated side-gameplay (SA's Fishing, SA/SA2's Treasure Hunting, Unleashed's Werehog) or overriding the main gameplay (ShtH's guns, SatBK's sword). I like to think this means two things; one, Sonic Team's figured out the difference between a good gimmick and a bad one, and two, fans won't act like it's the end of the world if Sonic's doing something other than running, jumping, and boosting. Some may call that foolish naivete, however...anyway, there's a decent mix of platforming segments and speedy segments, and the different powers open up a lot of different paths through the level. It's not the same as Genesis Sonic by any means, but it's got a similar spirit to it, and it's executed well.

Controls:

Well, I suppose the first thing to be praised is that the controls work. The game, when played as intended, plays very well; after adjusting to the jumping and the wisp powers, there are no major complaints. I also must take the time to appreciate the double jump; by their nature they are often very useful, and Colors is no exception. Even just a small boost is a great help in adjusting your jumps, whether you're a newbie or an expert.

Music/Sound:

The music, as is the case in most Sonic games, is great. Aside from the vocal tracks, there isn't a single song I don't like. The real surprise, though, is the voice acting. Much has been said of this elsewhere, so to keep it short: this is a massive improvement for Sonic and Tails, and an equal-or-better move for almost everyone else. Hold onto these guys, Sega.

Graphics:

The game certainly lives up to its name; it's bright and colorful, with some of the best graphics on the Wii. The slowdown can get a little annoying, though...

Story:

The story's a lot simpler this time around; find some aliens, save some aliens, find Eggman scheming, stop his scheme. But it works, and in large part thanks to the writing. The cutscenes focus more on the characters than the events happening around them, and the interaction between Sonic and Tails and Eggman and the 'bots is by far the best in the series. Aside from a few rough lines, the conversations are genuinely funny and more "real" than ever before. For the first time in the games, Sonic and Tails actually seem like long-time best friends. Personally, tho', I'd epic it up a bit next time...we don't have to (and shouldn't) go full '06, but I'd like to see them ease back into stories like SA and Unleashed, combined with what they've done in Colors.

Extras:

I suppose I should applaud them for finally managing to make Super Sonic playable in a 3D game, though unfortunately the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Still, now that they've managed to do it, it's likely we'll be seeing it more often. That aside, what I'm surprisingly happy with is the Challenge Mode. Even though it's just the stages strung end-to-end, it's surprisingly fun to set aside about an hour-thirty and blast through the whole game in one sitting, without stopping for cutscenes or menus. I'm hoping they keep this feature in future games, though ideally they'd add a save-and-quit so you can take a break every once in a while.

-:THE BAD:-

Overall Gameplay:

As fun as Colors is, a lot of it is built on the wisps. Try playing without wisps (turn on Super Sonic if you want so you don't run into places that require them) and see for yourself how quickly it falls apart. Since future games probably won't have the wisp powers (not as they are in this game, anyway), they need to work on making Sonic fun without game-specific gimmicks. Make better and more creative use of his natural abilities, make more level gimmicks for him to interact with, maybe give him a few new moves to spice things up. Once you've got a Sonic that's fun on its own, then you can add some game-specific gimmicks to work with that structure.

Attacking:

Attacking's bad enough to warrant a sizable paragraph to itself. Now, if you're just boosting through, or homing attacking lines of enemies, generally everything's fine. But aside from that things get rough. First up, the Dreaded Uncurl has jumped from Sonic 4 to Colors. At the very beginning of your jump and (unless you're holding the jump button) when you're on your way down, you're not curled up, and therefore vulnerable. This is...completely unnecesarry, and pretty damn annoying. It makes attacking with the basic jump a pain, for the benefit of nothing more than a little visual flourish. Axe this shit. Second is that the homing attack won't lock on to anything offscreen. This isn't a problem in 2D, where "offscreen" is far enough from your character that you'll rarely-if-ever want to attack there, but in 3D it gets sort of fidgety; if the camera is close up, even something right next to you can be offscreen. The worst of this is that one room in Aquatic Park where you need to defeat a dozen or so robots to open the gate; no matter how you handle it, you're going to end up with enemies behind you, which the homing attack is very nearly useless on (by the time you're close enough to get them on camera, you may as well have just jumped into them...if not for the uncurling). Even with these issues fixed, though, I'm starting to feel that Sonic's too limited in attacking. A few more (and better) combat moves might do him some good...

Controls:

There are three main issues with the controls that come up often, and though they're not game-breaking, they should definitely be fixed. First off, drifting. Not only does it seem...well, almost useless (considering it's limited to only certain areas, which serve only as excersizes in drifting, and which are unlikely to ever kill you...it feels like they were put in just to justify having the drift), it takes away your boost while you're in a drift area, which is annoying if you end up drifting to a stop (or a wall). What they should've done is put it on the crouch button; it fits the nature of the move better than the boost, and you're not going to need to crouch or slide while drifting anyway (in fact, the drift could incorporate the slide's "crawl under things" effect). As for the future, I think the drift or something like it could be very useful if reimagined; more of a "quick turn", a way to make sharp turns while moving at high speeds. The second problem is the quick step; putting it on the control stick, especially in areas where you aren't auto-running, is annoying. It's still possible to quick step accurately and quickly without losing much speed, but it can be tough to get the right motion. Ideally it'd go back to being controlled with a pair of shoulder buttons, but that's a bit difficult with the Wii's limited number of buttons. Even with the nunchuck it's only got 3 shoulder buttons, and not much room elsewhere. I forget how exactly Unleashed Wii handled it (I played almost exclusively with the Gamecube Controller, and it's been a while in any case), so I'm not sure if that's flexible enough for future games. And third is the walljump, specifically the difficulty of it "sticking". You can't walljump until you "stick" and start sliding down, but even when you do everything right it's hard to know when it'll stick, or to get it to stick as high as possible. Walljumps should come fast and easy; I shouldn't have to shove my face against a wall and hope I get purchase where and when I want it. Then again maybe this is just exaggerated for me because I love walljumps (if they could put walljumps in Solitare I'd be all for it).

The rest of the problem with the controls is in the 3D sections. Colors being what it is, these don't come up too often, but if they make a sequel with a decent amount of 3D, this stuff's going to have to be fixed. The jumping is a bit wonky, but that may just be because of how little time you spend jumping around in 3D. The big problem, tho', is that there seems to be some sort of switch-over once you accelerate to a certain speed (about when Sonic puts his hands behind his back, I think). Below that speed, Sonic controls well enough, if a bit stiff and oddly slow. Once you get above that speed, though, he can't turn for shit. It's like he goes from normal platforming character to a car changing lanes; he doesn't change direction so much as walk sideways.

I don't know if this is just a sharp transition or if it actually changes how turning is handled, but it's not going to work in a real 3D game.

Level Design:

Speaking of, this, Colors, is not a 3D game. 3D graphics, yes, some 3D areas, yes, but the same can be said for the Rushes (admittedly to a lesser extent) and no one's going to call them 3D Sonics. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like 2D games; 2D games are great. But if they're going to fix 3D Sonic, they have to make 3D Sonic. They can't hide behind 2D forever. Also, there's too many rectangles. That is, most of the game is either made of rectangular segments or rounded-off rectanglular segments. There's far too few instances of decent curves or angles, which, I think, are a big part of what made Genesis Sonics fun: full 360-degree movement, with levels made of all sorts of different curved and angled pieces, and physics that worked with them. Colors already has some basic elements of those physics, so go all in, make it work, and stop making everything out of rectangles.

Extras:

So, Super Sonic. We finally got him...but...he sucks. The main problem with him is pretty much limited to this game; you can't use the wisps in Super Sonic mode, which means you're missing out on a massive chunk of the game. There's also some problems with his speed/acceleration; because he's faster than regular Sonic, he runs into some of the same control problems worse and/or earlier. The weird turning stuff I mentioned earlier? Super Sonic switches over to "car mode" maybe less than a second after he starts moving (heaven forbid you try to do anything besides run forward with him). What they need to take from this is that Super Sonic can't be just an afterthought; he needs to be designed to work with all of Sonic's gameplay elements. Of course, it'd also help if the parts he were shut out of weren't such a massive part of the gameplay...

[JezMM]

Overall Gameplay:

As fun as Colors is, a lot of it is built on the wisps. Try playing without wisps (turn on Super Sonic if you want so you don't run into places that require them) and see for yourself how quickly it falls apart. Since future games probably won't have the wisp powers (not as they are in this game, anyway), they need to work on making Sonic fun without game-specific gimmicks. Make better and more creative use of his natural abilities, make more level gimmicks for him to interact with, maybe give him a few new moves to spice things up. Once you've got a Sonic that's fun on its own, then you can add some game-specific gimmicks to work with that structure.

Thiiiiiiiiiiiis. This is my main beef with the game with regards to all our Unleashed vs Colours arguement in the other topic. =(

[Kuzu]

Thiiiiiiiiiiiis. This is my main beef with the game with regards to all our Unleashed vs Colours arguement in the other topic. =(

They do have a lot of abilities they can expand on, let's make a list shall we:

Homing Attack

Spin Dash

Stomping

Drift

Quick Step

Sliding

Surely they can expand on a few of those.

[Emmett L. Brown]

The slowdown can get a little annoying, though...

That was a really well-written review. Well done! I have to ask about that sentence there, though. I've played through the game a few times, and haven't noticed slowdown anywhere anytime, so where are you referring to? I'm definitely not calling you a liar - it'd be unbelievable for them to stuff such enormous pretty levels into two Gamecubes glued together and never get any slowdown at all, but I ain't never seen none.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I don't know if this was said, but is anyone kind of let down how they cock-teased us with having Sonic fight Tails?

Seriously, Tails get's blasted by the mind-control ray, Eggman suggests that they fight, and then the energy runs out which turns Tails back to normal. And there I though we were actually going to get it.

...bastards.

[Blue Blood]

Um, no? The thought never crossed my mind. And I've seen Sonic and Tails fight before.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Um, no? The thought never crossed my mind. And I've seen Sonic and Tails fight before.

Really? What game? Cuz I haven't seen it...unless you're talking about Figthers or Battle, of which I never include due to it hardly ever coming to mind.

Edited December 5, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Emmett L. Brown]

Wow, this game has even more classic badniks than I remembered. I replayed Star Light today, and stopped to get a better look at those robots that cling to walls and shoot bombs. It's an almost exact replica of the Lander enemies from Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2.

What an impressive amount of continuity nods.

[Blue Blood]

Really? What game? Cuz I haven't seen it...unless you're talking about Figthers or Battle, of which I never include due to it hardly ever coming to mind.

Rivals 2. And once again it's because of mind control. Which one of the succumbs to mind control depends on who's story you're playing, but it's the same thing. I think Knuckles and Rouge end up in the same situation, Shadow and Metal don't and I don't remember what happens with Silver and Espio. But yeah, Sonic and Tails end up fighting each other. It's kind of lame, and there's nothing interesting about them fighting for that reason.

(WARNING: Terrible voice and acting from Tails in video)

Edited December 5, 2010 by Blue Blood