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

[Diogenes]

I dunno, if the difficulty of the game is balanced right, I don't think it's a bad thing to require you to not die to get a decent rank (though if so, there should definitely be a "restart level" option in the pause menu). Especially since in most games, S-ranks (or A-ranks, or whatever is the highest) are the only things that matter; if you're working on rankings, whether you get a B or an E, you're going to be trying again anyway. Though, there's probably a fair argument that that should be changed, and you should be rewarded for things like a B-average, or an All Bs-or-better, which would work better with a smoother continuum...

Edit:

Honestly, I liked the ranking system in Unleashed more than Colors. In Unleashed, you had to do the level almost perfectly to get an S-rank, whereas in Colors, you need to waste as much time as possible abusing the wisps and grind rails.

Oh yeah, and this. No matter what else Colors' ranking system may do right, this absolutely must be fixed. Edited January 3, 2011 by Diogenes

[Sami]

Honestly, I liked the ranking system in Unleashed more than Colors. In Unleashed, you had to do the level almost perfectly to get an S-rank, whereas in Colors, you need to waste as much time as possible abusing the wisps and grind rails.

However, I like the way Colors handled the death penalty more. I think mixing the two would be best, considering the biggest reason I played Unleashed after beating it was to try and S rank everything.

[JezMM]

I dunno, if the difficulty of the game is balanced right, I don't think it's a bad thing to require you to not die to get a decent rank (though if so, there should definitely be a "restart level" option in the pause menu). Especially since in most games, S-ranks (or A-ranks, or whatever is the highest) are the only things that matter; if you're working on rankings, whether you get a B or an E, you're going to be trying again anyway. Though, there's probably a fair argument that that should be changed, and you should be rewarded for things like a B-average, or an All Bs-or-better, which would work better with a smoother continuum...

Edit:

Oh yeah, and this. No matter what else Colors' ranking system may do right, this absolutely must be fixed.

[Diogenes]

The issue is more that it's very much a downer for many players to be told they suck when they only died once.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I still think this is a load of crap and people should stop letting themselves be bullied by inanimate objects. No one should be letting a video game's judgment affect their self worth, and if they are, maybe they should take a step back and reexamine their life.

I really don't anyone bases their self esteem on video game achievements. What is being highlighted here is the difference between encouraging the player to try harder and insulting the player for screwing up so badly. Seriously, every character has a voice acted variation of "why do I suck so bad?" whenever you get an E.

Because when a game says "you suck", then the prudent player may simply respond "no, you suck" and exchange the game for a more fun one back at the store. It's not a good idea to give players or reviewers the impression that they're crap at a video game and then grade them accordingly. It IS, however, a good idea to give them the desire to replay a level to do better because it was fun and maybe something cool will unlock. Sonic and the Secret Rings, for all its faults, did have a good idea with its medal concept. No matter how poorly you do at a level, you still win - but you didn't get medals that'd unlock bonus content.

[JezMM]

I think Diogenes is onto something with dropping the bad ranks. Just use C and up, or even just have a single "medal" to earn by beating the "expert score" perhaps.

[Blue Blood]

This is laughable. The ranks are there as something for you to strive for. The game recognises you making a perfect/near-perfect run of level. If I get an E, it's because I wasn't trying for anything or it was my first time playing. Why so many people take rankings so seriously is beyond me.

Edited January 4, 2011 by Blue Blood

[-Mark-]

I found Colours massively generous with ranks, anyway. They practically give A-Ranks to you, and S-Ranks aren't very hard, either. Okay, it still takes a bit of practice, but much less so than other Sonic games. It only took me a few days of trying to actually S-Rank everything.

Ironically, I find Tropical Resort Act 1 to be one of the hardest stages to S-Rank. It made the concept of S-Ranking everything seem daunting... until I realised that was very much the exception. I can probably count on one hand the number of levels that are genuinely really hard to S-Rank.

Incidentally, I know it varies from game to game, but a handful of them do actually have C as the lowest rank, don't they?

One thing that bothered me in Colours DS was that even when you get a B and it says 'Good', Sonic still looks sad. Or is that a C? One or the other, I forget. D:

[Emmett L. Brown]

Now I've almost forgotten what my original point was. Oh yeah. Sonic Colors doesn't reset your score to zero with every death. Yay!

Honestly, if it wasn't for the score-resetting thing I probably wouldn't have been bothered by the ranks at all. They're a fine way to gauge how well you play. But giving you an automatic F for losing a life at any point with oh so ridiculously many cheap deaths this series has to offer is a bullshit move. A bullshit move that has been remedied. My satisfaction is achieved.

[theglAdosty636]

Sonic Colours is Only ONE WORD:

AWESOME!!!

[Blue Blood]

Now I've almost forgotten what my original point was. Oh yeah. Sonic Colors doesn't reset your score to zero with every death. Yay!

Honestly, if it wasn't for the score-resetting thing I probably wouldn't have been bothered by the ranks at all. They're a fine way to gauge how well you play. But giving you an automatic F for losing a life at any point with oh so ridiculously many cheap deaths this series has to offer is a bullshit move. A bullshit move that has been remedied. My satisfaction is achieved.

You never get F ranks

Even so, just getting killed once never seems to knock you down to a guaranteed E. If you're still doing well on time and remember to collect rings you pretty much always come out with a C, in Colours and otherwise.

And on the subject of not having ranks go below C, Unleashed Wii and the Riders games do it too. In Riders it's especially stupid: C < B < A < AA < S < SS < X.

Edited January 4, 2011 by Blue Blood

[-Mark-]

Didn't S-Ranks only come about around 2005-2006, anyway? I think the first game to use them was Sonic Rush, which then carried into Sonic 06.

I do find it a bit amusing that the first Sonic Team game to use S-Ranks was actually Billy Hatcher.

[SuperStingray]

See, I don't like rankings in general because they put you up against an arbitrary standard defined by the developers. Back in the arcade days, the standard you tried to conquer was the high score list. Leaderboards these days are kinda pointless though, since you're facing everyone on Earth with the game, and it just makes the whole thing feel less personal (not to mention they're pathetically easy to hack 90% of the time.) I hold TF2's system as the best one because it lets you compete with yourself rather than whatever the developers thought would be a good score to beat.

[Scar]

I would find it endlessly hilarious if Sonic Team just slapped a giant F on the screen every time you died. It would work because you died, thus failed to complete the level. OK maybe it would get a bit tiring in the main game, but it would be rather entertaining to see it happen in a "Hard mode" or in those extra missions they might give you a la Hotdog stands in Unleashed.

Anyway, I think the ranking system should go something like this.

E, D, C, B, A, S, X

S is for an extremely good run which results in you unlocking Staff Times and Scores.

X is if you beat or match the staff times or scores

Edited January 4, 2011 by Scar

[Solid SOAP]

The rankings-system was one of the best ideas derived from Sonic Adventure 2, in my opinion. It adds so much replayability to the games even if you don't really unlock much. Donkey Kong Country Returns has a similar feature to which you're given special medals for getting good times in Time Trial modes, which added a lot of replayability to that game as well. The good thing about Colors though is that if you're playing to get the best time as opposed to the best score, it grades and updates you on that as well in the final level-complete page, so those going for the best time as opposed to the highest score don't feel bad.

[Ebby]

I think I can do without the ranking system.

It gives the assertion that "I must play this level over and over to achieve some ranking that may or may not unlock something when I'm done and when I'm done... that's that!" I want to play a level over and over because I personally love the level.

I enjoy extras for replay value, but the rank system isn't the best way to do it. Miscellaneous missions are much better if you ask me.

[Your Vest Friend]

Meh, might as well post my views on the game because...well, I feel like it. I'll be looking at both the Wii and DS version as I own both, so yay. Also bear in mind that I'm writing at 2am, so if something is confusing, this may be the cause.

Wii first:

To emphasise this early on, Sonic Colours Wii is NOT a bad game. Gameplay-wise, it's a solid game with intuitive, good controls. The plot is also nice for a game like this, being simple and mostly light-hearted. My kind of plot! Please bear in mind that if the later parts come off as really negative, it's just because I'm far more consise on what I don't like than what I do like. I'm fickle like that. :3

First bone of contention; The writing.

Oh deary me. As you may have read before, and guessed now, I wasn't such a fan of the writing for Colours. Now, this has zip to do with being light-hearted. In fact, being light-hearted is what I adore. What I do not, however, is just how forced some of the conversations came off. In a nutshell, Sonic was slightly too overbearingly cocky for my liking, Tails was way too snarky for my liking, and...I'm not sure how to put this, but the plot seemed to progress in such a choppy format that I never got to bond with Yacker, ever, and he's the main new character in this! I'm going to go on a limb and suggest that the first two points are partially fuelled by character whiplash from the last games to this one. Still, toning it down a little would have probably warmed me up to it better. And I did enjoy the conversations between Eggman, Orbot and Cubot. I guess I'm just not so big on American humour...no idea how the last point could be addressed. Speaking of which;

Second bone of contention; The level design.

Going try to keep the next couple of points short and sweet. The level structure was fine and worked, but the level design just seemed so drab and dull. Yes, what basically amounted to a giant epic theme park in space was drab, even Sweet Mountain. I honestly could not begin to tell you why specifically, but I can say with my hand on heart that I thought that Unleashed's levels had more charm and whimsy to them. Asteroid Coaster would be an exception though, that had an exciting level design. 8-7 is narrowly still the better coaster, but there's room in my heart for two dragon skeletons.

Third bone of contention; The music.

Fits in with the above quite well, the music wasn't as catchy or memorable as I might have hoped either. Certainly nothing I'd want to put on my MP3 player. Level music like Tropical Resort may be aesthetically pleasant, kinda, but Bingo Highway makes my adrenaline run high. The boss music for the ships may be quite actiony, but the Unleashed night boss music makes me want to dance to the awesome!

Fourth bone of contention; The replayability.

Poor, poor Colours. Of all the Sonic games I've played, this is the most recent good (in my opinion, bearing in mind that this opinion really liked SatBK) Sonic game in a while that has given me no reason to play it again. To play through the levels on a whim? Not worth it, really. To get all the S ranks? I'm not a person who plays for ranks. To get Super Sonic? *has to stifle laughter* Ah, yeah, I don't think I've mentioned that I don't like Super Sonic recently, have I? Super forms in general too, that's why I don't collect their merchandise. All it's doing now is sitting in my CD box amongst countless other games, and there are many in there I'd rather go back to.

So, my overall score on this, based on no averages, with a FULL 10 POINT SCALE (No 6-10 like the reviewers, I'll use every point at my disposal if I think a game deserves it)? 6.5. It's good, better than average, but there's quite a few personal complaints I have with it that stop it from going into the higher tiers.

Now, how does the DS version compare to the Wii version with its bones? Quite well, actually.

2nd and 3rd bones; Are pretty much the same as the Wii version, given that they're directly based off it. The shake-up with the Planet Wisp boss was a welcome challenge though, and I'll be damned if the Void Wisp music isn't some of the best remix snippets I've heard for a good while. Also, the level structure was far better, presenting the shortened acts of the Wii version as optional missions that don't make the game feel like it's dragging.

First bone thrown out the window; The writing.

Definitely YMMV territory here. The DS followed the same basic plot as the Wii version (aside from the final bit), but most of the Sonic/Tails conversations were stripped of the jokes and made into more typical straight dialogue. And by God, does it make things so much better. Sonic and Tails feel much more in-character this time, not with forced humour and snark. Yacker still gets the shaft; maybe I was just born to not connect with him?

I probably wouldn't be so positive about the last bit if there wasn't anything to fill the gap left...and that's where the missions come in and make the gap overflow. These interactions are great on the whole (Let's just look over Amy, for now...), and some of them are just absolute gold. They allow Sonic and Tails to get humour back in without going strikingly different, and also add zaniness to the other cast members. If you've seen my post on character personalities, you know that I hold Sonic's unnerving on Planet Wisp in especially high regard, because it's just played so damn well.

Fourth bone thrown out of the window; The replayability.

Unlike the Wii version, I've got all the rings in the DS version, and have some very nice art to show it and look at in my leisure. That there is some extra replayabilty. I also like to go back and watch events, try to do more missions to unlock more interaction goodness, and...just play it. When I'm bored, and have been Whited out, I'll just get it out, and whip through some stages for the hell of it. And that's nice.

Overall score for this on a full 10-point scale? 7.5/10. A solid gaming core again, but with a few alterations here and there that make me love it more.

So, that only took...50 minutes.

...Huh.

[Solid SOAP]

It gives the assertion that "I must play this level over and over to achieve some ranking that may or may not unlock something when I'm done and when I'm done... that's that!" I want to play a level over and over because I personally love the level.

Okay? How does the inclusion of a ranking make the levels more or less fun? Regardless of your ranking, if you enjoyed the level you just played then that's all you need to be able to say that, well, you liked the level. Rankings are only there for those who like to achieve perfection in the games, I say it'd be silly to drop the feature at this point.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

I just finished the game last night and I personally loved it. I really like the designs of the levels, how lighthearted it was compared to the last sonic games and the fun gameplay.

Surely, I can't be the only one who got Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog vibes from the game's humorous dialouge? I dunno why but I could see some of that dialouge being in an episode of that series.

Speaking of AoStH, Did anyone notice the Grounder robots during the Sweet Mountain boss fight? They appear if you get a drill wisp and they'll try to prevent you from hitting the boss. I had a nostalgic freakout when I saw them. Awesome.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

VEAM-F, you pretty much just summed up what I feel about this game in a nutshell, and far better than what I could ever phrase it.

[Ebby]

Surely, I can't be the only one who got Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog vibes from the game's humorous dialouge? I dunno why but I could see some of that dialouge being in an episode of that series.

What? No. Never.

I adore AoStH. It's freaking hilarious, even to this day!

I find NOTHING humorous about Colors. The jokes just fall flat on their faces.

[Ekaje]

Even terrible, Saturday morning cartoon jokes are better than most of the cutscenes in the franchise.

[Sami]

I actually liked the cutscenes in Colors.

[Agent York]

I actually liked them as well. While there were some parts I wanted to facepalm myself,I did chuckle legibly at others. In a kind of personal test, my younger cousins also seemed to enjoy it. I don't think aiming the jokes at such a young audience was the best decision, but it is what it is.

[Carbo]

The cutscenes were a non-issue for me and I can't name one moment when they weren't.

I was surprised by how many people found them cringe worthy, personally I just figured they just weren't the kind of jokes that necessarily appealed to my tastes, and moreover I was more into the fact that it was relatively well-written without a faux-personality to it.