Sonic Colors's Story: Your Opinion

[Dark Qiviut]

Sonic Colors Wii's excellent gameplay was the talk of the town, but there's another element that people talk about often: the plotline and characterization.

Compared to many here, I have a more dissenting opinion of Colors Wii's story, which some of you might have already known. Here's my more detailed criticism of it (written in a thread at the Sega Forums):

I don't agree with your other threads, Ghostal, but I definitely agree here. Although following the root of Adventure is not all that necessary, the story and characterizations were incredibly disappointing.

Like Miles, the concept behind the story was a very cool idea. There was plenty to build on. The problem here is that, due to Colors being mostly gameplay-heavy, the storywriters didn't fully take advantage of the opportunities. Is that a problem? No. But the disconnection was really huge and disappointing.

The plot was very, very barren. It was nothing but a filler. The level, aside from telling us the setting, never allowed us to develop and progress further onward. It was three acts, a cutscene, three acts, a cutscene, a boss, a cutscene, and back to square one. The cutscenes were mere exposition, but the way it was done never brought it on the forefront nor did it connect the game. It was just, well, there.

There were multiple opportunities to connect the story and game together better, but for the sake of keeping the game lighthearted, it was downplayed.

For example, the scene with Tails being brainwashed brought in a lot of great potential of fantastic character development. Sonic and Tails forced to fight, Sonic and Tails being angry at each other. Tails perhaps helping Eggman out in capturing the Wisps. Tails, after waking up, realized what he might've done. It's all great fodder…but it never happened to keep the tone light and simple. Simple is good, but when you have a great idea, USE it.

Plus, what about Yacker? How did he get disconnected from Sonic and Tails? Where did he go? What is he thinking? How does he interact with the other Wisps? Or how about a Boss knocking some senses into Sonic prior to the main fight, humiliating him and ticking him off in the process?

The dialogue is very on the fence. First, I'll start with the good.

When the dialogue is natural, it's great and feels in character. The ones that come to mind are the scenes with Cubot, Orbot, and Eggman. Their conversation are completely hilarious. Each time they spoke, I could "feel" them saying the things they're saying. Eggman was just awesome as usual. Then again, when isn't he? Eggman's the best written of the cast. He's menacing, but comedic simultaneously. His conversations with Orbot and Cubot fit excellently. I laughed very hard during their humor scenes. They were witty and not demeaning to the older audience. Very intelligent comedy here. Reminded me a lot of Unleashed's dialogue.

But that's not the case with Sonic and Tails. Now, Tails actually had some decent lines, and I had to laugh at the scenes where his translator malfunctioned. That right there showed us some humanity among Tails, something we've not seen since SA2. But there were some lines that made me cringe from being too corny or due to annoying bathroom/bad table manner humor. The line that made cringe the most was when he uttered, "idiot." Tails may not be the most eloquent character, but that word he uttered is NOT in his vocabulary. He just doesn't say that stuff.

As for Sonic...UGH! This I don't get and probably never will. Everyone says that he's the most and sometimes best characterized. I just can't see that. If anything, Sonic was the most out of character I've seen in all the games. Sonic was too westernized to the point where I wasn't hearing Sonic conversationally. All I heard was a character disguised as Sonic. Colors!Sonic was way too cocky and actually flat. He didn't take the circumstances that seriously at all; his cockiness and shallow personality literally went too far even for him. His characterization in Colors was some of the worst I've seen from the games. Sonic from Next Gen had better characterization. Unleashed and Black Knight featured the best Sonic, and that's the base the developers should go with personality-wise. He was cocky, but he didn't act like an idiot nor did he downplay every obstacle he came across. He actually treated the situation seriously. Colors!Sonic didn't. I was actually hoping that a robot did something to embarrass him, angering him. For the twentieth anniversary game, I really hope the writers fix up Sonic's characterization, because that's NOT game!Sonic in Colors.

Again, I don't mind the gameplay being more dominant, but have the plot connect more into it so it feels like it belongs instead of it being an unnecessary filler. And the tone doesn't matter. It can be light like Colors or dark like Next Gen. But it must be written well. Unleashed was a well-written light story. Adventure had a great balance of light and dark. Black Knight, Adventure 2, and S3&K were well-written serious stories. Colors's plot, however, was average.

Now you post your opinion of the story. To provide more merit, discuss the story (and analysis) in full detail.

[Vertekins]

Sonic was DEFINATELY Flanderized, no doubt about it. Yes, you can say that Sonic in games before Colours always seemed to show relish and was dead set in his robot-destroying ways before the beat down but never to the point of spouting one-sided and unfunny "badass" boasts. SatBK still stands as the single greatest portrayal of Sonic's character, A perfect realisation of Sonic and all he stands for that Colours cannot touch. That said, Colours Sonic is still endearing but that doesn't mean that he wasn't massively Flanderized into an overly arrogant cheeseball.

However, there is one thing that i'll always defend about Colours Sonic; His deep loyalty and subtle protectiveness to/over Tails. Undoubtedly the best interactions between Sonic and Tails ever depicted took place in Colours.

Concerning the story, I actually loved it's simplicity and how there was only one thing that prevented Eggman from winning. I don't believe that Sonic and Tails are stupid enough to breathe that easily once they had stopped Asteroid Coaster's generator, don't you think that they should have least been under the suspicion that Eggman would've had a backup plan or had a lot of mind control substance after seeing all of the Wisps getting turned into Nega Wisps in Asteroid Coaster?

[Scar]

Sonic Colors Wii's excellent gameplay was the talk of the town, but there's another element that people talk about often: the plotline and characterization.

Compared to many here, I have a more dissenting opinion of Colors Wii's story, which some of you might have already known. Here's my more detailed criticism of it (written in a thread at the Sega Forums):

Now you post your opinion of the story. To provide more merit, discuss the story (and analysis) in full detail.

Colours' story is barely worth talking about really. Wasted potential, but I'm glad it was the way it was.

Less focus on it, and more on the gameplay.

Sonic was occasionally funny, but sometimes sounded creepy talking to himself. I think that's partially due to the daunting length of the cutscenes, which meant the writers had to pad it out quite a bit with throwaway lines. Again, I think the lack of characters at all was a problem. Sonic was alone for most of his scenes, so he just talked to himself like a retard. He generally had a more likeable attitude when he was around other characters.

I really hated the fact that Sonic and Eggman only conversed properly twice. Both times it was their shining performace. Eggman was angry and trying to be badass and crush Sonic. Sonic was cocky and aggravating Eggman.

The relationship between Tails and Sonic was really good. They talked to each other as they really good friends; brothers even, as they weren't afraid to put each other back in their place.

Sonic's overly lacadasical attituded can be explained by the design of the bosses. They looked really harmless. They weren't at all as imposing as they should have been. So Sonic just smack talked them to the ground. This problem could have been so easily remedied if Eggman himself was piloting a more intimidating, more diverse cast of bosses. That way Sonic would have had someone to actually talk to other than himself. The single time Eggman was the boss, it actually looked frightening (in a cartoony way of course) and it actually excited an emotional response from Sonic; he was actually worried for Tails's safety. Yes he still smack-talked Eggman, but his body language showed him to be more defensive, and protective of Tails. He might have needed some more taughtening up overall, but the way he behaved against Eggman in his final-boss-machine, was the way he should have behaved against all bosses if Eggman were piloting them; cocky, but aware of the danger.

[Kuzu]

Even if Sonic was fighting against more intimidating robots, he's still fighting against Eggman whom he dimisses all the time, he's been kicking his ass for years so why take him seriously now? For Drama? Hell no.

As for Sonic's character. Keep in mind the places where you glorify Black Knight, Unleashed's Sonic is when he was conversing with a lot more characters, in Colors there's only really Tails to talk to, and he's not around most of the time so I guess it kinda made sense that Sonic talked to himself. Sonic shows clear signs of caring when he protects Tails from Eggman's final machine, and look how he reacted when Eggman shot Tails with the Mind Control ray, he didn't say anything witty, he immedietly charged at Eggman without any hesitation, and had it not been for Tails getting in the way he would've beaten Eggman silly, and he clearly was distraught about fighting his little brother when Tails almost hit him.

[DarkOverord]

I'm actually glad for Colours' less intrusive story. I mean sure it's there, but the fact it hasn't really been an EPIC PLOTZ again is nice. Sure I've not beaten the game yet. Sure I agree Sonic's personality is well. 2D.

But hey that's just a short post by someone who's only played a small segment of the game so far.

[DMNBT]

I'll just say that Sonic wanting to thrash the park without knowing if Eggman had ulterior motives kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, we all knew Eggman was plotting something anyway, but at that point in time he didn't knew if the park was part of some plot. In fact, I'm unsure what role the amusement park has in the story; Eggman didn't need to build a park solely for the tractor beams, no? And for the purposes of his mind control beam, wouldn't it be better if everyone was back at earth instead of at the park? So they could also be hit with the beam? I just can't see where the park figures in Eggman's plot.

[Scar]

I'll just say that Sonic wanting to thrash the park without knowing if Eggman had ulterior motives kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, we all knew Eggman was plotting something anyway, but at that point in time he didn't knew if the park was part of some plot. In fact, I'm unsure what role the amusement park has in the story; Eggman didn't need to build a park solely for the tractor beams, no? And for the purposes of his mind control beam, wouldn't it be better if everyone was back at earth instead of at the park? So they could also be hit with the beam? I just can't see where the park figures in Eggman's plot.

The park was where Eggman was getting the wisps for his lazer beam. The park itself was a coverup for what he was doing.

The space elevator was the cannon itself. The whole earth would have been hit by the mind-control beam.

[DarkOverord]

lazer

Edited December 27, 2010 by DarkOverord

[Chooch]

Colours' story is barely worth talking about really. [...]

Less focus on it, and more on the gameplay.

[Core]

Sonic needs to stop talking to bosses who can't reply or even understand. The rest of the script wasn't so bad, but Sonic's lame jokes have to go.

Aside from that, what bothered me the most about Colors's story was the lack of development. Once you leave Tropical Resort, it's just: Go to planet, Defeat boss, Destroy generator, Repeat 5 times. With almost nothing happening in-between. It was boring.

It's hardly even worth discussing and I honestly enjoyed the fact that it didn't get in the way of the gameplay as much. In the end you should really be playing the game for the game, especially in a series like Sonic the Hedgehog.

[EXshad]

The characterization is spot-on: Sonic's smarmy, cool, and has a sound sense of justice. Tails is a typical boy-genius, and actually sounds like one. And Eggman is... well, that got him to the point where he's goofy, but not overly goofy, although they should make him more threatening like he was in Unleashed, 'cause I think that game nailed him perfectly.

The writing was top-notch as well, besides some really lame jokes here and there. But when it comes to the story itself?

I like how the game started with gameplay and not a cutscene. I liked how the cutscenes were a tolerable length and didn't make my ears bleed. But the fact remains that there just wasn't enough plot to give a shit. How did Eggman find these planets? What makes the wisps worthy of my care in the first place, besides the fact that they're adorable little freaks? Why are the Chaos Emerald's in Eggman's Sonic Simulator? Stuff like that should have been fleshed out, and while I like how the plot was scaled back, they shouldn't have done so quite as much.

Edited December 27, 2010 by EXshad

[Chooch]

Why shouldn't we discuss about the story? That's like saying we shouldn't discuss about graphics or music because gameplay is the only thing that matters.

I didn't say it shouldn't be discussed. And I didn't imply such things in regards to graphics or music either. Don't put words in my mouth.

I said Colors' story is hardly worth discussing (Really, it's so cut and dry and simple) and that the stories in Sonic games aren't particularly grand or important in the first place.

[RidersDX]

I said Colors' story is hardly worth discussing (Really, it's so cut and dry and simple) and that the stories in Sonic games aren't particularly grand or important in the first place.

Believe it or not, the stories of Sonic games HAVE become important. Have you seen the numerous fans making Sonic fan fictions and fan characters around? All inspired by the numerous stories and characters of the Sonic series in my opinion. Sonic games really stood out from the other platformers in that it did try to make serious stories. Fans that were drawn to the series cause of it may be disappointed in Sonic Colors, story wise at least. I think it is worth discussing since it is a totally different direction they're taking Sonic now.

[Kuzu]

^^^ Ok. But at the end of the day we play Sonic to run fast and smash shit, I understand the lack of a story is disheartening but it really shouldn't matter at the end of the day, why? Because Sonic is a game character, and not a storybook character. Gameplay should always take precedence over the story and I refuse to be told otherwise. The plot never needs to be more complicated than it needs to be. In terms of a Sonic story its ok to have character development but the plot should never go beyond "Eggman or whoever is causing trouble, and we gotta stop them" nothing more.

[RidersDX]

^^^ Ok. But at the end of the day we play Sonic to run fast and smash shit, I understand the lack of a story is disheartening but it really shouldn't matter at the end of the day, why? Because Sonic is a game character, and not a storybook character. Gameplay should always take precedence over the story and I refuse to be told otherwise. The plot never needs to be more complicated than it needs to be. In terms of a Sonic story its ok to have character development but the plot should never go beyond "Eggman or whoever is causing trouble, and we gotta stop them" nothing more.

In my opinion, a game should feel like a package. So yes, the gameplay is the most important. I wasn't very impressed with the gameplay of Colors, but that's another topic for another day. However, everything else is taken into account. A friend of mine told me a long time ago that it isn't just about gameplay. How would you be able to enjoy the gameplay if the entire stage looked absolutely awful? You'd be disgusted at the look of it. And what if the music was Vector screaming "FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM" over and over again? Yes gameplay is the most important, but everything else should be taken into account to because games are indeed packages.

[Diogenes]

I'll just say that Sonic wanting to thrash the park without knowing if Eggman had ulterior motives kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, we all knew Eggman was plotting something anyway, but at that point in time he didn't knew if the park was part of some plot.

Sonic knew it the same as we knew it; it's Eggman, of course he's up to no good. And it's not as if he went in and tore up the place without finding out what was going on; the worst he did was sneak in and bash a few robots until he saw the wisps being captured, at which point he was perfectly justified in smashing stuff up.

In fact, I'm unsure what role the amusement park has in the story; Eggman didn't need to build a park solely for the tractor beams, no? And for the purposes of his mind control beam, wouldn't it be better if everyone was back at earth instead of at the park? So they could also be hit with the beam? I just can't see where the park figures in Eggman's plot.

It's a front; people would be suspicious if he was dragging around planets for no stated reason, so he says "evil plot? No, no, this is...an amusement park! A perfectly harmless amusement park."

Plus it's Eggman we're talking about. Dude's got a thing for theme parks.

Believe it or not, the stories of Sonic games HAVE become important. Have you seen the numerous fans making Sonic fan fictions and fan characters around?

Man people have been writing fanfics and making fan characters almost since the series was created. Significant plot or no, something about this series caught people's attentions enough to write about it.

Not that I disagree with the basic thrust of your argument, tho'; Sonic games do take story seriously, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

Anyway, the main problems I have with Colors' story are a few corny lines and the story being a bit too simple. Solving the latter would likely solve the former; if the story takes itself a bit more seriously, they'll probably trim the excess cheese. As far as being simple, it's more a long-term worry than an actual complaint. The occasional simple story is perfectly fine; I don't blame Colors for not being an epic (especially after some of the series' failures). But I don't want this to become the norm; raise it up to a SA/Unleashed level, with some wiggle room.

The rest is pretty much perfect. Sonic and Tails's relationship is the best it's been in...forever. Sonic's cocky and upbeat, Tails is levelheaded and a bit snarky; they do as good a job playing off each other as they do whoever else is around. Eggman, as always, is great, and the 'bots worked pretty well as henchmen. And while the story is simple, it's pretty fun when it does kick into gear; Sonic sacrificing his ride off the park to protect Tails was a nice moment, and I'm glad they finally had the balls to make Eggman the last boss (and once you shake off the "expected giant monster" feeling, it's a pretty great climax).

[RidersDX]

I have to admit one thing I loved about the Colors story though, Eggman was freaking hilarious. I love replaying his cutscenes over and over again because there's just a certain charm to him in this game that made him perfect.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Considering that this plot is deliberately tailored for kids, it's pretty dang good. I can find no flaws when considering the target audience. The bonus is that there's enough lampsphades and jokes that succeed on their awfulness that it's enjoyable for a grownup as well. On top of that, Colours finally established Sonic and Tail's friendship properly, doing away completely with the annoying hero-worshipping, low self-esteem Tails (which admittedly had gotten a lot better by Unleashed).

This is a superb story. If it was written for a teenaged or adult audience it would be extremely flawed, but as a story written for kids, it's excellent.

[Sami]

I absolutely loved the characterization in Colors, and I was happy that the story took a backseat. In fact, I could make a list of things I liked about Colors' story:

- Sonic's new personality. Sonic has had absolutely no personality since Sonic Adventure 2, and even then, he just wasn't fun to watch during cutscenes. They slowly took him from being a guy who just likes to relax and live life his own way to a guy obsessed with being the team player and teaching life lessons to everyone around him. I get an Ultimate Spider-Man vibe when I watch Sonic trash talk his opponent, and I love it. Hell, honestly, if I had absolutely no one to interact with for half my adventure, I'd probably end up talking to myself too. d:

I just saw it as his own way of making his situation more fun for himself. There's nothing wrong with that.

- The relationship between Sonic and Tails. I think Shadic put it best, so I won't bother getting into this.

- The simplicity. You know, maybe it's just because Sonic 4 has made me appreciate the original trilogy far more than I used to, but I just don't want to see Sonic games try and focus on story anymore. They've just failed at it too many times for me to trust them enough to want it. Colors, to me, felt like it was what one of the classics would have been like if it was released today in terms of story.

- Eggman's portrayal as a villain. I felt he was actually evil this time around, unlike the last few games (though Unleashed admittedly had a very good portrayal at the beginning). The cutscene at Asteroid Coaster showed that he isn't at all bothered by literally sucking the energy out of a living being until there's nothing left but a corpse.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Dissident

[Diogenes]

- The simplicity. You know, maybe it's just because Sonic 4 has made me appreciate the original trilogy, but I just don't want to see Sonic games try and focus on story anymore. They've just failed at it too many times for me to trust them enough to want it. Colors, to me, felt like it was what one of the classics would have been like if it was released today in terms of story.

S3&K focused on story (relative to its predecessors, at least). Also they've failed at a lot of things over the last few years, not just the story...

[Kuzu]

- The simplicity. You know, maybe it's just because Sonic 4 has made me appreciate the original trilogy, but I just don't want to see Sonic games try and focus on story anymore. They've just failed at it too many times for me to trust them enough to want it. Colors, to me, felt like it was what one of the classics would have been like if it was released today in terms of story

While I did like the simplicity of the plot, they could've made us care more about the Wisp, maybe give them some character so we can feel bad for them. Maybe they should've added the Mother Wisp in the Wii version(Not as the Final Boss hell no) so we can get somewhat of a backstory for the Wisp. I mean Unleashed had Chip's journey to find who he was, and Sonic's dealing with his monsterous form, and being unreconizable. Sa1 had Chaos who was more than a generic destroy everything monster, and actually had a legitiamate reason for his rampage.

The plots of Sa1/Unleashed were done so simple, yet they both made me feel for their characters, in Colors that's absent. So I can see why that would be a little bad.

[SuperStingray]

I find that the storybook team (the guys behind Secret Rings, Black Knight and Colors) make the only games in the series that portray Sonic perfectly since Battle. Oh, except maybe Unleashed. I think this is because each on focuses on developing specific parts of Sonic rather than just throwing him into a general dangerous circumstance and saying "look how awesome this guy is!" In SR, you could see Sonic's approach to conflict, in BK his life philosophy and in Colors his sense of pride and brotherly instinct. They always work it in subtly yet clearly and I commend them for that.

Edited December 28, 2010 by SuperStingray

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Colors' story was a bit of a regression in terms of immersion and length. I'm not exactly complaining about length, but I am critical of the immersion; even if you're not going for an long, epic plot, at least give us something that makes us enjoy it as much...ya know, a good plot.

That said, Colors' plot wasn't bad in the slightest. Ever since SA2, the quality in stories has been going downhill, and only until SatBK and Unleashed did it start picking back up. Now there are some games out there with better plots, but the only game that I've ever came across as having an "intrusive" plot - as you guys would call it -would be the Metal Gear Solid series (especially 4), and even then you could enjoy it until it gets repetitive when you replay the game. Thank god for the start button, amirite?

More to the point, Colors has some ups and downs that are fairly noticable. Sonic, while being played by a top-notch VA who does a fairly good job on the character, is on and off at times. The voice change that comes with the character will instantly shock you for a bit, but after a while, you'll forget he even had a change at all. It becomes that natural. Tails is pretty spot on, Orbot and Cubot are just prefect in their characterization, and Eggman...really, he's at his peak here. The problem comes mainly with the script on Sonic's part, as there are times when it becomes cheesy. On the bright side, the cheesiness is far bearable than the portrayal in Heroes.

The immersion kind of takes a toll here. It's far more memorable than Heroes, 06, and ShTH in a GOOD way, but less so than the likes of SA1, SA2, Unleashed, and to a small extent SatBK. But that's only a good thing in Colors case. It has more good going for it than it does the bad. Of course, as with ANY plot, it'll be firmly remembered and never forgotten. But the real drawback is that the plot doesn't draw you in as much for you to consider it anything more than okay at best. You'll be treated to some funny lines here and there, some cheesy moments that, thankfully, are bearable, but you're not going to find any sense of epicness in it or anything that'll take the place of the epicness we've come to know in usual plots. SatBK wasn't epic, but it was dynamic and unexpected especially come around the point you discover that Merlina is the true villian.

Now the length is debatable. You'll either find it too short, or just right. I happen to find it too short. There's a certain length that I find to be just right, but Colors didn't reach it. I favor streamlined stories, plots that aren't too long, yet are to the point, immersive, memorable, and interesting. Or even if the plot happens to be longer than usual, it isn't convulted and filled with filler material just to extend the length of the plot (MGS4, looking at you).

The overall quality is above average, but I'd say just barely. You're going to wish Heroes was as good as this, but you're also going to wish that Colors stepped up it game a bit more.

Edited December 28, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[SykoTech]

That's like saying we shouldn't discuss about graphics or music because gameplay is the only thing that matters.

Not the best comparison. Graphics and music are interwoven with the gameplay experience and constantly thrown at the player. Story however is often just used as an excuse for the action, especially in platformers. Hell, there are plenty of games that have no story at all. You can't really put story in the same league as graphics or music. That's not to say that it shouldn't be discussed at all, but I can see why Chooch undermined its importance.

Anyways, I enjoyed the plot. It wasn't my ideal story, but it was a nice step away from the superficial and predictable "epic" plotlines the series has fumbled with before. No new character to hog all the development, no god-like villain to overthrow Eggman, no random angle to force the Chaos Emeralds into the scene.

Just a good old fashioned Sonic 1/2 story: Eggman harnest creatures for evil, and Sonic goes to beat his ass.

It was also nice to see Sonic get his attitude back rather than come off as some philanthropist that holds the answers to life like in Black Knight and Sonic '06. He was a bit goofy though. I prefer the ruder side of Sonic. Remember how he completely blew off Tails when the Egg Carrier transformed in SA1? That's the Sonic I want. But this was a very good step in the right direction.

I do have a few complaints regarding Tails. despite improving in character and voice, still served as just tech support and didn't do anything physically except saving Sonic from mind control. He also seems to still be weak in the speed department, which is sad for a character named Miles Prower.

Overall, Colors had an enjoyable story. There was some cheesiness but nothing in it made me facepalm myself, which is something that I can't say about any console Sonic platformer since the Genesis days. So in that regard, Colors' story was quite the achievement, but it was a bit too light for me to consider it ideal.

My ideal story would be something more along the lines of S3&K/Rush. Maybe SA1 too, but without Amy and Big's stories (and with some good acting). Those games had some depth and development, but not to the point where it drives the entire game. More stuff like that, please.

[Emmett L. Brown]

While I did like the simplicity of the plot, they could've made us care more about the Wisp, maybe give them some character so we can feel bad for them. Maybe they should've added the Mother Wisp in the Wii version(Not as the Final Boss hell no) so we can get somewhat of a backstory for the Wisp.