Sonic Colors's Story: Your Opinion

[The Weeb with No Name]

For anybody who hates Sonic Colors's story. Please don't forget that we've seen worse

Hot.

[Ekaje]

While I did actually enjoy the jokes in the cutscenes, I wish there were more depth to the cutscenes in the game. I don't want to go back to super-serious, but I don't want most of the story to be cut-pastes of each other with different jokes.

Basically, I wish that there were more cutscenes like in Tropical Resort, and the midpoints of Planet Wisp and Asteroid Coaster, less "Hey a boss, time to make a quip and fight!" "Boss is dead, time to go!"

[Emmett L. Brown]

I liked the story, but I can't fault the arguments of others who didn't like the story, so it's hard to find reason to make a post.

The terrible jokes amused me by sparking my nostalgia for old timey Sonic cartoons, and Sonic acting full of himself was refreshing after Unleashed spent a chunk of its plot explaining in detail what a paragon and ideal he is (which was a good scene, I'll admit, but I prefer Sonic to be a little more flawed in character). The complete lack of plot development until the very last few stages worked fine for me, as I feel the premise of the villain having already established their evil operations before the hero arrives is an excellent one to use for a platform game; just go through the enemy-controlled levels, beat the bosses, and corner the villain at his doomsday device. Super Metroid has absolutely zero plot development between Samus landing in the planet and the penultimate boss fight with Ridley, and it's one of the best games of all time - contrast Metroid: Other M. But it seems games absolutely on pain of death must have cutscenes these days, so I'm happy they used the mandatory cutscenes of Sonic Colors to properly portray Sonic and Tails' friendship - instead of doing what they were probably supposed to do which was develop Yacker as yet another lovable cute character which inevitably becomes a scrappy - I'm looking at you, Chip.

It's not a perfect story. It's not an epic story. But it gets the job done, and provides a few accomplishments the series had been lacking for a long time, such as letting Eggman be the villain, the final boss, and actually bringing back that nice subtle pro-environment message that the series abandoned sometime around the birth of the dreamcast.

[Kuzu]

Hey remember back in the day, when story wasn't a big deal, and actually played a game for its gameplay? God I miss those days.

[sonfan1984]

"OH YEAH, I'M STRETCHIN', WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT? GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?"

Jesus Christ Sonic shut the fuck up.

I actually like that line. ._.;

[Diogenes]

Hey remember back in the day, when story wasn't a big deal, and actually played a game for its gameplay? God I miss those days.

People still play for the gameplay, but that doesn't mean they have to (or should) ignore everything else. And the story's been important to the series at least since S3&K.

[9-Eye]

For me, Colors' writing was just about perfect. I LOVE cheesy, cartoon-esque humor. The simple plot, spotlighting not much more than the established characters' relationships and the comedy, worked well with the vibrant and lighthearted tone a planetary theme park creates. The only way a Sonic game's writing and general storyline would be more perfect for my own tastes would be if Sonic Team came to my house and personally interviewed me about what I wanted, followed up by us all going out for ice cream and holding hands. Though I haven't given up hope yet, this seems unlikely. I do, however, see easily how someone could be turned off by the corniness and simplicity that I love so much. I think this just boils down to personal taste and, as much as I like Colors' writing, it wouldn't hurt to find a better medium.

That said, I do agree that the pace and structure of the cutscenes needed some work. Aside from a few exceptions, it really was just "smack-talk boss, shut down generator, repeat." This wouldn't be such a problem if said scenes played out exactly the same way, sans different jokes. Maybe this was necessary for Sweet Mountain and Starlight Carnival (with the whole two different locations for the same cutscene thing), but the way Sonic encountered the later bosses could've been more interesting than them just popping out of nowhere. I think something like Jayhawker's suggestion of the "Fearis Wheel" would help better balance the tempo and keep things from getting too repetitive. Of course, this is all just meaningless "what-ifs," since the game is already out. But if SEGA does decide to stick with a relatively simple plot (my personal preference), this would be a great improvement.

[green2tail]

Sonic Colors was pretty much what I expected it to be. I loved it, from the story line to the charactors. Although I expected more involvement from the others, (special tails), and Sonics atitude was kinda off key comparred to the previuse games that we came to love, and enjoy. But over all I enjoyed the plot, game play, and well the entire game. It maybe a new game, fighting for wisp freedom, but it still has the feel of the old nastalgia Sonic games to me.

thanks.

A. Romano

[sonfan1984]

Although I expected more involvement from the others, (special tails), and Sonics atitude was kinda off key comparred to the previuse games that we came to love, and enjoy.

I think Sonic has more personality in this game then any console 3D Sonic game so far. His personailty all went downhill since Sonic Heroes and he became a really bland and lame character imo.

Edited January 11, 2011 by sonfan1984

[DarkLight]

I think Sonic has more personality in this game then any console 3D Sonic game so far. His personailty all went downhill since Sonic Heroes and he became a really bland and lame character imo.

I thought he was well characterized in Secret Rings, Unleashed, and Black Knight. The only game I felt he was bland and personality-free was 06' but whatever floats your boat.

[sonfan1984]

I thought he was well characterized in Secret Rings, Unleashed, and Black Knight. The only game I felt he was bland and personality-free was 06' but whatever floats your boat.

I agree, besides those games. But the rest he was kinda lame. The writing and the acting plays a big part of it.

Edited January 11, 2011 by sonfan1984

[Kuzu]

I thought he was well characterized in Secret Rings, Unleashed, and Black Knight. The only game I felt he was bland and personality-free was 06' but whatever floats your boat.

Ever since Secret Rings his character has been pretty consistent.

[Icecoldfrieza]

I would have liked to have seen Eggman brainwash Shadow and have him fight Sonic. That would do two things: Give Shadow a reason to be in the game, and give us another canon Sonic VS Shadow fight.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I would have liked to have seen Eggman brainwash Shadow and have him fight Sonic. That would do two things: Give Shadow a reason to be in the game, and give us another canon Sonic VS Shadow fight.

Uh, no. Absolutely not. Unless you plan on re-writing the entire plot of Colors, you're doing nothing but shoehorning Shadow just because you like him. And that's not how you make a plot, nor is that how you give a character a reason to be in the game.

Edited January 12, 2011 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Icecoldfrieza]

Well I admit, I am biased towards Shadow. But they could have easily had a Sonic VS Tails boss fight as someone else mentioned. In fact that would have been the first time that has ever happened in Sonic's history, bar the Archie comic.

[RidersDX]

That would've been really epic right there, however, since Sega really downgraded the story this time depth wise, they probably thought that would be too dramatic for the story overall.

Edited January 12, 2011 by RidersDX

[sonfan1984]

Well I admit, I am biased towards Shadow. But they could have easily had a Sonic VS Tails boss fight as someone else mentioned. In fact that would have been the first time that has ever happened in Sonic's history, bar the Archie comic.

I think a Sonic vs Tails battle has already happened in one of the Sonic Rival games. I've never played the game myself but somebody showed a video of it before.

[Icecoldfrieza]

Oh that's right! It was when Tails was being controlled by the Ifrit. Same thing with Knuckles or Rouge depending on who you play as.

By the way, does Silver's appearance in the DS version mean that Sonic Rivals is a part of the storyline now? It was thought not to be for a while. I liked Silver's description of what the future was like, because it was the same way he described the desert in Sonic 06. I thought it was a nice touch that his world became exactly what he wished it could be before the time reset.

[FTA]

After replaying Colours over the last few days, it finally hit me what's wrong with the story.

At no point does Sonic (or anyone for that matter) call Eggman "Baldy (Mc)Noisehair" to his face. After Sonic telling Tails thats what he was going to do, I feel let down it never happened.

There's always the sequel.....

[Kuzu]

After replaying Colours over the last few days, it finally hit me what's wrong with the story.

At no point does Sonic (or anyone for that matter) call Eggman "Baldy (Mc)Noisehair" to his face. After Sonic telling Tails thats what he was going to do, I feel let down it never happened.

There's always the sequel.....

OH yeah, what ever did happen to that catch phrase?

[RidersDX]

I think a Sonic vs Tails battle has already happened in one of the Sonic Rival games. I've never played the game myself but somebody showed a video of it before.

Oh yeah, that did happen. Too bad Sonic Rivals 2's story just sucked overall. Honestly, I think there was as little effort as possible put into that story. Same with the first Rivals.

Edited January 12, 2011 by RidersDX

[Kuzu]

Oh yeah, that did happen. Too bad Sonic Rivals 2's story just sucked overall. Honestly, I think there was as little effort as possible put into that story. Same with the first Rivals.

Well it was written by Iizuka so its no wonder it makes no sense.

[Nerfuffle]

I’m a bit late to the party, but I’ll cast my two cents.

Ignoring the gameplay for the moment; to me, this presentation intended to be so simple and formulaic comes off as just “safe” and non-committal.

Like others have said, the bulk of the story telling is treated as an optional accessory than an integral part of the experience. Which begs the question, “Why did you make cut scenes at all?” You can tell what’s going on without them and even if you do watch them, there is no real convincing sense of danger or urgency to be found.

Even if the humor and silliness is supposed carry it through, the creators seem to have gone out of their way to hide it; the jokes themselves are often muffled, dumbed down, go too long, or lose their impact from the voice acting because the director supposedly can’t be bothered to record more than one take.

You may argue, “if you didn’t like ‘em, just skip ‘em” but if the creators them selves don’t respect their own work, then why should I?

We didn’t need the mini-movies to make us feel sorry for the Pikmin, respect for the Colossus, or even fear of the Gatherers. Cinema in gaming should be a medium, not a standard.

Consensus; It’s not the story, it’s the story telling.

[Ruby Havoc]

I feel as if the story wasn't as fleshed out on purpose. Due to the complaints of previous games having over epic stories and what not. To be honest I thought it worked out perfectly. Though the one thing I wish they had fleshed out were the Wisps and Planet Wisp itself.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Torcano

[DC111]

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.

This is the best thing I have read in a long time.

Reading this finally made me pinpoint what exactly bothered me about Sonic Colors. It wasn't the lightheartedness of the story. It wasn't the silly, ridiculous humor. It was the INCONSISTENCY in SONIC'S CHARACTER. Here so many people are saying how this is how Sonic should be, Sonic's like Spiderman now, the 'new' Sonic is great, so on and so on... WHY!? Sonic is NOT Spiderman, and there should BE no 'new Sonic.' Sonic has had a very distinct personality for a long time now, including Unleashed, the Riders series, and ESPECIALLY the Storybook series. He was cocky and confident and had 'attitude,' but he also had some depth to him, and some... well, some PERSONALITY. For as much of a showoff as he was, he had a charm about him, an air of compassion and forgiveness... and when he fought, it was for reasons he believed in passionately (again, SatBK). For a long time now, he's been EPITOMIZING his theme song from Sonic Adventure. In Sonic Colors, he was little more than an arrogant, shallow, generic 'superhero' figure.

I too hope that they fix up Sonic's character for the 20th Anniversary game, whatever that is. So many things about the franchise have changed - voice actors, script writers - and they need to be careful not to lose sight of the characters' personalities with that. It's bad enough when a fanfiction goes out of character... but an official game in the franchise itself?? It doesn't look good, and honestly, it's disappointing to see a character I've loved since childhood suddenly become someone different all together.

And for the record, Sonic is NOT Spiderman. He's Sonic. Nuff said on that.

Terrible (Sonic) characterization aside, I must admit I kind of wish the story itself had a little more substance, a little more of the 'epic' feel I'm used to for a Sonic game. In most instances (the Sonic Adventures and Sonic Unleashed, for example) I feel like the story is trying to compel me to play the game. (Is that not the purpose of a story in a game anyway?) But with Colors, the story was just THERE. It didn't make me want to play the game at all.

Having said that, I understand that not every game should be the same, and I suppose it's nice to have a 'break' from the deep, epic stories now and then. I get that. But I have to politely disagree with the people saying that only gameplay matters. The story matters, too; I think of it like a novel or a movie, except its an interactive story where you control the people in it. Gameplay is most definitely an important factor, but for many, MANY people, so is the story.

Edited February 7, 2011 by DC111