Sonic Colors
Wii
It is no secret that we have been going through a long drought of decent Sonic the Hedgehog titles. Since Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 came out for the Sega Dreamcast in the early 2000s, the series has not given us much to get excited about. The reviews for most of these games have been so god awful I haven't even bothered checking them out at all. It is like the games' creators completely forgot what made Sonic the Hedgehog famous in the first place. As a big fan of the original Sonic games for the Sega Genesis, this disappoints me.
I did give Sonic Generations a try back in 2011. Since the game was supposed to be a throwback to the Sonic games of old, I figured that trying it out was the least I could do. It wasn't terrible. Honestly, I don't remember too much about it. I remember it was not bad, but only just somewhat enjoyable. So between 2001, when I played Sonic Adventure 2, and 2018 (present day), I had played exactly one okay Sonic title. That's a 17 year drought. Considering that I used to get a new Sonic game almost every year back in the Genesis days, I was beginning to give up hope for the series.
I continued to read through reviews, looking for a decent Sonic game that might have gotten by me somehow. Aside from Sonic Generations, the only recent Sonic game that didn't get horrible scores was Sonic Colors for the Wii. (Note from me: I literally JUST stumbled across reviews for Sonic Mania, and it looks freaking amazing. Unfortunately, I had not heard of it at the time I decided I was going to play this one, so that is why I don't mention it in my comments) Sonic Colors actually came out a year before Sonic Generations did, but somehow the game had managed to slip past my attention. I put it into my GameFly queue, and before I knew it the game was on its way to my front door.
Sonic Colors was released in 2010, so it is not exactly new or recent anymore. One of the things I had read about the game before playing it was how it was supposed to have some of the most beautiful graphics ever seen from a Sonic game. Perhaps I am spoiled by my PS3 and PS4 and all the high definition games I am always playing. But my initial thought when I first started the game was that it looked clunky. The stages looked nice, but the characters did not. Sonic had a lot of rough, jaggedy edges to him. So did Tails. It had been a long time since I had played Sonic Adventure, but I remember the characters looking better in that game, and that game was released 10 years ago on the Sega Dreamcast.
The more I played, the more I began to appreciate the game's graphical look. Yeah, the characters weren't the best looking. But the stages... they were really something to behold. There is so much color, so much detail, so much stuff going on on the screen at the same time. Most of the game takes place in an amusement park in space, so there is a lot of room for high flying action and visual effects. Neon signs, machinery, twisting paths, loads of visually stunning lighting effects. I must say, the visual effects are really well done, but I couldn't stop thinking that this all would have looked so much better in HD. Unfortunately that is a feature not supported by the Wii. Instead, this ended up looking more like a PS2 game. A good looking PS2 game, but a PS2 game nonetheless.
I wasn't too impressed by the game's music and sound effects. Things got off on the wrong foot with a weird music video-like introduction with what sounded like Owl City on vocals. The voice acting is corny and not good at all. None of the game's music is catchy. The in-game sound effects are not memorable. I was hoping for at least the classic Sonic jump sound to come back, but it did not. The only sound effects I truly liked and appreciated were the little chime it makes when you collect a ring and the jangling sound when you get hit and lose your rings. Those are mainly unchanged from the old Genesis games. Otherwise they wrecked pretty much everything else. Even the sound Sonic makes when he breathes in an air bubble underwater has been changed. Whhhyyyyyyy? I think I am being a little too critical though. The game's music and sound effects don't suck. I wasn't turning the volume down or anything. There just wasn't much about them that was memorable to me.
As far as gameplay goes, this game does seem to draw a lot of inspiration from Sonic Adventure. Much of the game takes place from a behind the back 3D perspective. Mainly your goal is to go forward. You collect rings, go through speed loops, grind on rails, that kind of thing. There are lots of enemies to attack. The same lock on system from Sonic Adventure is in effect here. You jump up in the air and hit the jump button again in mid air to zoom in and smack your enemy. It almost makes things too easy.
When you are not playing from a behind the back 3D perspective, the game switches to a more traditional 2D side scrolling view. This plays out a lot like some of the older Sonic games. There is a lot of precise jumping across platforms and over bottomless pits. You collect rings, you zip through the stages. A complaint I have is that jumping kind of sucks in this game. I fell to my death many, many times. The momentum can be a little tricky. Hold down the direction pad the way you are headed for too long and you either overjump and fall to your death - or you land and your momentum carries you off the other end. If you try to hold up in mid air, the game brings you to a complete stop and you end up missing the platform entirely. This was probably my biggest issue with this entire game. A lot of accurate jumping is needed, but with the way the game handles, it makes it very difficult to complete some of these jumps. Also, you can't spin dash in this game. What the hell?
No one really plays Sonic the Hedgehog for its story, but that doesn't mean this game doesn't have one. It focuses on Sonic as he travels into outer space to stop Doctor Robotnik. The Eggman has been capturing and enslaving a mysterious new alien species. He is using their power to fuel his machines. He plans to use this power to defeat Sonic and take over the universe. I couldn't help but feel that this game's outer space theme was directly inspired by Super Mario Galaxy. Something tells me it almost has to have been. Anywho...
As you play, you can use the powers of these aliens (known as Wisps) to your advantage. Every time you collect a Wisp, it gives Sonic special abilities. There is a drill Wisp that lets you dig into the ground, a laser Wisp that zaps you across the screen, a rocket Wisp that launches you into the sky, etc etc. So on and so forth. I like the addition of the Wisps as they help to break up the monotony of the normal gameplay a little bit.
The game is not very long. In fact, I beat it in 2 sessions. I believe the total number of hours I spent in the game clocked in at right around five. I could have done it a lot faster if I didn't screw around with some of the completely useless Sonic Simulator stages. What is the point of those even? I don't fricking know.
I was very glad that I had ended up renting this game rather than buying it. Sure there is some replay value as there are a lot of things to go back and collect. Each stage has five hidden red stars in it somewhere. This is a little embarrassing - of all 30 or so of the games stages, I did not find all of the stars in a single one of them. But I didn't really care to, so I did not lose any sleep over it. Each stage gives you a letter grade (S being the best) depending on how quickly you finish it and how many rings you collect in the process. I got mainly Bs, Cs, and As. I suppose if I had been concerned about getting an S rank in everything I could have gone back and played most of these stages again. But concerned I was not. There are a couple of challenge modes. And of course there is the Sonic Simulator. But I didn't care about any of this stuff. I just wanted to beat the story mode.
That turned out to be not much of a problem at all. I had read that the game was supposed to be very challenging and at points frustrating. I did not experience much of this at all. There were a few points that required some trial and error, but after blowing through a couple of lives I was able to move on pretty painlessly. Aside from a few annoying platforming segments I thought the game was quite easy actually.
I am very happy that I did not drop 40 or 50 bucks on purchasing this game. I got what I wanted out of it in just 2 playing sessions. It was entertaining. It is not a bad game by any means. Would it have been worth the money though? Hell to the naw. That is really all I can say about the game. It was entertaining. Was it a world beater? Not really. Was it magical like the Sonic games of old on the Genesis? Not really. Was it a nice little distraction for about 5 hours or so? Yeah. It was.
Kudos to the makers of this game for not butchering Sonic yet again. This is not the perfect game but it is a step in the right direction. Couple this with Sonic Generations, and I can rest easily that at least two decent Sonic games have been released in the past 15 years. If Sonic Mania is as good as it looks, hopefully that number will jump to three. I am much more excited for that game than I ever was about this.
Another Wii game in the books. Of my 122 game reviews, only two of them have been for the Wii. It seems like such a small number, but hopefully this will get the ball rolling on more Wii reviews in the future.
Overall:
C+
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