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Sonic Colors
Wii
Sega Finally Makes a Good Sonic Game.
4.5/5 stars
I’ll admit up-front that I was never a Genesis or Sonic fan. I tried to get into the series, but was never able to get past the poorly-designed levels that urged the player to make Sonic run fast, but then placed a spike, spring, or other nuisance in the way to destroy his momentum. The entire series seemed like it would have been ‘just another platformer’ of the 4th generation had it not been a first-party product on a console that desperately needed a mascot and was facing brutal competition from Nintendo and a tubby plumber.
My opinion of Sonic changed, however, when he jumped to 3D. “Sonic Adventure” was the first Sonic game I was ever able to enjoy. Somehow, Sega had managed to push their most iconic character from 2D to 3D in a much more refined way than Nintendo’s clunky attempt in “Mario 64” (of course, it helped that “Sonic Adventure” happened an entire hardware generation after “Mario 64”). The levels with Sonic and Tails were fast, well-laid-out, and incredibly fun… but even “Sonic Adventure” held a grim specter of the future for Sega’s beloved mascot, as it foisted a boat-load of the hedgehog’s friends upon players, none of whom were very fun to use.
For the last 10 years, Sonic Team, Sega’s hedgehog-centric developer, has been working hard to find new and increasingly horrible ways to torture, molest, and devalue what was once their most recognizable character. Sonic the Hedgehog has become a laughing stock, be it due to his forays into Furrydom, his Facebook-caliber list of ‘friends,’ his lycanthropy infection, or just slowing down due to old age. Not even his most die-hard fans have been able to defend him anymore. Any other franchise with such consistent, poor quality would be retired and its development team disbanded.
But recently, Sega did something strange: it released two supposedly-traditional Sonic games in rapid succession, one of them being “Sonic Colors,” a multi-platform release appearing on the Wii and DS. Early impressions of this game seemed impossibly positive, despite the fact that Sega themselves have declared that “Sonic Colors’” target audience is younger gamers. Still, fans have long grown tired of the ‘Sonic Cycle,’ in which their positive early impressions are dashed upon playing the finished product. As a bystander to the hedgehog drama, I was never really part of the Sonic Cycle… I was just waiting for a Sonic game that could finally compete with Mario in quality, design, and fun. I wondered if a Sonic game aimed at kids might finally be the solution to the problem.
Presentation
Sonic games have never been afraid to use bold colors, and “Sonic Colors” is, unsurprisingly, no exception. The game is completely rendered in polygons, yet there are absolutely no jaggies visible during gameplay. A few jaggies and spots of pixilation creep in during the game-engine-rendered cutscenes, but it’s very minor. What is really noticeable in the cutscenes is the incredible textures that make Sonic’s gloves and other materials look particularly clothy. For the majority of the game, the camera is situated far enough away from the action that the fine details in the characters and environments aren’t apparent (it also doesn’t help that Sonic is blazing past the environments), which is both good and bad: we can’t see the flaws, but we also can’t see the details.
The sound in the game is quite well-done as well. The soundtrack is typical Sonic Team fair, which is good for those who like it and bad for those who don’t. The sound effects are all classic Sonic, and work quite nicely. The voiceacting, in a surprising turn of events, is wonderful. The cast is fairly small, but all of them sound in-character and professionally-recorded. The only annoyance in the sound department is an overly-cheerful announcer who yells the name of whatever power-up Sonic activates.
There are a couple of other well-done additions to “Sonic Colors” that bear mentioning. First, the opening movie that plays before the title screen looks amazing (or course, it’s pre-rendered). Second, “Sonic Colors” takes advantage of the Wii as a platform by integrating Miis in a rather unorthodox way. The player is given the opportunity to headswap any Mii on their console onto Sonic’s body for use in the game’s bonus stages. This feature doesn’t contribute anything to gameplay, but it can be fairly amusing nonetheless.
Story
One of the biggest problems Sonic has faced recently has been Sonic Team’s insistence on cramming more and more incredibly bad story material into its hedgehog-related titles. While I usually like to say platformers (both 2D and 3D) don’t need stories and can survive on their gameplay alone, that’s not entirely true. The “Ratchet & Clank” series, for example, would be nothing if it weren’t for its incredibly witty writing and continuous flow of new villains. Sonic and Mario, on the other hand, are more traditional platforming heroes and follow the old ways of fighting the same villain in the same scenario over and over and over again. Having a good story could improve these games, but having a simple story doesn’t necessarily detract from them.
“Sonic Colors” manages to have a story that is both simple and witty at the same time. The basic premise is that Dr. Eggman/Robotnik, Sonic’s eternal nemesis, has built a massive interstellar amusement park in order to atone for his past crimes against humanity… err… hedgehoggity. This park looms above Sonic’s homeworld as a massive spacestation with tractor beams chaining 5 other interstellar bodies together.
Being the totally rad and sarcastically cool dude that he is, Sonic senses that Eggman is up to no good, yet again, and is merely using the park as a (poorly-implemented) cover for another nefarious scheme. Naturally, Sonic is correct, as he and Tails encounter a race of bizarre aliens called ‘Wisps’ (with a ‘W’) who are being harvested by Eggman and his robotic goons for their life-force.
It’s a simple story that sets up a clean ‘rescue all the Wisps and destroy Eggman’s machines’ narrative. The fact that this narrative STAYS simple is a huge plus. There are no random ‘friends’ popping into the story. The only characters are Sonic, Tails (who spends the entire game working on an alien translator app for his PSP), a Wisp named Yakker, Dr. Eggman, and two of Eggman’s bumbling robotic henchmen. “Sonic Colors” doesn’t NEED any more story than that, as it allows the narrative to focus on Sonic and Eggman with some added humorous banter between the hedgehog and his one best friend.
Gameplay
Upon starting “Sonic Colors,” the player is briefly shown an old-timey ‘Act’ intro screen, such as those seen in the Genesis Sonic titles, before being thrust into the first of 7 worlds (each of which is made up of multiple Acts). The first level begins as a 3D platformer, with the camera situated a fair distance behind Sonic. Unlike most 3D platformers, “Sonic Colors” actually has a very well-behaved camera… despite the fact that it is completely non-adjustable. The reason the 3D camera is so good in this game is simple: The 3D sections exclusively involve moving forward along a path. This path frequently branches and deviates, but it never provides a wide-open area in which the player and camera can become confused about which direction the action should be moving. After a short time as a 3D platformer, the camera swings around to the side and zooms way out, seamlessly turning the game in to a 2D sidescroller. These sections, again, feature numerous branching paths and hidden areas, but always provide a clear way forward. I thought the camera zoomed out a bit too far in the 2D sections, making Sonic look very small on-screen, which in turn made judging distance a tad difficult.
At the end of the first level, after a brief cutscene, instead of being shoved immediately into another level, Sonic appears on a “Super Mario World” style map screen, complete with dots to represent levels and paths to more levels that reveal themselves as Sonic progresses through the game. The game also auto-saves compulsively, which is a feature that was desperately needed in Sonic’s Genesis titles.
The game plays very similarly to older games in the franchise. Sonic must run through levels, collecting Rings and freeing trapped aliens on his way to the giant Ring or alien container that serves as the goal. Because of the traditional gameplay, “Sonic Colors” supports the full spectrum of Wii controller options and makes no use of motion control outside of a waggle to activate Wisp powers while using the Wiimote + Nunchuck (which is the setup I picked). The A button makes Sonic jump, the B button makes him dash, the Z button makes him slide (or stomp while in mid-air), and the joystick controls his movement. While I was disappointed that the classic ‘spindash’ move was removed from Sonic’s repertoire, the presence of a ‘homing’ attack (performed by tapping A while in the air and near a target) and power-ups more than make up for this minor slight. I was also thrilled to see that Sonic can now perform a minor-corrective double jump that gives him just a bit more height while allowing for some much-needed aerial correction in tricky platforming sections.
The titular ‘colors’ refers to the variety of Wisp aliens that Sonic must rescue in order to unlock their powers. Once freed, Wisps appear at set points in each level, where Sonic can collect them. Once he has a specialty Wisp in his possession, a waggle of the Wiimote activates it as a temporary power-up ranging from a ricocheting lightning attack, to a crate-busting cube, to a wall-climbing spiked ball, to a high-flying rocket.
Each of the game’s levels also contains 5 red ‘Special Rings.’ Collecting more and more red rings unlocks bonus levels in the game’s 7th area, Game Land, which feature’s ‘Eggman’s Sonic Simulator.’ Collecting all the red rings and completing all 21 bonus levels unlocks SuperSonic as an option. I found it to be a useless option, though, as SuperSonic can’t collect Wisps or use their color powers.
The level designs in “Sonic Colors” are some of the best I’ve ever seen in a Sonic game. The first area, the ‘Tropical Resort’ is flat-out amazing and flows perfectly. Unfortunately, the later areas feature Acts that fall back on some old annoyances from Sonic’s Genesis days. Fortunately, the save system and the fact that players are encouraged to play Acts repeatedly in order to achieve higher ranks (D, C, B, A, and S) means that nobody will have their game completely screwed-up by one unforeseen spike or bottomless pit. The game even features an online leaderboard where players can compare high scores in each Act.
Essentially, what Sega and Sonic Team have done here is combined the best aspects of Sonic games on the Genesis, the best aspects of “Sonic Adventure,” and some new ideas cribbed directly from Nintendo’s Mario franchise. The result is a game that smoothly transitions between both dimensions of the fractured platforming genre while remaining fun and engaging through the entire ~15 hours it takes to complete.
Overall
After decades of trying, Sega has finally created a Sonic game to rival Nintendo’s greatest accomplishments with Mario. “Sonic Colors” is the hedgehog equivalent of “Super Mario Galaxy 2”: A polished blend of the finest-quality 2D and 3D gameplay mixed with enough new elements that it feels fresh without becoming ridiculous or gimmicky. Anyone who has ever cared remotely about Sonic owes it to themselves to play this game.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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