It's a multiplayer mode featuring 2 different colored Sonics racing against each other. Am I the only one not seeing this?
Of course not, people just aren't sure why there would be a shared score between both Sonics during a race.
FWIW, Super Sonic has Light Dash in Heroes. Granted, you have to force him into a level to use it, but yeah, it's there.
I would have thought for it to be more suitable if the fly type power-up was not that hover thing, and instead was the purple whisp, which would allow him to fly freely and quickly for a while just like a certain purple jester from the same company... NiGHTS. He already has a drill-dash :P
I just had an idea: What if you're allowed to choose different characters for this possible 2-player thing? not only having 2 Sonics in the thing, but also possibly Tails, Knuckles, .....Metal Sonic perhaps? Maybe even.....a playable multiplayer Eggman/Robotnik to race against? By god, I can at least dream.....
If this 2-player mode really had all those characters, I highly doubt that SEGA would choose to advertise it showing 2 recolor Sonics racing each other. The lot of you really seem to be making too much of this, really.
The screenshot was leaked by the Japanese version of Amazon. It could be that this screenshot was never meant to be uploaded.
This is probably far, far off the mark, but I just had an idea about this mysterious screen. I am reminded of an old, somewhat obscure game called Ape Escape. During certain points in the game, you must race against your rival in order to get a certain number of coins (which unlock minigames). This rival had access to the same abilities you do, and the courses were designed around that. What if Colors had a similar concept (using a Robotnik created clone of Sonic or something)?
That kind of throws the "two sets of lives" thing into question, unless that CPU controlled Sonic can make mistakes and lose lives the same way that you do, which I actually see as kind of possible, but very improbable.
Then why do they both have antennas? The thing is that neither of those hedgehogs is Sonic; they're both 'bots with dubiously coloured wrists and socks. Which means my original idea of this being a scene from the late game is unlikely. It's a shame, because colour-sapped freak-geometry stage was pretty cool, and I'd have liked to see it in the main game. ANYWAY, on the subject of red Sonic, someone on SSMB found something which I'll just leave here: <div align='center'></div> Redhog is D:
Ignore the intro and the monkey who is playing the game. a complete Planet Wisp Act (not sure which one), no Wisp powers used. At the start of the stage the player falls in the (!) bottomless pit and falls to... a lower route (!!!). To bad the level is very short. EDIT: But since I'm completely blind, I didn't notice the timer starts at 2:45, so of course that can't be the whole level
It's not complete; the two videos of the level posted before are from earlier this Act; in fact, the second video goes past the point at which this new video starts.