Sonic Colo(u)rs Ultimate released for Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Epic Games Store

So much for modders not being interested in the game

 

I've never minded the "filler" stages and think it's a much better application of game length padding than basically anything the 3D series did pre-Colors.

That being said I do think the game would be much stronger had they stuck to the original Act 1/2 setup and let the gimmick stages be optional. They're very similar to the Act 2s/3s in Unleashed, which I'd consider to be better than Colors' gimmick levels and are completely optional there. I'm hopeful we get a genuine "True Colors" mod for the PC release that restores the original Acts 1+2 and lets you play the game that way sequentially.

Ultimately though it's a different solution to the same problem Sonic Team has always had with the 3D Sonic games, which is that the meat of the games are barely enough to satisfy a two-hour runtime, to say nothing of the 8-10 hours that are usually expected out of a game's main campaign. Colors is loaded with stuff to do, getting all the Red Rings, S-ranks, completing the Game Land levels etc. easily gets you past 10 hours, but I could see someone just racing to see the credits feeling ripped off had Colors stayed to its Act 1/2/boss/next zone structure and made everything else totally optional.

 

Ya I bet in time this will be like the new base game to mod. It's far more focused than the other Sonic games, no HUBs to worry about really unlike Generations, a ton of level slots to use for new zones, and Godot seems to allow for some things to be a lot easier.

I look forward to the Generations project, only now with more wisps to fuck with someone just needs to figure out how to split drifting and boosting so they're their own functions (still bugged they didn't do this. Would it have added much? No, but why they hell not more control is never a bad thing).

EDIT: You certainly can't do this with Generations modding, just slap all of Tropical Resort on Sonic and play a level as... a level: https://twitter.com/bsthlc/status/1435327513232920579?t=fAQUCBlob67-us5dHx-VVg&s=19

 

I'm not sifting through other responses to see if anyone else has said anything I'm about to...

I got this on PS4, first time every playing Colors and never watched more than 2 minutes of gameplay on it, ever. As of this writing, I just put my controller down after finishing all of Tropical Resort to eat and write this...

What is this game? 6 ACTS PLUS A BOSS ACT in the first level alone? The acts are short and bare bones and uninspired, and this is the first level. I can see now everything Generations improved and built upon that this formula set the foundation for, cause holy shit this is extremely underwhelming. It's bearable but so disappointing.

The game looks pretty well upscaled all around but when the cutscenes played... that ULTIMATE should be ripped off the title. The original 480p cutscenes, in all their grainyness.

Welp, but I guess I'll play through it... eventually. I rather finish my lunch than write any more.

Side note: The Baby Sonic keychain that came in the box is absolutely adorable though and greater than expected quality. Gonna just leave it sealed in the plastic baggy for novelty sake. I'm out.

 

@Knucklez yea one of the more unfortunate decisions they made back when making Colors was splitting up the acts the way they did. Many of the original "Act 1s" were cut into two, and the old Act 2 became Act 3. Each world on average has 3 real zones, 3 gimmicky zones, and a boss. Why they didn't make the gimmicky acts optional is beyond me though, it's how Colors DS was organized

 

Colors answers the question of "How do we simplify Sonic Unleashed's control scheme to work on a sideways Wiimote?" and seems to do that well.

Generations answers the question of "How do we refine Sonic Unleashed's control scheme under the same constraints?" and seems to do that well.

Both of these projects were developed at roughly the same time -- and I suspect that there was some baseline communication between the two projects.

I think that the sacrifices that Colors was forced to make are quite apparent now that regular old gamepads are pretty much the standard across all platforms. With that said, the game was still enjoyable for me back then on a Wiimote and is still enjoyable for me now -- for what it is anyhow.

 

Bahaha, this is exactly how I felt playing Colors for the first time back in 2010. It was getting *such* good press and even the FANS loved it (and they hated everything!), and as someone who'd played Unleashed for dozens of hours I was sure I would too... then I just kept ramming headlong into these short little gimmicky stages. I fell off by the time I got to Sweet Mountain, didn't come back to finish it for about a year, and rarely played it or even THOUGHT about it for nearly a decade after that. When I thought of the boost games, I thought of Unleashed and Generations... Colors was just this little side-project that came between the two big ones.

And now, it's one of my favorite 3D Sonic games. Oh, time, she is capricious.

I made a topic a while back explaining how it ended up like this, but in summary, yeah, they mixed the bonus/mission stages in with the real ones and didn't differentiate between them, most likely to make the game longer. Since the 16-bit era ended, Sonic games have struggled with having enough content to justify a full-price purchase, in an era where challenge and replay value are more niche than they used to be. If you just want to focus on the original campaign...

Spoiler: Original Colors Cheat Sheet

Tropical Resort: Act 1, 2, and 3
Sweet Mountain: Act 1, 2, 3, and 5
Starlight Carnival: Act 1 and 5
Planet Wisp: Act 1, 4, and 6
Aquarium Park: Act 1, 4, and 6
Asteroid Coaster: Act 1, 2, and 6

 

Imo, the filler/gimmick stages aren't bad. Some of them have neat ideas in them.

The issue is that you're forced through them. If they'd kept to a 2 main acts, 2/3 gimmick stages, one boss per hub/world, then Colours would be paced much better imo. It might have been docked for not being as lengthy, but think about games like Super Mario Galaxy. You don't need to do every star to finish the game. Hell - you usually don't even need half of the total required collectables to finish the game in most cases.

 

Agreed, playing them in Ultimate for the first time in a while, I find myself *really* enjoying most of the bonus stages. There are a few clunkers (especially the ones based around the Cube Wisp, or that Sweet Mountain act with the switches), but by and large, they're pretty good. Especially since I'm going for red rings for the first time, I notice many of 'em have interesting puzzles or fun challenges, as a result of really being able to drill down on one particular concept or Wisp power. My problems with them are almost entirely in how they're presented, and how much of an intrusion on Colors' pace they were before I knew the game so well. But those are just my preferences. I can see how interspersing these more traditional platformer challenges throughout the game might compliment Sonic's usual high-speed thrills for a lot of people, and that probably helps Colors reviews so well outside of us diehards. To quote IGN's 2010 review...

 

I think I'm the only one in this thread that never had a problem with Colors' weird act splitting.

 

But your usage of the word “weird” indicates that you think it’s weird lol

 

Just finished an Xbox One playthrough - didn't worry too much about any of the optional stuff (ended up with half the red star rings and two Rival Rush battles done).

- default control scheme. In Unleashed, X is boost, B is slide. In Generations, X is boost, B is slide. In Colours Ultimate, B is boost, X is slide. Why? Luckily this is easy enough to change.
- loading times. Tropical Resort 1 took a good 30 seconds to load, and generally speaking it was always in the 10-15 second range, even for bosses.
- remixes. Quite nice, although to be honest I barely noticed the difference in most cases. Definitely something to add to my playlists though.
- Sweet Spot Homing Attack. A little bit jank in implementation but a good idea that works for Colours, as the extra bit of boost really comes in handy sometimes.
- Jade Ghost. Actually a pretty cool Wisp, and some of the secrets and new routes it opens up are interesting. Shame absolutely nothing outside of the levels references it though - it's not unlocked in the same way as other Wisps, doesn't appear on the map, or title screen, or the Final Colour Blaster. It's very clearly something tacked-on.
- Rival Rush. It's there I guess - think of it like the Super Mario Galaxy comets but instead of giving you anything meaningful you get coins for...
- Character customisation. It's also there (unless you're on the map screen, then it isn't). I gave Sonic bright red gloves and shoes and set both his aura and boost to make it look like he was permanently on fire.
- Boosters that aren't horizontal just flat out don't work for some reason.
- Every time I use a drill I get a checkpoint bonus.
- The credits go on and on and on and on and on and on and on, mostly silently.

I won't say much on the original game because I've gushed about it plenty before. Basically my favourite 3D Sonic game, although Unleashed's day stages are better Colours succeeds in being a more cohesive package, and adds a ton of replay value when it comes to score attacking. Ultimate slightly downgrades that cohesiveness with the Jade Ghost clearly separate to other Wisps, and Rival Rush having no in-game explanation (I shouldn't have to watch a YouTube video to understand what's happening in a game), but I think the gameplay itself is actually an improvement (short of the buggy boosters and scoring).

I'll do some red star ring hunting tomorrow, I remember where most of them are from the original game but some of them I forget (and some have been moved) so it'll be interesting for me.

 

This remix genuinely slaps really hard.

 

I do think it's weird because there is an unusual number of acts, but I've never felt it's weird to play, if that makes sense.

 

Lol I like how Act 2 and Act 3 (especially that one) remix actually are better than the first one.

 

I honestly don't get the love that vanilla Colors gets. I don't even think people actually like it that much and that all the good will simply came from people happy that there was at least a half decent platformer again.

Even without "Ultimate"'s severe glitchiness and amateur additions, it's just a generic blocky platformer with some half assed attempts at poorly designed movement gimmicks via Wisp.

What I'm saying is, even if this was a stellar port/remaster, are they that deluded in SEGA that they thought churning out Colors would net them the same praise they received in the Wii era?

All I can see is that SEGA doesn't care about their IP, and all the marketing talk of "not rushing games" was just BS to reassure nervous investors who keep financing shitty products, less so about the fans who tend to buy whatever garbage has Blue Felix on it.

They burned most of the goodwill garnered by Mania with the pathetic Forces.

Frankly it only seems that quality products are released when fans who actually care about the product are in charge of the overall design. Sonic Mania was an utter accident, and they even screwed that up by filling it full of Denuvo crap against the protestations of the Devs.

I won't be buying this. I won't be buying Origins Collection.

The only reason Sonic was ever good was Naka's amazing ball physics programming. Every one of the games with his physics engine is a success. The second you take it away, you get Crackers/Chaotix.

But SEGA have this thing where they fuck over talented people because of the egos of useless old businessmen who don't even understand the business that they're in.

SEGA isn't a game publisher anymore. They're essentially a more scummy Sanrio. They are simply rights holders who just whore Blue Felix's likeness out to whoever will pay enough. Got a product? Slap a Sonic on it. At least Hello Kitty has some semblance of quality assurance.

I for one can't wait for the Sonic Colors Ultimate Hooters promotion.

 

Stopped reading here. No one's forcing you to like or buy the game, but do not for one fucking second do that "people are just lying to themselves and actually hate it" garbage. If someone disagrees with you that a game is good, then that's it.

 

Calm down, buddy. I know we're enthusiasts but try not to speak as if my opinion of Sonic games is some earth shattering proclamation that needs to be combated. You stopped reading yet were mad enough to respond. Seems stable.

I'm not saying people don't enjoy Colors or that it was a bad game.

I'm saying that it's general rating and aura of goodwill simply came from being a half decent platformer in a sea of shitty releases, and that it's praise is overblown because of the environment in which it was released.

Would you like to read the rest now, or are you going to get triggered further by someone's opinion of a video game?