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

Oh ya with a September release? Ya the game looks like this. At this point that ain't changing

 

Didn't it happen already yesterday during The Future Games Show?

I'm sure that was it, just sort of expecting more interviews by sites and outlets posting gameplay on their YouTube channels tbh.

(Sone that have been already posted in this thread)

 

More Planet Wisp footage:


holyfuckwhydoboostersnowmakethespirngsounditssobad

 

I didn't notice until you mention it but yeah what the hell lol. It wasn't this way in the OG Colours, right?

 

Nope, not like this in the original game. The rainbow rings do it as well in Ultimate. It's a design choice that someone made for this remaster, and it needs unchoosing.

Planet Wisp looks mostly fine, but the flat 2D textures being used for the background in certain places looks really naff here. Like everything to the left of Sonic in this screenshot:

Looks fine on a 480p Wii game from 2010, but dreadful on a 1080p or 4K PS4/XB1/PC game in 2021, even if it's just a Wii remaster.

 

Those gold coins are replacing all the 1-ups, even at the score screen (which makes sense, since there is no life system anymore).

 

Looks like the skybox in Planet Wisp has received the SADX treatment:

 

I think, for future games, the ideal would be to have a list of difficulty options (just like you had in Forces, but not as dumb as in Forces). Options such as: percentage of rings you lose when taking a hit (50% or 100%), gain life by collecting 100 rings (yes or no), gain life every 50,000 points (yes or no), initial amount of lives (3, 5 or 10), bottomless pit warning (yes or no), etc.

But SEGA isn't too wrong to want to abolish the system of lives. Nowadays, Game Over in Sonic games represent nothing. You just play the level again and you're done.

 

Ugh, the texture glitches and flat background textures disappoint me

 

I was bothered by the results screen for the longest time and I've only just now realised it's because it's a flat image with Sonic and the HUD overlayed on top. I didn't notice the use of flat background textures in the gameplay because my eyes were on Sonic, as they ought to be when playing really, but when it's not being used to augment the existing geometry and Sonic is the only 3D model in shot, it becomes glaring. Fire Emblem: Three Houses does the same thing during its in-engine cutscenes, and it's just so damn obvious. Like, the geometry already exists, there's got to be at least one place in each level where you can just plonk Sonic for the sake of the results screen.

Anyway, I think Planet Wisp looks nice. Seems like Tropical Resort is, thus far, the most egregious area in terms of colours and brightness. Not a deal breaker for me, but I'll most likely be double-dipping when the game comes to Steam as I'm sure there'll be mods released to bring the game closer in art direction to the original very soon after it hits Steam.

 

Oh ya the background of the results screen has always been a flat texture, it looked pretty bad in OG Colors too (well if you're playing on Dolphin and upscale everything suddenly you get this crusty jpg in the background and... yea).

I do like the addition of the timing bar though, now you know how long you can dick around the results screen before they cut you off.

 

Where's all the color-saturating bloom? The brief shine on the metal early in the gameplay tells me they probably have some sort of PBR material system in place but the botched new lighting doesn't showcase it at all, and that 2010 "bloom everywhere" coloration is just almost completely missing besides on specific glowy point lights and Rings. It's there briefly upon getting out of the tunnel, but nowhere near as much as it was even on the original Wii version.

Egg Pawn explosions look glitchy, the vibrancy is missing, the Laser Wisp glow is broken as is how the crystals they interact with simply aren't glowing like they should, and everything is darkened and occasionally desaturated. They're using what seems to be the same shadowmaps as the original, but everything on an individual scale got the SADX treatment. I know it's probably nitpicky as hell but I do care about Colors, and this feels like a compromised port.

 

It did... on GameCube!



Better water (no idea why they went with radioactive blue on PC)

And has actual shadows projected from the stage geometry!

In other places the lighting is better, and in other's its worse, though.

 

I looked through some other footage only to realize that for seemingly no reason whatsoever, the entire Earth (Sonic's World? whatever) is inexplicably missing in Ultimate's Tropical Resort Act 2. And there's nothing to fill the gap, so it's just stars.

 

Eh, don't agree. It's a platformer. Of course there should be pits. But Sonic's speed means they have to be more careful with them in 2D. I think it's rather zealous to go as far as to say they shouldn't be in the game, especially when the ring system makes it hard to die in Sonic games' in general.

I'm pretty sure its a consequence of needing to make layouts and paths that actually allow Sonic's speed to have meaning and context while also letting obstacles not become superfluous. Sonic moves very fast so wide open spaces in 3D results in Sonic just kind of running aimlessly with no obstacles and with enemies just whizzing by never hoping to ever be a threat to the player.
(oops, double posted. my bad)

 

But as ridiculous as it is I kinda like it lol

 

...what is going on with the audio in these gameplay videos? So many of the sound effects sound like they're coming from the far left or right when they have no reason to.