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

I’m hoping that Colors Ultimate and GTA: The Trilogy are wake-up calls for developers to stop prioritizing deadlines over, y’know, actually finishing the game. But of course, the chances of that happening are slim.

I don’t think this is entirely a case of Sega screwing over Blind Squirrel with deadlines (that “scapegoat scandal” Twitter thread I always see people share was written by someone who seriously needs to touch some grass) but at the same time it’s clear that the remaster needed way more time to cook. It’s a shame too, since aside from the unpolished stuff I think this is a genuinely good remaster of a good game.

 

It's an okay remaster, the Jade Wisp is meh, the Tails Save is... okay (fetuses can now play the game), I like that you can map your controls, but the lightning and the music are mixed bags in my opinion.
Sonic feels like he doesn't even belong in the same plane of existence as the game, and Planet Wisp's music instead of beginning with that calm song that made you feel like you were sleeping in a field full of grass, it has now that EDM shit that ruins the level's setting, and don't get me started on Sweet Mountain's horns being replaced with...whatever that was, but on the other hand there's Asteroid Coaster, Terminal Velocity, and the bosses themes that are such bangers, I did notice something with this, Jun Senue did a great job with the rock music sections of the game, while Ohtani did terrible with the rest.

 

I really don't care what the patch was focused on. This particular issue is just so minor but looks so ridiculously sloppy. Surely it's got to be one of the easiest things to fix. There's no excuse for it to still be there.

 

Setting aside the unpolished stuff rightfully being considered in this game's appraisal, I don't see what this remaster is otherwise doing to make it "genuinely good." Barring the things that have been broken or uprooted, the changes introduced are small, unnecessary, or obligatory. In a case like this, that "unpolished stuff" is exactly what's keeping this thing from being a genuinely good remaster since it doesn't really offer much of note beyond the core game.

And of course if you have the Switch version this remaster is an outright embarrassment. No good reason for consumers to even accept that they didn't get 60fps on that when the hardware was more than capable of delivering. The state of the Switch version reflects on the others too since it was not the target platform. All versions are horribly unoptimized and a far cry from being good remasters.

 

I agree to an extent, but at the same time I think it’s amazing that nowadays you can go back and patch an already released game.. Sure it’s a shame that games are released in an unfinished state at times to meet deadlines, but that post-release support and extra time can go a long way into making them what they should be, or better.. the advances in technology have sure made it easier to do that and I’m grateful that developers are still given that opportunity to go in and tweak their work

 

There have always been patches though, otherwise you end up with a permanent broken game, like Tales of Graces, and this have to patch the game and make more copies and hope people are buying the not broken one.

Kind of like Mortal Kombat Gold.

 

It's cool that developers can fix an already-released game. It's been really nice for some previously unnoticed bugs. But for developers to use that as a crutch to release unfinished games and have paying customers be the beta testers is entirely unacceptable. Honestly I don't know why anyone would pre-order and buy a game day one knowing that developers do this.

 

Speaking of the pre-order, it felt like such a afterthought, why the hell is it that the ""Exclusive Music" is just the Planet Wisp remixes? That just make no sense, did they just..forgot to include the rest?

 

"The rest" are in the game by default.

 

"did they forget to include the rest" as in "where are the other changed tracks"? All of the remaining new remixes are already in the base game.
"did they forget to include the rest" as in "why are the Planet Wisp ones separate"? ... I don't think we have any sort of official statement on those being the way they are, do we?

can't remember ​

 

When were those times? Jet Set Willy released in 1984 and was literally impossible to complete, requiring the publishers/developers to publish a set of instructions on how to modify the game to make it winnable (a patch you had to type in!)

But that's okay, at least Sonic 1 was finished when it was first released and didn't have later versions with added parallax scrolling or anything like that.

 

Yeah, and imagine how angry and betrayed we'd all feel if jumping on a plesiosaur enemy crashed THE biggest video game of Christmas 1992. And lots of games back then didn't even HAVE a save feature! What if a kid who had never made it that far and was excited to finally see a new level lost all that progress for no reason? What a cataclysmic embarrassment that would have been for the industry leader. I'd have probably just quit gaming entirely.

 

I get this strong feeling you're referencing something, but I just can't seem to figure out what.

 

I've received quite a lot of replies for a wisecrack I typed in 30 seconds, so I guess I have to type an actual post now. You're making me work

Ultimately, buggy and unfinished games have always existed and will always exist (especially when it comes to Sonic, which is why this conversation is pretty hard to have on this particular forum); but it's undeniable it's gotten worst and worst over the years.
Patching in itself isn't an issue and I never implied it was. It's great! I grew up with the early 360/PS3 generation of consoles, so patches and updates have always been a part of my gaming life.
Patching a few issues along the way is not an unhealthy practice, and probably makes the developers' life a lot less stressful if I could hazard a guess.

But nowadays this practice has just been abused to release game the dev team KNOW is broken or lacks content but simply can't fix because of time/money/staff issue. Who cares if it's broken? Just say 'so sowwy guys OwO" on twitter and finish the game later. Fuck, people will praise you for that and say you "care about the fanbase" and "didn't abandon the game" that YOU didn't finish.
I mean just compare the game output of big studios these recent years. Can you guys honestly tell me they have the same quality standards they had back in the PS2/early PS3/360 era?

I'm putting the blame entirely on publishers, for the record. Game dev seems like a cruel job and I never wanted to imply that the devs were lazy or didn't care, not in my original post nor on any post I made on this forum. Sorry if it this is what my message could imply.

...basically, you can't compare Sonic 1 making some clouds and water move in a later revision to Colours Ultimate having epilepsy inducing visuals and audio/animations problems up the ass. I used to check online if a game was good before buying it, now I have to check just to make sure it's not fucking unplayable. I'm tired of it.

 

The second one, I know the other remixes are in the base game, and that's even weirder now that I think about it

 

The sentiment is broadly correct though. Major gqmes generally weren't buggy messes in the way that they are often released today. Sonic 1 is not a good parallel, because its overall very good and just has a few irritating bugs.

There are obviously exceptions and Sonic 06 is one of them, but it wasn't common for games to be broken disasters on launch.

And while you did have game recalls to adjust certificate errors etc, that was also rare.

 

I have to remind myself that most people here weren't even alive when games especially the well known games like Sonic were expected to be released in a not disastorous state at launch.

 

I'm not someone who thinks gaming was better in the past. I do love retro games obviously, but I think the craft of game design is probably more refined now than it was in the past. I also think the 'DLC has wrecked games' argument is sometimes simplified and reductive.

But I also think it's just true that major games were generally much more stable (for the time) on release than they are nowadays.