Sonic Rush...... WITH WISPS!!!
(NOTE: THIS IS A REVIEW FOR THE DS VERSION OF SONIC COLOURS)
Graphics: 3/5
Graphically, the game varies. In many areas, the game looks very similar to Sonic Rush in terms of sprites, and the types of enemies appearing. However, some of the levels look very pretty, particularly Starlight Carnival.
On the other hand, the Wisp effects, while colourful, look horrible on the small screen.
Gameplay: 2/5
On the face of it, Sonic Colours is not really different to Sonic Rush. For one, The user interface looks almost exactly the same with a boost bar, and the ability to press X to go at breakneck speeds. Next of all, there is the often disappointing design of levels to consider. Most of them revolve hugely around trial and error and anticipating that an enemy, spike, quick time event or other obstacle would be in this location else running headlong into it with little to no warning. It is the expectation from the developers to react within a split second and the virtually certain probability of losing rings or a life that has been part of ruining every Sonic game since Sonic Heroes. The other part being terrible controls but to be honest, this game doesn't have a terrible control scheme.
Anybody else notice that the Mega Drive Sonic games lacked this sort of sneaky surprise across every fucking 50 metres of the level? For starters, I DO NOT remember a moment in either Sonic 1, 2, 3 or S&K where I ran at a breakneck speed and bumped into an enemy or wall of spikes with only a split second of warning due to how uncontrollably fast Sonic was going and how the draw distance of the game's camera was unsuitable for Sonic's speed.
In fact, the speed of Sonic in the Mega Drive games was perfect. There were slow platforming sections where enemies could be noticed and either killed or avoided, and there were fast sections where you thought "Fuck, did I REALLY just go through 5 loops, a spiral slide and shoot up 300 feet in the air from a half-pipe of sorts?"
Take Hydrocity Zone in Sonic 3 for instance. The zone consisted of slower platforming sections where you either had to kill enemies, time your jump on a platform perfectly or run from a wall of death, whereas the faster sections just launched you straight at a sequence of loops. That game had a good distinction between fast and slow sections of a level and that was what made the game so fun.
And now look at most of the levels in Sonic Colours. You often get hit by a split second warning of there being either:
A) A quick time event where you must hit R to slide under a gap else either have to run back and slide through it again or get nommed down by a dinosaur head which you are being chased by. If you didn't know about the QTE, you will probably die. If you do, then you can get past it. Its trial and error at its finest.
B) A row of enemies. If you don't jump at them and homing dash in time. THERE GOES ALL YOUR RINGS!!!
C) A section where you must use a Wisp power to traverse it.
D) Another rail or anything from A, B or C that leads to a shortcut which you'll only have a split second to usually notice. Having to memorise stages perfectly and moving past them is the difference between getting a C or D rank and getting an S rank.
The point is, Sonic nowadays is more frustrating than fun. Sonic Colours holds true to this formula.
One more thing awful about this game, the "Touch a Wisp" section when you visit a new zone. It is annoying, and by the time you reach the third world, becomes often impossibly hard without having to resort to taking repeated stabs at the screen for several minutes to actually touch the wisp.
Sound: 4/5
The soundtrack is pretty decent. Although it may be more of a subjective thing, the music is very upbeat in many of the levels.
If theres one thing good about this game, its the soundtrack.
Lifespan: 1/5
This game can be completed in a matter of hours.And apart from getting all the 7 Chaos Emeralds and unlocking the true final stage against the obvious final boss that is even more powerful than Robotnik*. there will be nothing more worthwhile from this game.
You can find Red Rings in each level that unlock additional concept art or songs on the Sound Test menu or events (basically cutscenes), but they are often a bitch to find, and lack any real incentives.
On the plus side, at least they made the Special Stages in Colours much easier than the spike hell of Rush, as portrayed by this YouTube video below.
Yes, on a scale from "1" to "Through the Fire and Flames - Expert from GH3", the difficulty of Sonic Rush special stages ranged from a "2" to a "13."
However, the special stages from Colurs are much easier in comparison, and hence getting all 7 Chaos Emeralds won't be such a pain in the ass.
* NOTE: Sorry for the spoiler there but I'm afraid to inform you that Super Sonic is still only playable in the "obligatory final level..... set in space." If you want to play Super Sonic in any stage, play Sonic 4: Episode 1, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles or the Wii version of Sonic Colours instead..... It would have been nice if Sega actually listened to fan feedback on this but clearly they didn't fully do so on the DS version. )
Graphics: 3/5
Graphically, the game varies. In many areas, the game looks very similar to Sonic Rush in terms of sprites, and the types of enemies appearing. However, some of the levels look very pretty, particularly Starlight Carnival.
On the other hand, the Wisp effects, while colourful, look horrible on the small screen.
Gameplay: 2/5
On the face of it, Sonic Colours is not really different to Sonic Rush. For one, The user interface looks almost exactly the same with a boost bar, and the ability to press X to go at breakneck speeds. Next of all, there is the often disappointing design of levels to consider. Most of them revolve hugely around trial and error and anticipating that an enemy, spike, quick time event or other obstacle would be in this location else running headlong into it with little to no warning. It is the expectation from the developers to react within a split second and the virtually certain probability of losing rings or a life that has been part of ruining every Sonic game since Sonic Heroes. The other part being terrible controls but to be honest, this game doesn't have a terrible control scheme.
Anybody else notice that the Mega Drive Sonic games lacked this sort of sneaky surprise across every fucking 50 metres of the level? For starters, I DO NOT remember a moment in either Sonic 1, 2, 3 or S&K where I ran at a breakneck speed and bumped into an enemy or wall of spikes with only a split second of warning due to how uncontrollably fast Sonic was going and how the draw distance of the game's camera was unsuitable for Sonic's speed.
In fact, the speed of Sonic in the Mega Drive games was perfect. There were slow platforming sections where enemies could be noticed and either killed or avoided, and there were fast sections where you thought "Fuck, did I REALLY just go through 5 loops, a spiral slide and shoot up 300 feet in the air from a half-pipe of sorts?"
Take Hydrocity Zone in Sonic 3 for instance. The zone consisted of slower platforming sections where you either had to kill enemies, time your jump on a platform perfectly or run from a wall of death, whereas the faster sections just launched you straight at a sequence of loops. That game had a good distinction between fast and slow sections of a level and that was what made the game so fun.
And now look at most of the levels in Sonic Colours. You often get hit by a split second warning of there being either:
A) A quick time event where you must hit R to slide under a gap else either have to run back and slide through it again or get nommed down by a dinosaur head which you are being chased by. If you didn't know about the QTE, you will probably die. If you do, then you can get past it. Its trial and error at its finest.
B) A row of enemies. If you don't jump at them and homing dash in time. THERE GOES ALL YOUR RINGS!!!
C) A section where you must use a Wisp power to traverse it.
D) Another rail or anything from A, B or C that leads to a shortcut which you'll only have a split second to usually notice. Having to memorise stages perfectly and moving past them is the difference between getting a C or D rank and getting an S rank.
The point is, Sonic nowadays is more frustrating than fun. Sonic Colours holds true to this formula.
One more thing awful about this game, the "Touch a Wisp" section when you visit a new zone. It is annoying, and by the time you reach the third world, becomes often impossibly hard without having to resort to taking repeated stabs at the screen for several minutes to actually touch the wisp.
Sound: 4/5
The soundtrack is pretty decent. Although it may be more of a subjective thing, the music is very upbeat in many of the levels.
If theres one thing good about this game, its the soundtrack.
Lifespan: 1/5
This game can be completed in a matter of hours.And apart from getting all the 7 Chaos Emeralds and unlocking the true final stage against the obvious final boss that is even more powerful than Robotnik*. there will be nothing more worthwhile from this game.
You can find Red Rings in each level that unlock additional concept art or songs on the Sound Test menu or events (basically cutscenes), but they are often a bitch to find, and lack any real incentives.
On the plus side, at least they made the Special Stages in Colours much easier than the spike hell of Rush, as portrayed by this YouTube video below.
However, the special stages from Colurs are much easier in comparison, and hence getting all 7 Chaos Emeralds won't be such a pain in the ass.
* NOTE: Sorry for the spoiler there but I'm afraid to inform you that Super Sonic is still only playable in the "obligatory final level..... set in space." If you want to play Super Sonic in any stage, play Sonic 4: Episode 1, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles or the Wii version of Sonic Colours instead..... It would have been nice if Sega actually listened to fan feedback on this but clearly they didn't fully do so on the DS version. )
