Intro
Do you remember your first 3d platformer? Well, I do. I love platforming games, some of my favorite games are platformers. Going through unique environments and making your way to the end of the level is fun. The control and gimmicks that come from platformers is what gives them each their own charm. My favorite part of platformers is trying to get the best time in a level, that is why I love Sonic games. Zooming through levels reaching the end as fast as possible is most of the time really difficult and provides a ton of challenges. Sonic games have always been some of my favorite games, and this all started out with my first Sonic game. Sonic Colors.
Beginning
Sonic in the 2000’s was not doing well. Many games such as Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, and Sonic Unleashed got terrible reviews. Many people were complaining about the heavy use of gimmicks and the low amount of polish. With Shadow the Hedgehog making Shadow use a gun and have a terrible and confusing story, Sonic 06 being filled with bugs and people complaining about the multiple characters being unfun to play as, and Sonic Unleashed having great day stages, but having a gimmick that turns Sonic into the Werehog at night with lengthy unfun stages. As you can tell from the reviews, people were not happy with how Sonic was doing at the time. Even if some of those games were good, the more important thing is what the reviews say, and they don’t say good things. It is obvious that Sonic needed a change, and 2010 would be the year for that. Sonic Colors was released November 11th, 2010, in PAL regions, November 16th, in North America, and November 18th, in Japan for the Nintendo Wii. Releasing to generally positive reviews it was a lot higher than the 60 that Sonic Unleashed got. Sonic Colors takes place in Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park with Sonic trying to stop Eggman’s evil plan even though Eggman is “no longer evil”. The game is split up into 7 planets each with their own unique designs, gimmicks, music, 6 acts, and a boss act.
Tropical Resort
The first world is Tropical Resort, the center point of the amusement park that is covered with palm trees and walkways, with amazing views of Earth. This world is a change from the default grassland that is typical of the first world of Sonic games. The first act is a breeze that can be completed quickly and teaches the main controls and abilities of Sonic well, showing off the boost, homing attack, grinding, sliding, 2d sections, and quick time events. Act 1 is a great showcase of how Sonic controls that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Act 2 is more of the same but with trickier platforming and a slower pace. This level makes sure you understand the controls and abilities of Sonic and kind of stands as a test to make sure you are ready for the rest of the game. Once you complete Act 2, a cutscene is played that reveals one of the biggest changes to the Sonic formula, that being the story. Unlike previous entries Sonic Colors is full of jokes and does not take itself that seriously. The cutscene shows us that Tails does not think the park is part of an evil plot, while Sonic does and how they got into the amusement park. Then, the cutscene ends with Sonic and Tails trying to help some aliens from getting captured by Orbot and Cubot, with Sonic getting powers from one of the aliens, leading into Act 3. Act 3 introduces the main gimmick of the game, the wisps. The wisps are aliens that give Sonic powers. This act gives the player the cyan wisp which has laser power. Upon activating you can aim in a direction and Sonic will shoot forward into that direction, and if you aim at a blue crystal Sonic will bounce from that into other crystals until you reach the other side, typically leading to secrets or a shortcut. Act 3 is basically Act 2 but longer and with a tutorial for the cyan wisp. Acts 4, 5, and 6 are challenge stages that are mainly 2d. These stages blend into each other and introduce nothing new. After Act 4, a cutscene plays, which shows Tails trying to communicate with the wisps with a translator he is creating. Once you complete every act in the world, the boss act is revealed. The boss act opens with a cutscene where Eggman reveals his plan to harness the power of the wisps to take over the world in front of Sonic so Eggman releases “Big Boy”, the first boss. This boss is really easy and can be beaten in less than 30 seconds. In this boss you must run around a Ferris wheel to make it onto platforms to hit the eye in the center of the wheel, once you hit it three times the boss is defeated. The final cutscene of the world plays and then after a few errors with Tails’ translator he can tell us the white wisp he is talking to is named Yacker and they need to destroy generators on the different planets to free them and save the aliens. Then as Orbot and Cubot are cleaning up one of the arms is launched into the tall towers in the middle of the world, creating a hole. Tropical Resort is a great introduction to Sonic Colors that helps set the tone for how the rest of the game will be played.
Sweet Mountain
Once you complete Tropical Resort you can choose to play either Sweet Mountain or Starlight Carnival, I always pick Sweet Mountain. Sweet Mountain is a planet made entirely of candy and sweets, from the chocolate river, and the mountains made of different types of cakes, to rockets that are full of jellybeans. This world is full of a ton of sweet surprises and Act 1 is no different. Act 1 is a nice long act that has a great balance between speed and platforming that shows off the world’s gimmicks well. This act has a section where you must dodge a rocket full of jellybeans with the lower section being safe from it but being slower, followed by a drift section, then a 2d section that introduces the yellow wisp, which has the drill power. The drill power allows you to dig into the ground and travel around underneath the regular level, this can help find secrets and rings. There is a cool secret section that you can find by using the drill power and then one final section of dodging the rockets full of jellybeans, then the level I complete. Act 2 continues right from where Act 1 ended, starting with a drift section and then a neat section where you must climb to the top of a burger statue, leading to the end of the level. Act 2 is really short and once it starts to get good, it ends. Act 3 opens with a long boost section where you just go straight until you have either make your way onto the rail or defeat a bunch of enemies to continue into a 2d area. This 2d contains falling jellybean rockets and an introduction to the orange wisp, the rocket wisp. The rocket wisp allows you to launch straight up into the air, like a rocket. The level then has a drift area that continues the 2d section for a little bit until you reach the drift area again and then the end of the level. Both acts are quite short, with little substance, although they have unique ideas, they do not last long enough to showcase them. Act 4 is a medium length solely 2d act that focuses on navigating rotating laser blades. In this act you must stand on buttons to rotate the lasers so you can walk through them without losing your rings. This act does a good job of introducing a concept and using it in different ways, although it is a little too short. The next level is even shorter, testing the players skills on platforming then using a lollipop you can homing attack onto in order to spin around and jump off at the right time to propel yourself to a high platform. The last act in the world has yellow blocks that can be broken by these enemies with a laser gun or by Sonic on a jump pad or stomping. Then, the boss act is unlocked. The boss cutscene shows us the tractor beam that Sonic must destroy, then being interrupted by a pirate beginning the boss. This boss is quite unique starting on a pirate ship, where you must homing attack onto candies while avoiding the bombs to make it to a lever that once flipped puts you outside of the ship attacking the pirate head on. You can hit the boss by defeating its minions to stun it and then boosting into the boss. Once you do this you go back onto the ship to repeat the same process, each time getting a little more difficult. Defeating the boss plays a cutscene that shows the generator being disabled and tells us about Hyper-Go-On energy which is the life force of the wisps and Eggman is draining it from them for an evil purpose. This cutscene is also when called Eggman is first called “Baldy Nosehair” which has appeared in Sonic Lost World and in the tv show Sonic Boom. Sweet Mountain is one of the coolest zone ideas in a Sonic game, but most of the levels fall short due to how short they are. While I enjoy the theming of this zone the level design is not that good.
Starlight Carnival
The world following Sweet Mountain is Starlight Carnival. Starlight Carnival is my favorite world in the game based solely on presentation. Starlight Carnival is not exactly a planet, but a bunch of bright glowing spaceships close together. I love this world, the design, music, and theming are all some of my favorites. Starting out strong Act 1 begins with inside, the camera flipping to be upside down, then running to the outside where you can see the constellation of spaceships in the sky. Running on a holographic platform dodging and running right next to the spaceships. Then an enemy comes onto the path, using quickstep to dodge its attacks, until they run into a spaceship. Afterwards the path ends, and you must homing attack onto these floating walls until you get launched back onto the path. Wall jumping off the exterior of the ships you go to the inside where there is a 2d section. The floor of the inside being made of all sorts of colors. This section introduces you to the blue wisp, which lets you use the cube power. The cube power slams Sonic into the ground making the blue coins into blocks and the blue blocks into blue coins. The player must use this power to make his way to a skydiving section, falling to the outside and back onto the platform. A bunch of motobugs drive on the platform and you can defeat them by quickstepping into them. After that section you enter another spaceship, where you have to dodge the falling ceiling, until you make it back outside, running straight to the goal. This level does an amazing job of introducing this zone and the mechanics in it. Act 2 expands upon the mechanics introduced in Act 1 by showing how the cube can break certain blocks when used near them. Although this Act is only a short challenge, it expands upon the groundwork from Act 1 well. Act 3 makes use of yellow springs, that move along a path, following Sonic. This level is slow, with the majority of the time being spent waiting for spring. Act 4 uses a ball that shoots out green projectiles in every direction, challenging the player to either risk it to go faster, or take it safe to get a worse time. Act 5 begins the same as Act 1, but it is more difficult because the dodge time between attacks is a little shorter. The level continues with a skydiving section that leads into a 2d section where you have to climb to the top of the level using the green wisp, hover. Hover allows Sonic to float in the direction the player is moving and dash into ring trails. Once you climb to the top, there is a zipline that leads onto a 3d section with a holographic platform. Then you must climb to the top of a 3d section, making use of the hover ability along the way to reach the goal. This level is great and does a great job of being long enough and with enough substance to challenge the player. Act 6 is a level where you must climb to the top making use of all the skills you have with the green wisp to make it to the end of the level. While quite short, it does a good job of testing your skills with the hover ability. After completing Act 6, the boss act gets unlocked. The cutscene that plays before the boss I have a lot to complain about. This cutscene has Sonic and Tails walking towards the generator, they say “Eggman could be anywhere”, then Eggman is revealed to be behind the generator waiting for them to get closer. Once Sonic and Tails get close enough to the generator Eggman Tails gets zapped by Eggman’s ray, which mind controls him, revealing Eggman’s evil plan to use the alien energy to mind control the world. The machine then runs out of energy and then Eggman tells a ship to attack Sonic. The idea of Eggman using mind control to make Sonic and Tails fight is such a cool boss idea, but this never happens. This could have been returned to at the end of the game for a fight before the final boss, but that isn’t what happened. This boss fight is really fun, dodging its attacks and boosting until you can hit the ship is engaging and takes the fast-paced nature of Sonic into full effect. Then, you must dodge it dropping things in 2d and homing attacking it. Attacking the ship, slowly breaks it, which can be visually seen throughout the fight. This fight was great although, it was my first time playing the game, I kept dying during this boss and it took me around 40 minutes to beat, bear in mind I was very young. The cutscene that plays after defeating the boss says that Eggman is using the generators to collect the wisps and there are five of them. This tells us there are 3 more. Following that is a cutscene of Eggman saying that the mind control beam is almost full of energy. Once the cutscenes are over the next three worlds are unlocked.
Planet Wisp
Planet Wisp is the world that follows Starlight Carnival, and it is a grassy plain with trees and plants, but with Eggman building bright orange factories on top, contrasting the green of the plants. You can tell that Eggman is harming the planet because the water has been polluted with purple goop that kills you upon touch. Act 1 begins with Sonic running in the open field until he runs into Eggman’s construction, using quickstep and the other buildings Eggman has made you dodge the pit full of purple goo. Then Sonic grinds on rails until there is a 2d section that introduces the pink wisp, the spike. The spike power allows Sonic to stick onto walls and the ceiling. Reaching the end of the 2d section there is a path with lots of holes that you need to quickstep away from to not fall into a pit. Afterwards, there is another 2d section which makes use of the rocket and spike powers to make it up walls, until you reach the end of the level. Act 1 is presented well and tells the story that this planet is being destroyed by Eggman using clever level design details. This level is also quite fun to play, not spending too much time on one section. Act 2 has an enemy that drops spike balls that damage you upon impact. Using this gimmick, it slows down the platforming and gives an advantage to being at the top. Act 3 starts with the same enemies from Starlight Carnival that fire beams in a direction on the quickstep section from Act 1, adding to the level making it more challenging and testing the player’s skills. After that is a 2d section making use of the cube power with more obstacles to increase the challenge and expand the player’s skills, that section leads to the end of the level. This act uses the concepts from Starlight Carnival and expands them with the challenges from Planet Wisp Act 1. Act 4 begins with a drifting area that transitions into a 2d section where you must climb to the top of the factory using the skills and knowledge the player has gained from the rest of the game. This act also features some rotating platforms that the player must be fast enough to not fall off of, this is where the act ends. After Act 4 there is a cutscene with Sonic and Tails walking through the planet talking about how it both seems alien and Eggman, Tails thinks he is transforming it into something for his theme park. Eggman then confirms this by talking about this area is under construction and that some destruction of natural resources and capturing of aliens may occur. Then the wisps come out to say they are concerned about the look of their planet and being dragged across the universe. Act 5 comes afterward, featuring a more difficult use of the yellow blocks from Sweet Mountain Act 6, requiring the player to conserve them so they can cross gaps. This level expands upon the groundwork from that level really well, testing the players knowledge of 2d platforming and the abilities of Sonic. The following Act 5 is the last level in Planet Wisp, Act 6. Act 6 begins with a rail grinding section where the player must switch rails to avoid falling off, this is then followed by a 2d section which uses the rotating platforms from Act 4 in this world and a more complex version of the 2d section from Act 2 with more rail grinding afterwards. Then the player must climb to the top of the level using the wisps to reach the end of the level. Since all 6 acts have been completed the boss act opens. I’m sure if you have been in the Sonic community before you have seen a clip of Sonic saying, “No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me.” As much as people make fun of this cutscene, I do not really find it as bad as some of the other lines said in the game like seriously the opening for Sweet Mountain is really bad. Anyways, this boss is a repeat of the first boss from Tropical Resort, but more difficult. While not too much of an issue, this boss successfully makes the original boss more difficult, but it still manages to be really easy to beat. The cutscene that follows the boss shows Sonic talking to a broken robot and that is about it, nothing important happens in the cutscene. Overall Planet Wisp does a good job of being a grassland level with a twist. The levels in this are fun to play, although they mostly seem like repeats from previous levels. I love the theming of Planet Wisp and it is not a surprise it returned inside of Sonic Generations.
Aquarium Park
The world following Planet Wisp is Aquarium Park, an underwater level with lots of Japanese design elements. This world also has some of the best music in the game that fits the theme of the world quite well. The world design for the map though is really basic, when you have the ships from Starlight Carnival and the world being destroyed for Planet Wisp the basic hexagon with water in the center is just boring, especially since this world is such a nice world, the one we have is not bad, just could be better. Act 1 starts with a skydiving section that immediately turns into a quickstep section and then a bunch of enemies leading to a 2d section filled with lots of enemies. After that is an area that introduces the water that is unsurprisingly found in AQUARIUM park. Most of the water in this section can either be boosted over or skipped completely, which I agree with. There is then a slow section where the player has to wait for a platform to reach the bottom while fighting off enemies, which is followed by another quickstep section and then the end. Act 1 is one of the worst opening levels in all the world, not having that big shock factor almost every opening level has. Even if that is the case this level does a good job of introducing the water using short easy to skip areas. Act 2 plays around with a mix of the cube power and rotating platforms from all the way back in Tropical Resort Act 5. Having to navigate through platforms that move and have to be enabled by the player is quite fun. Act 3 then follows using the different wisps under the water with areas dedicated to the rocket, drill and one that hasn’t even been unlocked yet. This level is nice, but these concepts could have been used in the opening level to teach the player during the introduction of the water mechanics. Act 4 starts out strong with a fast spiral that shows us a robot with big fists. This act then continues with underwater sequences that again can be skipped, which I fully support. After a bunch of enemies in a 2d area and some difficult platforming to try and stay above the water there are a ton of mini 2d challenges that lead to a faceoff with the robot from the introduction of the level. This enemy is fun to fight shooting lasers that work similarly to those flying bots from the beginning of Starlight Carnival, but if the player gets too close to it, they will hit the player making them lose their rings. This is a nice level that plays with the mechanics of Aquarium Park well and has a nice ending sequence. Act 5 takes another mechanic from Starlight Carnival, that mechanic being the yellow spring from Act 3. This introduction plays almost the same to that act, but the platforms found in that level are replaced by bombs. The next segment uses an enemy that fires lasers towards the player as they ride the springs to the top which has the end ring. Unlike the level from Starlight Carnival, this act gives you enough to worry about throughout the level, so it does not seem as boring. The next level is Act 6, which begins with an underwater area that seems just like a 2d section from Tropical Resort, except underwater. Afterwards is a 3D section that uses flowing water to force the player to stay above the water. This segment is really fun, using the wisps in good ways while challenging the players skill. The area that follows is an arena with a bunch of enemies that must be defeated in order to continue with the rest of the level, releasing more enemies over time until all have been defeated. With an underwater area coming after that leads straight towards the end ring. This is an amazing level, using a large amount of the more fun 3d segments that are mixed in with some nice 2d sections that make good use of the water mechanic from this level. The cutscene that comes before the boss doesn’t say much but it does have a comment about Eggman’s sushi restaurant. The boss itself is a rework of the one from Sweet Mountain, with the entire level being underwater. The first main difference is the fact that in order to flip the lever you must lead a rocket to the glass covering it. Once that has been done the next part requires the player to use the drill power which lets them chase after the boss who is swimming around the water. Then the player has to do the same thing 2 more times to eventually beat the boss. While I enjoyed the boss from Sweet Mountain, requiring the player to lead a bomb to the flip is annoying requiring the player to backtrack a bunch, waiting for a rocket to follow them. Once the boss has been defeated, a cutscene showing Tails meeting up with Sonic and telling them the sushi Dr. Eggman was talking about is really bad, comedy am I right. Aquarium Park is a nicely designed level with some really good levels, but the bad parts stand out a lot. Other than that, I quite enjoy this world a lot, especially the music.
Asteroid Coaster
The last planet in the game is Asteroid Coaster. Asteroid Coaster is a giant rock structure that looks like a skull with glowing green acid on it. The levels themselves take place inside of the rock that makes up the planet in caves that are filled with that same green acid. Act 1 begins with Sonic riding a roller coaster that looks like a skeleton. As Sonic rides along the coaster the player can jump up and collect rings and a white wisp container to fill up the boost gauge. Once the player gets off the coaster there is a quick section where the player must homing attack onto what looks like pods and then drift around tight corners to a section that introduces the purple wisp, frenzy. Frenzy is a power that transforms Sonic into a monster that can consume objects to gain size, as they gain size they slow down and gain control. After completing that area there is another section with the roller coaster followed by an area using the fans and more of the capsule homing attacks. Then leading to a section outside that has asteroids and a couple planets. There is a notable 2d area with gravity switching and one last homing attack segment that leads straight to the end of the level. Act 2 starts with the player making their way around a tower using the frenzy wisp along the way, along with these new obstacles that push the player out into space but can also be used as platforms while pushed out. This level then has Sonic run on those planets from the end of the last act to an area that uses the frenzy wisp and a 2d section using the gravity from the last act in combination with the new obstacles that push the player out into space. This act truly does a good job of taking the concepts that Act 1 barely touched on and expanding them, while not being too short in the process. Act 3 uses those obstacles from the last act with the yellow spring from Starlight Carnival Act 3 to force the player to think fast to not be defeated. Act 4 then takes the motobug segment from Starlight Carnival Act 1 but on the ring of the planets from the outside section of Act 1 and makes it the entire level. This level is really bad and doesn’t do much, ending in the same place it started with the level not even doing anything different. Afterwards is a cutscene where Sonic discovers where Eggman converts the wisps into the negative energy that powers his mind control machine, Tails then tells Sonic that he has not seen Yacker and that is how the cutscene ends. Act 5 uses the rotating lasers from Sweet Mountain Act 4 in tandem with a few wisp abilities and the obstacle from Act 2. This is a fine level that barely changes or uses the concepts from those acts in any new ways. Act 6 starts the same as Act 1 with a much longer segment using the rollercoaster in new ways requiring the player to act fast and jump or switch cars, this is followed by an underwater segment that uses the water from Aquarium Park and the new frenzy power. Once that section is complete there is a corridor that requires more use of the frenzy power in smaller places than before. After this is a mini boss which spins sonic in antigravity making the player time their attacks to avoid the lasers. Act 6 ends the world on a high note, taking the concepts from earlier levels and testing the players’ abilities with them. The cutscene before the boss of this world has Sonic taunting the boss over and over until he gives up and attacks it. The boss itself is a rehash of the one from Starlight Carnival using different wisps and with an orange and green color scheme. The boss has a new asteroid attack that launches asteroids at the player who must avoid and then use the rocket power to attack it. After the boss has been defeated a cutscene that shows Sonic and Tails talking about how they set all the planets free and saved all the aliens and the whole world is saved. A cutscene then shows all the tractor beams setting the planets free and the aliens celebrating and Sonic and Tails talking about going home. Asteroid Coaster is a great world that has some great theming. With one of the biggest questions throughout the game being how Eggman was getting the wisp’s power this world does a good job of showcasing that and making it a center point of this planet. Every planet is free and Sonic and Tails are heading home, but that isn’t the end of the game.
Terminal Velocity
Once every planet has been completed the true final world is unlocked, Terminal Velocity. Once the player opens the world a cutscene plays that shows Eggman talking about how he still has enough power to use his secret weapon and that he “will have the last laugh”. Eggman begins to power up his machine, revealing that Tropical Resort is just one big laser gun. As the weapon powers up, the hole made by the arm that flew into it after defeating the first boss causes it to implode and create a black hole out of the negative energy that Eggman used to power the weapon, this cutscene ends with Eggman saying that he will crush Sonic. Before beginning Act 1 a cutscene plays that shows us what Sonic and Tails did when the machine imploded. They decide to evacuate towards the space elevator which leads to Act 1 which takes place on the tower that the space elevator is on. The level begins with a much more difficult segment with the enemies from Starlight Carnival Act 1, as Sonic runs toward Earth. Once the enemies have been defeated there is a motobug segment like the one from Starlight Carnival Act 1. After this there is a section of running away from the purple robot from Aquarium Park Act 4 except it is much faster than before, after a little bit the motobugs are added into the mix, and then after a little bit more the level ends. While this level is not that bad for a level from the last world in the game, I expected something more difficult and with some platforming or use of any wisps. Terminal Velocity is organized very differently than every other world with the boss coming after Act 1. The cutscene before the boss shows Sonic and Tails right about to enter the space elevator when Eggman interrupts them antagonizing Sonic using amusement park puns that Sonic immediately complains about. Eggman then tells Sonic about the mech that he is in and after Tails says he does not think we can beat the boss Sonic pushes him into the space elevator telling him he will see him on the ground. This boss is really good, using the wisp abilities the player has used the entire game as attacks. Creating cubes that damage the player on contact, lasers that hurt the player, and sending out spike balls to attack the player. Using the boost, the player can get close to the boss after it attacks and attack it timing their attacks until they hit the place Eggman is in. Every time the player attacks Eggman they get a wisp and once they get all of them an orchestral version of the main theme Reach for the Stars plays and after a few more hits the player can use the power unlimited colors to boost through Eggman’s mech and defeat the boss. This is an amazing boss; it takes advantage of the powers the player has to create an engaging fight with incredible music. This fight is so good that it has been used as the final boss in two other games after this one Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces. After the final boss is defeated a cutscene shows Eggman getting sucked into the black hole and Sonic beginning to run away from it. Act 2 begins with Sonic running down the space elevator shaft away from the blackhole and eventually getting pulled into it. A final cutscene plays that shows the wisps saving Sonic and saying goodbye to Sonic and Tails. That is how Sonic Colors ends. Terminal Velocity is an amazing idea but with their only being one real level and that level isn’t as good as the last level should be the world is not executed as well as it could be.
Conclusion
Sonic Colors is an amazing game that helped single handedly save the brand of Sonic after the disaster that was Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, and Sonic Unleashed. The game does a great job of entertaining the player with a variety of gameplay styles, challenges, and gimmicks. Although I really enjoy this game it is not really a 3D Sonic game because it has so much more 2D than 3D. There are so many amazing things in this game with unique zone ideas, great music, and a story that is not that complicated. One often forgotten or missed feature is the multiplayer. The multiplayer lets multiple people take control of Sonic in simulations of the zones from the game. The multiplayer levels themself are unlocked by collecting red rings which are hidden in the normal stages, collecting all of them unlocks every new level for the multiplayer. A secret you can receive from this multiplayer mode is that once the player beats every multiplayer stage, they unlock super Sonic which allows them to move faster and be invincible to enemies, but it takes a ring every second killing Sonic when the ring count hits zero. The music is great with every song fitting the theme of where it can be found. There are great zones like Tropical Resort breaking the trend of the first zone being a grassland, Starlight Carnival being one of the most visually appealing zones I have seen even for the Wii, the story you can see in the level design details of Planet Wisp, and the creativity of Asteroid Coaster. Every game following this has had unoriginal zone ideas, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World, Sonic Forces, and Sonic Frontiers all have either the basic grass, desert, lava, snow levels or have reused levels from past games. The game in recent years has divided the community because it changed how all future games were created to follow the same ideas with a similar story. I understand why people are annoyed with the designs for games, but do not blame the game for those problems, blame the problem. One of the most successful games has been Sonic Frontiers because it does something unique which is why it did well. Sonic Colors had a mostly forgotten DS release and a widely criticized remaster in the year 2021.
Sonic Colors DS
While Sonic Colors was very successful and is well known, the DS counterpart is often forgotten about. Sonic Colors DS was developed by Dimps, the same developer as the Sonic Advance, Sonic Rush series’, the downgraded versions of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Lost World, and the infamous Sonic 4 Episodes 1 and 2. Sonic Colors DS has its own new levels, bosses, and unique wisp ideas. Sonic Colors DS follows the classic 2D Sonic format having 3 acts followed by a boss act inside of each zone. The level design of Sonic Colors DS is like the Sonic Rush series but in the same zones as the game for Wii. Sonic Colors DS has a more in-depth story than the Wii one featuring several characters that do not appear in the base game having 15 more characters than the base game does which is over three times more than the base game has. The DS version features new and altered bosses that all play with the tools Sonic Colors DS has at its disposal. While the Wii version requires players to unlock and complete every level in the multiplayer mode to unlock super Sonic, the DS version has the player complete special stages. If the player beats a level with a minimum number of rings, they can play the special stage. The special stages seen in game are like the ones from Sonic 2 and Sonic Rush except there are three laps and three different colored orbs with each lap requiring the player to collect a certain amount of a specific-colored orb, while avoiding the other colored orbs. These special stages are not that difficult but are really fun and feature some amazing music. Like most classic 2D Sonic games there are two different endings, the normal one and the secret or true ending. If the player beats the game after unlocking every chaos emerald, they can face the true final boss, the Nega-Mother Wisp. This is an amazing game that a majority of people have no idea about because of it being a downgraded release of a Wii game. Many people have claimed that Sonic Colors DS is the better version of Sonic Colors and that it is Sonic Rush 3 which are both bold claims that I understand because of how good they are, which surprises me because Dimps also developed Sonic 4 which also released this year.
Sonic Colors Ultimate
Although Sonic Colors has divided the Sonic community, it is still recognized as one of the best games, so much so that it received a remaster in 2021. This remaster was promised to have unlock-able cosmetics, rival stages, and cross platform support. While it seemed to have so much potential, it released as a buggy mess that at best was only visually buggy, and at worst was an unplayable mess. One of the most notable bugs was one that corrupted players save files. The release of this remaster was a major topic of criticism at its release. While I enjoy the music from the original, Sonic Colors Ultimate includes remixes of every track from the original which at the time could not be switched off. Another place this game received criticism was from the inclusion of a deluxe version which has been done in every game to follow it. While you would expect a remaster to remake the cutscenes, especially for a 10-year-old game, Sonic Colors Ultimate only upscales them which can barely be noticed, unless you compare them side by side. One of the biggest charms of Sonic Colors is the use of motion controls because of it being on the Wii the remaster does not include any motion control support because it takes a game from the Wii and puts it onto the main and modern consoles. Although this game was released in an extremely buggy state that has been slowly fixed over time with bug fixes and other updates that turn the game into a much less buggy game, fixing the biggest complaint about this remaster. The fact that this game even got a remaster is really nice, but there are so many other games that would be better with a remaster and even if this game is one that I love I will admit that there are better alternatives for a remaster.
Outro
Even after 13 years this game is still one of my favorites. Even if this will never be as good of a game as it was when I was a child and I first played this game, I will always enjoy this game. Sonic Colors has aged amazingly, still being just as good as it was before. While I will admit this game is not perfect, there are many problems with level design, story, and overall gameplay those do not overshadow the impact this game has had on me and the memories I have made with it. I still have the original save file and Wiis I used to beat it the first time and I spent so much time playing this game that the save file time was maxed out. While I know Sonic games are going into a new direction, I hope the charm Sonic Colors has can be remembered for future games. While I love this game, living in the past is not the way forward so I will always be moving onward to new horizons, and I guess new frontiers also.
