Review 98
Sonic Colors (Nintendo Wii)
Rated “E” For “Everyone”
A new 3-D Sonic game exclusive to Nintendo. With the string of exclusive Sonic titles only released on the Wii, is it about time that Sega hang up their red speed shoes up or will this colorful venture bring Sonic back on track?
=====Story=====
After having his plans foiled one after the other, Dr. Eggman decides to do away with his evil plots and turn a new leaf. He builds a theme park in space for the galaxy to enjoy. Welcome to Dr. Eggman’s Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park.
Knowing how Eggman operates, Sonic and Tails check out the newly built theme park and uncover Eggman’s plans. Eggman has been using the space theme park as a front to collect alien beings known as Wisps to harness their power and energy to, as usual, rule with an iron fist and be rid of that nefarious hedgehog.
=====Gameplay=====
Make Sonic run. Make Sonic jump. Make Sonic home-in on enemies and objects. Make Sonic collect rings. Nothing he hasn’t done before in his previous 3-D titles. The controls are simple enough and do work, but it might not always work for you.
Some sequences will prompt you that Sonic needs to make sharp turns. This almost never works out as Sonic feels as if he has lost any traction whatsoever. The sequences where Sonic can do quick dashes from side to side work fine, but can lead to cheap hits or deaths from not being able to always see what’s ahead of you due to either bad camera angles or just going too fast. The sequences where Sonic can increase his jump are too simple as you can just tap the jump button as much as you want to achieve the best outcome.
Make Sonic use alien Wisps to use their abilities? That is new. As you progress through different worlds, you’ll come across new Wisps, each with their own special power. You can become a laser and bounce off crystals to reach different areas, you can turn into a spike ball and cling and grind up walls you couldn’t before, you can drill through the ground to battle enemies or bypass level paths, and much more. But pretty much each Wisp can help you find a new way to beat each act. Their use is limited and most of the times only useful at certain areas. They do feel gimmicky and are actually not necessary for use as you can still beat most levels just making Sonic run.
=====Difficulty=====
Sonic Colors is an easy game. What may make the adventure difficult are cheap kills and trying to collect all the red rings (needed to unlock Super Sonic). Veteran 3-D Sonic players can easily run through this title in under 5 hours if they don’t bother with collecting red rings.
Cheap kills can come from bad camera angles as mentioned earlier. Trying to collect all the red rings can definitely test your patience at times. You’ll need to use Wisps to collect some of the harder to find ones.
Choosing to use Wisps during levels are mostly optional. They're best used to finding alternative paths to finish an act and that might just make your adventure that much shorter.
Boss battles aren’t a big challenge. This is where Wisps are a bit too powerful. Use the right Wisp and you can guarantee a one-hit win. The only boss that really serves as a challenge is the final one, but even that one is more time consuming and drawn out than anything.
=====Content=====
5 hours or less of running and 36 acts might not be enough for everyone. Wanting to become Super Sonic definitely will add miles to this game. Collecting all 180 red rings adds a level of challenge, but isn’t as fulfilling as collecting in a Mario title.
There are challenge levels in the form of the Sonic Simulator. You can also have some multiplayer action here, but…it’s not the greatest thing in the world. Just a little bit of extra content that is underwhelming.
=====Final Thoughts=====
Sonic Colors has a few things going for it. It looks great, it has great level design, and it gives a nice sense of speed. But there are just more things going against it than one would hope for.
The campy story comes with campy dialogue. The constant joke of Tails mistranslating what the Wisps are saying definitely shows that this is aimed at a younger audience. The voice acting doesn’t make it any better. I suggest listening to the Japanese voices with subtitles.
While the level design is great, it’s hard to not question why some levels are made. There is at least one act in each world that can take less than a minute to complete. Why not just flush out another nice level to run through? The same can be said about the final final act. That sequence was not necessary and too short and could have easily been part of the ending cut scene it leads to.
The really best parts of the game is when Sonic is on rails and is running through the levels. While those parts are fun to watch, at times you have to wonder why the best parts of the game are when you aren’t doing much in terms of actually playing.
You deserve better, Sonic. Perhaps Dr. Eggman is winning the war against you at a turtle's pace.
Rated 2 out of 5
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