Sonic Colours: Ultimate

[Maf]

There wasn’t an old thread as far as I could tell so starting this one.

 

Right off the bat, no HDR?! The game is called COLOURS why would it not

 

Apart from the cutscenes though the game does look really good. Nice and smooth

 

One thing I like about this game that no one talks about is the humour and the set up. It’s very silly and childish. But the jokes make me laugh in the cutscene and I much prefer seeing sonic in weird, fantastical settings than in cities and around humans. I’ve never really liked that about the Sonic Adventure games. 
 

Anyway. Just beat world 1 and this game is cool. It actually starts a bit slow because you have to unlock the Wisps, the buttons are also reversed. I’m used to X make you go fast and B is slide/ground pound. In this game it’s reverse. But it’s alright I get used to it.

 

I like this so far this game is fun. 

[Maf]

The thing stands out to me most in this game is that the level design is shit. I always remembered that being true for the Planet Wisp levels, ironic to me because they are the most favourably remembered world of the 6. But I’m starting to realise this is a lot of the game. 
 

I really don’t know where to begin. I keep writing paragraph upon paragraph about very specific bits of the game or the game mechanics, but I don’t want to get too bogged down in such detail because if you haven’t seen it it’s not going to be interesting. 
 

I think out of everything, and there’s quite a lot to talk about, but too keep it short the biggest problem by far is the flow of the levels. 

 

With other Sonic games the reason why they work is because it’s about high speed execution. I think in video games that kind of action is inherently fun. People have complained that a lot of modern Sonic games are trial and error. But I think Sonic games are about execution, so I understand the complaint, but they’re about practice and getting higher scores and faster times. It might be irritating zooming into a hole or running by something too fast, but the trial and error, learning and trying stuff, is part of the fun.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog at it’s core should be the extreme sports equivalent of a platformer. 

 

Playing Sonic Colours… just racing through levels and going straight. It’s still the same for the most part. I will say the first 3 worlds are generally fine, I don’t think there’s a level in this game that is super good, but it’s cool enough, it’s ok. There are some creative set pieces, the worlds are mostly interesting to look at. But because of the power up system in play (The Wisps) it means there’s a lot heavier focus on exploration, and the flow of the levels gets all fucked up.

 

Sometimes different levels suffer from completely different problems. A level can have you run forward, and if you decide to go back it stops you. Sometimes as unimaginatively as an invisible wall is now behind you despite the fact you just ran through it. At the other end of the scale some levels are so big but filled with nothing it’s like why didn’t the designers put invisible walls here if there’s no point in this part of the level existing? Generally this second problem comes with vertical levels. It sounds like an oxymoron but some of the vertical levels have a lot of spaces I would describe as open ended dead ends. It’s like they forgot to put a ceiling in some places or something. 
 

Sometimes levels fail on a conceptual level. There’s one side mission which is about 30 seconds long and it’s Sonic pushing boxes around. It’s like why? Sometimes it’s a specific gimmick. An early level has Sonic hit 3 springs, the game takes control away, Sonic springs up and down, and after 3 it stops and Sonic is about 10 feet forward from where the springs started. It’s like why? (you can probably skip these but still) A huge problem is the game failing on an intuitive level. Where you get a power up but never sure where to use it. Or it gives you multiple power ups and clearly one branch of the level, only accessed by the power up, has nothing in it. It’s like why? Sometimes the game fails on a fundamental level. Like why is there a power up that turns Sonic in to a spiked ball? He is a spiked ball. It’s honestly head scratching. 
 

I dunno. To be clear, I still like this game and have fun with it. But it’s definitely dropped in my estimation. Before I was like Sonic Colours is a 8/10 video game for sure. Err, we’re definitely at around a 7. Maybe even slightly lower. 
 

At it’s core it still has what I like about these games. Going really fast and looking cool. But not only does it not do that as good as other Sonic games, the general flow and ideas in these levels have me so confused. I can’t understand the thinking behind a lot of this game at all. 

[Maf]

Sometimes this game is cool

 

 

[Maf]

100% 4/6 worlds now. The last ones are the Planet Wisp and Water World levels. I really dislike these levels and don’t know what to do with them. Also saw there was a achievement in this game for completing the Egg Shuttle. Had no idea what that was so clicked on the Egg Shuttle itself to find out what’s in it. It’s a god damn endurance mode where you have to complete every single level in the game, in a row. That is going to be testing I can tell. Especially as I’m not sure how they handle lives. 

[Maf]

Turns out that the endurance mode is really easy and may take a hour and a half at most but I was up to level 36 of 44 or something and the game crashed

 

Sigh

 

Also it kept saying there was an internet issue and maintenance was being done. At first I thought it was the Xbox but no it is the game. So despite it being completely offline it’s logging in to something so they can track metrics I guess. 
 

I’ll attempt the endurance run again tomorrow or at the weekend because it is very easy and shouldn’t take too long. Savage for letting me get that far and then crashing, though

[Maf]

Ayyye job done

 

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Started this over the weekend and am really digging it so far.

 

Never played the original as I hated my Wii at that point so stopped buying anything for it. Have quite liked the last few 3D Sonic games I've played as far as I can remember and liked Forces a lot more than most other folks (didn't think it was a good game, but not an awful game either) but I usually end tapping out before the finish line, getting a bit bored after awhile and throwing in the towel, although I believe I did finish Forces and Lost World. 

 

This though, has been great so far. All the 'colour' powerups work well within the levels and have the added bonus of making you want to go back in so you can use the powerup you just acquired to get a better rank or access a route you previously weren't able to to pick up a red ring coin. They're all really fun and intuitive to use, almost in a Mario kind of way which I was surprised about, some of the functions remind me of some of the Mario powerups in something like Sunshine, nothing about them is particularly innovative or anything but they add something fresh and new to the tried and true 2.5D/3D Sonic gameplay and as mentioned above it gives an extra incentive to go back into the level to fully explore all the different paths and stuff.

 

I never usually bother going back in after a level is finished, trying to collect all the red rings, get an S rank and all that jazz in a Sonic game. Usually I'll just finish it, then move onto the next level until the game is finished but with this I'm actually compelled to go back in and try for a better time, a better rank and to discover all the paths I couldn't access previously as I was lacking a certain power up.

 

I will say the presentation of this on Series X (outside of the cutscenes which look like ass) is astounding too, full 4K, full 60FPS AFAIK and it really does look glorious in motion. 

 

Pics:

 

 

[mfnick]

Got this for £10 from Amazon. 
 

It controls like ass. 

[mfnick]

Holy shit this game is bad. How the fuck this has a decent reputation to the point it got remastered I’ll never know. 
 

I appreciate a couple of things it does. It looks really damn good. The more set piece style levels are quite exciting and fun. They also realise that old, good Aonic wasn’t about just going fast, they also had a lot of slow, proper platforming with alternate routes. This tries to do that, the problem is for the actual platforming bits it controls like absolute dog shit. Just running and jumping is fine but the platforming bits are terrible. One of the worst feeling games I’ve ever played. I also really don’t enjoy using the Wisp abilities either - apart from that zig zag one. That one’s cool, 

 

Fuck this game. I’ve given it a good go (first 3 worlds fully done and 1 level out of all the others) but it’s just bad. This is coming from someone who likes Unleashed and genuinely loves Generations. Still got a soft spot for Adventure 1 & 2 as well but this is definitely one of the worst 3D entries.

 

[DANGERMAN]

I haven't played Ultimate yet, but I never quite got the love for Colours. I didn't have any issue with the controls though, I just didn't think it was that interesting