Sonic games are not known for their consistent quality. Still, I remember Colors being lauded as ‘one of the good ones’, so I decided to take this one out from my black hole of games and give it a go. What I found was shocking and profound!
…
It was mid.
Sonic Colors presents lots of great ideas including the Wisp powers and the visual design of each world, but it suffers from a multitude of problems including unsatisfying level design, unpolished mechanics, and a boring plot.
Remember, this review reflects my experience and therefore everyone else’s as well. If you disagree with any point I bring in this post, then you should reflect on your opinion until you agree with me as I am correct and you are wrong. Thank you for reading!
Gameplay
For me, the gameplay never clicked. I don’t like how the game feels in any of the dozen distinct gameplay styles it tries to pull off. This game switches styles constantly. One second you’re playing a 2D puzzle-platformer, the next a 3D auto-runner, next you’re spamming A for an interactive cutscene. This means all levels sort of feel the same mix of random stuff. There is no consistency in the length of levels either, so most of the time the ending feels like it comes out of nowhere.
This game introduces small aliens called Wisps which give Sonic a power when collected. These powers are a mixed bag. I like Cube (Blue) for the puzzles it was used for and Hover (Green) for just being fun to move around with. Others like Frenzy (Purple) aren’t as fun because its usage comes down to holding the control-stick towards the enemies to kill them instantly. Overall I think the Wisps are a good inclusion, but aren’t used to their fullest potential.
The 2D sections are my least favorite. Sonic is too floaty and the wall jump just feels all wrong to me. Many 2D sections focus on time-consuming puzzles, which I feel is a strange choice for this series. Some puzzles are good like a few that use the Cube and Rocket powerups, but others are unpolished as hell. Sometimes also, the beautiful realistic backgrounds mix very badly with the inexplicable floating platforms in the foreground. I remember a few times thinking the stage looked ugly.
The more open 3D sections are the best parts of the game. Unfortunately, I think they take up less than a third of the total gameplay. These sections show off the beautiful visuals of each world the best and are the most “gotta go fast” parts of the game. I was never able to figure out drifting in this game mode, but I’m not sure if that’s because it was badly made, or because there were too few opportunities to learn it.
Visuals
I think the interplanetary amusement park setting is a good one. Each kingdom in Disney World certainly feels like its own planet. Some parts of this game are honestly gorgeous. The first level of Planet Wisp is jaw-droppingly pretty. There are lots of sections throughout where Sonic is flying through the air and detailed backgrounds pass by that you barely get to look at. That amount of detail is exceptional.
Cutscenes
The cutscenes in this game are weird. It feels like they made 3 cutscenes each with one really funny joke, and reused them each 5 times. This includes:
- Tails’ Wisp translator messes up
- Cubot’s voice is something stupid
- Sonic talks to a giant spaceship expecting it to respond for some reason.
The cutscenes are pretty bland and a little cringy. It doesn’t help that there’s only 5 speaking characters in the entire game. The extremely simple plot doesn’t lend itself well to cutscenes.
Score
Yeah, Sonic Colors isn’t the best. It has a lot of good ideas, but doesn’t implement them in a good way, which I think describes most of the modern Sonic Games. Back into my black hole of video games you go!