Color me up! (haha, no? Ok bad pun for Speed Me Up song). Game: Sonic Colors: Ultimate (port of Sonic Colors for Nintendo Wii) Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC (Epic Game Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 (works on PS5). Prices: $39.99 (Base), $44.99 (Digital Deluxe) Review Copy Provided: No Reviewed on: PC (Epic Games Store) Reviewed by: Alexandre Elkhoury (Alex) Hi, folks! Names Alex and I will take my time into Sonic Colors: Ultimate and my first review without working with Tim in a Team Review as I mostly do. Without further due, let’s begin with the history of Colors and Ultimate! History Of Colors/ColoursDuring the time where the franchise has gone downhill with failures like Shadow the Hedgehog (Which I think, please don’t get offended if you liked it.), Sonic the Hedgehog (aka Sonic 06, which is known by fans), and the Sonic Storybook Series. With Sega desperately trying out odd gimmicks to the series like the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed, the Wii’s Motion Controls for both Sonic & the Secrets Rings and Sonic & the Black Knight, as well with the Motion movement of your body for Sonic Free Riders on the Xbox 360 Kinect, it was time for Sega to step up their past failures and bring out a bunch of refreshments for their new game with a new Voice cast and new Writers with that game being Sonic Colors. It was originally released on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS in 2010. At the time, the game received positive reviews from critics and fans. They finally had faith in the franchise from being good again with great games coming out after Colors with the notable Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania. History of Colors/Colours: UltimateAround back in April 2021, the game had been listed on a German dubbing Studio with the game’s name being “Sonic Colors Remastered,” later the day, a French retailer called Sogamely listed a remaster with the actual title “Sonic Colors Ultimate” both of them later were removed. On May 26, 2021, Sega announced a live broadcast of announcing projects related to Sonic to celebrated the series 30th Anniversary, with a release date of May 27; it was then when surprisingly Sonic Colors Ultimate was announced for a release on September 7, 2021, along with a Digital Deluxe Edition that offers players early access to the game that went out on September 3, 2021, along with a Gold and Silver gloves and shoes, 3 exclusive remix track, and the boost and aura from the 2020 Sonic Movie along with Sonic Movie player icons. Physical owners get the Japan-exclusive Baby Sonic keychain from the Movie they gave away in movie theaters to promote the Movie back in December 2019. Around the announcement, Sega announced a new animated web mini-series called Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisp that came out in the Summer of 2021 to Promote Colors Ultimate; the series is in 2 parts, and it introduces Metal and something that was introduced back in 2019’s Team Sonic Racing a new Wisp called “Jade Ghost.” With that being said, is Sonic Colors still as okay as it used to be on the Wii, or did it age worse over the years, including its remaster? Let’s find out (Disclaimer: this review will be talking about Colors as a whole game and not just the remaster, also since this remaster is based on the original Wii version, we won’t be mentioning the DS version). The Story (WARNING: SPOLIERS)After supposedly developing a sense of remorse for his past misdeeds, Dr. Eggman opens an amusement park called "Dr. Eggman's Amazing Interstellar Amusement Park,” which is located in space made up of several planet-sized attractions, to make up for his transgressions. Suspicious of the doctor's intentions, Sonic and Tails investigate in the amusement park before the opening day. As they comment on how pretty the place is, they see Orbot and Cubot chasing two alien-like creatures; Sonic promptly rescues them and ends up discovering extraordinary powers with some of them. The aliens are called Wisps, and one of them that Sonic saved is named Yacker. To communicate with Yacker, Tails builds a translator in his Miles Electric. Through communicating with Yacker (albeit with complications because the translator has several glitches that scramble the words), they learn that the other Wisps have been captured by Dr. Eggman, who plans to harness their energy, called Hyper-Go-On (ok, this weapon the Gamescage or is this a dream? LOL), for his nefarious schemes. Allying with the Wisps and using their powers, Sonic visits multiple planets, liberating the Wisps and shutting down the generators that link them to the amusement park. Eventually, Sonic soon learns that Dr. Eggman is transforming the Wisps into Nega-Wisps and using them as fuel for a mind control cannon to make Sonic's world the star attraction of his theme park. When Dr. Eggman tries to fire the cannon at the world, a piece of wreckage, created when Sonic destroys the first boss, causes it to malfunction and explode. As the amusement park begins to explode, Sonic sends Tails back down the space elevator. At the same time, Sonic faces Dr. Eggman, who uses a powerful robot that harnesses the negative energy of the Wisps. With the help of every type of Wisp, Sonic defeats Eggman with the Final Color Blaster. The malfunctioning cannon creates a black hole that consumes the amusement park and the defeated Eggman. While even Sonic cannot outrun the black hole, all of the Wisps use their energy to neutralize it and save Sonic as he lies faints. Yacker changes the Nega-Wisps back to normal, and Sonic wakes up in his world, breathing heavily and looking tired. Tails reprimand Sonic for pushing him into the space elevator but thanks him for handling Eggman all by himself. Yacker arrives to thank them before returning to his planet along with the Wisps. In a post-credits cutscene, Eggman is seen stranded in space alongside Cubot and Orbot. The story in the game changed the series from being serious over to simplicity and the quality being taken more to a Saturday Morning Cartoon feel. At the same time, the premise was about the Amusement Park. In my opinion, Sonic Colors as a game did alright for the most part, and now I’m sure it’s not for everyone, especially all of the cheesy jokes, and I respect theirs too but safe to say the main demographic for the game is towards children. I can understand that since most of the games from the downfall in the late 2000s I was all very serious and had this anxious feeling, so having Colors focusing on its simplicity. Still, yet serious charm is pretty neat when it’s done right. Colors did that, especially for being a Kid’s game, so overall, in my book and taste, Sonic Colors story is alright and does bring back the Sonic and Tails simple adventure from the Classic games into the Modern games. Now with that being said, I can let’s jump into the gameplay. Gameplay, etc.![]() Sonic Colors is basically the daytime stages from Sonic Unleashed but this time it would be Sonic all alone, however, this game bring a new addition to the series which are the Wisp, each areas in the game has the Wisp power up to access several obstacles and locations to be discover, there’s 8 Wisp in the game including Light Wisp, Cyan Laser Wisp, Yellow Drill Wisp, Pink Spike Wisp, Blue Cube Wisp, Green Hover Wisp, Purple Frenzy Wisp and the new Wisp Colors Ultimate brought out was the Jade Ghost Wisp, these Wisps got their own powers with Light giving the boost, Cyan giving the laser to warp, Drill to drill underground and underwater, Spike to cross over spikes as well spin dashing for speeding, Cube turn blue rings into platforms just to crossover an area or to jump on, Hover is allowing to hover areas that would be impossible to reach as well to dash over rings for speeding, Frenzy gains powerful jaws that can chew through any robot’s armor and other durable obstacles it also consume any matter the user bites off and add it to their own mass, allowing the Purple Frenzy to grow larger for each bite until reaching maximum size (which is about three-to-four times the Purple Frenzy's original size). And Jade Ghost, with the ability, can fly around and discover alternate paths and also able to phase through solid walls and objects like Unbreakable Containers by homing in on gimmicks and enemies on the other side of the obstructions mentioned above with the Ghost Attack, regardless of obstacles and walls between them. As well some areas to collect hidden Red Rings, speaking of them, the Red Rings are introduced in this game as collectibles to 100% of the game doing so rewards you the ability to play as Super Sonic in normal levels which finally for the first time in the 3D games has been playable outside of final boss, unlike the previous game. However, it isn’t the first time they brought it back since Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 did that first a month before October 2010. The Red Rings aren’t hard to find and are pretty fun, but they require some memorization and discovery, which, thankfully, Walkthroughs do exist just to help find them. Although, they had changed some Red Rings locations just for the use of the Ghost Wisp. The game is divided into seven areas with Colors, all of which can be selected through a World Map. Each Area is divided into six Acts. The 7th act is the boss fights; these areas are Tropical Resort, Sweet Mountain, Starlight Carnival, Planet Wisp, Aquarium Park, Asteroid Coaster, and Terminal Velocity, with Terminal Velocity being the Area with 3 acts. Now the levels themselves, like I said is just the daytime stages from Unleashed but Sonic all alone without the Werehog; the main acts are usually a bit big to explore but short to completing at around 2 - 4 minutes (depending on your playtime of the game’s and levels). Still, they are mostly fun levels with a few annoying obstacles like waiting in a moving platform to destroy enemies or move blocks to hit switches to unlock certain platforms. Still, fortunately, they don’t last long. Sadly, the last 3 acts aren't that good since it recycles levels from the first three and it’s full of these annoying obstacles, but some acts like act 6 of Asteroid Coaster and act 5 of Starlight Carnival can be pretty fun and good. They do play like their previous three counterparts. forgot to mention, but this game is full of 2D sections, and while some people generally find it amusing since this is a 3D game, they are really enjoyable and have some of its fast-paced action moments especially boosting. Now the controls in this game are really good and so far have the best controls in the boost games with Sonic can make a 360 move that no other boost Sonic games had, which are more tanker and stiff, now it isn’t going to top the controls in the first Sonic Adventure game. Still, the controls feel like Generations which is a better improvement. Now with how available Colors is, let’s talk about the remaster and its new content to see what impresses us. The new additions to Ultimate: Now the main thing to point out with most remasters is visual updates and surprise surprise. Colors Ultimate has them, and besides Tropical Resort, with the added Bloom effects, Colors Ultimate, looks superior to the Original with levels like Starlight Carnival and Aquarium Park looks more detailed compared to what it did on the Wii (not all the way but close), the only gripe with the visual updates is that Tropical Resort looked darker and feels a bit disappointing even before launch which made the Original looked more like the Remaster should've been Ultimate in a way. Visuals aside, they have updated the soundtrack by remixing it since other remasters and remakes have done it too (sort of like Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy and Spyro the Dragon Reignited Trilogy), and listening to this with it's catchy vibe is nice to the originals, although they do lose some of that charm like the loud and exciting upbeat of Sweet Mountain, and for some reason, the theme of Planet Wisp sounded like a night club rather than a relaxing and charming song, plus where's an option to use the original music and remixed in ultimate? With the updated addition to already existing content, what does the new content bring into the mix? Well, here are the following additions: The remaster brought customizations to the game that lets you customize Sonic’s Shoes, Gloves, Auras, and Boost; these customizations are locked. Still, you unlock them by spending Park Tokens, which are scattered around in levels, and they’re very easy to find them. You can exit levels and go back just to grind more to unlock certain customizations if you like to. For this review, I played the movie Sonic Aura and Boosted, which you get from buying the game’s Digital Deluxe Edition or as a separate DLC. A nice addition to the game is a new mode called Rival Rush, where you race against Metal Sonic; you unlock these races by collecting 15 Red Rings in a zone in each planet; in total, there are 6 races, and personally, this is my favorite about Colors Remaster that an extra challenge with a fun and enjoyable race to the finish against Metal Sonic who by the way was never in the original Wii version of the story, the problem is with that the mode is really short with like I said 6 stages. When they choose the stages, they choose the worst stages for both Aquarium Park and Asteroid Coaster, which I wish they choose their first acts instead of their second acts. An addition that didn’t impress fans was the removal of the lives system and adding the Tails save feature so when you fall a stage, Tails automatically comes and saves you; it only happens if you earn Tails icons during the stages of getting them by destroying the scoring system in the ranking, now this isn’t a great addition to the game since it makes the game way easier than what it was back on the Wii. Still, sometimes I have found the Tails save feature useful if I’m on a Red Rings hunting or trying to get S Ranks, and it does save your scores and all. Hence, it isn’t much of a big deal, but I still wish they gave us an option to turn it on and off, kind of like the Jump Button option for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. A big problem to also address on launch day is that Colors Ultimate has been criticized for having bugs and glitches with having random crashes, save data corruption, awful sound mixing, a buggy animation of Sonic falling in Starlight Carnival act 3, and glitches that cause seizure and epilepsy which was mostly on the Switch version of the game, now this is worth complaining because for being a remaster of a beloved Wii game should never happen. It’s a disgrace for ruining by rushing out again after other games like Sonic 06 and Forces already did that and were poorly received because of this. However, from what I’ve heard, this has to do with Blind Squirrel Games themselves, but they sure did drop the trigger on this one if this was the case. Thankfully, the epilepsy glitch has been fixed, but some other glitches aren’t yet; it has been confirmed more. Hopefully, they will fix it in a patch shortly and beyond in the future. Verdict In the end, Colors Ultimate is just basically the original game but now on modern platformers with improvements like the nice addition of new content, and I will say this is an improved version of Sonic Colors, and that I recommended to fans of the original Colors, or to fans of Sonic that haven’t played the original, the game itself is a lot of fun, and it did become one of my favorites Sonic games with a great soundtrack, good level design, awesome voice acting, an alright story with jokes that may not be funny, better controls, nice graphics, and great new additions to detail.
Although I wish the game weren’t so rushed with the disgusting glitches and bugs that ruined the remaster in some aspects and the potential for more content. Otherwise, do pick up this game at your own risk, but I'd rather recommend it on other platforms than the Switch (get Switch if you want, I ain't stopping you), or at least wait till the game’s get fully patched up completely overtime. Hopefully, more Sonic games could be re-released someday with games, notably Sonic Unleashed, but I don't know will wait to see, hoping Sonic Origins next year will bring a brighter future for re-releases (maybe? probably, till this game sells well.). Pros: Rival Rush is a fun addition to the game The controls are more improved from the original Better Visual Details Great Soundtrack (not better than Adventure 1) Jade Ghost is a strange but neat addition is to the Wisp family of this game. Super Sonic being playable again in normal stages is an amazing addition that brings back the charm and funs of the classic games along with a fun collectible of Red Rings to unlock him. Good final boss with a great song and a challenging format The remixes are a nice upgrade for the game, especially the theme song combined with the intro. In addition to Customize Sonic is a nice feature to speed around with. Cons: The Jokes in the story are pretty weak additions to the series, especially with fans of the serious tone of the franchise. The 2D levels have their share of problems with a lot of waiting for platforms to move along with many enemies, especially in the later acts of each zones. The bosses are too easy, with most of them being easy and become repetitive in later bosses, not to mention that they’re quick to beat because of their easier difficulty. The Tails Save isn’t optional, which is a bummer because it made the game way easier. While a great addition, Super Sonic has a problem of disabling Wisp in the game; it can’t be fun at times since it breaks the point of having the Wisp and can’t explore the level. Plus, the stages are a bit unbeatable without transforming into Super Sonic with 50 rings. The glitches and bugs are the major issues to this game, and as I said, we have hoped for Sega to patch them in the future as soon as possible. Graphics from the Original feel downgraded downside from the Detail improvement in some levels. No option to change from Remixed Music to the Original Soundtrack. Quote: “Sonic Colors Ultimate is an interesting remaster from the original and makes a better take on Controls and Details.” Rating: 7.0/10 Until then.. GAME ON FOLKS! -Alexandre Elkhoury (Alex)
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