Sonic Colors was originally released on the Nintendo Wii a great many years ago, and is widely considered among fans to be one of the great 3D Sonic titles. How does it hold up today?
Included in this “Ultimate” port of the game are a handful of new features such as the new Jade Wisp power, Rival Race challenges, unlockable cosmetic options for Sonic, and a brand new soundtrack. (The original soundtrack is still used along with the new one by alternating between stages.)
There are just six Rival Race challenges in total, and the new Jade Wisp and its power are very much just a gimmick. It was not used to any great effect in any stage except for the purpose of traversing through walls to find hidden Red Rings or Park Tokens (used to purchase cosmetics). Speaking of cosmetics...
The cosmetic options allow you to customize Sonic’s gloves, shoes, and give your dash a different visual effect. Being completely honest, none of them look good. In fact, I would go so far as to say they all look very tacky and unappealing. Not to mention, you can also purchase custom Player Icons for your save file with Park Tokens. There are no online features to speak of, so why would you do this? You can spend hundreds of Park Tokens unlocking Player Icons, but why? I have no idea. Park Tokens as a whole feel like a meaningless waste of time, and this is not helped by the fact that the place where you can use them requires you to quit the game to the Main Menu in order to access. It’s a mess.
Having said all of this, it would appear that I have a negative opinion of the game, but this is not the case! The gameplay holds up, and stages are (mostly) a blast to play through. Sonic has access to a wide variety of unique abilities via Wisp powers, which allow for engaging puzzles or alternate ways to approach certain terrain or obstacles. However, the end of world bosses can feel like a chore, especially once you notice that they simply reused the same three boss encounters for the second half of the game.
The story and dialogue are nothing to write home about. This is made worse by the fact that the cutscenes have not been remade for modern consoles, and so what you get here is the same grainy 480p that you did on the Wii. It really took me out of the experience, personally, as the rest of the game has been properly remastered and runs in smooth 60fps.
The game itself is mostly a fun experience, but it’s really hard for me to give much praise to this “Ultimate” port. If anything, you can now play Sonic Colors on modern hardware in 60fps. That’s worth something, I suppose!
Included in this “Ultimate” port of the game are a handful of new features such as the new Jade Wisp power, Rival Race challenges, unlockable cosmetic options for Sonic, and a brand new soundtrack. (The original soundtrack is still used along with the new one by alternating between stages.)
There are just six Rival Race challenges in total, and the new Jade Wisp and its power are very much just a gimmick. It was not used to any great effect in any stage except for the purpose of traversing through walls to find hidden Red Rings or Park Tokens (used to purchase cosmetics). Speaking of cosmetics...
The cosmetic options allow you to customize Sonic’s gloves, shoes, and give your dash a different visual effect. Being completely honest, none of them look good. In fact, I would go so far as to say they all look very tacky and unappealing. Not to mention, you can also purchase custom Player Icons for your save file with Park Tokens. There are no online features to speak of, so why would you do this? You can spend hundreds of Park Tokens unlocking Player Icons, but why? I have no idea. Park Tokens as a whole feel like a meaningless waste of time, and this is not helped by the fact that the place where you can use them requires you to quit the game to the Main Menu in order to access. It’s a mess.
Having said all of this, it would appear that I have a negative opinion of the game, but this is not the case! The gameplay holds up, and stages are (mostly) a blast to play through. Sonic has access to a wide variety of unique abilities via Wisp powers, which allow for engaging puzzles or alternate ways to approach certain terrain or obstacles. However, the end of world bosses can feel like a chore, especially once you notice that they simply reused the same three boss encounters for the second half of the game.
The story and dialogue are nothing to write home about. This is made worse by the fact that the cutscenes have not been remade for modern consoles, and so what you get here is the same grainy 480p that you did on the Wii. It really took me out of the experience, personally, as the rest of the game has been properly remastered and runs in smooth 60fps.
The game itself is mostly a fun experience, but it’s really hard for me to give much praise to this “Ultimate” port. If anything, you can now play Sonic Colors on modern hardware in 60fps. That’s worth something, I suppose!