Oh God the HORROR
Their last couple of installments, incidentally being Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knights, which incidentally came out SO FREAKIN CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, to be honest, didn't have me all that interested, considering Sega's track record of their flagship hero. Sure, Sonic Unleashed probably had the best levels there were...that was during the in-game's DAY TIME PERIOD. Come nightfall, what...beat em' up? In my Sonic? No. Just no.
Sonic Colors finally roll around which too, left me skeptic. With word getting out that this game was done right, which possibly against my better judgment, I actually got the game for the Wii. How does it stand? Find out.
Color Commentary Anyone?
Story:
Well, it starts off at no clear time frame of when in Sonic's life this takes place. So really, start off thinking that its just. Well. There. Robotnik...Eggman...whatever the hell you want to call him (I'm old school, shut up. He's Robotnik.) makes, quite literally, an intersteller amusement park. Tethering alien worlds to one central hub, he attracts many a tourist there, stating he is doing this to atone for any misdeeds he has done in the past. Sonic sneaks in with his buddy, Tails, and starts looking around, at first not finding anything wrong...at least until they find a couple of bots trying to subdue a couple of aliens known as Wisps. To Sonic's surprise, these Wisps have unique powers; powers that Eggman is trying to harness. Freeing these wisps a little at a time, Sonic is aided by them, giving him unique powers, depending on what Wisp he finds.
The story itself is simple. There's no massive dark plot like prior games had and there's nothing too much reading into it. Its basically like that of old school Sonic the Hedgehog, to which I say ITS ABOUT TIME. You knew what you needed to know, and didn't get the DBZ/Bleach length in backstory or dialogue. And everyone breathes relief.
Gameplay:
So, story is done right. Gameplay, what of it? Think Sonic Unleashed Daytime levels, improved by a factor of 10, and you got this. You run, collect rings, dash, and get to the end. Fastest time possible, most rings as possible in the process, and of course, try to achieve perfection by obtaining the S rank in every act, which speaking of, is no easy feat, but fortunately is optional. With that in mind, be prepared to see a entire cluster of As, Bs, Cs, and even Ds on your first go. Sega went on to state that this game was geared towards the younger audience. I state BULL! The scoring system is nothing short of brutal. To get that coveted S rank, scores have to top usually in the MILLIONS.
The controls are smooth. At least as far as use of the Gamecube Controller. Yes, you can use the GCN Controller or the Wiimote with either its Nunchuck or the Classic Controller. At any rate, the controls are responsive, as they should be since there's a lot of points, rather it be by your hand or the game, Sonic can and maybe will go almost as fast as say...I don't know, F-Zero GX? Yea. THAT fast.
The power-ups come in the form of the Wisps, as mentioned before. Sonic, as he goes through the game, will find different kinds of wisps which grants him different powers for a brief period of time. From the Cyan Laser, to the Pink Spikes, to the volatile Purple Frenzy, there are several of them at your disposal which will be essential in finishing up acts. There are also White Wisps as well which acts like Unleashed's Ring Energy Bar, which gives Sonic an added speed boost to plow through enemies, jump large gaps, or just simply keep things speeding along.
The game is broken up into acts which are located on the several areas that Robotnik/Eggman chained together. In a way, you can think of it like Super Mario World's map screen, and areas will also unlock simultaneously with others, meaning that you, on your first run, could very well find a very unexpected high difficulty spike if you're not careful, such as right at the beginning. I went to Starlight Carnival instead of Sweet Mountain at first? Big mistake.
All in all, the game play is as it should be. There's nothing much for me to gripe about at all in this aspect.
Graphics/Audio:
For starters, the graphics. The realistic look that you probably grown accustomed to? Forget about it. It's history...thank God. As true to its name, the games areas are as colorful and vivid as can be, which incidentally, could very well rival the Sonic games on the X-Box 360 or the PS3 in the graphics department. Truth be told, I don't think I ever seen the graphics pushed this hard in ANY game that I have played for the Wii thus far, which is kind of saying something.
The Audio on the other hand...well. To start things off, the music. Generally, the music is good. That is at least the full, original renditions of them. There are mock 8-bit tracks of these renditions located in the game on certain acts of areas and also the area known as Game Land, which were...well, grating.
There are voice overs in this game as well, and they were just fine too. Though I couldn't help but to crap a house when I come to find out that today's Sonic the Hedgehog is being voiced by none other than the VA that voiced Richter Belmont in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It would be from there, I would never look at Sonic the Hedgehog the same again.
In general:
Sonic apart from the already mentioned improvements, decided to clean house when it came down to their canon. The fat Big the Cat, the annoying Amy Rose, the emo Shadow the Hedgehog, and the irritating Cream the Rabbit...not here. I could have stand to see Knuckles, but I digress. The whole returning to the roots bit that Sonic has done for the most part in Sonic Colors has done this game a lot of justice.
There was one major irritation that I had with this game, however. This game virtually demands you to be a completionist for you to get the full extent of what this game truly has to offer. You could, quite possibly, go from start to end game, cutscenes included (what few their are anyways), in a mere one sitting, possibly faster than that.... In other words, it'd be recommended go for those Red Rings that you have missed (which unlocks stages in Game Land for extra bonuses) and try to strive for the S, otherwise, Sonic Colors may not be worth your time at all, because JESUS CHRIST IT WAS SHORT. Granted, Sonic titles in generally hasn't been known for its longevity, but let's be a bit real here. When you pay for a game at fresh from release price (~50 dollars), you expect there to be more. I wanted more, but when I got to the game's end credits THE SAME DAY I GOT THE GAME, I was virtually........wanting more. Granted I still had the stuff I missed, but still.
I will admit there are a couple of little extras here and there. Within Game Land, there is a 2-player Co-op. Unfortunately, its only if you have a friend there to play with you, and there's no Wi-fi support for it. That would lead to the question why the hell would there be a Wi-fi support icon on the box? That's only because there are leaderboards for people to submit their scores on, as well as be able for you to compare with your friends. Submitting your score on the public board is a waste of time, since of course, there will be those cheaters with scores of 9999999999 or fast times of 0'00"01, which is just ridiculous. There's also the Egg Shuttle, which allows you to do Challenge mode. Its basically the entire game on a watered down Survival mode. You go from act to act without the need to go to the map screen to choose the stage, and you cannot go back to previous stages. You still get 1 ups. You also still get rings and wisp power which carries over from stage to stage. There is no saving in this mode however, you have to do virtually the entire game in one go and get the highest score possible.
To wrap it up:
To sum it up, rejoice. Sega finally did something right with their famed mascot. Granted, the extras could have been better, and Sonic Colors could have stood for a few more game hours without beating a dead horse. Unfortunately, the game is ridiculously short if you decide to go from beginning to end without bothering to replay stages, which given how good the rest of the game is, is quite the let down. On that typical 1 to 10 scale...I'd give it something just shy of a 9 out of 10. Now lets see if Sonic Team can keep this up... *knocks on wood*
