No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me
I have fond memories of playing Sonic Colors on the Wii and I enjoyed it for being a proper Sonic game. With Sonic Colors: Ultimate coming to Steam I have decided to go out of my way and beat the game. This is the port from the Switch version, which I have not played, but I have played both the Wii and the DS version. Although to be fair, if they ported the DS version of the game, I wouldn’t mind that because I love Sonic Rush’s gameplay.
Pros and Cons
Pros
A classic Sonic-themed story
Fast and fun gameplay
Wisps felt fun to use in the levels
Cons
Some of the Wisps are not satisfying to use
You have unlimited lives in the game and not punished for your mistakes
I experienced one crash in the game
Story
The story for Sonic Colors starts off with Sonic and Tails visiting an Installer Amusement Park that Dr. Eggman has created. Sonic and Tails believe Dr. Eggman is up to something and sure enough, he is getting his robot minions to chase after these small aliens called Wisps. These aliens can give Sonic special powers by them going inside of him and it’s up to Sonic and Tails to save the Wisps.
The story of the game is simple and not hard to follow, and I think this adds the charm that classic Sonic fans will enjoy. The voice acting is really good, and I love how the characters all acted, it felt fun and enjoyable from start to finish.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Sonic Colors: Ultimate is not really different from its previous Wii version but there are some tweaks to the gameplay and one new Wisp for you to use. The game at its core is a platformer where you will go from point A to the goal ring. Along the way, you will come across White Wisps that will fill Sonic’s boost gauge. This will cause Sonic to go faster when you press the boost button. Sonic can do a homing attack which he can use to attack enemies and even has a new feature called Sweet Spot Attack. Where if you time it correctly, you will reward Sonic with boost energy for the boost gauge. To do this you have to time the attack just as the green circle overlaps the homing attack.
During the levels you are in, you can use the Wisps to access other parts of the level in various ways or to enhance the gameplay. There are eight Wisps for you to use that have abilities, not counting the White ones due to them not really having an ability. Each Wisp is in a corresponding world that you can visit. Once you are done beating a level with that corresponding Wisp, you can replay previous levels to collect these red rings. Each level contains five red rings, except for the Terminal Velocity stage. When you collect the red rings in the levels, you can unlock new acts in the Sonic Simulator. There you can beat those levels and get access to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, if you collect all seven of them, you can unlock Super Sonic.
The Wisps you can use in the levels have a variety of uses for you to use and some of them are fun. The ones I liked to use were Pink Wisps that turn you into a spiked ball and you can run over enemies. Green gave you a hover ability and if a trail of rings is in front of you, you can follow that trail similar to a Light Speed Dash in the previous games. Purple turned you into a purple monster that made you chomp over obstacles and grows bigger the more it eats things.
Overall, the gameplay is very fun, and I enjoyed it, it keeps the pace going and the worlds are very fun to explore. My two favorite areas are Starlight Carnival because the game utilizes Sonics' fast speed, and the area just looks nice to look at overall. Then there is Aquarium Park with its Japanese-like setting that just looked pleasing.
Although I do sadly have two issues with Sonic Colors: Ultimate and the first issue I have is that some of the Wisps, I am at odds with. Some of them just don’t enhance the gameplay in some ways, and I am more neutral on two. For the two Wisps I am neutral on the Cyan Wisp as that only gives you a laser-like boost ability, which is a one-time thing. Yes, it opens up some unique level of design, but the Green Wisp gives you a hover ability and an ability just like the Cyan one. So I personally am finding the Green Wisp the better one out of the two.
Then there is the Yellow Wisp, which will grant the drill ability and this one just honestly disappoints me. I say this because I loved the idea that this Wisp had and, in some ways, it does enhance the gameplay, but I feel at times it’s under-utilized.
Orange is ok, it gives you a rocket-like ability which is cool but it’s a one-time use Wisp only, although it’s more fun than the Cyan Wisp. The Blue Wisp though is the most useless ability in the game. It only lets Sonic access platformers with blue rings, and it can cause an explosion and make him invincible in the state but that’s it, it does not enhance the gameplay at all.
Now we have the Jade Wisp, which will turn Sonic into a ghost to pass through walls to access other areas, although none of the levels changed throughout this version and the previous one. This Wisp is also left underused, maybe it can access secrets that I am not looking for, but I never really found a use for it. Am I being too harsh on some of these Wisps and what they can do, probably but it’s just something that irked me I guess.
A change that this version made that I do not like is that you have unlimited lives, you are not punished for falling off a ledge or anything, and you are not punished for your mistakes in this game, which removes the tension the game has.
Graphics and Performance
Sonic Colors: Ultimate looks genuinely nice, at least when referring to the playable levels. The graphics haven’t really changed much or have been enhanced, and you can start to see the age of the game in the cutscenes which feel a little dated. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, the game ran fine but I did come across one crash.
Final Verdict
Sonic Colors: Ultimate is an alright port, not a whole lot has really changed throughout the game, but it was fun to play. That being said, you can beat the game in about four to five hours at best and for 52.99 CDN, that’s not worth the asking price for the amount of content that the game has to offer. I highly recommend you wait for a sale before picking this game up unless you are a die-hard Sonic fan.
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