Sonic Colors attempts to fix past mistakes at times slips, but when it works really shows why the franchise is top notch
GRAPHICS:
This is an absolutely stunning game. Sonic Team really put an effort to the game, and it shows. All the areas are bright and colorfull, without feeling oversaturated. The textures are also very high resolution. Looking at Planet Wisp and the individuality of everything that is on its nature is just jaw-dropping. 5/5
SOUND:
Sonic games have had constantly good music, and this game is no exception. Hell, even Sonic 06 as awful as it was still had awesome music. So Colors's soundtrack is very upbeat and energetic, and it fits so well the feel of the game. Sweet Mountain's theme is incredily catchy, and in comparission, Planet Wisp's theme is rather soothing, and just really good.
Another thing to note is that this game recasted most of the voice actors, soo we have new voices for Sonic and Tails. And they sound so much better than before. While Jason Griffith's Sonic wasn't flat out terrible, Roger Craig Smith gives the character more personality. And thank god for Tails's voice, who sounded awful in 06 and Unleashed, but in this game is probably the best acted. 5/5
STORY:
Sonic Colors story centers around an amusment park that Eggman built, and Sonic and Tails decide to investigate to see if he really is not doing anything wrong. And upon getting there, there is a lot of haboc going on, and it is up to Sonic to stop the evil doctor.
Coming out of the semi serious Unleashed and the "took itself too serious" 06, Colors's plot is incredibly lighthearted, feeling more like a classic defeat the bad guy story. And it works really well here, since the game takes itself lightly, cracking jokes all the time. The writting is incredibly strong, and the characters are often quite hilarious. In all, it just works, and comparing to what we had seen before, that is a big relieve. 5/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is a 2D-3D hybrid plataformer. Sonic has to go though many diferent stages until he reaches the end so he can proceed to the next level.
The gameplay takes its cues from Unleashed. Instead of the more free control of the Adventure games, the game is boost heavy, ontrols more strictly, has a mixture of 2D and 3D areas and is just really fast. This concept was introduced in Unleashed, and there it had mixed results, due to the experimenting; so, the game was a bit too fast for its own good, and too often it felt like you were not doing much. However, Colors strikes the balance needed, limiting your boost and allowing for more input of the player. It has its flaws though, which will be explored latter.
There is a total of 8 areas in the game, and each has 5 acts and a boss fight. While it may seem a lot at first, most of the acts are very very short, with only the first one being specialy long. And also, the majority also get incredibly annoying, as they can strict you on a certain path that can be really tricky to do at first. But still, there still is quite a lot of content in the game. Also, in each level there are several red rings, and gathering them all unlocks games in the Sonic Simulator, which has a ton of extra levels, and after beating them all, you unlock Super Sonic to play as, which is a very welcomed bonus.
As I said before, the game is similar to Unleashed. You boost not with rings, but with While Wisps, a sort of power up. There are actually 8 (counting white) types of Wisps in the game, and they act as power ups. They can do stuff ranging from transforming you into a spiky ball and cling onto cellings, to rocketing up with incredible speed. They are simply power ups, and most of the times are completely optional; ocasionaly being required. But they are really fun to use, and a very nice addition to the game.
One thing that is rather different from its predecessors its that the game is heavy on the 2D parts. In fact, the majority is, like 80% of it is 2D, and I'm not kidding. This game is also much more plataforming heavy, and it leads to mixed results. When you are simply running it can be really fun, but the plataforming can be finicky due to the controls. While not bad, Sonic feels a bit stiff, specially his double jump, which is very useful, but it can be rather unrealiable. The 3D sections are also disapointing, as they are rare, and when the game is 3D, it doesn't invoke the freedom of Unleashed. It is fun, just a bit disapointing.
Level design is something the franchise had been struggling, but this game hits the mark with some of the most creative on the series. The levels range from as delicious (pun intended) as Sweet Mountain to as water heavy as Aquarium Park. It strikes the balance of different hazzards and stuff that you have to face.
All in all, Colors features some really great ideas, but they are below quite a few annoyances. It still is quite enjoyable though. 3.6/5
OVERALL:
Sonic Colors is the sum of its parts. The whole package is great, but its most important detail, the gameplay, can feel rather awkward at times. It can still be very enjoyable, and the variety it caries is one of its strongers aspects, as it's atitude. Worth to give a shot if you though the franchise had no hope, or you just want to start with this game.
The good:
-Stunning graphics
-Really good sountrack
-Top notch voice acting
-Story is lighthearted enough to be enjoyable
-Tweaks to some of the things Unleashed did wrong
-Wisp are highly fun power ups to use
The bad:
-Feels too much 2D, and not enough 3D
-Heavy on the plataforming, which it does only okay
-Levels can be restrictive and awkward to play at times