High-speed boosting, colors, & a buggy remaster
Sonic Colors: Ultimate Review (PlayStation 4; played on a PS5)
It’s been awhile since I played Sonic Colors for the first time back in 2010. It was originally released exclusively on Nintendo Wii in November 2010.
At the time, I was only 12 years old. I don’t think I’ve played it since its initial release. When they announced a remaster for the last generation of consoles (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, & Nintendo Switch) and PC, I was lowkey excited. I recently felt the urge to jump back into Sonic Colors to see how well it held. This remaster was the perfect opportunity to replay it once again. However, if you’ve been paying attention to the Sonic Twitter sphere over the past month, you would’ve seen many clips fans have been sharing of the glitchy and buggy mess that is, Sonic Colors: Ultimate. The bugs mainly happened on the Switch port which is quite sad to see. I know many Sonic fans only have a Nintendo Switch, so giving them the worse version sucks. Then again, most games that release on all three of these console platforms, the Switch version almost always gets the short end of the stick. Also, someone was faking the bugs by playing on a Switch emulator while passing their clips as genuine problems with the game. This obviously didn’t make it easier for Sega to pinpoint where to start in fixing their rushed remaster of Sonic Colors. I’ll talk more about the performance issues with Sonic Colors: Ultimate later in the article.
Simple, yet effective
Sonic & Tails are stopping Dr. Eggman once again from doing evil deeds. The deeds this time around involve harvesting these aliens called wisps. The duo decide to stop the doctor’s plans while saving the wisps in the process. Very simple and easy story to follow. Nothing too crazy for anyone having Sonic Colors: Ultimate be their first experience with the blue hedgehog.
Back in 2010, I thought this story was fine because it didn’t stray too far from the norm of modern Sonic titles while satisfying a story that gives us a reason to go from level. Now, I pretty much feel the same way. The writing might be a little on the corny side for me personally. That could be me showing with my older age of almost 23 but I fully understand how these jokes would land for the younger audience of Sonic the Hedgehog. The story of Sonic Colors: Ultimate gets the job done, once again.
As good as I remember it…?
One of the worrying aspects I had going in for Sonic Colors: Ultimate was the gameplay. You might think it would be the performance issues after seeing the Twitter videos but I wasn’t sure if the gameplay would’ve held up from 2010. I mean after the mess that was Sonic Forces, I kind of wanted to keep my nostalgia glasses on for Sonic Colors as one of the better boost formula titles. Well, the gameplay for Sonic Colors: Ultimate holds up as much as I expected. Honestly, I don’t remember a lot of the levels. After the first two levels, I was (for the most part) replaying Sonic Colors: Ultimate blind.
In 2010, this was what the Sonic community wanted after the mixed reaction from Sonic Unleashed.
“The daytime levels were good but the nighttime levels were a chore.”
— (Probably) Most of the Sonic community after Sonic Unleashed
So, Sonic Team did just that by releasing a new Sonic game that was just daytime level gameplay while adding in the elements of the wisps. By and large, the gameplay of Sonic Colors: Ultimate is what I remember. The boost formula gameplay is still fun to do* (more on this later). I still find it a little jarring that the boost meter only builds up with the regular wisps while the rings only act as protection from getting hit and stacking points. It makes sense for Sonic Colors because the wisps are sort of the “gimmick” for this title. While in Sonic Forces, the wisps’ inclusion is a little unwarranted.
The wisps themselves are fine to use. I have mixed feelings on some of the wisps having core moves Sonic used to do on his own like the light speed dash and the spin dash. I understand they have to make the wisps useful in the context of the game. Tying the pink and green wisps to iconic Sonic moves gives the developers more time to develop the other wisps…in theory. The yellow, cyan, & purple wisps are fine abilities to use. Controlling the yellow/drill wisps does feel a little shaky at times with the cyan wisps blasting Sonic off in a laser. And the purple wisps is just a Pac-Man mini game for its duration. I admittedly enjoy using the purple wisps far more than I remembered. The blue and orange wisps are kind of whatever. One makes blue platforms appear and the other is a rocket, not too much to expect from those. The new wisp ability introduced for Sonic Colors: Ultimate, the Jade Ghost, didn’t need to be added in my opinion. I feel like the core wisps in the Sonic Colors were fine enough as is. The Jade Ghost allows the player to phase into certain parts of the level through these portals. It’s neat, sure. But I definitely soft locked myself in a level because I didn’t know how to use this new ability and there was no way out once the wisp ran out of juice. I obviously became very cautious of how I used this wisp power for the rest of my playthrough but there’s no reason to add a new power without fully testing it. It only appears in a couple of acts but still, a wisp that didn’t need to be added for Sonic Colors: Ultimate.
Other changes for this remaster is how 1-ups work. Now, they’re called Tails Saves and Sonic will be placed back in his last known location. Checkpoints kind of become obsolete because of this change. Additionally, the game becomes super easy when you’re just trying to get to the end of levels. Not to say some levels didn’t challenge me, the final levels for sure did that. However, I’m not a fan of the new live system. I wish there was an option to keep the old live system in as a way to increase the difficulty or just wanting to keep the lives how they were before.
The remaster added a feature where the player can customize Sonic’s look. You can change his gloves and shoes to a variety of colors. Unlocking these cosmetics with Park Tokens that are scattered across each level. Honestly, I had no idea these tokens unlocked cosmetic features until I finished my playthrough. I don’t ever feel the need to change how Sonic looks in the game, so I never bothered to look into it.
The boost formula gameplay is still fun to do when the level design allows it. The level design of Sonic Colors isn’t as simple as I remembered it. Most of the time, boosting freely down a level isn’t granted because of the level design. Not enough regular wisps for the boost gauge to fill up or I’m drifting across a level.
There’s far more platforming sections in Sonic Colors than I remembered. I’m always hesitating on my jumps during platforming sections too. It could either be my own ability being questioned or me questioning how good the platforming mechanics of this game are. Regardless, platforming in Sonic Colors: Ultimate I found to be a little iffy. I never felt 100% confident platforming in this game.
Thankfully, most levels can be completed within a few minutes. This can be a negative for some players, as levels don’t get a chance to “fully develop”. There are six acts per world, so there is enough variety in each world. In my opinion, I’m fine with levels taking no more than five minutes to complete. The shorter levels that are like less than two minutes, could’ve been a little longer. I think Sonic Team heard the complaints from Sonic Unleashed, where levels were extremely long, and buckled down on creating quick, fast levels in Sonic Colors.
If you want to play levels even faster, once you collect 15 red rings in a world, you unlock Rival Rush. Sonic races against Metal Sonic to see who can finish the level first. Metal Sonic doesn’t dilly-dally around either, so make sure you’re trying your best in finishing the level as fast as possible. It’s cool for sure and definitely gives me an incentive to collect more red rings. Speaking of the red rings, they’re once again scattered throughout each level for Sonic to collect. I believe they even changed up the placement for this remaster which is kind of neat. Creating a new collecting experience for those who played the original on the Wii.
One last thing I forgot to mention. Quick-stepping in Sonic Colors: Ultimate is still with the analog stick and not with the shoulder buttons. They could’ve added using the shoulder buttons to quick-step as a quality of life change because quick-stepping with the stick feels hella awkward. I honestly thought it was always with the shoulder buttons but I must be thinking of playing Sonic Unleashed on the Wii with the Gamecube controller.
As a whole, the gameplay of Sonic Colors: Ultimate is still what I expected as one of the better boost formula titles. It’s not as good as I remember but I still had a fun time playing it. The wisps abilities fulfill their role as the gimmick for this game. Most of the changes and additions for this remaster, in my opinion, didn’t need to happen. Sonic Colors: Ultimate’s gameplay still rings true as a good Sonic game from that era.
The bugs, glitches, and more bugs
Performance wise, I already mentioned the glitchy mess that is the Nintendo Switch version. I was seriously considering buying the Switch version for this review but decided against it because I’m a broke college student. Personally, I experienced a couple of weird things happen during my playthrough. I already mentioned the Jade Ghost soft locking my progress during one of the levels. The green wisps messed with the audio in one level after I restarted it. One time, when the Tails Save came through, he literally dropped Sonic outside of the 2.5D plane, causing Sonic to fall right out of the stage. Right afterwards, the homing attack messed up and I had to platform all the way back up again. Ironically, I didn’t experience any graphical hiccups during my playthrough. I did hear about the PlayStation 4 version having a bug where your save file can get corrupted. Mine hasn’t done that yet but I believe they already patched it out. Literally all bugs and glitches I experienced were within the gameplay. Nothing wrong with the graphics themselves. It does look good for a remastered game from the Wii. In addition, seeing this game move at 60fps is nice. Music in Sonic games always delivers and I was happy to hear the tunes of Sonic Colors once again. I lowkey got goosebumps hearing the remixed version of “Reach for the Stars” in the opening cutscene. That song was my jam when I was 12 years old and I love it. The graphics, the music, and overall performance for the PS4 version is alright. I’m aware the final product of Sonic Colors: Ultimate isn’t entirely the developer’s fault, Blind Squirrel Games. People are theorizing Sega pressured them to rush the product out because they were already promoting it like crazy with the animation and such. Admittedly, a bit rough around the edges so hopefully future patches can fix Sonic Colors: Ultimate later down the road.
Worth your money?
In conclusion, Sonic Colors: Ultimate is a decent remaster of the 2010 Wii title. I definitely wasn’t expecting as many bugs and glitches for this remaster but it does shine in certain areas. The game itself is still fun to play with the various wisps powers to your disposal. The graphics make Sonic Colors look the best it’s ever been in high definition. Plus, the soundtrack still holds to this today. I do have my problems with some of the changes made for this remaster and it sucks to see the bugs and glitches be present in all versions of this game, especially the Nintendo Switch one. Still, Sonic Colors: Ultimate stays faithful to the original with some rough edges.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
YouTube
Podcast
Other Socials (Facebook, Twitch, etc.)
