Why was Sonic Colors (Wii, 2010) So Good?

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

I was initially planning to review Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, but I decided to push them off so I could get Sonic Colors out of the way before Ultimate comes out (so I can review that and compare it as a remater). Plus, in addition, I figured it would be better to review Episode 1 alongside Episode 2 after Generations or so. I probably will review All-Stars Racing soon, but for now, well, here’s Sonic Colors.

Background and History

Following the release of Unleashed and after criticism towards a lot of the recent releases up to that point, Sonic Team chose to make a Sonic game that resembled that of a more fast-paced, straightforward platformer akin to the Genesis games by cutting down on a lot of the major gimmicks like the Werehog or swordplay in Black Knight (returning to Sonic’s roots for only the 50th time!). 

The game drew inspiration from and kept the formula of Unleashed’s Day stages, but intended to appeal to a wider audience and added some new mechanics - namely the Wisps - to incentivize and expand upon the core gameplay. 

The game was announced in May 2010, and released in November of the same year. Prior to the game’s release, previous Sonic games that didn’t achieve positive Metacritic scores were also delisted to increase the value of the brand.

The game was generally received positively after it came out by both critics and Sonic fans, with a lot of praise towards the level design and more straightforward platforming gameplay, especially after a few prior game releases that were received more negatively (like, y’know… that one released in 2006). The game did have it’s share of detractors, but overall the common consensus seemed to be that it was the best Sonic game released after Sega’s departure from the console market (at least aside for Heroes, the Advance and Rush games depending on who you asked).

But in recent years, Sonic Colors has definitely become more polarized within factions of the Sonic fandom. Whereas there is still definitely a lot of people who like, even love, the game, some have expressed dissatisfaction to the game - largely for the amount of 2D gameplay and “block” platforming, and especially a lot of criticism towards it’s story and the general tonal shift this game had coming off the previous decade. This has definitely become more prevalent since the release of Forces in 2017, and I definitely see a lot of people questioning just why this game was so loved in the first place.

Personal Experiences

While I did at least watch my brother play Sonic 06 at a young age, Sonic Colors was the first 3D Sonic game I really played-

“um, ackshually, Sonic Colors is mostly 2D, therefore it’s not-“

yes, yes, I know, no need to tell me a bunch of times, and I will get to that. But for the purpose of talking about my experiences with the game, I will refer to it as my first 3D Sonic game.

Anyway, this was around the time I started getting more invested in the franchise and community, and especially after getting the Wii for Christmas, this was one game I was interested in trying after generally hearing positive things about it. I ended up getting the game with my Birthday money, picking it up for $20 at GameStop. 

And, well, I really liked it. I had mostly just played the Classic games up to that point, and I pretty much instantly found myself enjoying the more straightforward platforming gameplay, as well as the level design in addition to the variety in themes. The soundtrack I really liked, the visuals looked really good, and… honestly, I even enjoyed the story, being just about what I expected coming off from the classic games and watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on Netflix.

I admittedly didn’t beat Sonic Colors for a while for similar reasons I didn’t make much progress on Heroes - truth be told I was just more addicted to ROBLOX than anything, plus to be honest it was actually pretty hard for me as a kid (which is ironic considering these days I can beat it pretty easily), but I really liked what I played of it. I eventually did beat the game a few years later, and at the time, I considered it one of my favorite Sonic games, especially around the time I found myself falling in love with the Boost formula after playing Generations.

So I was definitely kind of surprised when I found that opinions on this game within the Sonic fandom were becoming more mixed. In particular, there was one video I remember watching around 2018 by a Sonic content creator expressing their opinions on most of the games in the series and just seeming to have a lot of disdain for Colors when they got to the game, which kind of surprised me considering they had been more positive towards games like 06 and Black Knight. I mean, this has sort of been the direction the fandom has been in for the last few years, but at the time I had taken somewhat of a break from the Sonic fandom especially after Forces’ reveal and release.

For the record, I’m not trying to put down this person’s opinion, but I had noticed sort of a negative trend towards Colors’ reception within the Sonic fandom even in the couple years before that, and I think that video in particular… actually kind of got me to play the game again and see if it was as good as I remember it, or if I just had rose-tinted glasses on. And.. honestly? I still really liked the game - in some ways, I actually found myself enjoying it even more, and since then, it’s actually become one of those perennial games that I find myself playing through at least once a year. One of those times, of course, being prior to this review.

Story

Sonic and Tails go to investigate Dr. Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park in space by hijacking an elevator up to which (..in which the keys were just left inside), and after communicating with aliens of a species known as ‘Wisps’ through Tails’ translator, it is revealed that their energy is being harnessed by Eggman, who has chained their planets to his amusement park using generators.

Y’know now that i think about it this game’s story kind of sounds like the Spongebob episode ‘Jellyfish Jam’.

Anyway, like I said, this game’s story and overall tone shift is where a lot of criticism from the fandom is aimed towards. Whereas Sonic stories in the past decade, especially in the late 2000’s, were darker and more serious, this game does take a more lighthearted and comedic route, and many fans do consider Sonic’s characterization a step down from previous games. 

This was also the first Sonic game written by Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, who are both largely known for their work on Happy Tree Friends, in addition to the former having credits for a mix of kids shows like LazyTown and Arthur and games such as Clayfighter and MadWorld amongst other things. These writers have largely been subject to criticism due to allegedly not having much experience with the Sonic franchise even outside of story writing.

But honestly… I don’t hate this game’s story. In fact, I actually still find myself enjoying it. It’s definitely not the deepest or most serious story, but honestly, after some of the previous Sonic games I can understand the desire to change direction and it does feel like a breath of fresh air. I really like the more ‘chill’ nature of this game’s plot, and I actually think it does a good job of throwing some more serious elements in a mostly comedic story. Keep in mind, I mostly came off of the classic games in addition to, again, watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on Netflix, so to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even really notice that much of a tone shift, and on that note, I could enjoy what Sonic Colors’ story had going for it. Some of the jokes actually still make me chuckle even now, and while some of the other jokes can be pretty cringey, I don’t entirely understand why this story in particular seems to get so much hate.

On that note, can I just ask why so many people seem to get so upset over the ‘Baldy Nosehair’ gag? It’s literally only brought up twice in this game, once more in Lost World, and while I guess it is a bit cringey, I don’t really see why so many people use it to represent the quality of writing, not just in this game, but with the 2010’s in general.

But anyway, I also really like Sonic and Tails’ dynamic here - while I definitely enjoy a lot of the other characters in this game, I still really find the limited cast works really well for this game’s story and seeing a lot of the dialogue between Sonic and Tails - the way they talk about what’s going on and some of the sarcastic banter - really feels like what I would expect in a true ‘friendship’, if that makes sense. In particular, it makes the scene towards the end where Sonic pushes Tails into the elevator to keep him safe feel just a bit more… emotional, for lack of a better word. 

And I’ll say it - I definitely think Sonic’s characterization here is more entertaining than in the mid/late 2000’s games. I mentioned in my Unleashed and Black Knight reviews in particular that in this era Sonic just kind of came off to me as a pretty one-note anime hero with occasional one-liners, and Colors comes a lot closer to what I expect out of Sonic’s character - particularly his snarky and cocky nature, who still takes things seriously when he needs to - and that’s portrayed here pretty well. 

Overall, I’d still consider the story of the Adventure games and Heroes to be better (at least aside for the story presentation, anyway), but I do think Colors’ story is overhated. To be fair, I’m not someone who generally puts a lot of value into Sonic stories, but I think for what they were going for, they actually did a pretty decent job of that.

Also Roger Craig Smith is the best Sonic voice, don’t @ me.

One more thing I would like to note is the story presentation. I considered Sonic Unleashed’s story presentation to be a massive step up over previous Sonic games due to how expressive the characters’ animations felt, and Colors does seem to take a lot of queues from that. I’d still say Unleashed’s in-game cutscenes still look a tad better, and this game does somewhat dial down the expressiveness, but it’s still definitely present here, often complimenting the humor of this game.

Presentation

Visually, this game is gorgeous. While the Wii does have some pretty damn nice looking games, like Super Mario Galaxy and Skyward Sword, when I replayed this game in 2018 I was honestly really surprised with how good it looked and how much it held up. It is somewhat held back by the Wii’s limitations - looking pretty pixelated, especially in cutscenes - but at the same time, the environments look really good, being filled with color and really selling on both the level themes themselves and the overarching ‘space amusement park’ theme. 

Sonic’s model alone looks a lot better than in the Storybook games and Unleashed Wii, and honestly this game in general does a good job of defining it’s art style while utilizing some of the best Wii’s capabilities. The game does run at a native, capped 30FPS, which is about what I would expect, but aside for one or two short moments I noticed slowdown, it seems to be really stable.

The soundtrack, too, is easily one of if not my favorites from the series. It generally has a very grand and orchestral feel to it while having a lot of variety and fitting each of the game’s level themes. There’s also different themes depending on what act you’re on which is also a nice touch. As far as level and map themes go, my favorites consist of, well, all of Tropical Resort and Starlight Carnival, in addition to the map theme of Planet Wisp, plus Act 1 of said level, and Aquarium Park Act 1, but honestly it’s pretty hard to choose favorites because most of the level themes are just so damn good. 

On top of this, I really love the game’s opening and ending themes, Reach for the Stars and Speak with Your Heart, both potentially being my favorite lyrical themes in the series. To be honest, I almost cried hearing the rendition of Reach for the Stars for the Sonic Symphony, and I really hope it’s present in Sonic Colors Ultimate.

One more thing, but I also like how Eggman’s voice plays over the PA system and a lot of the lines that go with that. It really adds to the “amusement park” feel and the game’s overall humor.

Gameplay

As previously stated, Sonic Colors takes inspiration and uses the Boost formula that, in it’s current form, was introduced in Unleashed’s day stages. Well, kind of. The fundamentals of the formula are still present - the switching between 2.5D and 3D gameplay, plus Sonic’s expanded moveset with abilities like the stomp, drift and quick step, however whereas Unleashed’s Day stages were more specifically based around speed, Colors’ stages tend to be more based around platforming while still incentivizing replayability and finding ways to progress through the stages as fast as possible.

And as I also mentioned, one criticism of this game is that the 2.5D gameplay takes up the majority of the game, leading to some questioning if Sonic Colors should be considered a “3D” game. A lot of people compare it to the Rush games, which were mainly 2(.5)D but did technically have 3D sections.

While I do get why some would hesitate to consider this a ‘3D’ game, I do feel like my take on it is a bit more nuanced than just considering Sonic Colors a 2D or 3D game. With the Rush example I mentioned, the ‘3D’ sections of that game were generally pretty limited - usually just putting Sonic entirely on-rails while giving the player ability to move left, right, or up and down in the case of the hang-gliding sections. Ultimately, while they did resemble a 3D perspective, you didn’t exactly have full control over Sonic in those cases.

In comparison, while Sonic Colors’ 3D sections are pretty sparse, within those 3D sections you still technically have full control over Sonic for the most part - there are some automated sections but you are still able to move Sonic around in the 3D environment. And for this reason, I don’t exactly consider the 3D sections in Rush to be comparable to the 3D sections in Colors Wii. I guess in Rush Adventure’s case you also technically have some 3D movement within parts of the hub world, but even these were more limited than Colors’ 3D sections and weren’t really a major part of the game’s levels.

So, would I consider Sonic Colors Wii a 2D game or a 3D game? My answer is… yes! While the 2D sections are more prevalent here, I feel like the 3D sections still tend to provide enough movement to at least consider Sonic Colors Wii a hybrid 2D and 3D game. I mean, Crash Bandicoot is also a game that has a lot of 2D sections amidst it’s 3D gameplay but mostly people still consider that a 3D platformer. Or hell, the Werehog in Unleashed HD takes up at least half if not most of the game, but we still consider Unleashed a ‘Boost’ Sonic game, so I don’t entirely think it’s very far out there for someone to consider Sonic Colors a 3D game even if the 2D sections are a more substantial part of it.

Even then though, I don’t entirely understand why people bring up the amount of 2D gameplay. Let’s be real here, the game never really advertised itself as a fully 3D game - even just looking at the back of the case, the screenshots outright show a mix of 2D and 3D gameplay, and looking at the game’s announcement and launch trailers, it mostly just seems to show the ‘Reach for the Stars’ intro rather than any actual gameplay. I dunno, I feel like after playing Unleashed people probably should have expected the hybrid 2D and 3D gameplay. 

I guess I could understand if you’re not a fan of 2D Sonic gameplay in general, or if this game’s 2D gameplay wasn’t very good, but at the same time, I still feel like Sonic Colors’ 2D gameplay and level design is actually pretty strong all around. And going off from there…

Probably the biggest strength of Sonic Colors is easily the game’s movement - which, hot take, but I would probably consider the game’s 2D movement some of the best in the series, and even the 3D movement I feel is pretty strong. Sonic generally has a good amount of fluidity to him that meshes pretty well with the level design, which I don’t really feel like is captured by any other game in the series, and it feels like the 3D control is really translated well into the 2D sections. This is also aided by the 2D Boost movements like the stomp and air dash, as well as the double jump and Wisps, giving the player a lot of control over Sonic and ability to easily correct yourself.

And as I said, the movement in 3D also feels pretty strong. My only criticism would probably be that the Drift and Quick Step are limited to certain sections rather than being something you can use freely throughout the 3D sections. Although I will say that when using the Drift, it does feel better than Unleashed’s, which honestly felt too loose for my liking while having a turning arc that just felt way too wide to be really useful unless you specifically mastered it. I still prefer Generations’ drift over Colors’, mostly due to Colors’ drift being too tight, but I still felt like I had more control over it without having to go out of my way to understand it.

The Wisps are also, of course, introduced in this game. They could probably be considered a gimmick of their own, but unlike stuff like the Werehog or Black Knight swordplay, I actually feel like they enhance the gameplay and levels rather than making the game feel bogged down or padded. For the most part you can go without using the Wisps and just play the level normally, but it definitely feels like the game’s levels and replayability was designed around them - often giving you the ability to explore new areas or find ways to utilize them to get to the goalpoint faster.

There are seven Wisps that you obtain throughout the game - the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill, Orange Rocket, Blue Cube, Purple Frenzy, Pink Spike and Green Hover - each with their own abilities. Some of these do feel a bit more situational than others, but I feel like all of them were fun to use to some extent. Usually when it comes to exploring the level the Yellow Drill and Green Hover were my favorites for that, but it is really interesting just seeing how each of them are incorporated into the level design, especially when replaying the levels to earn higher ranks or collect red rings. This game does have a similar issue to that of the Adventure games where they’re not all unlocked from the start, making it hard to try and 100% the game as you go along, but otherwise, it is really fun to go back to certain levels and just see how you can utilize the Wisps to progress and explore new areas.

On that note, the levels themselves. I will say the level structure in this game is a bit… weird. It does follow a more linear structure that doesn’t require you to play through missions like in Secret Rings, Unleashed SD or Black Knight, or require you to collect medals like in Unleashed HD, which is definitely a positive, but if you play it, you may notice there are definitely quite a few levels that feel pretty short or gimmicky. In my case, I did sort of have the impression that some levels in this game would make more sense combined with others rather than being on their own.

And well, there’s a reason for that. Supposedly, this game was originally intended to follow a 2 act structure in addition to a ‘Boss’ act at the end (similar to the classic games), but I guess the developers wanted to make the game feel longer, so they achieved a 6 act + boss structure by separating some acts in addition to making levels that were intended to be bonus/extra acts (like what Forces had) mandatory levels. As a result, some of the levels in this game, again, feel pretty short and gimmicky when compared to others that have more depth and feel more satisfying. There’s a good video about it by SKmaric, and if you look at the comments, you can also find one from The Geek Critique charting the original intended level progression.

So I can’t really deny that this game is somewhat padded out. At the same time though, I don’t really have much of a problem with some of the shorter, gimmicky stages - worst case scenario, they’re just boring but generally over pretty quickly, but I don’t really feel like they detract from this game’s stronger level design, and frankly, this game’s good levels both outweigh the bad ones, and on top of that, are really good onto themselves. The platforming is of course really good, and especially with how the Wisps are intertwined with the gameplay, the levels generally give you alternate pathways, new areas to explore, and just ways to utilize Sonic’s movement and/or the Wisps to progress faster, giving the levels a lot of replayability. I would still say Generations’ level design is overall stronger and more open-ended, but I still think aside for some of the more gimmicky stages, Colors’ level design is pretty solid and designed well around the movement and mechanics.

Super Sonic is also unlockable in the game, and for once, isn’t just restricted to some ‘true’ final boss and is actually playable in the levels. To do so, you have to collect every red ring, and then play the stages in Game Land. These stages aren’t as well designed as the game’s core levels (some of them are basically just recreated Sonic 1 stages), but they aren’t too bad either, and they provide a nice little reward for going out of your way to explore the game’s stages. I haven’t unlocked Super Sonic yet so I don’t know how he plays, but I probably will get around to 100%ing it at one point, most likely when Ultimate is released.

Conclusion

Otherwise, I really don’t have too much else to say. Sonic Colors is honestly a game I find myself loving even more as I continue to go back to it, and while the game definitely isn’t perfect, I still feel it hits a lot of the right notes for me when it comes to Sonic’s gameplay, and I would easily consider it among my favorites in the series - in my Top 3 at the least. This game may not hold up well to some people, others probably didn’t like it as it is, but I can still say Sonic Colors is a game I love. I still think the story’s pretty GOOD, the level design is GREAT, the visuals are AWESOME, the soundtrack is OUTSTANDING, and the movement and controls are AMAZING.

Huh, that’s weird.

But yeah, there’s definitely a good reason as to why this game was so well liked when it was released, and it still holds up pretty well for me. Unfortunately, the game hasn’t been re-released since it came out on the Wii, and you don’t have many other options to play it unless you have a Wii U or a PC capable of running Dolphin emulation.

That’s, of course, what I would have said if I reviewed this game last year or so, but in May, a remastered version of this game, titled Sonic Colors Ultimate, was released and announced to come out in September for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch (and can be played on PS5 or Xbox Series S/X for those 10 people who were able to get them). So far, from the trailers and gameplay footage that’s come out, I’ve definitely liked what I have seen as far as the remastered visuals and added gameplay options and modes go. There’s definitely issues, but it does look like a solid remaster so far, and tempted even more by the Baby Sonic keychain I decided to preorder it for the Switch. I will probably review it after it comes out (and I play it) to compare it to the Wii version. Until then, boy am I excited to play Colors again in a few weeks.

I would still recommend this game, although it may be preferable to wait until Colors Ultimate releases. Although I'd also recommend trying The Geek Critique's 'True Colors' mod if you have a PC capable of Dolphin emulation, which largely restores the game's original structure. Either way, it's a really good Sonic game for beginners, and even veterans for the series - one that's pretty easy to understand while giving enough challenge for those wanting to 'master' it.