Sonic Rush 3: Sonic Colors (Nintendo DS, 2010) Review

 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

Now that Sonic Colors Ultimate has come out and I reviewed that, it’s time to move onto Sonic Colors!

Background and History

After working on the Rush series, I guess Dimps was assigned to instead work on separate versions of Sega’s main console titles. This trend started with the Wii and PS2 versions of Unleashed, but this was the first handheld title developed by Dimps to share it’s name with the coinciding main console release.

That’s… really all I could find about the game’s development. The game is often considered the de facto third Sonic Rush game due to using the same formula with some minor changes. And while most people tend to remember Sonic Colors in it’s Wii form, there are many who argue that it’s DS counterpart is just as good if not better than the Wii game.

Personal Experience

My first experience with this game was pretty interesting. Technically, it was the first way I experienced any form of Sonic Colors, albeit probably not in the way you think. I didn’t own the game growing up, instead opting for the Wii version, but I do remember that the Wii Nintendo Channel actually provided a demo of the game through the DS’ Download Play feature. It just consisted of the first act of Tropical Resort, but I did have fun with what was there. 

But as I said, I chose to go with the Wii version of the game, and outside of that demo, I didn’t get around to buying a copy of the DS version of Colors until 2019. Even then, I didn’t really get around to playing much of it - I was going through a lot in my personal life during that time period and I kind of just forgot about playing through Colors DS for the longest time. I did make some progress on it, but I wouldn’t complete it for the first time until I did for this review.

Other than that, that’s really all I have to say about my experiences with the game.

Story

The story is basically the same as the Wii game, unsurprisingly, albeit with some additions. As you may expect, it doesn’t share the FMV cutscenes that the Wii game has for the most part - the ‘Reach for the Stars’ intro is still there, and a few cutscenes from towards the start and end of the game play (in particular, the one where Sonic and Tails go up the elevator to Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park), but most of the story is told through text dialogue in between stages, and some of the dialogue is tweaked to simplify things a bit more.

Although, one thing many point out is that Sonic’s friends show up, albeit aren’t especially important to the story. Usually you just run into them prior to each of the mission stages, essentially setting up the context of those stages. I did kind of expect to see more of them after hearing what other people said, but it’s not a huge deal considering the source material doesn’t exactly have a big cast.

There is also more to the ending of the game, in that if you collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, you can battle the ‘Mother Wisp’ who has been corrupted by Eggman’s negative energy, and Sonic has to use his Super form to free her. Probably should have spoiler’d that, but I mean, it’s still not a very deep plot either way.

One may notice that a lot of the jokes are absent from this game’s plot. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I’ll leave you to decide.

I will say though that I personally like to consider Colors DS to be an “alternate perspective” on Colors Wii. I feel like it’s been made clear that both versions of the game are canon in the storyline, at least with Colors Wii being the ported version in Colors Ultimate plus the game’s representation in Generations being closer to the Wii game while the Mother Wisp reappears in Team Sonic Racing. Either way, it’s basically two sides of the same story, and it’s kind of interesting to see it that way. 

Other than that, I don’t have too much else to say on the plot since it is mostly the same as the Wii version.

Presentation

As mentioned previously, Colors DS is basically the ‘third Rush’ game, and with that, it’s art style is very similar to that of Rush and Rush Adventure, while still utilizing Colors’ themes and aesthetics. Environments and enemies are still largely sprite based while Sonic’s model and boss models are rendered in 3D (or 2.5D). I already made my thoughts on Rush’s art style in my previous Rush reviews - it looks really nice and the blending of 2D and 3D visuals works really well, especially for the DS - and I think Colors’ core style has been pretty well translated into this version of the game.

Unfortunately I can’t necessarily say I feel that the soundtrack is as well translated. Now, most of the melodies are the same - some tracks like Reach for the Stars, Speak with Your Heart and the title theme even being the same as the console version - but a lot of the level and world themes are basically MIDI-fied. 

For some tracks, it’s not too noticeable, but then there are others - like the main menu theme and stage clear theme - that *really* sound like you downloaded them off of a sketchy website on a Windows 95 computer. It’s not as bad as Sonic Genesis or especially Sonic Chronicles, but I definitely get the impression that Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure just sound better on the system, even for as much as I love Sonic Colors’ original soundtrack.

Gameplay

Once again, Sonic Colors utilizes the Rush formula. The Rush duology was of course generally well-received, and considering the Wii games utilizes the Boost formula - which can be argued to be an evolution of the Rush formula - it makes sense that this would be their way of translating Sonic Colors to the DS.

However, Sonic Colors DS does have a few of it’s own tweaks to the core Rush gameplay. One thing to note is that structure-wise, this game does go back to the more linear level-by-level feel of the first Rush game - dropping elements like the sailing gameplay and material gathering of Rush Adventure. Which I would say is an improvement on that front - while I really liked Rush Adventure’s levels I really feel like these additions to the gameplay sort of just bogged down the experience for me as a whole. So thankfully Sonic Colors DS doesn’t have anything like that.

One other thing to note about the game’s structure is that each of the game’s zones follow the 2-act and boss structure, compared to the Wii version’s 6 acts and boss. While there are still bonus levels and missions, they aren’t required to play through the game normally. And while I never really minded Colors Wii’s structure too much, I can see why people would consider this to be an improvement in that regard, in that it pushes the more gimmicky and filler-y stages to the side rather than making them mandatory for progression. Granted, especially considering that this game’s levels are still pretty short, it does make the game feel shorter, but at the same time it’s about what I expect from a DS Sonic game.

That said, I have to admit that as far as things I feel Colors DS does better than it’s previous entries as well as the Wii version, that’s… mostly where it ends for me.

One thing I pretty much immediately noticed after playing through both of the Rush games is that Colors DS’ controls and movement are somewhat tweaked and honestly don’t really feel as fluid as it’s predecessors. I will give the game that it does use a reticle homing attack and maps it to the jump button (as opposed to the R button), but that aside, I kind of felt that there’s a lack of fluidity in the controls that the Rush duology had. One notable omission is that the trick system is entirely gone, which was something I felt added to the fun of Rush’s controls and movement.

I get the impression that with this game, they wanted to translate the modern Boost control style to the Rush formula, but I feel like in comparison to it’s console counterpart - a game that I’ve praised for having really good movement - Colors DS still feels pretty sluggish in that regard. 

Certain mechanics that I feel are done really well in the Wii game don’t feel half as good here. The stomp feels clunky to use, as does the slide which only really feels useful in certain situations where the game stops you in your tracks with an object that you probably won’t see coming on your first playthrough. Even then I kind of felt like the slide mechanic just didn’t work for me sometimes even when I was pressing R, and that can be pretty annoying with how this game does throw you those curveballs here and there.

Hell, the homing attack - which I do praise for having a reticle and a more sensical control scheme - still feels pretty slow compared to the Rush games, especially when chaining homing attacks, which doesn’t feel as satisfying as it did in its predecessors.

The Wisps, as you would expect, also appear here, and again… generally don’t feel as good as the Wii version. Three of the wisps re-appear from the Wii version - the Cyan Lazer, the Yellow Drill and the Orange Rocket. The Rocket wisp is fine here, but the Cyan Lazer wisp feels pretty watered down and once again, pretty sluggish, and the Drill wisp has one major problem with it’s controls that practically ruins it here - that being the fact that it’s locked to four directions, making it feel all around worse to control, especially when trying to maneuver through tight spaces. There’s also the White wisp making it’s return which makes you boost as you expect.

But while this game lacks the Green Hover, Blue Cube, Pink Spike, and Purple Frenzy, it does have a couple of it’s own Wisps - the Red Burst and the Violet Void. The Violet Void is… basically just a slower version of the Frenzy, and Red Burst, while an interesting concept, feels hard to control with how it seems to just throw you in a random direction even as you’re holding down the D-pad.

I think overall this game’s control and movement is the biggest thing that brings this game below both the Wii version as well as Rush and Rush Adventure for me. During my playthrough, I went back to both the Wii game (well, the Switch ‘Ultimate’ version anyway) as well as Rush Adventure, and in both cases, I definitely felt like the control and movement just felt a lot better there, and going back to this game… it’s fine, I guess, but it has a degree of sluggishness all around that makes it feel less satisfying and fun than both of those.

The level design, too, I feel shares a lot of similar problems I had with the first Rush game where it occasionally feels pretty trial-and-error heavy and overall… empty. There are alternate pathways here and there, but even then I don’t really feel incentivized to replay this game’s levels and I don’t really feel like they have much going for them that makes them feel particularly memorable. A lot of those alternate pathways still feel pretty short and empty, as the rest of the level design. Hell, sometimes the levels contain some pretty annoying gimmicks - particularly Starlight Carnival Act 1 which has an auto scrolling section. Why?

The bosses also are pretty lame, having a lot of that “wait for an opportunity to attack” that the first Rush game had in spades, and the final boss with the Mother Wisp is also pretty dull. Then there are the special stages, which are basically just longer and easier versions of the ones in the first Rush game.

Conclusion

You can probably tell I don’t have a lot to say about this game.

To be honest, going into it from Sonic Rush Adventure, I was hoping the game would be an improvement upon that with a better structure, but I can’t really say I enjoyed it as much as Sonic Rush Adventure or even the first Rush game, let alone the Wii version of Sonic Colors.

At it’s core, it’s a fine enough experience, and I still was able to have fun with it, but it’s not necessarily one I find myself as motivated to go back to. In a lot of ways, it just sort of feels like a step down both in terms of control and movement, as well as far as level design goes.

Frankly, I'm kind of just... unsure how I feel about Sonic Colors DS. It's a fun time, and there are things it does well, but especially with the release of Colors Ultimate on the Switch, I don't really have as find myself wanting to go back to it as much compared to other, even portable Sonic titles. I will say it - I do prefer the Wii version, and I do feel like it's levels and movement offer me more replayability than the DS version does. The DS version... isn't bad, but I feel like there are some things about it that have me wishing I liked it more than I do now. It's a decent game, but not really one I find myself wanting to replay as much.