Why couldn't they have maded this from the start of 3D gaming?
Doctor Eggman seems to want to put his past actions aside and opens an amusement park that has rides where are planet size, literally. Enter Sonic and Tail, who from the word go think that Eggman is up to no good, and find out he isn't. A race of powerful aliens have been captured by Eggman to use for his evil plot, mind control. So, it's up to Sonic and Tails, with the help of the Whips, the aliens, that they free to take down Eggman, well mostly just Sonic. Along the ride, there is plenty of humor as this game isn't afraid to make fun of its self and be lighthearted. This is a nice direction as many of the Sonic games these days have tried to be too serious. Come one, the main character is a chili-dog eating blue hedgehog, serious shouldn't be part of the game except for a few moments, which is what this game is all about.
One thing you can say that Sonic Unleashed did right was the Day Stages, and this game borrows a bit from that, mostly the panning from 3D to 2D. I always loved that and I still do really enjoy that. Something this game doesn't borrow from Sonic Unleashed is the speed. Sure, Sonic Colors has speed to it, but not really as much and it definitely has more platforming then past 3D games have had, which is something the Sonic series was built on. Some times I think that people forgot that Sonic is a platforming game, and hopefully this game will show you that he really is all about that. There's also multiple pathways, most are opened as you unlock the different Whips, that can lead you to some goodies, namely Red Rings.
Now, the Whips add to the gameplay by giving Sonic special powers throughout the different levels. There are seven total, each has it's own power. Whites act like a boost, Cyan turns Sonic into a laser, Yellow turns Sonic into a drill, Orange turns Sonic into a rocket, Pink turns Sonic into a spike ball, Green lets Sonic hover about, Blue lets Sonic blue blocks into blue rings and back again, and Purple turns Sonic into an eating machine as chomps though anything in his path. Each one has there place, and they are all welcome. My least favorite of them all is probably Green Hover due to the short length of time you can use it compared to some of the feats that they want to preform, even when to use rings to your advantage.
The boss fights in this game are rehashed. There are only really four different boss fights, but they use three of them over again, making only slight changes from the previous ones, in later areas. While they are fun, and easy to beat, they could of at least made different boss fights for these later levels. There's a lack of using the Whips in the boss fights, as the only three used are the White, Cyan, and Yellow Whips. They could of easily used the other Whips to design other boss fights as they have five others to work with. The final boss itself isn't too hard to take down either, which is one of the boss fights I counted early as one of the non-rehashed fights. Other then them being relatively easy, you can beat the first and fourth in under then a minute, and them being rehashed, they are fun to fight, even if you don't get to use Super Sonic on them.
Yes, that's right, Sonic Sonic is in this game, but not like past games where you can only use him on the final boss. You can actually play as him in the different levels once you unlock him. To unlock him is no easy task either, for you must pick up all 180 Red Rings to unlock all of the Sonic Simulator levels, which I'll explain and rant on shortly, and then beat all of the levels in the Sonic Simulator to get all seven Chaos Emeralds so you can play as Super Sonic. Now, I don't want to give away anything about Super Sonic, other people can do that, because I'd rather have you find out yourself. I will say this, it pretty fun to blast through the different levels, that he can be played on, with him.
Once you've beat the game, there's a few things to do. The first is get Super Sonic, but as I mentioned before, you need to play though the Sonic Simulator to do this. Besides severing your needs of getting the Chaos Emeralds, it is also where the multiplayer happens. In total, the simulator adds 21 more levels to the game, and when going through them by yourself it's not that bad of an experience. It's the second you have someone else play with you is the second that this feature goes down the crapper. There's two ways to play the multiplayer, 1.5 player and 2 player. In my personal opinion, 1.5 player is better then 2 player. The second player can jump in whenever and if he/she dies, nothing happens to the first player's life count. If they get hurt, though, the ring count does go down. The biggest problem with 2 player is that once one of the players runs out of lives, if the other player dies it's game over, even if they have two lives. There's also not much room to run, and if one person takes off, the other person loses a life. It gets frustrating really fast and isn't worth it. Also, when in this mode, you can pick between playing as a Sonic Bot or as one of your Miis dressed in a Sonic costume.
The other thing that someone can do, besides getting S rank on all the levels (not the Sonic Simulator levels), is the Challenge Mode. What this mode is all about is running you though all the levels and then posting your score on an online leader board. You'd think that this takes a while, but it's only like a hour long, depending on how fast you can clear the levels. It adds replay value to this relatively short game. Clearing the story and then getting all the Red Rings and Chaos Emeralds takes about 20 hours total so this is what will bring you back to playing the game again and again. The one thing is that you can't play Super Sonic in this mode, which is kind of a bummer.
If there's one thing about the recent 3D Sonic games (namely Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knight) is that they look amazing. Sonic Colors is the same way, but ten times better. Each planet has its own feel, they are very different from the others. Sweet Mountain, Starlight Carnival and Planet Whips are probably my favorite looking levels. Sweet Mountain is levels made out of cheeseburgers, donuts, cake, and other food objects, all of which look amazing in the background. Starlight Carnival has you running in space on a purple trail that is only shown around your feet, and the ships in the distance add to the feel. Planet Whips is an Earth like planet that's "under construction" by Eggman's robots. While it's sad to see thing beautiful planet being ripping about and replaced by machines, the parts that are still intact are some of the best looking parts of the game. Now, this isn't to say that the rest of the game looks like crap, because it doesn't. In my personal opinion, the cut scenes are at a lower quality then the rest of the game and the Sonic Simulator is computer-like so there's not much to comment on about it.
If you were to ask me what the best thing about Sonic Unleashed was, I'd tell you the music. The music in Sonic Colors follows the same feel as Sonic Unleashed does, a little jazz and a little rock. All of it follows and it's something that I could listen to for hours. Each area has it's own theme and each one is written and performed well. As for the new voice, I actually like them. I still prefer Sonic not voice acting, but the 3D games really are more about story telling then the 2D games are, so I can live with voice acting, but only if it's down right. And, in my opinion, it is here. Tails for one sounds much more like a guy then in past games, which is a good thing.
Despite the flaws of the game, the sometimes cheap feeling deaths, and the shortness of the game, this is still worth a look into and is one of the best 3D Sonic games to day, if not the best. Sonic fans should pick this game up as soon as possible. In fact, anyone with a Wii should take a look into this game.