Matt Vs. Sonic Colors

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has gone through many changes over its two decade existence. From its birth on the SEGA Genesis and transition to 3-D on the SEGA  Dreamcast to its struggles throughout the last decades, many wondered if Sonic would ever be good again. Since Sonic Adventure  2, I have played several newer Sonic games including Sonic Heroes and Sonic and the Secret Rings however theses titles were mediocre at best. A new game would be announced raising fan expectations and the final product would be a disappointing mess and this same cycle continued for years. Sonic Colors for the Wii and along with Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360 and PS3 helped change this perception.

Sonic Colors' plot is fairly basic, Sonic and Tails visit Dr. Robotnik's interstellar amusement part and have to rescue the aliens that the doctor has captured there. The overall tone of the game is similar to those of Saturday morning cartoon shows with voice acting that fits. Unlike prior entries in the series, Sonic is the game's only  playable character and the gameplay is a mix of 2.5 D platforming and 3D running sections similar to those seen in Sonic Adventure. The game clings to its amusement park concept in both the dialogue and the game design featuring worlds based off of carnivals, roller coasters, and confections. I even found the games obligatory water base level bearable. The game's main hook is that Sonic can use alien based power-ups which gives him a variety of temporary abilities such as the ability to turn into a laser, a spiked ball, or a floating balloon. These alien power-ups give the game some much needed variety. The game takes more than passing inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy but still provides some unique experiences of its own.

The game isn't perfect and  a few issues such as floaty controls and timing based jumps will cause several needless deaths.   The game can be played with a variety of controllers including the Wii Remote and the Gamecube and classic controllers and I ultimately chose my Gamecube controller. However the controls were not as responsive as I had hoped at times. The levels count is less than it appears because many of the later levels in each world are very short.  Still the graphics are great for a Wii game and the music is catchy and fitting. I enjoyed the 1st and 3rd final third of the game and slogged somewhat through the middle portion.

 While I do miss the free-roaming levels of the Sonic Adventure seriesm Sonic Colors represents a return to form to a much derided video game franchise. Anyone with a Wii or Wii U should give the game a try if they are yearning for a good non Mario platformer.