PAX 2010 Sonic Colors Hands-On

I think they’ve finally got it.

That about sums up my second chance to play the game. They’ve cut the gimmicks, cut the fat, fixed the camera, tightened the controls, and done just about everything else you could ask of a development team. Indeed, I don’t even recall seeing any of the random frame rate chugging like in the E3 demo. The jumping feels perfect. The homing attack has been fine tuned to the point where using it will never accidentally send you careening off into a chasm. Controling Sonic feels great and fast, with no collision detection bugs or odd glitches. The endless chasms appear to be gone, and while the levels have so far proven easy enough to get through, it still takes some skill to play them well, just like in the classics.

The wisp power ups are also a sight for sore eyes. Replacing the endless gimmicks and alternate play styles of past 3D games, the wisps are not only non-intrusive, but are a true joy to use. Whether it’s blasting through a level as a rocket, drilling through a cake to find power ups and otherwise inaccessible areas, or floating above spikes to reach otherwise unreachable areas above, these little aliens are probably the best thing to happen to Sonic since the elemental shields. I’ve yet to encounter a wisp that didn’t add something to the experience. Sure, the creators have pointed out that you don’t need to use them, but why wouldn’t you? For the first time ever in a Sonic game, I think this game would be a lesser experience without these gimmicks.

Of course, things aren’t perfect. At times the game can feel a little too automatic, to the point where it restricts how much control you have over Sonic in certain areas where you need to  drift or sidestep. These moments are rare, and out of the three levels I’ve played they where most prevalent in the newest level, Planet Wisp. Sonic is also just a little too fast now. I personally preferred the speed in the E3 demo, but after I got used to it the extra speed didn’t detract from the experience. That said, there are far worse things I could complain about in the other 3D Sonics, even in the Adventure series.

When last I previewed this game, I said that this was the best 3D Sonic game since the Adventure series. Well now, I rescind that statement. This game will outdo the Adventure series. Just going by these three levels, I don’t see how it can’t. The game has superior level design, superior programming, far fewer bugs and glitches – I encountered none in the PAX demo – and the gimmicks are far, far superior. I haven’t even had a chance to check out the co-operative mode, which looks like it’s going to be an experience in and of itself. I can’t believe that this game is from the same team that brought us such disasters as Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic and the Black Knight. I can’t believe, for the first time ever, I can whole heartedly recommend a 3D Sonic game, without warning about its flaws and things you need to “get over” to enjoy it. I can’t believe I can say with confidence, that those people who post the Sonic Cycle for every damn announcement, should cram it and buy it on day one.

Of course, while I’ve raised my expectations, Iizuka’s raised the stakes, claiming that the game will be equal to or better then the classic Genesis games. From my playtime, I am not yet ready to make that same claim. That’s the sort of thing even I refuse to say until I’ve played this game over at least a year’s time. We’ll see soon enough.

Don’t be reserved. Don’t be cautious. Sonic Colors is a great game. Come November, go buy it. Sonic is back.

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First Look At Orbot’s New Counterpart

Looks like we got our first look at the new bot in town.  Orbot’s new buddy helps make this team the new “Scratch and Grounder.”  These images are from a recently released Sonic Colors manga:

Cubot?

blah blah

Big thanks to R@qH1eL in the TSS forums for the pics.

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Sonic Colours Figurine Bundle Listed On Dutch Website

Not long ago, Amazon.de began listing “Special Edition” bundles for the upcoming game Sonic Colours. Now, it seems, we may know what these bundles will come with. The Dutch video game retailer “Nedgame”, has now listed its own Sonic Colours bundle on its website, “Sonic Colours + Figurine (Bundel)”. Forum member Kjeldo posted this on our message boards, took the screen cap which I have included below:

At the moment, nothing is officially confirmed by SEGA in regards to a “special edition” bundle. Some kind of Sonic Colours related figurine? I’d get one!

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Jun Senoue Confirmed as Sound Director for Sonic Colours Wii Version

Nintendo Power magazine reveal this month in an indepth interview that SEGA sound director and Crush 40 guitarist Jun Senoue will be sound directing Sonic Colours for the Nintendo Wii. The interview also goes into detail about Senoue’s past, his musical influences, how he became involved with SEGA…and again there is another attempt to learn about Michael Jackson’s involvement in Sonic 3!

To check out the full interview pick up this month’s issue of Nintendo Power and check out their Power Profiles section!

Props to Shadzter and Hero of Legend on the SSMB for the heads up!

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Sonic “Tastes the Rainbow” in Not for Resale

Not For Resale is one of the most satirical, most wrong, and yet most right Sonic related things in existence. You remember that colorful, beautiful, wholesome CGI trailer we got for this game? Well, this comic reveals what’s really going on…

Now, if only NFR would update a little more often…

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*UPDATE* Green Wisp Revealed at Gamescom?

UPDATE: Apparently, no video of the new wisp was taken, and since it was not meant to be used on a public demo, the people over at Spindash likely won’t be able to get another chance. However, the description of the wisp does match it’s appearance on the Sonic Colors box art, and Spark’s description of the new title screen has been confirmed with video. All in all, I believe this to be credible./UPDATE

Seems something more than a new level is on display for Sonic Colours at this year’s Gamescom. Sonic Stadium forum member and Spindash.de writer, Spark, says a  new wisp was also on display: the green hovercraft wisp. Here is what he had to say:

– the new Sweet Mountain Act introduces the green wisp, the hovercraft wisp. (We also got some videos, we’ll upload them soon)
– the green wisp changes Sonic’s form to a green Kirby with spikes, sonic heroes-shiny effect included!
– when Sonic is in hovercraft mode, he can use the light dash to grab some ring-chains
– bottemless pits are still there, but only a few. An exclamation mark will appear if you get to close to one.
– the “new” title screen is old school! After the Sega and Sonic Team logos appeared, you get to see the space (Metroid Other M-like) and Sonic is running from one side to the other just like in the old Sega Mega Drive title screens (but no iconic “Seeeeeegaaaa!” shout out). Seems like this will be the new standard for all future games, which is pretty cool

Of course, until he sends in the video, we’ll have to consider this a rumor. We’ll have the video for you as soon as SpinDash puts it up!

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Off-Screen Video of New Sonic Colors Level

Though SEGA is not present at this year’s Gamescom, its games sure are! Sonic Colors is among them, featured on Nextplay.de’s Youtube channel. The featured video shows off gameplay from the newest level, Wisp World:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYRVPT2RBIo[/youtube]

If you look closely, you can see the ring counter pass 99 rings at one point in the video, dispelling the rumor that you can only collect up to 99 rings in this game.

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Iizuka Teases 20th Anniversary Game In Interview

It appears that while Takashi Iizuka was publicly doing his interview rounds with the media over a week ago, UK retailer GAME also got to have a chat with him and quietly published their interview over on their Sonic Colours product page. Continue reading Iizuka Teases 20th Anniversary Game In Interview

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The “Wisp Me Away” Giveaway! [N.A./AUS WINNERS ANNOUNCED]

The American/Canadian winners are here!! Thanks to all who participated. I’ll be sending out the Wisps near the end of the month.

Remember, this does not include the European winners yet!! Dreadknux will be taking care of that.

The winners are:

Sonikku08
Mushroom64
Troy
chaoscontrol14
R@qH1eL
SuperEV133
The Waffle Factory
Future
PSI Wind FTW
Indigo Rush
Hello. Look at my sig
SonikkuForever
Azukara
Andy1123
ReddRicochet
SuperCookie (Awesome Nick!!)
BlueBlueChrome
Sallygirl
Calypso
Ovarloard
Jeffery the NinjaPirate
Tailikku
strickerx5
Gamer18
Doctor Eggman
Mykonos
starforce
ZeroStar
GameboyHero
Chavis the Wolf
Hazard777
Edge
tjthefox
Brianzilla2004
Sapphire
F. Lobot
Trainer Rachel
HighCaliburFun
timmyboyblue
Golden~Hedgy
dirupti
Chan Kaylore
Cola
SuperScourge12
Lanmanna
Hypersoni
Vocaloidfan2525
Blue Hedgehog
Nickno
PRiNCE

For those who just missed out, better luck next time!! This won’t be the last time I do something like this for sure!!

Hello, faithful Sonic Stadium fans. Have we got a treat for you! During E3, Sonic Colors was shown to the world for the first time. During that time, Sonic freed tons and tons of Wisps away from the capture of Dr. Eggman.

Helllp!

A few too many. That’s where you come in! As a reward to our readers, you can adopt one of these little guys and give them a home. They don’t need fancy diets. They don’t make messes. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re not even alive.

Wisps.

Look at ’em. Soulless monsters the size of your thumb.

So, how do you pick one of these up? Simple! Just use your SSMB account to PM either JasonTheJackass if you are in the USA, Canada or Australia or Dreadknux if you live in the U.K. and Europe. Give us your mailing address and tell us why you are excited about Sonic Colors. The best entries will be posted in another blog later on.

Reply as soon as possible. The amount of Wisps available are split 50/50. That means there’s 50 for the U.K./Europe and 50 for USA/Canada/Australia. We are not responsible for any Wisps possibly lost in the mail. Only one Wisp and one entry per person.

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E3 2010 Preview: Sonic Colours

Let’s face It, Unleashed was not a perfect game, even in its daytime segments. It had annoying QTEs, which became huge, overbearing insta-death button mashing sessions in the later stages. It was easy to send yourself careening off an edge by doing a mid air boost by accident, because a homing attack was slightly out of reach. The game play was linear, with very little in the way of hidden secrets or multiple paths.

In Sonic Colors, Sonic’s latest outing, this has all changed. It takes the best of Unleashed, such as the fast paced game play, and huge, twisting levels, and adds layers to it. The QTEs are now gone, replaced with simple “press the A button to gain altitude”, and the mid air, target-less homing attack is gone, replaced with a simple double jump that you’ll need to get wisps that are slightly out of reach of the normal jump.  The linear level design is gone, replaced with large, multilayered levels that, according Takashi Iizuka “doesn’t have one or two paths, but several”. During my hands on preview I saw people accessing areas of the level that I still have not seen, so there is most definitely some truth to that.

Control wise, the game controls much more closely to next gen version of unleashed, except you now have more control over Sonic while he was boosting. You drift with the nunchuck, which works surprisingly  well.

The first level of Colors, the entrance to the Egg Park, is fairly barren, with a few enemies here and there. The main focus of the level is to ease you into the game. The first level is most definitely more easy then a lot of past “first levels” in Sonic games.  There were lots of secrets to explore, the yellow wisp drill especially opens up a lot of alternate paths.  The second level is where things get fun, though! The second level features a lot more platforming, and there are even more areas to explore. There are more enemies (my personal favorite being one with an Egg Beater…get it? XD).

The wisps, so far, are fun and unobtrusive. There are three available in the demo: one simply fills up your boost gauge, another, the laser, acts as both a super fast boost and a spin dash of sorts. The third one, the yellow drill, is by far my favorite. Yes, it lets you dig through levels. But it’s used far better then it was in Super Mario Galaxy 2. This level is your key to a lot of this game’s exploration. You can use it to not only find hidden items, but whole new LEVELS. I found several paths through this method alone, and it REALLY opens up the game’s levels.

I’ve often heard that “Sonic is back” or “this is the big return!”, but I will forgo these oft used phrases. Instead, all I’ve got to say is this: Sonic Colors is a genuinely FUN game. It’s got loads of high speed hijinks, and no excess gimmicks to slow it down. It’s like Unleashed in a lot of ways, but with more thoughtful design; the speed isn’t quite as fast, but it allows for better control. The homing attack is limited to targeted enemies and items, but this prevents you from throwing yourself off the edge. The wisps add an all new dimension to the game play, without slowing it down (unless, of course, the purple one turns you into Big). The levels are multilayered, offering more optional exploration than any other Sonic game I have ever played, 3D or 2D. Simply put, it’s the Sonic game I’ve wanted since Sonic Adventure 2. Whether it’s the Sonic game you want or not, that’s up for you to decide, but if you ever liked any of Sonic’s past 3D games, be excited; because this is one of the good ones.

This isn’t all of our Colors stuff. We also got to meet and briefly interview Takashi Iizuka after he demonstrated the game to us. You can expect a transcript and audio of the interview (which includes music from the Sweets level and menu music) which outlines some nice game play details I didn’t detail here, off screen movies, and a more in depth, analytic “second take” preview later in the week, after I’ve logged more time on it.

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Sonic Colours Announced For Wii & DS

Well colour us surprised! SEGA have announced Sonic Colours for Nintendo Wii and DS together with the above teaser trailer and a press release which you can check out after the jump! Continue reading Sonic Colours Announced For Wii & DS

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