Game Review: Sonic Colours

Game: Sonic Colours
Console: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Sonic Team/Sega
Release Date: 16th November 2010

Sonic Colours had a lot to prove, coming into the market after Sonic Unleashed and Sonic '06 both of which had been the subject of mixed to negative reviews, and a cause for concern about the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise in general. With Sega delisting poor to average Sonic games from their sales catalogue before the game's release, there was a general feeling that this would be a new start for the franchise.

The story of the game focuses around an intergalactic theme park opened by Sonic's nemesis, Dr. Robotnik. Being up to no good of course, its a front for Eggman's attempts to harvest energy from strange aliens and use it for his own gain. Sonic shows up and through a variety of third person and side scrolling stages attempts to foil Eggman's plans. Powerups are a big feature of gameplay and using the features of different aliens, Sonic is able to do things never before possible in the series.

With 7 main zones, each with 6 acts and a boss stage it seems like there's a lot to do at first glance but zones don't take long to clear with some acts fairly unbalanced in length. There's some very short acts in places and others which seem to drag on for a long time. The variation between zone settings and even inside of zones is good, with interesting themes and level design that's impressive on the whole. Sonic's main moves from previous installments are kept the same, although the ring dash features less prominently.

Powerups within the levels are varied and used sparingly but at important times across the whole of the game. Some parts of levels become almost like puzzles with their inclusion which changes up the gameplay nicely. Both third person and side scrolling sections work well and it's pretty much 50/50 between the two, which should be a plus for both 2D and 3D sonic fans.

The plot of the game is fairly solid especially considering past installments; the cutscenes feature fairly well written and spoken dialogue with an assortment of jokes, some of which are even funny. The game focuses entirely on Sonic and apart from cutscenes, Tails doesn't really feature too much at all. Personally I think this is a good move, especially considering the sheer number of characters in titles such as Sonic Heroes. A new start requires simplicity and it works well just to have the hero as a playable character.

Controlwise there's 3 main options for playing the game; The Wiimote, Wiimote and Nunchuck or the Gamecube controller. I opted for the Gamecube controller since it felt more natural although I did test out the other 2 modes of control to make sure I had chosen correctly. The game is entirely playable with the Wiimote and Nunchuck, and Gamecube controller (not so much with just the Wiimote) and its nice to see the motion control kept to a minimum when using the Wiimote and Nunchuck.

Graphically the game looks great, stages are bright and vibrant with a large amount of detail and colour included in the game. It's almost a surprise for me, to see Sonic looking this good, with Sonic Heroes being my last real glimpse of the series. Musically the game is just as impressive with a large muscial score to accompany the action; there's classic funky riffs building up to a sprawling orchestral climax for the final stages.

Complaints I have about this game are fairly minor, but to avoid giving an almost entirely positive review; there's some fairly frustrating moments in the game where either its not entirely obvious how to progress, or you can see how to but doing so is tricky. As mentioned the acts are also somewhat unbalanced length wise and shorter ones feel like unfinished ideas somewhat. Also parts of some of the levels play more like cutscenes than playable

The game is short by modern standards (I completed it in 6.5 hours) but I think it fleshed out the concept of the powerups as much as possible without being too repetitive. The last thing I'd want would be for the game to feature the sort of filler seen in Sonic Adventure (Big the Cat levels, anyone?). One last complaint would be the re-use of bosses. 3 boss concepts appear twice in slightly altered forms and it feels somewhat lazy to not have drawn up an individual concept for each zone.

Overall I found Sonic Colours to be a short but colourful and varied experience with great scenery and level design in both the third person and side scrolling sections, even including the odd pseudo-puzzling section. For me it's a step in the right direction after Sega's efforts following Sonic Adventure 2; the game controls well and plays like a Sonic game should. With interesting concepts and finally some decent cutscenes and voice acting, I'm excited to see what the upcoming Sonic: Lost World will be like, but until then, Colours is a lot of fun.

Rating: 82/100
Grade: B