Nukezilla Review: Sonic Colors (DS)

Was it really a surprise to anyone that the best Sonic game to come out this year would be a handheld title? Looking at the past few years of Sonic titles (something immensely hard for a huge Sonic fan, like me, to do) shows that the best blue bomber titles are on the Nintendo DS with the Sonic Rush titles and Sonic Chronicles. Even the DS ports of Sonic’s console games are better, like this year’s Sonic Colors.

This time around, the evil Dr. Robotnik Eggman has taken it upon himself to enslave a race of aliens called Whisps and use their power to run a giant space amusement park (seriously), which he’ll use for various nefarious deeds. Sonic and Tails, with the help of a Whisp named Yacker, are determined to blah blah blah blah blah. Not surprisingly, the story is shit; there hasn’t been a good Sonic game that focuses on story. Luckily the story’s focal point (the Wisps) lends itself to some awesome levels and abilities.

Television power-ups are gone, now replaced with the Wisps Eggman is trying to capture. Each one gives Sonic a new power, usually to access different parts of a level. Some are great: the red Wisp turns Sonic into Splosion Man, and the orange one turns him into an indestructible rocket before allowing him to float gently back down to earth; and some are real shitty: the yellow Wisp transforms Sonic into a drill that is incredibly hard to control, causing many of the game’s deaths, just like the blue Wisp’s ability to morph him into a beam of light that bounces around awkwardly. I do have to give the blue Wisp points though for adding interesting mechanics to the festivities, like splitting the hedgehog beam if shot through a prism.

The best powers are the unobtrusive ones that open up new areas, whereas the shitty ones (the drill especially) are necessary to complete levels. Sonic also has a few new moves himself, including wall jumping and hang-gliding, and his rarely-popular grind ability; that, along with the red Whisp, make me think that Dimps has spent way too much time with indie platformers while making this game (not that that’s a bad thing).

The story is padded by “missions” where Sonic’s horrid rogues’ gallery come out of nowhere to have him complete timed sections of certain levels. And as always there’s the Chaos Emerald sections, which here are the easiest of any Emerald challenges in the past (and are based on Sonic 2‘s halfpipe challenges).

Colors has six different “planets” for Sonic to explore, with two levels and one ridiculous boss fight (plus two missions) for each. The bosses, while crazy (like a globe robot and an airship), are all designed similarly: run in a circle around the boss until he reveals a weak spot. The levels however are some of the best Sonic levels in years, hearkening back to Sonic 2‘s designs. Sweet Mountain is a dessert-themed Casino Night, Aquarium Park is a prettier Aquatic Ruins, etc. That’s the strange thing about this game; every bit of it seems ripped off from either a new platformer or an old Sonic game. That’s not a complaint; some of these levels and gameplay mechanics are worthy of the games they hearken back to.

This game goes by fast, even for a Sonic game (har har); I ended up beating the main story (minus the bullshit missions) in a bit under five hours. That might be for the best when it comes to Sonic games now; have small flourishes of awesome in an otherwise unoffensive title, then leave before it all turns to shit. Too bad Sonic didn’t learn that lesson years ago.

This is Day 24 of the December Review Nukestravaganza.