Sonic Colors Wii Review

Sonic had a rough few years. After the mascot had his golden era on the SEGA Genesis during the early 90s, the publisher had a hard time finding its footing with the Blue Blur, putting out games that have ranged from terrible to… well, bearable, but never quite good. However, 2010 has been pretty good to Sonic, starting with the better-than-expected Sonic All-Stars Racing and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1. And now, with Sonic Colors for Wii, SEGA has saved the best for last – a Sonic that feels modern, vibrant, and best of all, fun. And all they had to do was take lessons from some of the best platformers of the last decade to do it.

Sonic Colors takes place in a bizarre interstellar amusement park created by Dr. Robotnik-I mean, Eggman, by enslaving alien creatures called Wisps. He then chained their planet (and several others) to a space station. It's all appropriate for a Saturday morning cartoon, but to SEGA's credit, the story in Sonic Colors works decently well; it's cute, somewhat clever, and thanks to a mostly new voice cast, it isn't a constant assault on the ears. I haven't been this not-irritated by a Sonic game's story since he found a voice, and that's saying something.

The plot is ultimately just a conceit for developers DIMPS and Sonic Team to believably throw together a wide assortment of themed levels at you. All of the Sonic staples are here, from the casino to the grassy meadow home world of the Wisps. My personal favorites, though, are Sweet Mountain, which sees Sonic racing through pits of popcorn alongside mountains of cake, and the Starlight Carnival, where Sonic zips through space on an energy road. It looks like a crazy combination of Tron, Captain Eo and Super Mario Galaxy. This fantasy is sold by some of the best graphics on the Wii this year, full of excellent lighting and some really great animation.

Sonic Colors' real revelation is its gameplay, though. It starts off well by establishing smart physics and precise controls. But the big addition here are the Wisps; each color of Wisp grants Sonic a different temporary power. Yellow Wisps give Sonic the ability to drill through soft ground, for example. Cyan Wisps let Sonic turn into a laser that bounces off surfaces and more. There are eight colors in all, and almost all of them add interesting quirks to Sonic's basic abilities.

With these new talents comes some fantastic level design that will test even the most dedicated fan of platformers. This may be the most controversial piece of the puzzle for die-hard Sonic fans. Sonic isn't just about homing attacks and holding forward anymore. Sonic Colors in many ways resembles a side scrolling Super Mario title in its design and execution -- from collectible red rings in each level to multiple paths that can only be explored once you secured new Wisps later in the adventure.

Sonic Colors also does an excellent job of mixing together the crazy spectacle we've grown used to with some really well designed platforming. Surprisingly, despite the cues it takes from its one-time plumber archnemesis, Sonic Colors feels distinctive and fresh; for the first time in decades, the quest for speed doesn't compromise gameplay. There's a fair amount of skill required, particularly later in the game, and in a marked change of pace from Sonic games for the last two decades, the challenge in Sonic Colors usually feels fair -- emphasis on the "usually."

Later in the game, I ran into a number of ridiculously arbitrary sections that had me throwing my Wii Remote and nunchuk across my desk. These parts didn't feel challenging due to devious design; they felt like cheap death-generators. Sections like this are the main problem in Sonic Colors. Unlike other major platformers this generation, you need to finish every stage in each world in order to progress through the game. There are no warp pipes, no whistles, and no alternate paths in each game world's board. You're going to have to suck it up and deal with the frustration, and there are points where the game stops being fun because of it.

Sonic Colors has a few other problems. Towards the end of the game, checkpoints are absent from a number of especially difficult levels leading to scenarios where I threw life after life into the same two and a half minutes over and over again. Also, Sonic Colors' purported co-op is just not fun. One screen is not enough for two Sonics, as either player rocketing forward will actually kill their partner. Thankfully, the co-op challenge levels can be played single player, and because they're unlocked based on how many red rings you collect, they give a reason to go back to Sonic Colors' story mode and experiment with different Wisps. This is a good thing, as Sonic Colors' stages are actually more fun the second time through with the full range of Wisps in each level unlocked.