Sonic Colors Review

Believe me, I’m as surprised about this as you are.

Sega has shoved its mascot character into so many wretched games over the past dozen or so years that the phrase “good Sonic

game” may as well be akin to saying “don’t touch that fire; it’ll freeze your hand.” Yet here I am, trying to make the muscles in my hands type the words, “Sonic … Colors … is … is … good.” Not just good for Sonic, but good good.Refreshingly, it feels like someone actually sat down and thought, “Okay, what do we need to do in order to make a quality Sonic the Hedgehog game?” Gone are the hub worlds, additional playable characters, weird weapons (a sword, seriously?), “werehogs” and other unnecessary — not to mention horribly executed — elements that only served to get in the way of what we all

paid for: Sonic.The worlds of Sonic Colors are fanciful, bright and offer

plenty of moments built for Sonic to revel in his speed, but they also offer more exploration than, well, any Sonic game so far. This is a great way of showcasing some of Sonic’s new powers. By finding different colored Wisps (plush, highly merchandisable aliens that give the game’s title its “colors”) the extra-fast erinaceinae gains the ability to transform into laser light and bounce through prisms, drill through the ground, rocket to nosebleed-inducing heights, run across rows of rings and more. The levels are all built to incorporate alternate paths and hidden areas that are only accessible once you’ve unlocked the right Wisp for the job and decide to use it. It’s perfectly enjoyable to just run through the stage and not use them, but you’d be missing so much.

The stages throw a constantly changing stream of challenges at Sonic, from the most basic moving platform to robotic bugs that chase him along an interstellar energy highway and require fast reflexes to outwit. The sheer volume and variety of these new level “features” — many of which are specific to only one of the game’s worlds — constantly surprised (and often delighted) me. Sometimes I found myself thinking that this was the Sonic game I’d always wanted in 3D, like its designers had transitioned straight from 16-bit to Wii and had all these amazing new tools at their disposal.