Not many things are as oft-championed by me as this. There is a pretty lengthy range of games I’ve found myself bouncing back-and-forth across for the past while, changing up my primary game to run more times than I can remember. What I always remember though, is Sonic Colours.
This is pretty much a straight explanation as to why I love Colours so much, more than Unwiished, DmC, DKC. It will always be the one that I center back onto. Hopefully reading this you will be able to understand why this happens.
Ease-of-Use and Commitment to Strategies
The game doesn’t have a terribly complex movement system, as far as acceleration and speed maintenance goes. Outside of the irregular instances, you are going full speed while boosting. Kind of an odd one out on many points, it’s wedged between Unleashed and Generations, two games with broken velocity values. There is a key difference though, that allows Colours to stay complex without the intensity of things like M-Speed.
The boost gauge isn’t something that you can go hellbent on. You get boost wisps sparingly and you need every bit you can get. This makes the boost management meta much more up-front compared to the other modern Sonics. You must stay hyper-aware of your stocks at all times, both in IL settings and when doing Egg Shuttle. Mistakes must be corrected and punished for, you can’t use boost to right the errors because you need it for a later point. It makes the actual performance of an entire IL paramount to the result, rather than slow inching of less mistakes.
A Comfortable Medium With Selective Changes
Something that always made me love the flow of Colours was the structure of the whole game itself. First, there is Egg Shuttle, a full-game runners dream mode only present here. You play every single level of every zone followed by every boss. 45 stages of Colours, back-to-front, only missing the Game Land extra stages. This makes it play out like an any% category, straight from start to finish, but without any of the map travel, wisp ability locks or boost draining, it really does represent the perfect single-segment run mode.
Breaking it down further, you have the Wisps (originally introduced to the franchise here!). They aren’t an ever-present feature, only appearing selectively between levels. This doesn’t give you full grasp to break, but still allows you to break with what you have been given, like the Hover Wisp in Aquarium Park 6 or the Frenzy Wisp in Asteroid Coaster 2. It’s pretty clear why they designed it in such a way. Having the full range at all times would just be overpowered, and end in you never actually playing as Sonic.
That is to not even speak of the amazing blend of 2D and 3D sections this game has. You really never feel like you are in one perspective for too long. The zones are a little heavier on the 3D as you start a zone, just to show you what the area is like and give you a good view. Afterwards it sinks into this really great blend of the two that keeps it very active.
The Brief Death of Boost to Win
I know people don’t like that saying, I don’t either honestly, but it describes this next part pretty well.
Sonic Colours is extremely focused on the platforming aspect, signaled by giving Sonic a double jump. The climbs and jumps you do in this game are purpose built and very intricate in design. It leaves you in a state where you feel like you can’t blink on some parts, very rarely do you get the chance to look away from the TV. The game wants you to pay attention and you really must. This eliminates a criticism of games like Unleashed and Generations where it feels like a corridor. You will be stopped and punished for not being alert at all times.
Maybe you understand my love for the game now, maybe you are confused. It’s all opinion in the end, many pros for some will be cons for others. That’s why I want people to reach out and explain their love for their speed games. What makes it magnetize YOU every single time?
I’m collecting an archive of similar explanations to this one, if you have one just throw it in a pastebin and send it my way on Twitter!
Glitching Is Art 