Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

After seeing how piss poor Sonic Team had treated it's star franchise with it's past two games at the time, I had pretty much given up on the Blue Blur. Then, October of 2010 came around and Sonic 4 Episode 1 came out. Unfortunately it was really forgettable. Once again, I became extremely unsure of Sonic Team and wondered if they had truly lost their mojo for good. Then in November, Sonic Colors came out. I didn't buy it when it first came out because I was just unimpressed by Sonic's past 3 games. But after seeing footage and how gorgeous the level design was and how Sonic controlled, I decided to give it a shot.

Thankfully, it was finally the brilliance I had been searching for. Sega and Sonic Team truly nailed almost every aspect of Sonic, the story, the control, the voice cast, and the level design.

Eggman has built an interstellar amusement park and Sonic is investigating to make sure everything is what it seems and not an evil scheme. He then comes across Eggman's two robots chasing after alien like creatures. Sonic rushes in and saves the aliens and one of them absorbs into his body, and Sonic gets new abilities. That's all I'm going to get into with story because I don't want to spoil the whole thing.

The voice cast has been changed for the better. Roger Craig Smith (voice of Ezio and Chris Redfield) now voices Sonic the Hedgehog, and without a doubt, he's been the best Sonic in a long time. Jaleel White was decent as Sonic when he was young. Ryan Drummond was pretty good, but from what I saw the voice direction looked like it sucked until Sonic Heroes, (Drummond's final game as Sonic) where he finally shined. Jason Griffith was an upgrade but lousy writing and once again terrible voice direction hampered him until Unleashed (Griffith's last Sonic game) where he truly was the best Sonic. Smith, has Sonic's cockiness, his cheesy (yet somewhat funny) one-liners and the experience to take Sonic's voice to a whole new level of awesomeness. Tails' voice has also been changed, he is now voiced by Kate Higgins. Tails actually sounds like a dude now, though I have nothing against Amy Palent's performance.

Anyway, I digressed way too much. Sonic controls almost exactly like Unleashed except for a couple of minor changes. The homing attack has been moved to the jump button again, and Sonic has a double jump. Sonic also has his trademark boost and air dash. Sonic controls pretty good, but it can be stiff at times.

Over the course of the game you free the aliens known as Wisps and get their abilities. It's definitely the gimmick of the game. However, most of the times it's just optional and to get to alternate routes and red rings, which is how it should be.

The level design is gorgeous. However, it's much more geared towards platforming and not speed. The boost gauge is much smaller now, and is fueled by white Wisps. These aren't as frequent as rings. So, use your boost wisely.

Overall a great revival for this franchise. I give it an 8 out of 10. I just wish it had more balance with the speed and platforming.