When Sonic Colours was first announced I admit, I was a big skeptic despite being a general supporter of the series and more accepting than most. To me it alarmed me that Sonic was maybe going to be going in a direction of directly ripping off competitors as well as a variety of other issues I had with it in this blog post. Thankfully when I finally had a chance to check out the game due to a really amazing friend letting me borrow his Wii, my fears about this game had been put to rest and I was given a solid title that any platformer fan really shouldn't miss.



To start this off, this game means business. After pressing start and setting up your save file you are immediately thrust into the first level just like the good old days and while I admit I was disappointed at first not to be presented with a brilliant CG animated intro, I was okay with just getting into the game and going. This game plays very much like Unleashed but don't let that fool you, it has been fine tuned and some of the controls have been changed. I was playing with a gamecube controller so I have no clue really how that handled, but the gamecube controls were really tight and responsive and Sonic controlled well. The homing attack is no longer something you can do on a whim to gain some quick speed, rather the attack only activates whenever there is something for you to target onto. Instead if you double tap the jump button while no enemies are near you can have Sonic do a short double jump instead. The boost is no longer an infinite thing and it isn't as invincible as it was before, instead it requires the power of white wisps that you can find in various capsules around the level. The quick step from Unleashed also makes a return and instead of using the shoulder buttons it was a simple left to right movement. I admit this threw me off at first since I was so used to using the shoulder buttons but once that initial instinct to do so was gone, it worked out pretty well. Sonic was also equipped with the slide again and just like in Unleashed, you use this to get under various walls that only a slide will get you passed.

The game operates with the same 2D and 3D transitions as the previous title although it felt like there was more of the 2D sections than the 3D this time around. This was by no means a bad thing as there were some creative puzzles woven into these sections that the 2D portions could only provide, while the 3D sections were mostly like crazy rollercoaster rides through bright colourful levels. Starlight Carnival was a really nifty experience that had Sonic going upside down and through lit up roads in space, twists and turns everywhere. The transitions are just as seamless as they were before and keep the player interested the entire way through. Each of the six stages have six acts to play through and then a boss battle and for the most part they are all decent sizes and none seem to drag on too long. There are a few quick levels but when they are of this quality it didn't really bother me. That being said, this game is pretty short in the grand scheme of things, despite having upwards of 40 levels to play through. I managed to complete it in about 5 hours, thankfully there is still many things to keep the replay value high such as the red rings which unlock more multiplayer levels, S ranking levels, and speed-runs to name a few. Another good source of replay value is that as you unlock more Wisps as you go along through the levels, you can return to ones you have already completed and discover new pathways to play through.



Which brings us to the Wisps, which are essentially just this games versions of powerups. They do not drastically alter the gameplay but rather supplement it with different abilities you can use to take out enemies or use to get around the level. The best part about them is that they are generally not required in order to beat levels and you can ignore them if you really want to, but they're pretty fun for the most part and the green hover wisp eventually became my favourite since you can use it much like the light speed dash from previous titles to zip through lines of rings. Some wisps are also able to be refilled while in use, such as the drill and hover for example, but some like the laser and rocket abilities were one time use. It also doesn't feel like it is a big ripoff of other titles as well in this department. Overall the Wisps were not intruding on what makes Sonic great and added to the experience rather than taking away from it, so for those worried about this becoming another werehog-type scenario can rest easy knowing that this isn't the case.



The graphics in this game are also top notch with each area standing out from the one before it even though they all have a very spacey theme to them. Each level looks incredible with lots of little details in the background as well as some very spectacular lighting in each stage. To go along with the great attention to the graphics was the audio, with each level sporting three different music tracks. Generally each track I found was repeated twice throughout the different acts, since there are only three tracks versus six acts, but it never was repetitive at all. The music is catchy and enjoyable. The only issues I have with the soundtrack is the vocal themes but I guess that comes down to personal taste there, but I've never really been a huge fan of any of the vocal tracks as it was.

SEGA also swapped out the voice cast recently, which I think was a great move as this game has a very well written script and having it be delivered by better voice actors than they previously had really give this game a push in the story department. Sonic is cocky and a bit of a dick to everyone he comes across and I wouldn't have it any other way. This game is relatively light on story compared to the previous titles, not opting to go the deep and edgy route, nor trying to preach about friendship all the time. Instead Sonic Colours just takes a lighthearted journey through a space amusement park with the simple plotline that you can sum up as "Sonic VS Dr.Eggman".



Overall this is a title that any platformer fan shouldn't miss, but most importantly if you like Sonic The Hedgehog you should really give this game a go. I can only hope that each new release is going to build upon the type of quality and charm that Sonic Colours brings with it, even though I have enjoyed many of the recent titles, this one made me smile from beginning to end.

9/10

Oh, and I swear I'll find something else to blog about one of these days. I do realize my blog has been very SEGA/Sonic centric!

Stare into his eyeeess

I don't know if I've mentioned this anywhere, but I am a huge fan of Sonic The Hedgehog. I've liked pretty much most of the titles, excluding a few of the console releases that were pretty garbage like Shadow's game, or that game where Sonic is pretending he wants to be a Knight. I guess Sonic 2006 is an obligatory thing to bring up here, though I think a part of me holds onto tiny portions of that game due to a feeling of 'this could have been good' which I then proceed to tell myself while I curl up and cry myself to sleep. Otherwise though the track record is not as bad as everyone would like to tell you, with the handheld releases getting their fair share of positive reviews and opinions and Unleashed more or less being a love it or hate it situation. I'd say Sonic isn't doing as bad as people like to make out.

Of course this doesn't mean I don't have problems with some of the things that SEGA has been doing to the franchise, the biggest one on how it was moving into a more realistic/darker direction since Sonic Adventure 2 and basically turning Sonic's fantasy styled world into something I could walk outside and see everyday. Basically a huge beef of mine has always been the art direction.

So why then was I upset when Sonic Colours was announced, a game that so far looks to be bright and colourful and cheery?



I mean look at it, there is colour everywhere and a sense of fantasy in terms of the setting that hasn't been seen for a while unless you want to count Sonic 4 which looks amazing by the way, or even to an extent Unleashed which had a Pixar-like quality to its characters and settings that weren't boring to look at. It basically seems to be tailor made to be a game that someone like me might be able to get into artistically with this franchise again. Each of the old games had this very out-there sort of approach to putting a spin on settings you might find in the real world and if Colours was to follow what that CG trailer lays out then that is simply fantastic.

So I then ruled out it wasn't the art style that had been bothering me about this announcement, there was something else that was doing it for me.



I admit it is a bit too early for me to be ruling out that these things are stupid, and again they sort of have this Pixar-like charm to them with a dash of Pokemon, but why do we need these? The gameplay ideas sound a little neat as well, but when I dissect it I'm not really seeing anything the franchise hasn't done before. You could simply take the cyan coloured wisps and give Sonic speed shoes and have the same effect, or if Knuckles was in the game the yellow wisps could simply be like Knuckles' ability to drill through the ground. So why do we need new alien creatures to give us gameplay elements that we've already seen done way back in previous entries?

This is what I have a problem with. Sonic Team has this big wealth of powerups and abilities in their pre-established worlds and characters that they haven't properly drawn upon in such a long time that could use some more screentime or proper development. It seems like when Sonic Team might have something going for them in terms of this series, they move onto some big new idea and when there is a core mechanic down they move on again.

Thats not to say I'm going to be entirely pessimistic on this, because there are a few points I have thought about since my initial rage over this yesterday and its that the story so far sounds incredibly simple and reminds me more of Sonic 1. Dr. Eggman is imprisoning some life forms to draw upon their power? Hm, reminds me of the time he used animals to power his robots. While I'd prefer this game to take place on Sonic's world and further make use of Zones, we were given more of a glimpse of Sonic's world in Unleashed and thats just a minor complaint.

In all I am leaning more to the side that I'm not entirely optimistic about this title, but if it turns out to be decent you can colour me surprised (;D) but for now I'll patiently wait for a retuned up Sonic 4.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and sorry if none of this makes a lot of sense I'm actually sick right now and so I'm a little bit out of it/bored. Also I realize its probably Colors, but I'm Canadian and so I've been writing it Colours out of habit. I'll have more art things soon though :D, also it seems I can't preview my blog without getting a 'we can't find this page' error so if there are any mistakes with the code and stuff I'll try and fix that up xD.

First off, I sketched that out the other day and I really liked it so I decided that would probably be the best way for me to open up this blog since I draw pictures and stuff. Excuse the little heart, it was actually in a paint chat that I was in and someone else had drawn that. With that out of the way you guys can call me Ben, which even though it doesn't stand for Benjamin, I've been called some variation of that as a nickname by my family for years so really its like my second name I guess. Or TrickEdge, or whatever you want really (I have a feeling I might regret saying that). Sorry if this blog is wordy and made of suck, I'll try and break it up with sketches I've drawn!

Anyhow, I've been gaming since I was born pretty much since there has always been a game console in my household. My first console I ever played was an NES, and while I am really too young to remember it really, I know we had one and it broke when I was 2. Of course at that time the SEGA Genesis and Sonic 2 was out and my father ended up getting that for us and that probably was the single most important thing ever to happen to my childhood. I can say that with ease because like every other person on the internet, I was bullied all throughout my childhood until around Grade 8 when our school got split and everyone from where I lived moved to a school within our community, so really there isn't a whole lot I can say in terms of that. But that was the day when I became a SEGA fanboy and I really can't look back.


(Another paintchat sketch, this time of Taokaka)

I don't have a big huge hardcore collection of SEGA stuff though, just a bunch of games, no Saturn (sadface) no 32x (sadface) and other such things. Sure those things might have bombed, but there are pieces of SEGA history on those that I haven't been able to experience. I also missed the dreamcast boat, but thankfully I had a friend with one otherwise I'd have died. So I only had the Genesis for the longest time until the N64 came about, and then the Gamecube followed after that. I've gone through the gameboy ranks too and such, so I guess I've primarily grown up with Nintendo consoles rather than SEGA, but thats alright since both companies were great back in the day. Plus I was a kid, and it was my parents who would be buying these consoles and I had no job or money to get all the games I wanted all the time. Now I've got a 360 and a PS3 and I couldn't be happier with my consoles, though right now I'm in college lacking funds and am unable to get LIVE and my parents have been floating me through on my rent. Job market sucks right now and all. But I love games of all types really...for the most part, some genres I can't really get into but there are always exceptions to that :D

So yeah, gaming in general has been a big part of my life and its a very important thing to me. Currently I am in college right now for 3D Animation and Game Design. Last year I was in a less than stellar school that I feel ripped me off hardcore after they shut down and I had to scramble to relocate, but I did produce an animation of Sonic The Hedgehog with good ol' pencil and paper. Unfortunately I never got the chance to fully complete it due to a large number of problems.



That would be it. I actually kind of can't stand to look at it now, but whatever!

Now I'm at a much better school than I was for that one and while I don't think I'll be doing much in the way of fan related projects (I want to bust out my own ideas too!) if I eventually have some spare time and I get good at 3D I'll end up doing something that properly does justice to my favourite game series (well, BlazBlue is ALSO my other fave game series even if I am really bad at it).

So yeah, I draw. I'll put some sketches at the end of my post. The guy up in my header is actually from a comic I've been writing since January and while school keeps me busy, I haven't made it very far. But I sketch the characters from it a lot when I can to improve for when I can get started on it.

I also play the guitar and make my own music, I'm trying to get my song into Rock Band Network right now thanks to a friend. All I have left to do is just do some artwork for the album thumbnail and we're gonna submit it in since he charted it. I'll post some tracks up whenever that happens!

So yeah, no 3D stuff right now to show in terms of art since I've just started getting into that now but I'll unload some sketches here and I hope they aren't too terrible.


Small Knuckles and Sonic sketch


Characters from my comic again, done last month sometime, even from then to now the way I'm drawing the characters is changing.




That one I was in an IRC and I asked for ideas from people on what to sketch, I did more, but these ones were my fave.

Yeah they're all sketches, I usually prefer them to my finished works, and I don't have a lot of finished stuff that I've scanned through to be put on the internet since I am so busy with school work, though most of my sketches are done digitally.

Thanks for reading this super long intro!

This was a response I never have yet posted to a certain member, who posted in response to a certain member, who posted in response to a certain member. I figure this is a great post for my first blog.

Excluding what I personally like about everything that is out there that I like because I like to pretend that I like things, here is why every console ever is not a SEGA Genesis and why you need to do what everyone else don't.

Processing Power

Processing Power does not equal to better graphics, but instead equals to the speed in which you can make your games go at so that you can play them while watching on your TV. It would be nice if it did better graphics but every console ever except for one (which I will get to in a minute) has ever had a console that offered up speed which influences whether or not you can play a game. Compare every console ever to the SEGA Genesis, which has Blast Processing! Blast Processing is totally factual and has the power to take you into zones and you can beat up fat guys in red suits!



None of the other consoles has that.

All the other consoles are not in the same market as SEGA Genesis.

You can't tell me that all the other consoles are in the same market as the SEGA Genesis because the SEGA Genesis came out in the 90s and all these other consoles came out before it or after it which means that they can't be in the same market. The SEGA Genesis was aimed towards the cool kids on the block who loved listening to Crush 39 back in the day and has the mullet.



All the other consoles are not trying to sell their consoles to the real gamers which are the people who all look like that and play real video games. All the other consoles forgot what a spectrum was but all the people playing the SEGA Genesis knew what that was because they were always getting high of the giant mushrooms you could bounce on because of Blast Processing.

The other consoles is making serious gaming worse.

How can you even play games anymore when all the good games that ever were to come out ever were only possible on SEGA Genesis because all the other companies did not do what they did? This is really bad for serious gaming because there is no SEGA Genesis 2 but SEGA then made a SEGA Saturn and it died and so did the Dreamcast because the 360 and the PS3 came out and brainwashed everyone that it was not cool to have a SEGA Genesis anymore. With this in motion it segaways (no pun intended) into really destroying the gaming market as we know it and we see less of the games we saw that other companies don't, and no one does.

Graphics

Because Processing power does not equal graphics it really in the end it does because of the Blast Processing. It made it so you could go fast and look at graphics! These graphics were also in the form of music and gameplay that you could feel because your room would rock with every press on the button you made in the games that had this processing power in it! No console now rocks your room when you press a button and their music and gameplay is not cool and makes your hair grow long in the back which makes the SEGA Genesis more appealing when it does stuff cause you look radical.

I think this sums up everything about everything