Yesterday was, in part, Sonic day, as I spent some time talking about and playing Sega's latest efforts with the blue hedgehog with his latest games: Sonic Colors for Wii and DS and Sonic 4 for WiiWare, XBLA, and PSN.
I kicked off with a demonstration of the Wii version of Colors with producer Takashi Iizuka. Colors gameplay is derived from the popular Unleashed daytime sections, with both forward-running 3D and side-scrolling 2D sections. The colors of Colors are the wisps, little guys who Sonic can grab, keep and later use as one-shot, time-limited powerups. Two colors out of the "more than six" are being talked about right now: the cyan wisp, which lets you aim Sonic as a laser which then can blast through sections or obstacles, and the yellow wisp, which turns him into a time-limited drill for going underground. This last bit is used in what Iizuka promises will be a key feature of the game—providing several alternative paths for traversing each of the game's zones.
Sega also told me they are using American writers for the game as a series first, to try to make a story that will appeal to both kids and adults alike. Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, of Happy Tree Friends and MadWorld, are doing this duty—though obviously with a less-offensive bent than their typical work. I didn't get to see this in action today, though, unless the name "Eggman's Amazing Interstellar Amusement Park" was their doing, but hey—it's already more promising than finding out that Sonic Rush's Blaze is princess of Australia.
Speaking of Rush, Sonic Colors for the DS is similarly-themed, but otherwise a different game from the Wii title; it's a bit more Sonic Rush 3 than its own thing, though it does appear to eschew the trick system for its own set of wisp powers and the addition of the homing attack, typically only found in the 3D games. (If the trick system is hidden, I can't find it, and Sega's reps couldn't help.) Though I thoroughly appreciate the homing attack, I'm not quite so sure about dropping the trick system—it sort of feels weird without it, to be honest. I'll have to see if my feelings on this change over time.
The homing attack also makes an appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which definitely feels to me—and maybe I'm just not that solid a Sonic fan to notice—like a classic Sonic game, back-to-basics, with only the familiar spin dash. By the way, apart from the reduction in resolution, the WiiWare version will have the same levels and be the same game as the other platforms, though each platform will have its own special stages, with the Wii version using tilt control for its own (sadly, the special stages were something Sega wasn't showing.)
All three games are slated for release this year. While it looks like a glut of Sonic, the three games are each positioned a little differently; only a huge fan will want to get into all three. Everyone else might find that one of these is just what they're looking for.
I kicked off with a demonstration of the Wii version of Colors with producer Takashi Iizuka. Colors gameplay is derived from the popular Unleashed daytime sections, with both forward-running 3D and side-scrolling 2D sections. The colors of Colors are the wisps, little guys who Sonic can grab, keep and later use as one-shot, time-limited powerups. Two colors out of the "more than six" are being talked about right now: the cyan wisp, which lets you aim Sonic as a laser which then can blast through sections or obstacles, and the yellow wisp, which turns him into a time-limited drill for going underground. This last bit is used in what Iizuka promises will be a key feature of the game—providing several alternative paths for traversing each of the game's zones.
Sega also told me they are using American writers for the game as a series first, to try to make a story that will appeal to both kids and adults alike. Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, of Happy Tree Friends and MadWorld, are doing this duty—though obviously with a less-offensive bent than their typical work. I didn't get to see this in action today, though, unless the name "Eggman's Amazing Interstellar Amusement Park" was their doing, but hey—it's already more promising than finding out that Sonic Rush's Blaze is princess of Australia.
Speaking of Rush, Sonic Colors for the DS is similarly-themed, but otherwise a different game from the Wii title; it's a bit more Sonic Rush 3 than its own thing, though it does appear to eschew the trick system for its own set of wisp powers and the addition of the homing attack, typically only found in the 3D games. (If the trick system is hidden, I can't find it, and Sega's reps couldn't help.) Though I thoroughly appreciate the homing attack, I'm not quite so sure about dropping the trick system—it sort of feels weird without it, to be honest. I'll have to see if my feelings on this change over time.
The homing attack also makes an appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which definitely feels to me—and maybe I'm just not that solid a Sonic fan to notice—like a classic Sonic game, back-to-basics, with only the familiar spin dash. By the way, apart from the reduction in resolution, the WiiWare version will have the same levels and be the same game as the other platforms, though each platform will have its own special stages, with the Wii version using tilt control for its own (sadly, the special stages were something Sega wasn't showing.)
All three games are slated for release this year. While it looks like a glut of Sonic, the three games are each positioned a little differently; only a huge fan will want to get into all three. Everyone else might find that one of these is just what they're looking for.