The levels built around the Yellow Wisp’s drill power are especially cool, and many of the gimmicks and routes in each stage treat the Wisps as a far more integrated part of the game, unlike the Wii version where they appear tossed in as a throwaway gimmick.ĭimps has also done a remarkable job of curbing the frustration that usually accompanies recent Sonic games, the ones that operate at such a speed that the only “challenge” in the game comes from trial-and-error pitfall deaths. An added incentive is that using them can be quite fun, too. Sonic Colors can be completed without having to make use of most of the Wisps, but the game is a lot more fun, and you can score a lot more points (needed, because the game’s post-level grading system is damn strict!), if you use them. These Wisps are cute, marketable little aliens that Eggman has trapped in an intergalactic theme park, and they give Sonic various special powers when captured.

In fact, the levels have nearly all been put together rather excellently, especially the implementation of the Wisps. The “press right to win” dynamic of Rush has been toned down, with a slightly slower Sonic and levels designed to put the focus on exploration as opposed to simply running. Sonic Colors is a straight 2D platformer, bearing far more resemblance to Sonic Rush than anything to be found in Sonic Team’s latest console offering, with some notable improvements to the Rush formula, to boot. Sonic Colors on the DS shares the same basic premise and gimmickry of its Wii counterpart, but that’s where the similarity ends. Sonic Colors in the DS does little to answer that burning question, but it damn well ensures that it gets asked once again. Sonic Advance and the Sonic Rush games have often ranged from decent to superb, which makes one wonder why Dimps is the “B” team and the inferior Sonic Team is the “A” team.

With many thanks to developer Dimps, Sonic’s portable games have often been decent. Hyperbole states that we haven’t had a good Sonic game since Sonic Adventure, which really betrays how much we gamers ignore the handheld market. While Sonic the Hedgehog has become quite famous for a string of terrible games over the past ten years, that’s only really true in terms of home console output.

Jim sterling sonic colors