Seeing Sonics’ New Tricks At E3 In Sonic Colors

There were two places E3 attendees could try out Sonic Colors for the Wii. The first was at Nintendo’s booth, where one demo station was set up. The second was at Sega’s booth, where multiple demo stations where available and you could get a stuffed Wisp for testing the game. Guess which one I went to when I decided to try out the game. (Hint – my cat ended up getting a souvenir because of it)

Sonic Colors feels somewhat similar to the classic Sonic games, despite the fact that you’re switching between 3D and 2.5D perspectives. Sonic is still racing around environments as quickly as he can, trying to defeat enemies and stop Dr. Eggman. This time, Dr. Eggman is trying to make a huge, outer space amusement park and is capturing aliens called Wisps to help him do so. Sonic and Tails head into space to the in-development park to destroy his plans and free the Wisps.

I didn’t get to actually really use any super special Wisp powers while playing the demo of Sonic Colors, but a Sega representative did educate me as to how the Wisps and colors aspect factor into Sonic Colors. Different color Wisps have different abilities that Sonic can tap into. I found a number of white Wisps, and when Sonic collected/freed them, he got a speed boost. I also learned that yellow Wisps would allow Sonic to dig into certain areas where he could see something secret or extra special.

I found the Wii version of Sonic Colors pretty fun. It almost reminded me a bit of Sonic Unleashed, except I actually enjoyed Sonic Colors and only tolerated Sonic Unleashed.

My favorite part had to be the boss battle that I got to experience. There was a large, circular eye-thing, with rotating platforms all around it. While it was presented in a 2D perspective, it still had a 3D appearance. It also reminded me of boss battles from the classic Sega Genesis Sonic games. Sonic had to leap onto platforms, then double jump so he’d be spinning when he’d hit the boss. Three hits did it in, and brought me to the end of my time with the demo.

I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked with Sonic Colors, because it seemed to be pretty popular among Sega booth visitors, but I did enjoy the time I did get to spend with it. It seemed reminiscent of the classic Sonic games that I used to adore, and not like some feeble attempt to make Sonic more of a Super Mario style hero. I only wish I’d had a chance to try the DS version as well, while I was there.