Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Digital Deluxe

Sonic Colors: Ultimate is a remaster of the 2010 Wii platformer widely considered a high point in Sonic's chaotic post-Genesis career. The setup is classic: Dr. Eggman has built a massive interstellar amusement park and is running it on enslaved alien creatures called Wisps. Sonic shows up to go fast and wreck the plan. Six distinct themed worlds, each split into multiple acts and capped with a boss fight, make up the bulk of the runtime. The level design threads fast, automated rollercoaster corridors with slower, more deliberate platforming stretches, and the balance between the two is probably the most divisive thing in the game. When Sonic is screaming through a looping corridor and you are threading between lanes to grab Red Star Rings, it genuinely clicks in a way few 3D platformers manage. When the speed drops for precision jumping, the controls can feel a little heavier and less responsive than you'd like. The Wisps are the mechanical centrepiece. Each one transforms Sonic into something else for a brief window: the Cyan Laser bounces him off prisms and rewards tight aim with shortcuts, the Yellow Drill sends him underground (or underwater), the Pink Spike lets him crawl walls, and a new Jade Ghost exclusive to this version lets him phase through surfaces entirely. The power-ups are genuinely well-integrated into the levels, not bolted on, and going back to replay old acts after unlocking new Wisps adds a legitimate layer of replay value. Some Wisps feel more responsive than others, and the Green Hover in particular has a reputation for feeling floaty and off-brand. The Rival Rush mode, which pits you against Metal Sonic in a time-attack race across one stage per zone, is a good idea executed a little thin - six total races is not a lot. The Digital Deluxe edition bundles in the Ultimate Cosmetic Pack (custom gloves, shoes, auras for Sonic) and the Ultimate Music Pack, which expands on the already-strong soundtrack. The cosmetics are gameplay-visible only, not present in cutscenes, which is a minor annoyance. The Tails Save mechanic acts as a soft safety net when you would otherwise fall to your death, making the game more approachable without removing the challenge of going for S ranks and all 180 Red Star Rings. On PC, reception landed around "mixed to okay" - Steam sits at roughly 68% positive across around 1,250 reviews, which tracks with the broader critical average of 74 on OpenCritic. The remaster had a troubled launch with visual bugs and lighting that critics described as a step back from the original Wii game. Several patches addressed many of the worst offenders, but lingering issues and the lukewarm effort of the overall upgrade mean this is a remaster carried primarily by the quality of the original game rather than the work done on top of it. Cutscene fidelity remains notably dated, and if you played the Wii original, the differences may not feel worth much. For newcomers to Colors, this is still the easiest and most accessible way to experience it, and the core game is genuinely fun on its own terms. Speedrunners will find the multi-path level design compelling, and completionists have plenty to chase. Just go in knowing this is a safe, efficient repackage of something that was already good - not a meaningful reimagining. Alex, Scout Team