Feature: Zooming Through Sonic Colors: Ultimate And Getting The Switch Lowdown

30FPS for a game this old, that ran on the Wii?

Glad to see this getting rereleased. I’ll be picking this up on PS5.

Only British people care about the whole “color” things. Most Americans couldn’t care less.

I don't really mind the 30fps cap, as long as it is stable.

also didn' the original Wii version run at 30fps ?

It's 30 FPS because it's the 30th anniversary you guys.

It's part of the magic.

@LUIGITORNADO Of course they don't, why on Earth would they...?

I'm just ready for all the PS (and to a lesser degree MS) fanboys to call this game better than Generations now that it's finally going to be on their console of choice.

@scannerdarkly7,

Not the exact game as on the Wii though, if it was I am sure it would run at 60 fps.

@Vertpin,

I would need to be able to buy a PS5 at retail first, although there are quite a lot of consoles on e-bay for between £500 and £550, still will not pay a penny over retail though, no worries I can wait.

@LUIGITORNADO,

Not surprised, Americans have been spelling colour incorrectly for ages now.

@LUIGITORNADO
UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand use British spellings. So colour, centre, harbour, honour, etc.

"Color" is the exact spelling of the original Latin word, which is why we Americans use that spelling. You silly Brits along with the French added the useless "u" just to annoy the Romans. Laugh while you can, because eventually you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

@johnvboy I hope you find one in retail soon!

@Vertpin,

I should just cave i and pay an extra £70 or so, but it's not the money it's the principle of giving those scalpers a penny.

@TheWingedAvenger,

Can't trust those Romans though, look at the Caligula fella and his horse, I mean all horses get in our country is occasionally a suger cube.

Still not sold on the remaster until I hear about there being a soundtrack toggle. The original Colors soundtrack is my favorite of all time, but most of the remixes I've heard so far have been downright bad - a huge shame after Team Sonic Racing nailed them. I can live with Tails Save but that combined with a ruined soundtrack? I'd rather just emulate the game at an HD resolution and 60fps

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania seems to be a much better remaster of a Sega game tbh

Make the frame rate locked, please.

@scannerdarkly7 it was overhauled by Sega. It’s more of a borderline remake/remaster. What they did was very similar to Mass Effect Legendary Edition where EA had to overhaul a bunch of the game, especially the 1st one.

(wonders about whether this Sonic Colors: Ultimate game would have an option for playing music used in the game it was based upon or not)

@RupeeClock so is Sonic Colors Ultimate like a rebuilt version of the original Wii game because maybe the source code got lost?

@Gamer83 read what we have said

I am definitely getting this provided it runs stable at 30 FPS.

@scannerdarkly7 Sonic Colors on Wii was one of the most demanding games on Wii with dense environments with a lot of geometry and many flashy visual effects that aren’t friendly to the Switch’s processor and memory bandwidth. It also had to be rebuilt for Switch using standard programmable shaders - Wii had specialised hardware that handled Colors’ shaders and effects. It would have been difficult to get a game like this running at 60 at all on Switch - no 60FPS game on Switch stands out to me as more dense aside from Mario Kart 8

@RupeeClock I see

Probably getting this on PS5 because of the better performance. I would get it on PC but it has Denuvo and is also Epic exclusive which means no proper mod support, and honestly for games like this I vastly prefer 60fps over 30 now. Games like Mario Odyssey spoiled me on how smooth they ran

Was the original any good? Never played it myself, but the kids love a bit of Sonic. Be going PSPro or X1X for this though.

Don't really see why this had to get a remaster, an upscaled budget release would have been fine

I can't wait for this game! just one more month.

“Are there any plans to bring other classic 3D Sonic games such as Unleashed, the Adventure series, or 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog to modern consoles in remastered form?”

Just wanna say a lot of the Sonic games are available on Series X (modern console) already through backwards compatibility including Unleashed, Generations and Adventure 1&2!

30FPS on Switch versus 60 on other consoles is a farce no matter which way you cut it

Feels like a slap in the face that this remaster wasn't prioritized for the Switch. Why couldn't they just make this game for the Switch hardware, then make it even more gorgeous on other platforms? Why did it have to be some stupid downgrade from other platforms? It could've easily been 60fps on the Switch with the potential of being much higher on other platforms

You should have asked if the secret final boss from the DS version made its way into the Ultimate version.

@ModdedInkling it was rebuilt. Look above

@SpringDivorce Oh, it's basically the perfect game for children, there is practically no challenge, it's fairly short, and the story doesn't require any thinking, just "Eggman bad, defeat." With a joke here and there.

I played the first Sonic Adventure when I was ten in the early 2000s, so my personal suggestion would be to play SA1 instead, it's a wonderfully varied game that's just filled to the brim with details and content.

@anoyonmus
Which is precisely why such remake should've been built from the ground up on Switch hardware, and then massively upgraded on the other platforms.

Only 30fps for an 11 year old game and people was comparing this garbage to Skyward Sword HD which is a much better Switch remastered of a Wii game?

@ModdedInkling they were aiming for simultaneous release on all platforms..

What Sega should have done is add a performance and quality mode on Switch. This remake of Sonic Colors can hit 60fps at like 720p but no, Sega decides not to do that

@Specter_of-the_OLED Sonic Colors Ultimate is more a remake of a Wii game. SS HD is more of a straight Wii port with just better visuals and better framerate

@ModdedInkling Ya, if anything I wanted them to make the engine for the switch, then tweak it for other console, sadly its the other way around.

@abbyhitter They have already confirmed that DS levels are not coming to the game.

i think make should've been built from the ground up on Switch hardware, and then massively

@ModdedInkling
Would definitely be nice if it was optimized but i cant really think of too many multiplat releases which were built with the switch in mind, even MH stories 2 which was primarily marketed for switch ended up having issues on switch.

i think one of the few i can think of is DQXIs where that specific version targeted the switch hardware and the ports of the S version were based on that.

The wiiu situation and the switch launch was definitely an anomaly when it comes to the typical console lifespan and while the switch has been one of my favorite consoles it does feel like its at an akward point in its lifespan, with the power gap being extremely wide between the newest systems (compared to say, wiiu vs ps4/xbox one)

Sonic and 30fps is always an instant nope for me. It was on the Wii, and it still is here. Same with Generations on PS360. It's embarrassing how Sega treats their own mascot.

@MARl0 Well it's 60 fps on every other platform!

@JoeyTS That's why I'm getting it on my PS5!

I feel like you could've at least pressed them on why is it 30fps on Switch, couldn't they do multiple performance modes or something? Feels like you just wanted to ask the safest question "Its 60 fps? No? Oh lets move on then"

@anoyonmus
With multiplatform releases, it's definitely easier to make a game that only requires slight upgrades and downgrades to fit every console, but I believe there's better payoff if the game was massively upgraded from a weaker, current-gen console. They have infinitely more opportunities to upgrade off of a game built on Switch hardware compared to the limitations from downgrading a game from PS4 hardware.

I can’t decide if I wanna snag this on switch or PS5. Switch is my main console but 30FPS is a real bummer considering Switch is supposed to be “next gen”. I wish Nintendo would get their heads on straight and make something that technically keeps up with Sony and Microsoft but also has that Nintendo flair and uniqueness to it, instead of just doing the unique thing.

@TDRsuperstar2 Switch was never men't to be next gen bc nintendo has never been Up to next gen consoles, Unless FPS really matters that much to you, I would go for the switch.

Headline led me to believe you guys got to play the switch version, but I was mistaken. Unfortunate we don't have much coverage on that version. I know it'll be a lower fps, but I wonder if the graphics will be downscaled at all.

@TheWingedAvenger LOL damn right.

@FishLipFace well the trailer did say improved visuals so it won’t look as good as other versions but I feel it will look better than the Wii version.

I am definitely going to pick this up. Yeah it is at 30 FPS but I want to enjoy the game so I will still get it. Maybe I might get Monkey Ball Mania someday but Sonic first for me

God what is wrong with this comment section, "why cant a game remade for Pc and 600 dollar pc like consoles run as good on my 200 dollar tablet?" Ehh because it can't.

@ShadowofTwilight22 The Switch version is a nope.

Why couldn't they make it run at 30fps? After Skyward Sword HD and the fact Lost World on Wii U ran at 60fps, those are underwhelming news. Who knows how the next Sonic game will run on most platforms...
Otherwise it's looking fine

Speaking about remastering 3D Sonic games. I wonder if they are considering remastering (or should I say, fixing?) Sonic 06, though I'd like to see Generations on Switch instead.

Asking if Sonic 2006 would be remastered in any way is such a blasphemous question and can only give them horrible ideas for the future…
Sonic 2006 should stay locked in the wretched time period called “Sonic’s 15th Anniversary” forever, never to be touched again

@AlienX

We were playing SA on the X1X over the weekend, she wasn't overly impressed with it. Never got on with them myself in all honesty. She's loving Generations at the minute, but the frame-rate on the 2D bits makes my head hurt.

A big fan of Colours Wii (DS too to a lesser extent) so this is an instabuy

"The original Sonic Colours was a great title that was only available on the Wii which restricted the number of players that were able to enjoy the title"

Last time I check Wii sold like 100 million consoles 🤔

@Snatcher I don't think it's fair to say Nintendo have never been on par with others of their generations. The SNES and N64 were powerhouses and even the GameCube was second in its generation in terms of power. It's only the last 3 generations where they haven't bothered so much.

@SirPrimalform Well of course, I don't disagree at all, I do think though, that nintendo hasn't bothered with the last 3 gens.

@Moonlessky I Think thats the issue here.

@ShadowofTwilight22 that would mean remaking the game altogether and it wouldn’t really resemble the trash we got in 2006.
I do support such an idea, however Sonic Team is clearly not competent enough to remake the game into what was intended to be back then, proof being their games from the last 15 years or so

@Moonlessky The Switch was never EVER a 200 bucks tablet, but suuuuuure. In fact, at least 2/3 of the world paid more than 350 for it, I'd say at least 10 percent had to pay more than 400. But WhAt iS WroNg wItH ThE comMEnT SeCtioN, ahem.... You would be a good politician.

@spectraleggings the $200 switch lite has the same exact specs as the brand new $350 switch oled so yeah, its a $200 dollar tablet. People act surprised and whine when games dont run as well on it as a gaming pc or a $600 ps5

@Moonlessky well that I can agree with. However, given the number of games that could have been refined more to meet said standards, their frustration is understandable, especially considering the prices of games.

@EriXz Not everyone owns a Wii and a copy of Colors these days.