Sonic Colors: Ultimate Has Received A New 'Celebration' Update On Switch

Yes, I can finally change back to the original OST! For me, the best thing about Sonic Colors is the music, so I'm really glad this is an option now!

Patches after patches for the remaster version while it was plain Vanilla (no patches at all) for Wii version...
Thinking back about old style games with no update, no patches, everything was already inside the disc / cartridge...

Still work to be done, but if the patches are coming out more frequently, then hopefully the game stands toe-to-toe with the original in due time. Wonder if they'll consider other requested changes like making Tails Save toggleable

Still not worth getting to me. Too many other good games already out too.

@Anti-Matter
I think you're forgetting about how old style games also had multiple re-releases (best examples would be Ocarina of Time N64 and Smash Melee NTSC vs PAL versions). Post-release patches are just a cheaper and more efficient alternative to fixing a game compared to re-releasing a slightly updated version of the game.

not getting this still. I am waiting for a DEEP discount

Sega:Celebrate us knowingly shipping this game as broken and using our army of mindless fans saying any proof of this was the result of pirated copies and a nefarious band of malicious hackers!

I think I prefer the remixed music actually… especially planet wisp act 2

It's on a playable state already?
Can you guys update the review?

@Anti-Matter Remember the days when if a game had a gamebraking bug you were screwed? Also remember Skyward Sword on Wii?

@Anti-Matter Ah yes the days where if the game was a glitchy mess you had to wait for multiple versions!

I might try to S rank all the stages now, Just wish I could have played the game like this when it first came out.

@Anti-Matter Do you really want another Sonic '06 situation? Because patches will prevent that.

@Anti-Matter ah yes. The Superman 64 days. Who could forget these days.

@HotGoomba
I was concerning with patches trend in modern gaming.
Imagine if the games with patches requirement being played in the future (10 - 20 years from now) when the server has been closed.
It made me nervous to consider the games with a lot of patches and fixes.

@ModdedInkling Yup, exactly. There's a game called Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast and 3 different versions were released in PAL territories (all appear identical other than the version number written somewhere on the underside of the disc). The initial launch version was considered so buggy that the publisher was offering refunds and allowing people to return their copies for a fixed version once it was available. I've owned all 3 versions at some point.

Or how about that save bug in WWF No Mercy? We had to wait around 6 months for a fixed cart for that one if I remember correctly.

Yeah, those were the days...

@Reprise I remember MSR, but I don’t remember THAT situation at all. Interesting!

@WallyWest
I don't play Zelda games.

@AmplifyMJ Are you from a PAL region? It didn't affect the North American release, as that came out later. Basically, from what I remember, there were three major bugs and then a number of minor ones.

The major ones were:

1. The Championship mode. Each chapter had a set number of races and challenges to complete before you could move onto the next chapter, but they also had a set number of Kudos (points) to achieve as well. You could move onto the next chapter without reaching the required number of points, rendering the Kudos system basically broken and pointless.

2. It was either impossible to unlock every car in the game or if a set number of conditions were met then it would become impossible to unlock every car.

3. The multiplayer quick race option didn't work at all.

I think all three bugs plus some minor ones were fixed by the 3rd revision.

Does it STILL not let you adjust the music and sound effects volume separately?? That's my biggest issue with it. Music is a massive part of the Sonic games for me and I loathe having to have it low because the sound of homing attacks is ridiculously loud. Not playing it until or if they fix that.

Edit - Just checked and sound effects/music adjustments are still on the same bar and they haven't adjusted them at all in game either.

At least they're trying to fix it. I don't think it'll get a 60fps patch though so it'll always be meh for me

Is the Switch version fixed?

@Reprise yeah I’m from the UK. Thanks for the info, interesting!

@AmplifyMJ No problem. If you're interested, there's a lot of info about it over here https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2015/04/the-bugs-of-msr.html and here https://tcrf.net/Metropolis_Street_Racer

The comments on the Dreamcast Junkyard article (turns out I once commented on it haha) also have some interesting information about how the recall worked.

If I ever play this game it will be on my xbox not on switch.

If it performs worse than Wii, I'll simply play my Wii version. Nintendo needs to be more selective about what is allowed on their platform, to make these kind of ports less lazy.

Do you know guys how this multiplatform game is doing commercially? I was thinking how cool it would be to get the other 3D games. Sonic Generations has the best version on Xbox (4K 60fps) and it's my favourite Sonic 3D game but what about Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Heroes? They are games I liked but I stopped playing Sonic Heroes because of a section in the jungle where the camera does weird things (GameCube version) and I always died and when I ran out of lives I had to start the level from the beginning. I was so mad I gave the game up which is something that I have done just a few times in my whole life. I even completed Sonic Adventure DX (GameCube) that has a lot of extremely annoying camera issues.

It would be great to have these games remastered and fixed. What about Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)? A game that will do with a remaster, too. It's not about remastering as much as it's about fixing these games that were good but had so many technical and gameplay issues. Remember that we're getting Sonic Origins next year (super excited about it) so it would be awesome to see the 3D games being fixed and coming back to the current-gen consoles. The question is how many people bought Sonic Colours Ultimate worldwide? I only found an article on Nintendo Life and it doesn't show great sales in UK. I'm a bit scared that Sega won't bother and it's a shame because Sonic games are fun to play and make me happy, a bit more than recent Super Mario games such as Odyssey, to be honest.

@BlueOcean Message was said to be too long, breaking it into two parts.

It's Sonic 06, not Sonic 05, and I'm not sure I'd want to see it remastered simply due to the troubled history. The game was supposed to have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Silver, Amy, Blaze, and even Metal Sonic with their own full Sonic Adventure 1 like stories. If you start to fix the games and repair the content, then where do you stop? Several missions are still within the game's code, just disabled. And then items, take the Gems, they were supposed to have a functioning energy meter, but that's just broken and allows for infinity uses? Do you restore the meter to intended functionality, or leave it in because that's how the world has known it for almost 16 years?

Sonic 06 is a can of worms to properly remaster and will likely never get the full gameplay remaster it needs, even from fans who are remaking the game. The story is still a mess, content is an absolute mess with the game. At one point, I wanted it remastered too, but at that point, why not just make a brand new game? It would almost be as much work.

Speaking for the sales figures of Sonic Colors Ultimate, the Switch version likely sold the best. Sonic games tend to sell the best on Nintendo platforms, regardless of how the game plays.

As for other Sonic games, 3D Sonic and bad cameras go together like Super Mario and Best Seller.

Sonic Generations was already hitting 60fps on PC back in 2011, and while I don't have a 4K display to check, I wouldn't be surprised if the game could hit 4K resolution with a proper monitor and graphics card. I wouldn't want to rebuy a port of Sonic Adventure 1 or 2 on anything other than PC, and that's entirely because of community support for the games. Sonic Adventure DX on Steam is a butchered port Sonic Adventure DX on 360/PS3 is a butchered port of Sonic Adventure DX on PC, which is a butchered port of Sonic Adventure DX from GameCube. I said butchered a lot of times, I know, but they took away visual elements from the games, added in new bugs, it's just not done well. And what's to stop them from doing it right this time? The solid almost 10 years of Sega rereleasing Sonic Adventure DX, and doing it worse each time. History has not been kind to the releases of that game. There are plenty of community mods though that restore the game back to the way it originally was on GameCube, or Dreamcast if you prefer that.

Sonic Adventure 2 also got a 360/PS3/PC port. The code for the 360/PS3 version is good, but the PC version is a mess internally. This is the version a port of Sonic Adventure 2 would likely be based off of for future games, and considering how it hasn't been rereleased on any PlayStation, or Nintendo console for a new version, probably not happening outside of 360 Backwards Compatibility anytime soon. Fans continue to work on this one, and have a nice amount of mods for it, but the mod loader can be a mess due to how bad the code for the PC version is. The game is not a buggy mess, but under the surface, it's barely held together.

@BlueOcean There were rumors a while back about a Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 Remaster, but that in and of itself opens a lot of questions. Would they reuse the original voice lines, or do they bring in the current cast to rerecord? Sounds silly, but if they are remaking the games, why not touch up the voice work too?

I wouldn't get your hopes up for a remastered set of games anytime soon. Considering the state Sonic Colors Ultimate launched in, and Sega being okay with that instead of pushing it back, I don't think they would make give Sonic Team, or another studio porting it enough time or support to really honor the original games.

Ok, maybe it is time to buy this game.

I got it for 19 bux and it's wrapped under the tree. I'm glad there are some patches to make it better cause I'm lookingg forward to playing it. Last Sonic game I played was adventure two on the Dreamcast.

Still not going buy the game as someone mention there's still issues in game this is why I'm not hyped for sonic frontier sega team keeps doing these mistakes releasing unfinished game with terrible bugs sonic 06 almost killed sonic franchise with that sams problem.

@Gamergirl94 Sonic Team wasn't responsible for the port of Sonic Colors Ultimate. They haven't touched the game since they finished development back on Wii. This was Sega rushing a product to market before it was ready.

As for Sonic 06, plenty of problems there, but Sega insisted they release the game in 2006 for the 15th anniversary. Sonic Team had their equivalent of Miyamoto for Mario leave mid development, have their staff cut in half as Sega insists the Wii get a new Sonic game (Secret Rings) if 06 can't be ported to Wii, Sonic Team had trouble getting used to developing for HD consoles, it was a mess.

Not saying Sonic Team is blameless, they have made plenty of mistakes, but they aren't to blame for Sonic Colors Ultimate, and blaming them for 06 doesn't acknowledge how bad of a position they were in to begin with. They should have been given more time to delay the game, but Sega refused.

@Knuckles I haven't played Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and probably it's better to make a new game with whatever ideas are good from that game if any. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 would need to be remade if porting them has produced worse results. I have only played the GameCube versions and the GameCube version of Sonic Adventure is full of annoying glitches and camera issues. Sonic Heroes is worth remastering because it looks great, it's fun and the camera is the only annoying thing.

I don't think that Sega was okay with the state that Sonic Colours launched but that they weren't aware of the glitches. It seems that the Switch version is the worst and Digital Foundry didn't find serious issues on the Series X version at launch. That would also explained why the game is being patched. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 yes, it seems that that one was rushed and a total mess.

I still wonder how well Sonic Colours Ultimate is doing commercially (I don't care about sales per platform) just to know if Sega is considering more remasters or remakes. Sonic Heroes seems an obvious choice. It's mostly fine.

@Anti-Matter and that doesn't change what i said at all.

@WallyWest And you are right!

@ModdedInkling But Ocarina of Time wasn't a broken game at launch. I still own version 1.0 with intact save files.

The subsequent cartridge releases merely changed the Fire Temple music, and switched some graphical symbols and blood color. The only glitch it fixed was the item/bottle replacement bug, which was never game-breaking to begin with given how hard it was to even pull it off.

Thus game is great!

@BlueOcean I've seen sources show the Xbox version having bugs, at least as of 2.0 They may be mostly patched out at this point, I'm not sure. I didn't want to buy the game at 30fps on Switch because I could just play the Wii Version at that point, and am not a fan of the Epic Game Store. The game was supposed to release on Steam, early announcement assets showed the Steam logo instead of Epic.

As for the game being patched after launch, I've seen Sega release enough games as buggy, incomplete messes to where it becomes clear they didn't care about it being the best version. Take Sonic Boom on Wii U, the studio was working on a PS4/Xbox One game before Sega shoehorned in an exclusivity deal to Sega. The studio then spent the majority of their time just trying to get the game to run on the Wii U, because the engine they were using wasn't designed for Wii U. Nintendo even helped, and it wasn't enough to fix the game. They spent so much time on just trying to get the game to run, they weren't able to finish developing the game they wanted.

Take the new soundtrack toggle from the current update. What reason would there be to not have included that at launch? If it was really the Ultimate version of the game, should it not have been included from the start, for fans to choose between old and new? Or the Tails Drop feature, it only just got the ability to be turned off, and it only made the game easier. As a bonus, that's fine, but it was standard for everyone. It looks like Sega decided to release the game as is, and said to patch out the problems, instead of dealing with them before launch. It would have resulted in a delay until probably November if not December, but the game would be in a much better state and have a much better reception if it did.

Sonic Heroes has never been one of my favorite Sonic games, but I doubt it will get a remaster anytime soon. You mentioned you didn't play Sonic 06, well it has Sonic, Shadow and Silver playable as main characters, ala Sonic Adventure DX. Like I said earlier, it was supposed to have even more playable characters, but they got integrated into their respective hedgehog's campaign. Since the backlash of Sonic 06, Sonic Team and Sega have taken a hard step back on who is playable in a Sonic game. With the exception of SA2 being rereleased, a mainline Sonic game having more than a Sonic playable wouldn't happen again until Sonic Forces, with the avatar character. SA2 was still universally loved back in 2010ish when it was rereleased, it was before the internet collectively decided to hate the game. Plenty of people dislike Sonic Heroes too, so it wouldn't be an overly popular choice. Sonic Colors was most likely chosen for it's mostly positive reception, and as a way to have a Sonic game this year come out until Frontiers could be released next year.

Sonic Team and Sega have announced at least 3 times in the last several years how they are not going to rush game development anymore, yet Sonic Forces and Sonic Colors Ultimate stick out like sore thumbs to those statements.

@dudujencarelli
A game doesn't have to be broken to warrant a re-release. There are just improvements that can be made to the game, just like many of the patches we get today.

I'm waiting out these patches so I can finally play this game the way it was intended... lol

@Knuckles I don't disagree but it's not the same case as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). When Sonic Frontiers was announced my first reaction was

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/12/sonic-frontiers-arrives-holiday-2022-watch-the-new-trailer#comment6708715

because I'm aware of Sega messing up many times. I know that Sonic creators don't work at Sega anymore but with all the money and resources that Sega have spent on the franchise (including two recent films) you'd expect them to have better people managing their video games. The thing is that they are aware of the Sonic cycle memes and they promised not to rush their games because of that and it only gets them bad reputation and bad reviews. Something's wrong at Sonic Team and they should change it.

@BlueOcean One of Sonic Team's biggest issues is staff turn over rates. Most of Sonic Team's developers who worked on Generations left, several of them went to work on Breath of the Wild. Sega apparently wasn't offering enough money to keep their more experienced, talented staff.

Sega is making bank off of the Sonic Movies, the fact they haven't made a Sonic Movie Mobile Game with microstransactions actually shows a lot of restraint. They should treat the brand more seriously, but as time has shown again and again, they don't. I'd love for Sonic to be given the respect both he and the series deserves, I want Frontiers to be a major success, contender for Game of the Year, best Sonic game ever. But I'm not getting my hopes up, because the last great Sonic game wasn't even made by Sonic Team. If they want fans to start treating Sonic seriously again, they can't have another game with less than a year of development (Forces), and a game with the ultimate buggy launch. Just the crash and burn of Colors Ultimate in gaming communities did more harm for Sonic than not releasing a game this year would have. Casual markets barely care, and the Switch version will easily be the best seller there.

@Knuckles It doesn't make any sense, Sonic is Sega's most popular franchise, they should do everything for it. They should have kept the original creators happy or at least to hire them now and to keep the talented people that worked on Sonic Generations (the best Sonic 3D game, in my opinion). The mediocre results in terms of content (Sonic Forces) or rushed ports (Sonic Colours Ultimate) do more harm than good to the franchise. They can't afford to keep damaging it. They're aware of the Sonic cycle memes, they make promises but they let talents go and rush development. It's like everyone but Sega care about Sonic.

@BlueOcean Yuji Naka chose to leave during the middle of Sonic 06's development. Not after the game was finished. The head of Sonic Team for 15 years left when the team was working on their most difficult project yet. The confusing thing is, he must have left after Sonic Team already split into two during 06's development, when SEGA insisted that Secret Rings be developed for Wii. Interviews about the game's development show that Naka was key in creating the control scheme for Secret Rings, so he must have stayed around into planning for the game at the very least. I can't understand why he would leave when his staff of potentially 15 years would have needed his leadership the most. His departure left Sonic Team without a leader, on top of all of the challenges they were already facing during 06's development. With all of those things in mind, it's easy to see how 06 crashed and burned.

I heard this next thing within the last week, and I haven't been able to verify it yet, but apparently Yuji Naka also took staff from Sonic Team when he left, to hire them at his own company, Prope. If that one is true, then no wonder Sonic Team struggled with 06. The team is already split in half, and more staff keep leaving.

The infamous Sonic Genesis (Sonic 1 GBA) port from 2006 also doesn't have Dimps' name anywhere. You know, the team responsible for every handheld Sonic game from Pocket Adventure until Lost World 3DS. Apparently that terrible port was made in house from Sega or Sonic Team.

You are right that apparently everyone else cares about Sonic more than Sega. Nintendo would never release as many mediocre Mario games as Sega has continued to push Sonic games, knowing they will be bought anyway. But maybe they are trying to get their act together seriously this time. Remember Sonic Origins, the compilation of Sonic 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles + Sonic CD? What if I told you that it's been over a decade since Sega last released Sonic 3? The Steam ROM of Sonic 3 & Knuckles in 2011 was the last time Sonic 3 was released. From every AtGames Mini Console, every Mobile Port, every 3DS port, the Genesis Mini, and when the Sega Ages line on Switch, none of them have Sonic 3. Sonic & Knuckles also got pulled around 2016 from the AtGames Mini consoles. Sonic 3 is arguably Sega's equivalent to Super Mario Bros 3, regarded as the best Sonic game on the Genesis by many, especially when the full game & Knuckles is played. It's speculated that music rights in Sonic 3 with the Michael Jackson estate, and Brad Buxer were up in the air, and Sega could not rerelease the game without having to pay a lot of money from improperly using the music since 1994. My issue is, they spent 10 years without one of the best Sonic titles available to sell, and now it's apparently fixed? Nintendo would have never let that happen to Mario, they would have paid up a settlement amount and been free to release their game going forward. Sega could have ported that game 4 more times easily, and collected almost free money from it.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the best Sonic game, in my opinion, for many reasons, including best level design and best soundtrack. Sonic Origins is my most anticipated game of 2022. I think that Jackson is not really the reason for Sonic 3 & Knuckles's disappearance because there is this Windows version that has alternative themes. Also, since he is not credited, the heirs (and he before he died) wouldn't have those rights anyway. He started working with Sega but didn't like the 16-bit sounds so I don't think he'd come and say "I made it" but even if this was a problem, it could have been solved. As I said, it's like Sega don't care about Sonic. They should care much more about Sonic Team, not just about the Sonic brand.

I didn't know about the other story. I must be the only person who liked The Secret Rings, after some tweaks using the upgrades and customising the controls, granted 😂. Who knows why Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima left but it would be interesting to know what they have to say. They're Japanese so we'll probably never know.

@Anti-Matter People often forgets that videogames and movies even exists because investors have an interest into them to begin with. This is the reason release dates exists in the first place. Not every developer or publisher can delay it to their hearts content. So day one patches or botched releases are something we must learn to live with and work around by either ignoring day one or ignoring the game all together.

At least now, the game getting better later is an option. Remember Quest 64? I think you don't, but updates could have really help that game which was a good idea poorly executed.

@NoctaireSombras Being about to patch games after launch is one of these things that really is a good thing, but there's companies clearly abusing it (or more like abusing their customers) by making it part of their business model. Particularly with large open world games, I think it's unrealistic to think every bug can be caught by a team of testers. Essentially, the thousands of people playing the game in the first week or two become the final game testers and I can live with that. But there's a big difference between working out some random bugs and releasing games that are literally not finished. I'm kind of surprised anyone still buys EA games in their first week anymore.