I'm going to preface this with the statement that in both cases - the GMI driven Unleashed mod and running Sonic Colours through Dolphin - I have both an uneasy feeling about blatant if benign piracy and a lack of willingness to really tinker under the hood to optimize the experience. Playing both of these games, or rather a mod and a game, has much less to do with coming to a fair evaluation of the individual game and more to sort of acknowledge the Sonic cycle.
I had to talk about the Sonic Cycle somewhere in here, and I feel like we're at the point where we can address it, given we just passed by what is subjectively - and maybe objectively, I don't know - the best Sonic game in recent years until mania strikes next year. I also sort of hoped to do it away from the depressing horror show that is Sonic 4 Episode 2, which is coming up next, unfortunately.This is review 7.5 of 9 reviews in The Summer of Sonic! We're almost done. The previous review is here and the next review is here.
So why do these games matter when it comes to the Sonic Cycle? And what is the Sonic cycle?
The Sonic cycle is essentially a meme, no different from something like the image on the right. That's not to say there isn't a kernel of truth within the meme, only that it is has taken on properties which have less to do with conceptual honesty and more to do with a sad facet of gaming media. Now, I'm a certain kind of gamer, and you're a certain kind of gamer, and we all have different genres or styles we like. The Sonic cycle was originally born out of people's frustrations with Sonic being treated rather poorly by Sega, for reasons that this review actually gets really confused on. They made quite a few bad or not great games, some of which I think are judged unfairly, and some of which really are trash fires.
The cycle is the hopes, hype, apprehension and then resignation that The Next Sonic game will look good, sound great, start to slip, Sonic is hurled off a cliff.
But the cycle is more about repeating that, and it gets picked up by the media because Gaming media isn't allowed to crap on whatever they don't like. Oh, sure, they can try to make it sound like they objectively sought flaws in a game, but they get death threats if they don't love Batman enough and might also see problems with their income. But Sonic ... Sonic has a cycle, and with that cycle, comes the freedom for the media to vent their oral tradition on.
So the point here is there's always "Sonic was never good" and "The Sonic cycle begins anew!" but here's two games that came out before Generations... That might actually be good?
The Unleashed mod is essentially a map pack for Generations. It is installed over your existing install, in fact, to the point where it can trigger achievements in Generations if you happen to meet whatever criteria the zone it thinks you're in desires. I don't know over much about Unleashed, except that it is more or less the catalyst for the current era Sonic "speed sections" and it also involves Sonic turning into a monster, which is called a Werehog, which doesn't make any sense.So I don't really know a lot about Unleashed or why the levels are the levels they are. To me there is the Hedgehog Engine, and there is goes fast.
Since the Werehog is generally the part complained about, they couldn't or didn't bother to mod it in, so it's entirely the goes fast stuff, essentially identical to Modern Sonic's Generations levels in function. And you know what? It's not as polished as Generations, but this is definitely a mod worth digging up. Installation, for what it's worth, wasn't all that difficult and took maybe two passes to get right. I didn't do the more technical stuff to improve the pipeline; I probably should have.It's very obvious the level construction was done by a slightly different team, and the levels are gorgeous but woefully generic, albeit more lovingly done than Sonic 4's generica. They're basically themed around being a sort of world tour, from a cartoony perspective, with Sonic elements meshed in. There's what I think is supposed to be Holland, an Italian/French (not sure?) looking 'Rooftop run' which ended up in Generations but is maybe better here, an ice course with penguins, a Savannah, an Egyptian - maybe more Libya or Palmyra, I dunno, not very 'Pharaoh' themed - market into ruins and so forth. There's lots of variety, but they don't have the general Sonic kick. Even the Pacific island themed one just feels like Sonic and Badniks thrust into a real world locale.
I'm not saying it's awful, but it lacks the pleasing Sonic touch you get from Generations, or even Heroes. That might be a 'Not muh Sonic' thing but I find the way real world elements are bent to suit or all the spring/speed spots don't mesh quite right. Maybe in the actual game they obscure them more, but it's weird enough doing loop de loops on a highway. Add some garish springs and floating rings and my brain isn't too pleased.
In terms of being satisfying, they're a bit less cinematic than the Generations levels - which makes sense - but also go much, much faster. Sonic hurls himself off a cliff in new and exciting ways, which is a mixed bag, but if you want a harder challenge than Generations, these levels will do the trick. The ceiling was high in generations, it's even higher.
It's obviously not "the real game" by any measure, and I've read Unleashed had loads of technical issues and the night were-levels were very weary, if you will. Still, the day levels are excellent Sonic action, which makes them almost a more Sonic cycle than the Sonic cycle... if the were stuff is so bad, then you'd be going through micro cycles!
Sonic Unleashed was followed by Sonic Colours, which is a Wii exclusive, and therefore must be emulated... Which is unfortunate, since it's hard to really nail down when and where issues with the game are emulation problems, poor emulator set up on my part, or the game legitimately not being all that great. It's also unfortunate in that I can't, you know, buy it. I mean I can but I don't own a Wii. I believe this game is under a full exclusivity contract, as opposed to the looser restrictions on Sonic Lost World. Which is a shame.Superbunnyhop mentioned, when starting up Sonic Colours, that you just go. This is... This is just one of the most important things about Sonic games. You need to press no more than six buttons to get going. One of the joys about emulating it is, simply put, you fire it up, load your state and there you are. Colours is really easy to pick up if you've played Generations, although much like Unleashed, it isn't quite as sharp. But - oddly - it's weird in other different ways. That might be the emulator not quite meshing with my system.
I didn't play all of Colours, as I find Dolphin a bit tedious, though it might be a result of not being certain how to get it to work quite correctly. It full screens poorly, in spite of being set to the right resolution and ratio, so I don't know how to fix it alt-tabbing like molasses.
Anyway, Colours is further along the design curve from Unleashed, and is much closer to Generations, although you can really get the feeling they're still getting down the new "3d archetype" as the game goes on. Unlike Generations, there isn't a "Classic Sonic" to offload some of the level design on, so instead levels have a lot less 3d "rollercoastering" sections and a lot more 2d platforming. There are a lot of levels, forty or something, which vary in length, both in terms of time and how fast you're going.The gameplay is good, but it can stay in one mode too long and start to drag. It feels like levels are more focused, less on showing the style of the level and more on one or two mechanics. This just doesn't work as well for Sonic.
Visually, Colours isn't quite working right, but it's an inspired - if once again sort of generic - set up. Even though it's a giant space amusement park, it still feels a little lacking. Unlike Unleashed it feels like Sonic, but it's just kind of not quite there. Like they were getting the hang of visual design and didn't quite perfect it til Generations.I don't know what's up with the audio, but it was kind of weirdly variable. I think it's the emulator, but some of the music is downright generic and awful. Not Sonic 4 awful, but a bizarre drop in quality and I have no idea why. These are mostly the same guys who did an amazing job on Generations. Some of it is pretty catchy, but it's no Hydrocity or Generations take on Chemical Plant, lemme tell you.
Basically, it's a little rough around the edges, partially due to emulation and partially due to being a six year old game from a pretty low powered console. I like it, but it doesn't quite grab me, though I think that's mostly emulation being annoying. Port this to Steam and I'll definitely buy it and finish it.
So the Sonic cycle? It's interesting, looking at these two games. The Unleashed mod is missing what people complain about, and while it's not Generations level, the day stuff is pretty sweet. Sonic Colours on the other hand isn't missing anything, and honestly, it's a pretty good game. I think being released in the twilight years of the Wii hurt its recognition within the larger gaming public. But after years of hearing its bad and Sonic is always bad etc, I'd honestly say this game is quite good. But honest people said it was good, anyway, it's just nice to play it.I don't think you can prove or disprove a meme like the Sonic Cycle, but I think it's a little more complex than that. Granted, the next game up is ... Not good... And then we get to see how Lost World is, which will be interesting
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