Sonic Colours (Nintendo DS)

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Sonic Colours
System(s): Nintendo DS
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team, Dimps
Supporting companies: Marza Animation Planet (CGI cutscenes), Delfi Sound (audio)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Official in-game languages: English Français Deutsch Español Italiano 日本語
Release Date RRP Code Rating UK 2010-11-12 £? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-UKV EX 2010-11-12  ? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-UXP EX (Limited Edition) 2010-11-12  ? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-UXP FR 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-FRA FR (Limited Edition) 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-FRA DE 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-NOE DE (Limited Edition) 2010-11-12 €? ? ES 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-ESP IT 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-ITA US 2010-11-16 $? NTR-P-BXSE NTR-BXSE-USA JP 2010-11-18 ¥4,800 (5,040) NTR-P-BXSJ NTR-BXSJ-JPN CA 2010 $? NTR-P-BXSE NTR-BXSE-CAN PT 2010-11-12 €? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-POR AU 2010-11-11 $? NTR-P-BXSP NTR-BXSP-AUS AU (Limited Edition) 2010-11-11 $? ?

Sonic Colours, called Sonic Colors (ソニック カラーズ) in North America and Japan, is a Sonic the Hedgehog game released for the Nintendo DS in late 2010.

In a similar manner to the original Sonic game, which saw both a Master System / Game Gear 8-bit release and a Mega Drive 16-bit release concurrently, Sonic Colours was released both as a DS game and as a Wii game. Both games share the major plot element in that Sonic has to save an alien race from an intergalactic amusement park run by Dr. Eggman. However, they differ significantly as well, in terms of both gameplay and story.

Story

Eggman claims to have developed a sense of remorse after his lack of judgement in the past and decides to build his next massive amusement park, Dr. Eggman's Amazing Interstellar Amusement Park, in space, using the power of small alien creatures known as Wisps to power the interplanetary monstrosity. Sonic instantly suspects Eggman's evil intentions, while Tails has some doubts he still goes along with Sonic to stop Eggman. The two heroes soon find Orbot and Cubot (who is going through some voice chip problems) hunting Yacker and other Wisps. These aliens have a power in them called Hyper-Go-On Energy which Sonic soon learns can give him new abilities when he works with them. Sonic and Tails quickly become friends with Yacker and the smart little fox starts turning his Miles Electric into a translator for the alien's language.

As Sonic and Tails explore the park they find many of their other friends here too. Amy Rose, Big the Cat, Blaze the Cat, Cream the Rabbit, E-123 Omega and Knuckles the Echidna are all in the park and have missions for Sonic to do.

After Sonic's battle with the big boy Globotron, the arm of the robot flew off and damaged Dr. Eggman's new Mind-Control Ray. As the game goes on, Sonic battles Baldy McNosehair's robots and learns that Eggman is transforming the colorful Wisps into dark Nega-Wisps. Once Sonic destroys the five tractor beam generators holding the planets together, Eggman tries to activate his Mind-Control Ray. The damage from Globotron's arm causes the device to explode, and the Hyper-Go-Ons from the Nega-Wisps creates a black hole.

Sonic and Tails run to Eggman's Ultra-Accelerating Space Elevator to escape from the black hole. Once arriving at the elevator, Eggman appears in his Nega-Wisp Armor ready to fight. This robot is fused with a modified Wisp, which Eggman believes will finally crush his blue foe. Sonic tells Tails to get a head start out of there. Tails initially rejects this because he wants to fight with Sonic, but the hedgehog tells him to have a little faith. He knows he can handle Eggman alone. Tails then accepts Sonic's request and waits for him back home. With the help of all the Wisps, Sonic defeats the robot armor with the Final Color Blaster. Sonic unfortunately is unable to escape the expanding black hole. He is saved however by the Wisps and returned to the planet below. Yacker gives Sonic and Tails one final goodbye then leaves to go back to Planet Wisp.

Something starts happening however around Sonic and Tails. Yacker comes back to them to tell them about Mother Wisp. They see that Eggman has done something to her. She has been transformed into a Nega-Wisp herself. And the seven Chaos Emeralds are also here to help. Sonic uses their power to transform into Super Sonic to battle the Nega-Mother Wisp. After the battle, Mother Wisp reverts back to her normal form. She thanks Sonic and Tails for helping her children. The aliens then return their planets back where they belong. Sonic then races Tails and the two run off.

Gameplay

While the Wii version of Sonic Colours borrows a few elements from Sonic Unleashed for its gameplay with more focus on slower and more segmented 2D areas that have more in common with early platformers such as the Super Mario Bros. titles, the Nintendo DS version is an entirely 2D game in the style of Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure. However, there are noticeable changes from the aforementioned games, the most notable being that Sonic is the only playable character.

The Trick Action system has been removed entirely, and to compensate for its removal Sonic is now capable of performing new moves imported from Sonic Unleashed, such as the Slide (by pressing ), Stomp (by pressing + in mid-air), Wall Jump, and Air Boost. The Homing Attack is now mapped to the buttons used for jumping, and has more substantial use. The Boost has also been reworked to accommodate for the gameplay changes - it is instead refilled by collecting White Wisps (more information below) from Wisp Capsules or by defeating Badniks. While the Boost Gauge can be filled up to 300%, the player will not be able to achieve an infinite Boost status, and no Boost energy is lost should the player take damage.

Each Area in the game has two standard Acts, a boss battle, and three optional Missions which require the player to complete specific objectives, such as collecting Rings or finishing within a certain amount of time. To further add replayability, the game features Special Rings to collect in each Act and Mission, which will unlock new content in the gallery. When all Special Rings are collected, the player will unlock Infinite Boost.

Wisps

The game's signature nuance is the appearance of Wisps; small, color-coded, floating alien creatures that each contain a different ability, known as a Color Power, that Sonic can harness by collecting them. When a Wisp is collected, the Boost Gauge on the left of the screen will display which Wisp is currently active. There are 10 available Wisps across the Wii and DS versions, although some are exclusive to a single game. Consequently, just 6 can be found in the DS version:

Image	Info
	White Wisps — Gives Sonic energy for the Boost, allowing for fast speed bursts which can damage enemies. Unlocked in Tropical Resort.
	Red Wisps — Gives Sonic the Red Burst, which turns him into a fireball which can explode multiple times to destroy obstacles and gain height. Unlocked in Sweet Mountain. (DS only)
	Orange Wisps — Gives Sonic the Orange Rocket, which turns him into a rocket that can blast into the air to reach higher areas. Unlocked in Starlight Carnival.
	Yellow Wisps — Gives Sonic the Yellow Drill, which turns him into a drill that can dig through certain surfaces, allowing access to other paths. Unlocked in Planet Wisp.
	Cyan Wisps — Gives Sonic the Cyan Laser, which turns him into a laser, which allows him to ricochet between walls and go through formations of diamond shaped prisms. Unlocked in Aquarium Park.
	Violet Wisps AKA Nega Wisps — Gives Sonic the Violet Void, which turns him into a 'black hole' that absorbs objects to increase its size and speed. Unlocked in Asteroid Coaster. (DS only)

History

Development

Main article: Sonic Colours/Development

Marketing

GameStop pre-order gift hat

As a gift for pre-ordering the game for GameStop customers, Colours included a special hat shaped like Sonic's head. In addition, a "Special Edition" of the game released in the UK and Australia shipped with a Sonic figurine as well as three wisp figurines (white, cyan and orange in the Wii version and yellow, red and blue in the DS version).

Sales data

Main article: Sonic Colors#Sales data

Production credits

Voice actors

This game is notable for being the first major Sonic game to take place after the major North American cast change in 2010 (Sonic Free Riders was released slightly earlier, but the price-tag of the Kinect limited its impact). All of the 4Kids actors (besides Mike Pollock) have been replaced with a new cast from this game forward. The Japanese cast, as usual, remains largely the same since the first Sonic Adventure game.

Role	English	Japanese
Sonic the Hedgehog	Roger Craig Smith	Junichi Kanemaru
Miles "Tails" Prower	Kate Higgins	Ryo Hirohashi
Doctor Eggman	Mike Pollock	Chikao Otsuka
Orbot	Kirk Thornton	Mitsuo Iwata
Cubot	Wally Wingert	Wataru Takagi

The Nintendo DS version features only one voice track in the game card and according to the regional version, due to size constraints. The Western versions have the English voice language whereas the Japanese version has the Japanese one, while the text language is entirely multi-lingual and manually selectable in all regional versions.

Promotional material

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  Sonic Colors Japanese Promotional Poster

• JP TV advert

Artwork

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  International Logo

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  US logo (CMYK)

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  US logo (RGB)

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  Eggman invitation

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  Promotional poster for the game, as featured on the cover of Nintendo Power

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  Yacker

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  Orbot

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  Cubot

Box art

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Screenshots

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  Tropical Resort

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  Sweet Mountain

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  Starlight Carnival

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  Planet Wisp

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  Aquarium Park

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  Asteroid Coaster

Wallpaper

Japan

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America

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Europe

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Physical scans

Reception »

Nintendo DS, JP
Cover
Card Rekishi Taisen Gettenka card

Nintendo DS, US (foil)
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, US
Cover

Nintendo DS, EX†
Cover
Card File:Colours DS EU Manual.pdf Manual

Nintendo DS, EX† (Limited Edition)
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, UK
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, FR
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, FR (Limited Edition)
Cover

Nintendo DS, DE
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, DE (Limited Edition)
Cover

Nintendo DS, ES
Cover
Disc

Nintendo DS, IT
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, IT (Limited Edition)

Nintendo DS, PT
Cover
Card

Nintendo DS, AU
Cover

Nintendo DS, AU (Limited Edition)
Cover

Nintendo DS, CA
Cover
Card File:Sonic Colours DS CA manual.pdf Manual

Nintendo DS, BX†
Card

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 316d9769 MD5 1996db2bdd78f30082ac003c1bc14a9b SHA-1 fc76c4f3480b00f02646acb88d6713baf1b1d62a	64MB		Card (US)	English voices
✔	CRC32 50e3ae41 MD5 406514e483ee092a89f4298f59fd53a9 SHA-1 e414c26db42a7405c0c50898d29c7e4c4e8d042e	64MB		Card (EU)	English voices
?	CRC32 a2b72d02 MD5 9111f748c82807e8f5cfb50cf537915b SHA-1 fb87ecbef0e267a3da7c38f2765f280a92abbf49	64MB		Card (JP)	Japanese voices
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	2MB		Digital download (US)	Nintendo Channel demo			Page
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	2MB		Digital download (EU)	Nintendo Channel demo			Page
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	2MB		Digital download (JP)	Nintendo Channel demo			Page

External links

• Sega of Japan catalogue pages: Nintendo DS
• Official website on Sega.com
• Official website on Sega.jp (Japanese)
• Nintendo catalogue pages: JP, UK, AU

References

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

2005  Sonic Rush     2007  Sonic Rush Adventure     2008  Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games | Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood     2009  Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games | Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Rush & Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll     2010  Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing | Sonic Classic Collection | Sonic Colours      Unknown date  Super Speed Pack (201x)  Demos  Sonic Rush (E3 demo) | Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (demo) | Sonic Colours (demo)  Unreleased  Sonic DS