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The good folks over at Sega were nice enough to invite Aeropause to a closed doors meeting for their newest title in the Sonic series, Sonic Colors.  Our presentation was given to us by the lead designer on the team, Takashi Iizuka and was translated by Patrick Riley.  Patrick is also a developer on the title and took a few questions about the development on Sonic Colors after the presentation.  Continue on below to read all about what we saw in our Sonic Colors preview.

Sonic Colors was designed with the thought in mind to be a fantastic new setting, that was bright and vibrant.  With that concept in mind, Takashi told us that is how the idea of a world theme park was brought in as the setting for Sonic Colors.  A theme park is the kind of place that is normally full of bright lights, and exciting worlds to discover.

As always, Dr. Eggman is our bad guy, and he has unleashed a new brand of havoc on this amusement world, capturing the native residents, called Wisps, and has turned them into mechanical robots that will attempt to destroy anyone that tries to enter the world.  Sonic, through his travels will be tasked with freeing these Wisps, and taking on their power to open new avenues and paths in the world.

The first gameplay footage we got to see from Sonic Colors, showed the camera following behind our furry hedgehog from behind, with the camera a little elevated at an angle.  We were told that you could compare it to Sonic Unleashed with that kind of camera and color palette in the world.  Our section was set up to show off some of the powers, or colors, that you will find in the game.  The first of these colors was unlocked after a battle with a series of robotic enemies, and once the Scion color was absorbed, we gained the ability to use a laser.  With this laser, you could attack certain surfaces and enemies.  Attacking surfaces will allow you to find new paths through the level, which will give players bonuses and unlockables, and might factor into your score at the end of the level.

Another power we got to see was a yellow color, which allowed us to use a drill like power to go through the ground and find new underground locations.  These underground locations will open up new paths, that will again, offer new bonuses and unlockables if you choose to use them.

And choosing to use the powers is a big deal with the development team, to the point that they have afforded players the option to play through Sonic Colors without ever using a single power.  They wanted to give players the option to play this title as a normal Sonic experience, with jumping puzzles and speed.  However, those that want to be rewarded, with be able to enlist the powers to find new paths and avenues to explore.  I found this to be a strange design choice, because if you do not use the powers, you end up with a standard Sonic experience, not unlike what you have played in the past.  Maybe that will be alluring to some, but I feel that the color powers should be more important to the game.

The game does switch between 2D and 3D planes depending on the segment of the levels that you are on.  And the levels looked really good in each mode of gameplay.  On Sweet Mountain, we were battling through a level that is in the middle of a huge candy and snack factory, and the level is full of references to these elements.  Even when you get the drill power, you end up drilling into the ground, which is built like a layered cake, complete with fruit filling.  The same goes for the Las Vegas hotel styled level that we saw.  There was a lot of detail in the distance, while the tracks that Sonic is on are full of color.    It is definitely one of the best looking Sonic titles I have looked at in some time, with an expansive use of its color palette. 

A few extra tidbits that we were able to get at the end of the session included finding out that Sonic is the only playable character in the game.  Now that does not mean that he is not the only character you will see in the game.  Tails and the gang will show up to help you in certain spots, but you will just not play as them.  We also were told that the bosses will be a mix of large enemies, but with a theme to the level.  One of the bosses you will face in combat will be a huge ferris wheel with an eye in the middle of it.  Also, you cannot stockpile color powers, so you can only use one power at any one time.  Scoring also came up as we did see a leaderboard with an S-ranking on it, and we were told that scoring would be a combination of items that ”might” include speed of level completion, points, shortcut usage and secret items found.  None were guaranteed, but we were told scoring should be similar to Sonic Unleashed.  Also, they are looking at having shorter stages, but making each level longer as a whole, designing around making it a more jump in and jump out gaming experience.

As a bonus, we did find out a bit about the DS version of the title.  It will use the same theme of the story line that it is in Sonic Colors on the Wii, but it will be different and tuned to the DS experience.  You can compare the gameplay style to Sonic Rush.  There will also be exclusive powers to both the Wii and DS versions.  Most powers will be on both, but there are a few that are exclusive to one or another.   

Overall, Sonic Colors looked really good, running at a clean 30 fps, and with a nice bright color palette. Most were down on this title after the teaser release, but I was pleasantly surprised by the gameplay.  I honestly think that Sonic players should be happy with the progress on this, and come late 2010, you might have the Sonic game you have wanted for years.