I have fond memories of playing Sonic Colors on the Wii and I enjoyed it for being a proper Sonic game. With Sonic Colors: Ultimate coming to Steam I have decided to go out of my way and beat the game. This is the port from the Switch version, which I have not played, but I have played both the Wii and the DS version. Although to be fair, if they ported the DS version of the game, I wouldn’t mind that because I love Sonic Rush’s gameplay.

Pros

• A classic Sonic-themed story
  
• Fast and fun gameplay
  
• Wisps felt fun to use in the levels

Cons

• Some of the Wisps are not satisfying to use
  
• You have unlimited lives in the game and not punished for your mistakes
  
• I experienced one crash in the game

The story for Sonic Colors starts off with Sonic and Tails visiting an Installer Amusement Park that Dr. Eggman has created. Sonic and Tails believe Dr. Eggman is up to something and sure enough, he is getting his robot minions to chase after these small aliens called Wisps. These aliens can give Sonic special powers by them going inside of him and it’s up to Sonic and Tails to save the Wisps.
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The story of the game is simple and not hard to follow, and I think this adds the charm that classic Sonic fans will enjoy. The voice acting is really good, and I love how the characters all acted, it felt fun and enjoyable from start to finish.

The gameplay for Sonic Colors: Ultimate is not really different from its previous Wii version but there are some tweaks to the gameplay and one new Wisp for you to use. The game at its core is a platformer where you will go from point A to the goal ring. Along the way, you will come across White Wisps that will fill Sonic’s boost gauge. This will cause Sonic to go faster when you press the boost button. Sonic can do a homing attack which he can use to attack enemies and even has a new feature called Sweet Spot Attack. Where if you time it correctly, you will reward Sonic with boost energy for the boost gauge. To do this you have to time the attack just as the green circle overlaps the homing attack.

During the levels you are in, you can use the Wisps to access other parts of the level in various ways or to enhance the gameplay. There are eight Wisps for you to use that have abilities, not counting the White ones due to them not really having an ability. Each Wisp is in a corresponding world that you can visit. Once you are done beating a level with that corresponding Wisp, you can replay previous levels to collect these red rings. Each level contains five red rings, except for the Terminal Velocity stage. When you collect the red rings in the levels, you can unlock new acts in the Sonic Simulator. There you can beat those levels and get access to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, if you collect all seven of them, you can unlock Super Sonic.

The Wisps you can use in the levels have a variety of uses for you to use and some of them are fun. The ones I liked to use were Pink Wisps that turn you into a spiked ball and you can run over enemies. Green gave you a hover ability and if a trail of rings is in front of you, you can follow that trail similar to a Light Speed Dash in the previous games. Purple turned you into a purple monster that made you chomp over obstacles and grows bigger the more it eats things.

Overall, the gameplay is very fun, and I enjoyed it, it keeps the pace going and the worlds are very fun to explore. My two favorite areas are Starlight Carnival because the game utilizes Sonics' fast speed, and the area just looks nice to look at overall. Then there is Aquarium Park with its Japanese-like setting that just looked pleasing.
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Although I do sadly have two issues with Sonic Colors: Ultimate and the first issue I have is that some of the Wisps, I am at odds with. Some of them just don’t enhance the gameplay in some ways, and I am more neutral on two. For the two Wisps I am neutral on the Cyan Wisp as that only gives you a laser-like boost ability, which is a one-time thing. Yes, it opens up some unique level of design, but the Green Wisp gives you a hover ability and an ability just like the Cyan one. So I personally am finding the Green Wisp the better one out of the two.

Then there is the Yellow Wisp, which will grant the drill ability and this one just honestly disappoints me. I say this because I loved the idea that this Wisp had and, in some ways, it does enhance the gameplay, but I feel at times it’s under-utilized.

Orange is ok, it gives you a rocket-like ability which is cool but it’s a one-time use Wisp only, although it’s more fun than the Cyan Wisp. The Blue Wisp though is the most useless ability in the game. It only lets Sonic access platformers with blue rings, and it can cause an explosion and make him invincible in the state but that’s it, it does not enhance the gameplay at all.

Now we have the Jade Wisp, which will turn Sonic into a ghost to pass through walls to access other areas, although none of the levels changed throughout this version and the previous one. This Wisp is also left underused, maybe it can access secrets that I am not looking for, but I never really found a use for it. Am I being too harsh on some of these Wisps and what they can do, probably but it’s just something that irked me I guess.

A change that this version made that I do not like is that you have unlimited lives, you are not punished for falling off a ledge or anything, and you are not punished for your mistakes in this game, which removes the tension the game has.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate looks genuinely nice, at least when referring to the playable levels. The graphics haven’t really changed much or have been enhanced, and you can start to see the age of the game in the cutscenes which feel a little dated. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, the game ran fine but I did come across one crash.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3289657224
Sonic Colors: Ultimate is an alright port, not a whole lot has really changed throughout the game, but it was fun to play. That being said, you can beat the game in about four to five hours at best and for 52.99 CDN, that’s not worth the asking price for the amount of content that the game has to offer. I highly recommend you wait for a sale before picking this game up unless you are a die-hard Sonic fan.

Because Eggman plus secretly built amusement park and reviews at Life Needs a Little Sin equals evil plot for us to foil, luckily for us, he is not very good at keeping things hidden

When I first saw Blood Within, I was amazed by the art style and the setting that the game had going for it. From the gameplay I have seen, I was honestly impressed and looking forward to what I was about to play. With all that said, there are some issues with this game that I do need to address, and I’ll talk about them all here.

One thing I should mention about this game is that it was made by a single person so I wanted to see what one person could make for a game like this. I love 2D platformers, so I really wanted to see what this game had to offer.

Pros

• Good story that sets the theme of the game
  
• Nice pixel art style
  
• The soundtrack is decent

Cons

• Gameplay is very rough, jumping is very clunky
  
• Combat is sluggish, enemies give you no indication on when they will attack
  
• Some enemies can shoot you through walls
  
• Boss fights aren’t very special
  
• The game does not give you a reason to explore its world
  
• There are a few bugs

The story starts out with Captain Thorne, who is out on a patrol mission, him and two of his men have found that The Bloodstar, which protects the Earth from evil, has crash-landed on Earth and now demons roam the outer castle walls. Throne is not a match for the demons and is taken out until he is rescued by a Grey Man who gives him demon power to help fight them.
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The story for Blood Within is nice, it sets the game theme up very well and it’s interesting. I feel that there are some references to Berserk in this game as there are a few things that remind me of that series in this game.

Despite the story being good, Blood Within’s gameplay is rough to say the least. My issue mainly comes with how the game controls, it works on a basic level but when it comes to jumping, the game is rather clunky. You see, Throne jumps very slowly, and I assume this is because of the giant sword he is wielding. However, on certain platforms, he will jump faster and higher than usual to reach higher areas in the game.

I never really played a game where I don’t feel like jumping but I end up having to do it to progress through the game. Combat is also sluggish in a few ways as well; you have your basic attacks, but the issue comes with a mixture of two issues I have with combat. Enemies never give you any indication of when they attack, plus you have no way to cancel your attacks at all. There is a way to block an attack and if you time it correctly, you can even stun the enemy and get a few hits in.
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Although with how the game handles its enemies, it’s a bit difficult to engage in combat in any meaningful way. On top of that there are some ranged enemies in the game, and if they see you, they will of course shoot you, but they can also shoot through walls. Yes, that’s right, the ranged enemies have X-ray vision, and their projectiles can go through walls, and you can’t do anything about it.

The boss fights also aren’t very special either as they just have a few basic attacks that you can block to try and stun them. They don’t really add anything special and just feel like a giant enemy you yourself have to take out.

The world you explore isn’t all that interesting either, you see, it may not seem like it at first but Blood Within is a Metroid-venia type of game, or at least I think. As the game has these checkpoints that you can teleport back to, which I believe is meant for you to find stuff in the game. However, the game does not give you a reason to explore its world. I am currently playing Blasphemous 2 and Tunic while reviewing this game and those games encourage you to explore those games to their fullest. In Tunic’s case, the game doesn’t necessarily give you an objective either or any clues on its story. Dark Souls also does what both of these games do but has a world that you can also explore.

Both give you hidden items or abilities for you to find and use to help you in your next fight or to access new areas in the game. I know I shouldn’t be comparing games made by a team to someone who is a solo developer, but I think this is a good example of how a game makes progression. I don’t know if I am getting anywhere in this game, and I don’t know if I am getting anywhere in Blasphemous 2 either, but I know I am making progress somehow.

There are a few more things that this game does have that are good, like a skill tree that has different abilities for you to use. You will need Demon Essence to level up and to do that you need to defeat enemies. There is even a witch you can find in the game to reset your skill tree to try a different path and or upgrade system, so that’s a cool thing to mention. There is also controller support, the game may not say it but I was able to play on my controller with no issue whatsoever.

The pixel art style is also something I would like to add as something I liked seeing. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while I was playing the game, and it should be able to run on any PC.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3294397753
I did have a few bugs though, like some enemies clipping into the floor and the enemies that can shoot through walls that I mentioned earlier. Although none of these bugs are game-breaking.

Blood Within has some interesting ideas going for it but with how the gameplay and combat are handled, I can’t really see myself playing the game for much longer. HOWEVER, I am going to say this, as much as I am not recommending Blood Within right now, I think this game has potential. The developer is still updating this game and they are making DLC for the game as well, so there is some work being done as I am reviewing it.

For those who are curious, I would recommend keeping an eye on this game, as I do think there is something this could one day be a hidden gem if the developer listens to community feedback and continues updating the game.

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