Sonic Colors - Wii

What We Already Know:

Sonic Colors was announced just before E3, so before that we didn't know anything about it. But it's Sonic, right? It's going to involve running and jumping, and that's it. Right? Well, not exactly. This time, Sonic is getting some special powers from colored Wisps (who look like little, colorful octopoids). I know. It's weird. Yet, fun. Just like Sonic should be.

What We're Seeing Now:

This game is coming out for the DS and the Wii, although I only played the Wii version. Doctor Eggman has tractor-beamed several planets together to form a giant amusement park, and Sonic has to use the colored powers of the Wisps to defeat his insidious, Walt Disney-like plans. Although a Sonic Theme Park actually does sound like a pretty good idea, the real life SegaWorlds haven't exactly been a smash hit.

What Sega has done here is taken the best parts of Sonic Unleashed and put it in this game. There are both 2D and 3D elements, with traditional platforming mixed in with views directly behind or in front of a speeding Sonic, just like in Unleashed. The transitions are very smooth, yet they can be somewhat confusing as you're suddenly shifting your control perspective. Still, it's running and jumping, which is 80% of the gameplay.

The rest of the game is all about the Color powers, of which they were showing two. The Blue Wisp color gives you the ability to turn Sonic into a laser, and he'll bounce around the screen and squirt through power cables, while the Yellow Wisp turns Sonic into a drill, allowing him to chew way down into the surface as you control his drilling direction.

One of the Park worlds we played on was a virtual Candyland, and the surface consists of multiple cake layers (including a jellybean layer, naturally), and Sonic plows down through the icing and moist cake layers beautifully. Honestly, I would've been happy if they'd turned this game into Sonic Drill Dash. That's how fun that power is.

Sonic Colors is just one of four different upcoming Sonic games from Sega, and while it's not the traditional storyline Sonic, it promises a lot of casual fun. Sonic Colors will be out in "late 2010."