What if Sonic the Hedgehog was not just a speedy mascot with a long list of furry sidekicks, but more like Mario, a loner with occasional superpowers that could let Sega's mascot fly, drill through solid ground or become a laser?

Sega's Sonic Colors for the Wii explores the possibility of a Sonic the Hedgehog with alien powers, a twist on the high velocity platformer that manages to feel more natural an transformation than Sonic as a werewolf or Sonic with a sword. Sonic goes it alone in Sonic Colors—original sidekick Tails appears only as moral support—traveling to an intergalactic amusement park built by longtime nemesis Dr. Eggman, attempting to free alien lifeforms known as Wisps, the same beings that give Sonic special abilities. Sonic Colors is a mixture of classic side-scrolling action with fast paced rollercoaster ride action segments, spiced up with the option to sometimes turn into a pink, sticky spikeball.

Ideal Player

The Sonic the Hedgehog fan who has had his or her expectations for the series lowered by sub-par Sonic game's past and is forgiving of the Blue Blur's brand of platform jumping quirks.

Why You Should Care

Sega has clearly listened to its vocal, faithful fanbase, delivering a compromise of a Sonic the Hedgehog game. It may very well be the best Sonic the Hedgehog game released in the last decade.

This is a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog, right? That's a real hit or miss. Sonic Colors is an almost even blend of side-scrolling platform jumping and 3D sprinting, with the player either carefully leaping from ledge to ledge or barely holding on as they steer Sonic through racetrack-like paths at full throttle. Like many modern Sonic the Hedgehog games, there are many stops and starts affecting the flow of this speedy franchise, but developer Sonic Team has found a favorable balance of old, established and new.

Sonic with super powers? How's that work? Granted, Sonic the Hedgehog is already more powerful than the average spiny mammal. He can sprint on water, run like the Flash and withstand massive damage simply by holding some gold rings. In Sonic Colors, Sonic can transform into rocket ships, burrowing drills, laser beams, a purple chomping monster and more by finding colored Wisps that give him temporary powers. While Sonic's Wisp powers are sometimes fun to use, critical in locating many of the game's hidden secrets, Sonic's new abilities (disappointingly) never feel all that well integrated into the experience nor fully explored. Players who want to plumb Sonic Colors for every S-rank, hidden item and secret pathway will find these powers useful, but they sadly add little to making this a better game.

But it's so pretty... Doesn't it deserve credit for being a great looking Wii game? Certainly. Sonic Colors is graphically spectacular, bursting with detail, brightly colored environments and sharply designed worlds. My personal favorite is built on the foundation of massive hamburgers, cakes and donuts, a junk food world packed with personality. There are some gorgeous visual effects at play in Sonic Colors, and much of it moves smoothly, even at Sonic the Hedgehog's dizzying speeds. This is one of the Wii's better looking titles. Sonic Colors' energetic pop soundtrack is a good, peppy fit.

More importantly, how well does it play? Fine. Not spectacular. Sonic Colors features familiar floaty physics and other control quirks that are frustratingly imprecise for a game that's so stuffed with spikes, instant death drops and two-hit kills. Soft, unresponsive controls make side-scrolling segments more challenging than they should be, leading to confusing, exasperating deaths. The same control quibbles apply to Sonic's Wisp powers, particularly the clumsy pink spikeball that lets the hedgehog cling to surfaces.

Does Sonic Colors do anything seriously wrong? Sonic Colors fails miserably in providing interesting or inventive boss fights. Many end-of-level battles are either shockingly simple-minded or tedious exercises in pattern memorization, with none of them taking real advantage of Sonic's color-coded Wisp powers. They're often more memorable for the self-referential wisecracks that Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman exchange in cut-scenes before and after boss fights.

How much value is here? Sonic Colors speeds by quickly. It took me about six hours and change to beat, but for fans who dig this type of Sonic game, the game's many secrets and collectibles will greatly extend its life. There's a post-game Challenge Mode and Eggman's Sonic Simulator arcade game, which supports two players, but the core single-player campaign is the meatiest part.

So, despite it all, Sonic Colors does not suck? Sonic Colors manages to be a better modern day Sonic the Hedgehog game than many of its predecessors, but it still has its share of design pitfalls. It can be thrilling to pilot a sprinting, skating Sonic the Hedgehog at high speeds and flirt with his new alien super powers. It can be equally maddening to deal with Sonic Colors' shortcomings, like cheap deaths, iffy lock-on attacks and insulting trial and error gameplay. Sonic Team throws plenty at the wall in Colors—some of it actually sticks, some of it doesn't.

Sonic Colors In Action

The Bottom Line

Sonic Team does a commendable job of putting smart limits on Sonic the Hedgehog's scope in Sonic Colors. Wisp powers are enjoyable, if under-utilized, and longtime Sonic the Hedgehog fans will find a game that's largely inoffensive. There's still plenty of work to be done under the hood, most notably in Sonic's controls, but Colors could represent a strong foundation for future hedgehog games. Compared to Sonic Team's most recent efforts, Sonic Colors sits at the top of the heap. But held up against its many Wii platforming adventure peers, including strong contenders Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby and Klonoa, Sonic will have to settle for the bottom end of the stack.

Sonic Colors was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Wii, released on November 16. Retails for $49.99. A Nintendo DS version of the game is also available. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through main story mode in single-player, S-ranking only a handful of stages, sadly settling for D-ranking too often.

Sonic Free Riders is a cautionary tale about the importance of controls in gaming. Make a game interesting, give it solid graphics and some unique hooks, but don't lock down the controls and you're going to have a disaster on your hands.

Kinect-enabled Sonic Free Riders is the third in the Sonic Riders series which has you hoverboarding your way through courses against a clock or other popular Sonic the Hedgehog characters. You lean forward and backward to steer, as if standing on a snowboard, and mimic kicking off on a skateboard to speed up. You can also grab items with your hands and use them against your opponents.

Ideal Player

Sonic the Hedgehog fans who continue to be okay with the concept of Sega's mascot riding something, rather than running on his fast little feet. Players tolerant of frustrating controls and user interface... and Sonic's friends.

Why You Should Care

This is our first look at Sega's attempts at making use of Microsoft's controller-free Kinect. It also delivers one of the few racing games to the casual-heavy Kinect launch line-up.

Does Kinect make the Sonic Riders games any more fun to play? Not really, the series' long-standing issues with loose controls are only exacerbated by the Kinect's inability to keep track of what you're doing and translate that into a semblance of control on the screen. I spent a healthy chunk of nearly every race with my hoverboard nose-first in a course's retaining wall. My weak control of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and crew also often led to them randomly switching stances and ignoring jumps.

How are you supposed to control the game? The idea is that you stand in front of your television at a slight angle, with one shoulder facing the TV and the other the wall behind you. You bend forward and backward to turn, jump to jump, and swipe your foot at the ground to perform a kick dash. You can also hold out your hands to grab things, face forward to break and switch stances by facing in the opposite direction. The game includes items that you can pick up and use during a race as well, like tossable tornadoes and giant bowling balls. The core concept for the moves are solid, but the game has a pretty high rate of completely missing what you're doing.

Maybe it needs better calibration? Perhaps, but Sonic Free Riders has you doing more calibration than any other Kinect game I've played. Before every single race you need to go through a quick set-up that has you slowly weaving your board between a set of cones. It never seems to help.

The game's light story is presented in a series of still images with spoken dialog.

OK, so there are control issues, but what about when the game works? Sonic Free Riders offers an impressive collection of modes and ways to play the game. The World Grand Prix, the game's mainstay, has you controlling one of four teams as they race to unlock tracks and modes. But there's also the ability to do tag-team races with a friend, relay races and play online. And the races aren't all on hoverboards, you also get a chance to do some races on a bike, which controls much better than the hoverboard. If the controls worked, this could be a great game.

How does Sonic Free Riders compare to the Kinect's other racer, Kinect Joy Ride? Sonic Free Riders has a lot more substance and the graphics and presentation are better than Kinect Joy Ride, but Joy Ride works.

Is it really that bad? Yes, even the menu system is a mess. I can't think of the last game I played that almost stopped me cold because I wasn't able to select the option to start playing.

Does Sonic Riders have anything going for it? If Sega can patch the game to fix the major issue with controls, this could easily be the sort of game players could sink a lot of time into. There are a lot of neat touches found in the races, like multiple routes, the ability to go over and around the main course. I love that the game lets you reach out and interact with the course as it zips by and performing tricks when you're in the air can be a lot of fun. But it all comes crashing down every time the game fails to recognize a turn, ignores a jump or refuses to let you use an item.

Sonic Free Riders In Action

The Bottom Line

Sonic Free Riders is the most broken of the Kinect games I've played and that includes a half-dozen titles. It's unfortunate, because another strong action racing game would be a nice addition to Kinect's game library. If Sega can somehow fix the control issues I'd be the first to recommend picking up this game. Until then don't waste your time or money.

Sonic Free Riders was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Xbox 360 Kinect, released on Nov. 4. Retails for $49.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through more than a dozen races and modes. Tried single and multiplayer races. Struggled mightily with the menu. Attempted several recalibrations to improve the control issues.

Sega celebrates the impending release of Sonic Colors in New York City tomorrow evening with an ice skating party in Bryant Park. Need a reason to care? How about free hedgehog hats?

The first 300 guests to arrive at the Sonic Colors launch party at the at Citi Pond at Bryant Park in New York City tomorrow evening will skate away with a fancy free Sonic the Hedgehog hat. You know, the fancy ones you can normally only get by preordering the game at GameStop.

Snugly wrapped in their hedgehog headwear, those 300 party-goers will also be able to skate for free, while listening to a live performance of the game's theme song "Reach for the Stars" by the band Cash Cash. Come on, sing it with me!

"I'm gonna reach for the stars, although they look pretty far!" Brilliance!

Fans will also be able to play the game two weeks ahead of its November 16 release.

"We are extremely excited to allow fans to play Sonic Colors two weeks before launch" said Judy Gilbertson, Senior Brand Manager of Sonic Colors. "We're delighted with the quality of Sonic Colors and the passion that both fans and press are showing for the game. This party is our way of thanking everyone for supporting us as we prepare for the release of the most exciting Sonic game in recent memory."

The event runs from 6PM to 10PM Eastern time, so be sure to get their early or bring your own damn hat to stay warm on the way home.