This article contains videos that may induce seizures. Viewer discretion is advised.
Updated on September 5, 2021: Sega's social media manager shared an update following reports of serious bugs for the Switch release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate. In a thread via Twitter, @KatieChrz noted that the teams "are listening and assessing for an upcoming patch." She also followed up in an additional tweet, clarifying, "some graphical issues that were caused by an emulator," and said that combing for legitimate bugs impeded QA. Sega is asking fans that do have issues to flag them via its official site.
Original Story:
Sonic fans are slamming the Nintendo Switch port of Sonic Colors: Ultimate after the digital Deluxe Edition went live Friday. Some are complaining that it's in an "unplayable" state due to bugs that may cause seizures in people with epilepsy and other photosensitivity conditions.
Twitter users @kakarooot7u51 and @Smoncdahonk shared videos demonstrating their own separate issues. The first video shows a bug in which the screen glitches in multiple colors, both on the level select screen for the shuttle and inside the level, whereas the planet logo flashes into different shapes. The other shows Sonic glitching as he is moving the boxes to climb up the platform before the screen glitches out.
Warning: these videos may trigger a seizure. If this seizure warning applies to you, please move on.
The risk of inducing seizures isn't the only issue found in the Switch port. Twitter user @AnotherBlob tweeted a side-by-side comparison of the loading screen times, showing that the Switch version of Sonic Colors: Ultimate is just as bad as the notoriously buggy Sonic '06. Tropical Resort Act 1 in Sonic Colors took a staggering 20 seconds to load, which is actually longer than Act 2 of Wave Ocean in Sonic '06.
Further still, @CallieMacN shows that the end of the final boss with Eggman left out the firework sparkling with the Eggman symbol. While it appears to be a minor glitch on its own, she warns people who really want to purchase Sonic Colors: Ultimate to "please don't buy the Switch version" because of it.
Last March, Balan Wonderworld was mired in the same controversy when the game was released with a flashing bug in the final boss that doled out seizure attacks to both epileptic and non-epileptic players alike. The flashes were so severe that GameInformer's Liana Ruppert suffered an epileptic episode and had to go to the hospital after watching the video of the final boss fight. The video even struck her husband with dizziness and nausea despite him not having epilepsy.
We have reached out to Sega to ask if it is working on a patch to address these glitches, but it has not yet responded to our request for comment.