Wisp (Sonic)

Wisps (ウィスプ) are fictional extraterrestrial creatures in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games. They debuted in the Wii/Nintendo DS game Sonic Colors in 2010, where Sonic can use them as power-ups while he rescues others from Doctor Eggman, who plans to use them for a mind control ray. Different forms of Wisps give Sonic different abilities, such as drilling underground, rolling along walls and ceilings, and blasting to extreme heights.

Wisps were added to Sonic Colors to offer alternate gameplay styles without adding other playable characters, and to encourage players to explore levels more than once. They have since appeared in two other Sonic games and a comic book based on Colors. The creatures and their integration into Sonic gameplay have received mixed reviews; generally, critics have praised the variety of gameplay styles they create, but criticized some control and pacing issues.

Design and characteristics
The Wisps are a race of extraterrestrial creatures who live on a grassy, lush planet called Planet Wisp and on a few surrounding planets. The mother of all other Wisps is a giant, pink one named Mother Wisp. She created Planet Wisp and raised all of her children. Wisps speak a common language that Sonic and his sidekick Tails cannot understand, though in Sonic Colors, Tails builds a translation device. Their Japanese and English name comes from a non-phonetic translation of a word in their language by Tails; most other characters in the game simply refer to them as "aliens".

Wisps are composed of an energy force called "Hyper-go-ons", which they can use to give playable protagonist Sonic the Hedgehog elemental powers temporarily, by phasing into his body. They come in numerous breeds, each carrying one of many elemental powers known as "Color Powers". When Sonic collects a Wisp, he can use its power once at will; however, he can only carry one at a time. Types of Wisps have general personalities that match their powers; for example, Cyan Laser Wisps (for bouncing off surfaces) are scatterbrained and energetic, while Orange Rocket Wisps (for blasting rapidly into the air) are very emotional.

Takashi Iizuka, head of long-time developer Sonic Team, stated in an interview that the Wisps were added to Sonic Colors to "expand and strengthen the platform action gameplay" without forcing the player to switch to other playable characters. Another goal was to encourage players to revisit already-played levels; Sonic Team accomplished this by adding segments requiring certain types of Wisps to levels preceding their first appearances. Sonic Team has been pleased with the Wisps so far, having noticed their popularity in Colors, and Iizuka has said that he now considers them a staple in the Sonic series.

Appearances
In Sonic Colors, antagonist Doctor Eggman builds an amusement park spanning the planets the Wisps live on, under the pretense of making up for past transgressions. Suspicious, Sonic and Tails investigate, and they rescue two Wisps from Eggman's henchmen Orbot and Cubot. One of them, a talkative male White Boost Wisp named Yacker, tags along with Sonic and Tails during the game. When Tails builds a translator, Yacker tells them that Eggman is capturing Wisps; it turns out that he is turning them into "Nega-Wisps" to fuel a mind control ray and control the universe. Sonic frees Wisps from their confines in each level, then uses several of them to defeat Eggman at the end of the game. However, Eggman's mind control cannon malfunctions and creates a black hole, which sucks Sonic in until the Wisps combine their power to pull him out and neutralize the black hole. Yacker frees the remaining Wisps, reverts them from Nega-Wisp form, thanks Sonic and Tails, and leaves. The DS version features Mother Wisp as a post-game boss, as she was corrupted by the Nega-Wisps' Hyper-go-ons. When Sonic defeats her, she reverts to normal, also thanks Sonic and Tails, and returns to Planet Wisp with her children.

Wisps have also appeared in Colors adaptations. They are usable in the level "Planet Wisp" in Sonic Generations, a game that revisits past titles in Sonic series history; this stage is a remake of Colors' stage of the same name. The Sonic the Hedgehog comic series had a one-off Colors adaptation, in which the Wisps were featured.

Wisps made a return in Sonic Lost World for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in 2013. They bear little impact on the game's plot but offer alternate pathways through levels. Both versions of the game require techniques such as tilting the Wii U gamepad or 3DS, as well as tapping and drawing shapes on the touchscreen. Some Wisps return from Colors, but there are also several new additions.

Reception
Critics have given mixed opinions toward Wisps and their integration into Sonic gameplay. In general, IGN's Arthur Gies called them "the big addition" to Sonic Colors, outshining its polished physics and controls. Dave McComb of film magazine Empire called them "cutesy" and "strange".

Positive attention has been directed at the variety of Wisps available in Sonic Colors and Lost World, and at the variety of gameplay styles as a result. Gies stated that "almost all of them add interesting quirks to Sonic's basic abilities." Reviewing the Nintendo DS version of Colors, Tim Turi from Game Informer stated that "each adds an interesting new gameplay mechanic" to the game, singling out Violet Void as his favorite, and praised the ability to revisit old levels with Wisps unlocked afterwards, a sentiment Gies agreed with. GameSpot writer Mark Walton called them an "amusing aside" in Sonic Lost World. Steven Totilo of Kotaku praised Lost World's shifting gameplay pace, citing the Wisps as something that provides this. Nintendo Power's Steve Thomason identified them as "a truly interesting addition to the Sonic formula" amidst a series of missteps, and praised their "cleverly designed" variety. Thomason listed Yellow Drill as his favorite breed of Wisp and Purple Frenzy as his least. Taylor Cocke of IGN praised the Wisps' variety and stated that they "fit amazingly well with the levels they're designed around."

However, control and pacing aspects of the Wisps in general, as well as individual types, have been criticized. Reviewing Sonic Colors for the Wii, Gies opined that "for almost every useful ability there is a complete dud" and bemoaned the controls of Pink Spikes and Purple Frenzy. Walton criticized Crimson Eagle, whose flight powers he considered imprecise. Justin Speer from GameTrailers stated that the Wisps "don't really feel like they belong and often require you to figure out unintuitive motion controls." Hardcore Gamer Magazine's review of Lost World stated that none of the Wisps make satisfying use of the Wii U's gamepad. Chris Shilling of Eurogamer found them to "lead to clumsy touchscreen or gyro interludes that kill a level's pacing." Danny Cowan of Joystiq and Joe Skrebels from Official Nintendo Magazine thought similarly, respectively singling out Magenta Rhythm and Black Bomb.