Sonic Unleashed

"If anyone should be saying anything good about this game, it should be me. And i'm not."

Okay, so the Tagline sounds a little pompous, but that's just the way I feel. Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) was the first game I ever played, and Sonic 2 shortly thereafter, was my second (Then I got into Pokemon games, but we won't talk about that). Anyway Sonic Unleashed was my hope for a true revival of the Sonic franchise, what with great games like the Sonic Rush games, and even Sonic Chronicles, we are starting to get some better Sonic games, but I really wanted a 3-D revival of the series, something like the Sonic Adventure Series. But sadly, this failed to make the cut. Sonic '06 was better than this (it was better than Shadow the Hedgehog, but only just).

Gameplay: Alright then, Daytime stages are one of the few salvageable parts of this game, and that may be open to argument. The levels do have great design, and it is a Sonic game, meaning running at high speeds through levels, destroying robots, collecting rings, and so on. The conspicuous problem with these levels is they seem to lack speed. Remember in SA2, where you had to follow a fast moving dot on high-speed rails in the middle of space?

This is definitely not that.

The controls are iffy for a Wii game (and that says something) and Secret Rings had better controls than this. I almost wish this was a SR sequel, just because that game solves most of this games problems.

Let's talk about the Night stages, Sega of America's commercial advertisement for this game. The difference really is Night and Day. The stages are somewhere of a cross between Sonic Adventure's treasure hunt Stages and playing "Warioware: Smooth Moves!", mixed with all the fun of watching Disney sequels, hitting yourself with sharp objects, or reading Troll/Shipping posts on the Boards. The fighting style involves the movement of the Wii Remote in order to use most attacks. This sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but like the Day controls, the movement and timing seem a little off, like playing a B natural on a Trombone.

All in all, a total lack of competence let the controls slip into the bounds of obscurity in this game.

Characters: Sonic, Tails, Amy, GOOD/FTW. Wherehog, Chip, BAD/WTF.

Music: It's a Sonic game, the music is great at times and not at others. Enough said.

Sound/Voice Acting: Bleh, Werehog sounds like Naruto at times, and I still miss the old voice actors from Sonic Adventure. Then there's Chip. Chip is like Tails or Shara in previous games, only voiced horridly and gives about as much information as the Operators from the Megaman series (not that the others are any more helpful, but again, they're not Chip)

Story: Pretty standard for a Sonic game. Dr.Robotnik/Eggman wants to turn the world into Metropolis/Eggtopia/Eggmanland, take your pick. Sonic stops him, bad guy has an ace up his sleeve, Magical Gem's of Ultimate Power go bye-bye, BEGIN ADVENTURE!!!

Yeah, really.

Replay: By the time you finish the first 10 or so levels, I doubt you'll want to replay this game let alone continue playing it.

So Sonic Unleashed (and all the bad puns that can be made from the title) could have been worse. That doesn't help the fact that it's still a pretty terrible game, I'm a die-hard fan of the series (I still own Sonic Heroes, really) and I returned this game the day after I got it, playing the game the whole way through, hoping it would get better.

Buy Secret Rings, buy the Gamecube Sonic games, even better, buy the Sonic Rush series. But stay far, far, away from the depressingly bad game that is Sonic Unleashed.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Sonic Unleashed (US, 11/18/08)