Sonic Unleashed

"The newest addition to the Sonic Series isn't actually bad"

A nice game with some flaws. But like most Sonic games its major flaw would possibly be the newest "gimmick" the game, this time being the Werehog. Though it isn't OMGWTFZORS bad, it's just bad, I prefer it to shooting or treasure hunting.

The gameplay consists of two different styles in an attempt to make the game fun, unfortunately that isn't the case.

Sonic's normal gameplay consist of running through long stages at a very fast pace making them feel shorter than they are. Controlling Sonic is a little slippery making precise platforming (like in one of Spagonia's acts) difficult. There's also the process of trail-and-error, which is mainly caused by whoring the boost feature (which of course makes Sonic go faster). It's just that many things in this game pass by Sonic way to quickly, making fall to your death constantly until you soon memorize the path to the next point. On the positive side though, it adds difficulty to the game making you be cautious about when and where you use the boost. On some other good notes, the Homing Attack hardly ever fails, and the sense of speed (though sometimes hard to co-op with) is a great touch to the game.

Now we move on to the Werehog, which is pretty much an Action-platformer. The Werehog has about 30 moves to use, and some of of them are fun to watch, but others are nearly pointless. Then we have him platforming, which sometimes is terrible do to some really bad lock-on targeting, and some times really nice, like Holoska. In the most frustrating moments are which you are closed in a cramped area fight a multitude of enemies, or the camera angles which can become extremely bad at the worst possible times. Plus the frame-rate dies of a lot, though it doesn't reduce to a complete slid-show.

Then the game is separated by completely pointless hub-worlds full of pointless side-quests, which most of which are luckily optional. Plus the frame-rate can't keep steady in these hub-worlds, but then again not to the slide-show point.

The bosses are challenging, especially Sonic's. Sonic's bosses are on rails, and switch from 2-D to 3-D constantly, usually the 3-D parts are much easier. The Werehog has a short puzzle to do before you hurt the boss, or just to make the boss simpler.

When we move on to the graphics, Sega never fails. The game is powered by the new "Hedgehog Engine" which gives some nice graphics, which completely complements this game's cartoony style.

With the music they got rid most of the rock, and replaced it with some very nice tunes that go well with the levels. The night music is usually jazzy, with a very tedious fight theme going for every single battle.

If I could give this game any grade it would be a 6.5, but due to this grading system I have to give it a

7.0/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

Game Release: Sonic Unleashed (US, 11/20/08)