Sonic Unleashed

"I really hope someone at Sega got promoted for this."

My first Xbox 360 review was Sonic the Hedgehog, the previous 3D Sonic game which turned out to be one of the worst video games I have ever played, and one of the few to actually depress me when I did. Sonic Team made me extremely nervous for the franchise and I didn't expect much from the next installment in the series. But I popped Sonic Unleashed into my console and after weeks of gaming, I am happy to announce that Sonic Team is back in form. This is one of the best Sonic games ever made.

Sonic is back to the super fast speedy platforming that made him a star in the first place. While the basic gameplay elements are the same as previous games in the series, this new engine that they have designed has also moved the series into an extremely fun direction and reinvigorated what was conisdered by some to be dead gameplay. Sonic is extremely fast, whipping past the screen faster than ever before, taking out the evil Dr. Eggman's robot drones quickly and effectively as he should have been for awhile now. And while it's 3D, Sonic no longer has only a 3rd person view. The camera also reverts to a classic 2D position so that our hedgehog can do what he's been doing on handhelds and the Sega Genesis. And it plays magnificently.

Before I go into the other aspects of the gameplay, I should explain the story of the game, and why we have our other character. After foiling another of Eggman's schemes (we assume) Sonic uses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, and chases Robotnik until he begs for mercy before him. Had Admiral Ackbar been there, Sonic could've avoided the trap that Eggman deliberately set up for his arch enemy. He traps our hero and absorbs the Chaos Emeralds' power to fire his cannon upon the planet and shatter it into pieces. Sonic, being caught in the crossfire, also transforms into a scarier and stronger creature and becomes Sonic the Werehog. Eggman disposes of the Blue Blur and our hero discovers that he returns to normal during the daytime. He also bumps into a strange amnesiac....thing, who he befriends and allows to follow him on his journey. Now Sonic has to restore the planet piece by piece, restore power to the Chaos Emeralds, and stop Dr. Eggman's evil schemes before he unleashes an unstoppable monster from destroying the world.

So you'll play as both Sonic in his regular speedy Hedgehog form in the daytime, and his stronger slower combat oriented Werehog form at night. Sonic's gameplay is in one word: SPEED. He runs fast and jumps on platforms, bounces off springs to fly around, runs through loop de loops, and even runs on water and grinds on rails. The game is extremely exciting to play when he's at his fastest. If you thought he was fast in Sonic Adventure, you haven't seen anything yet. It takes some good eye to hand coordination admittedly and some people have said that he goes TOO FAST. Personally, I think that's how he should be. His gameplay is Trial and Error, but it's never unfair and impossible to beat. It takes repeated playthroughs to understand the levels and earn the big points, and it's meant to be replayed over and over again. The game is so fun that I actually wanted to have repeated playthroughs. "You know what they say, the more the merrier!"

The camera is perfect for Sonic, and he always has a clear view of everything that's running at.....well, when it doesn't shift into 2D mode every now and then. Luckily you only have to worry about going left and right when the camera goes to this mode. You can't go down or up at all in the 2D parts, so you never find yourself falling off platforms by accident. Sonic loses his traditional Spin Dash move for a Boost Move. It fulfills the exact same purpose of the spin dash though, so don't worry. You go fast, you kill anything that you run into. That's why we loved the spindash, and the difference is that the Boost can go uphill. Your boost meter is filled by Ring power, which you get by collecting rings. Ring as always are Sonic's life force. He gets hit when he has no rings, he dies. He also dies from bottomless pits, which will more than likely be your 90% cause of death. Sonic keeps his trademark Dash attack where he jumps and homes in on enemies, and instead of making you double tap the jump button, Sonic Team actually finally caught on to the complaints and made the attack a different button. No longer will people push the button too fast and fly in the other direction. The controls are so good, you just feel the great power our hedgehog is capable of.

Especially when he fights enemies. Ever since Sonic Heroes, every 3D Sonic game has had enemies with health bars. I hated this. Sonic should kill goons in one hit, it's what made the classics and the Adventure games great. And Unleashed returns that characteristic. He finally kills robot goons in one attack! No multiple whacking, they die in one move! FINALLY! It's fast and fun to use your boost and literally run over rows of robots and watch them fly through the environment. It's absolutely awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot stress enough. The Sonic daytime sections of this game are absolutely amazing. It is a revival of the series and every Sonic fan needs to play this game. Period. Even if you don't care for the Werehog sections of the game....

So let's get to that. When night falls, Sonic becomes the Werehog. The Werehog doesn't run at super speeds, or grind rails, or kill enemies in one hit. His whole gameplay is all about Prince of Persia like platforming, mixed with hack and slash gameplay where he beats the heck outta goons with various combos and moves. His horizontal swings are with the X button, and his vertical swings are done with the Y button. The amount of different combinations are small at first, but after you level up you can get an endless amount of moves to beat down foes with. I'll get back to the level up system later. The werehog can also block attacks and he has an Unleashed meter which fills up when you kill enemies and destroy objects in the area. When it's full, you push the right bumper and he becomes much faster and stronger until the meter drains out. The combat is satisfying....but it's also repetitive. Not painfully so, but I'll admit that at first I was a little bored. He shouldn't have had to unlock the rest of his fighting combos, they should've been available at the start.

And the Werehog also has to traverse past the level with his giant arms and whatnot. He climbs objects, walks along the edges of walls, swings off of poles and even has tightrope moments where he walks slowly over thin walkways. Those thin walkways, suck. Mainly because some walkways you can't grab on when you fall off, and the camera angles usually suck. The camera is always fixed for Werehog, and you can never move it when you absolutely need to, which makes doing the big acrobatic activities really difficult when it doesn't need to be. And it can get extremely frustrating when you're gunning for an S rank, since screwing up once usually means you're not going to get it, and the levels can be up to 15 or 20 minutes long. Screw up at the 14 minute mark, and you lose the S rank and it just makes you angry. In all, the Werehog is okay to play, but the camera sucks. He's not painfully slow though, and he in no way makes this game bad. His gameplay is more polished than any other side character has been actually.

As I mentioned earlier, the Werehog gets new combos from a level up/experience system. With each enemy you kill as either Sonic or the Werehog, you gain yellow diamonds which you can spend on any ability you want. Even if you get points as the Werehog, you can still improve your Hedgehog stats. Sonic can become faster, and upgrade his ring power. The Werehog can improve his strength, life bar, combos and various other things that turn him into quite the beast. You can also gain experience by eating various foods that you can buy in the world. Wait, you can buy food in the world? Yep, Sonic Unleashed allows you to visit all the various continents that you need to save, and it acts as HUB areas. Much like Station Square from Sonic Adventure, and that dreadful Soleanna in Sonic 06. Unlike Sonic 06, the load times are not brutal, and you don't have to wait 40 seconds just to do a side quest! They're short and in no way frequent at all. Your levels aren't interrupted! GOOD!

You can help people in these towns and villages, and this unlocks bonus missions which can help you get more Sun and Moon Medals. One slightly annoying at first thing about the game are the Sun and Moon medals, which you need to collect in order to progress through the game. At first it bothered me, but that just meant it was a chance to go back to previous levels and try out the other multiple pathways and shortcuts that come with Sonic's great speedy gameplay. The towns aren't so big you'll get lost, and the people that occupy these places are cartoony as they should be. Gone is the ultra realistic look that the humans have constantly been getting in each Sonic game. They finally look like cartoon characters as they should've been from the start. And each citizen is specific and you never see the same person twice. It's great stuff.

The game is just beautiful overall. Every level is such a breathtaking sight to behold that it almost brings a tear to my eye. Sonic's 2nd stage, Windmill Isle Act 2, is filled with tons of detailed houses. I mean TONS. And they only take up half a second of the screen if you're running fast enough. The game is beautifully detailed, whether you're racing through an African safari, or bouncing off giant whales in the Antarctic. And the characters look amazing as well! They have great motion capture during cutscenes, they have good lip syncing, they're totally characters and not just video game people standing around. The music usually consisted of hard rock type music in the previous games, but in this one they went all out. The music is filled with nice calm songs, hard rock, and even live orchestra. There are so many catchy tunes to be heard. Sonic and company are all voiced by their same respective voice actors, and they have never sounded better. One common complaint of some of the newer games is that Sonic and company talk too much during levels. Not this game. All you'll hear are Sonic's grunts and "Yahoo" sounds. You can concentrate at last!

What else can I say about this game? It is a revolution and the dawning of a new era in Sonic. This is such a leap and such an incredible contrast in comparison to the last 360 Sonic outing. If you were disappointed by the last game, I am telling you, this game more than makes up for it. This game is an experience, and Sonic fans NEED to play this. My only complaints are the camera issues with Werehog levels, and the fact that S Ranking all the levels doesn't earn you anything. Still, I tried S-Ranking anyway. This game is too fun to stop playing.

IN THE END...
Sonic is back. This game is the most well polished Sonic game in a long time, focusing only on our blue blur and not on gimmicks or terrible gameplay ideas. The load times are great, the game is super fast, the cutscenes and presentation is amazing....it's such an achievement and every Sonic fan NEEDS to play this game. Pick it up, immediately.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

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