- Title: Sonic Unleashed
- Publisher: SEGA
- Developer: Sonic Team
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Platforming
- Pros: Great sense of speed in Sonic levels; nice graphics and sound; generally fun gameplay
- Cons: Werehog and Tornado “shooting’ levels suck the fun out of it; Chip = Jar Jar
Sonic Unleashed starts off with a pretty incredible looking cutscene above a planet (think the first shot of every Star Wars movie) that shows Sonic and Robotnik/Eggman fighting and Eggman actually wins. He uses a device to drain the power from Sonic’s Chaos Emeralds, cracks open the planet with a huge blast, and turns Sonic into a hulking beast before unceremoniously sending him hurtling towards the planet’s surface. When Sonic lands, he nearly crushes a little creature, and they (of course) end up teaming together on a quest to try and save the planet. The only problem is that the creature (Chip) kind of sucks, and is pretty much Sonic Unleashed’s version of Jar Jar Binks.
During the daytime, Sonic looks and acts normal. But at night he transforms into a hulking, scary looking Werehog in a super unnecessary and obnoxious twist. I said it back in my Sonic 2006 review and I’ll say it again. Sonic is cool because he is a hedgehog that runs very fast. We don’t really need a story, or other characters, or other BS gumming up the works. Maybe they’ll get this right next time.
Gameplay
Nighttime levels feature Sonic’s Werehog form, and the focus changes from blazing speed to combat. Basically, these levels play like pretty much any other 3D action/platformer. You solve some simple puzzles, fight some enemies with fairly simple attacks and combos, and do some platforming. The platforming is sort of like Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia in that you use ledges and poles and pipes and hand holds to cross gaps and climb through the level. The Werehog levels aren’t too bad, but compared to how completely great the daytime levels are they only drag the experience down. The pace of the game slows down to a crawl, and instead of a near-perfect high-speed platformer we’re now playing a slow mediocre one. Bad times.
The other major gameplay aspect comes in the form of shooting levels where Tails flies you on his plane to a new continent. Enemies pop up in the distance and have a button assigned to them, and you have to press the buttons as they show up onscreen to shoot them down. It works sort of like a music/rhythm game. These levels are sort of okay the first time, but lose their luster quickly.
Graphics
Graphically, Sonic Unleashed is a surprisingly great looking game. The cutscenes are very impressive, and the gameplay is just as gorgeous looking. Sonic’s levels are fast and look great in motion, but it is only when you stop and really take a look around that you see how sharp and detailed and great looking everything is. The Werehog levels are also nicely detailed, and the fur effects on the Werehog are great.
Sound
The sound is also fairly good. The music and sound effects are just about perfect and really capture that classic Sonic vibe. The voice acting isn’t stellar, but we weren’t expecting much there.
Bottom Line
