Techtite Game Reviews ---

It isn't saying much if I told you Sonic Unleashed was better than the previous so-called "Sonic the Hedgehog". I mean; even a barrel with a crumb in it would be "better" than one that was empty, right? That prior Sonic game was so bad; my nephew differentiates the game from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, by nicknaming it "Sonic the Disaster." It was so bad, it's amazing this sequel was attempted at all.

I say all this, because I want the full rainbow spectrum of how hard this game is to categorize. Had Sonic Unleashed been released three years ago, instead of Sonic the "Disaster," I would be far more brutal in my review and possibly give it one out of five stars. However; seeing as how they had to essentially retool Sonic from the ground up, I must admit, there are several steps in the right direction here. The end result is actually a quite "passable" Sonic game...even if still terribly flawed.

The story takes daring steps from the very beginning. We see Sonic in a surprisingly lengthy prologue, as he becomes Super-Sonic (the gold one) and gets ready to kick Eggman's butt once again. Unfortunately Eggman has a trick up his sleeve; one which drains all seven "chaos emeralds" and reduces Sonic to a simple hedgehog again. This time, however, Eggman crosses the line: his latest evil ray turns Sonic ---and every animal on the planet--- into creatures filled with "dark gaia." What this boils down to is: Sonic is his old self during the day and the huge-fisted, "Sonic the Werehog" during the night.

As you might expect; this is the least of Sonic's worries. Eggman's latest folly is to awaken a huge monster who happens to be in the planet's core. So in his typical halfwitted fashion; "Egg-man" cracks the planet, almost literally, like a giant egg. It is up to Sonic to go to each of the seven chaos emerald temples, in each of seven continents of this world, and use the temple's power to restore the planet, piece by piece, like a giant jigsaw puzzle. This is an amusing element to the game because the main menu screen is the planet itself, which slowly takes shape depending on how far you are in the game; a nice added touch.

The good news; you control time...or, close enough. Since the main menu screen is seen from space, you can press a button and speed up time, in order to visit any level as a hedgehog by "day" or werehog at "night." This leads to different challenges as well as alternate mini-missions (more on those, later). For the most part this also means non-linear game play, with levels that can be visited in any order, with only slight exceptions. For example: tougher levels require you to find enough "Sun" (daytime levels) or "Moon" (nighttime levels) medals to unlock them, which is sort of like how tougher levels in a Super Mario game require a certain number of "stars." However, with 200 Star Medals, and 200 Moon medals ---and only 100 of each needed to complete the game--- unlocking later levels shouldn't be a problem for any true Sonic gamer.

Let's jump back a bit, and talk about the other element of this game: specifically, Sonic by day, "Werehog" by night. This boils down to an amusing idea which, in short, doesn't quite pan out in execution. Let's cover the good news first: around one-half of the game is played during the day, where Sonic the hedgehog is his same old self, racing through courses at high speeds, gathering rings, and smashing enemies to a pulp. This is vintage Sonic at its best, and is everything fans demanded after the slow-as-molasses "Disaster," or aka, the prior game. Alternate routes are aplenty, secret items to find (including "videos," production art pages, and power ups) are scattered in hidden places, and to be candid, this half of the game is totally perfect.

To be equally candid, the other half of the game takes a lot to be desired. Sonic the Werehog is in truth a pale shadow (no pun intended) of what our favorite hedgehog is meant to be. He's slow, he can't run, and he jumps worse than Super Mario after eating 1000 pizzas. Sure, he can fight, though here's where things get odd; he fights too well! While this werehog has great skills; they negate any challenge, to any fight. The "hardest" moment in the game was when I looked at my learned skills and noticed that the triangle button was a tougher punch than the square button. Knowing this made all but the final boss fight easy as pie. As for hidden items; as soon as you learn (often by pure accident) that some doors can be smashed open, you've already found 75% of all hidden items in the Werehog levels. This makes Werehog levels, quite frankly, wastes of time.

Then there's the one-two punch: "limited lives" and "instant death." If it's been said once it's been said it a hundred times; games should not have limited lives anymore. They were a cheap sales tactic by 1980's arcades to get people to run out of lives and shovel out more quarters. They make no sense in a home video game, where all they do is jump you to the main menu and force you to go through a dozen menu screens, just to get back to the level you were playing. Who thinks this menu jumping is "challenging"? It's actually frustrating, annoying, and generally irritating.

Yet what makes "limited lives" so awful is how the majority of all levels are above pits of instant death, lava of instant death, or simple oceanic water of instant death (for some reason Sonic can't swim, which makes no sense because if YouTube is any indication; Hedgehogs CAN Swim). Why is Sonic always hundreds of feet in the air above pits of instant, horrible death? I always felt that the whole point to Sonic was his ability to gather rings and be "invincible" as long as he had one ring. What good are 100 rings if one wrong jump instantly kills him?

Yet let's list some of the things this game does right. For one thing this is no longer a game series that's 33% Sonic and 66% "nameless jerks." There is no talking bat-girl, no talking pink bunny, nor the talking fat cat with the pet frog, who oddly, does not talk. There is no "Silver" hedgehog with poor mind powers, "Shadow" hedgehog with poor driving skills, nor Knuckles, with his annoying hide-and-seek emerald levels. Werehogs notwithstanding; this is "Sonic" all the way. Sure, Tails and Amy Rose offer cameos, though you do not have to play as them...thankfully.

Ah yes; then there's the obligatory new character. Throughout the game, Sonic is accompanied by his latest sidekick, Chip. How do I describe Chip? Here are the only two facts you need to know. One: he lost his memory, and Sonic names him "Chip" because he likes chocolate chips. Two: Chip is a pink bunny with fairy wings and a voice that makes Tails sound like a Klingon. Which is to say: his overly saccharine cuteness takes a lot to be desired, particularly in the final battle, which is often ruined by Chip's constant high pitched "Whoa!" "Yah!" or "Soniiiiiccc!"

Speaking of the final battle; its challenge level is complete nonsense. For one thing it's a gauntlet of quantity versus quality. The only "challenge" here is how you can't tell where you're going, leading to instant death galore and if you lose all lives, you're taken back to the beginning of the level. Aside from that, its "challenge" is nonsense. Sure it's longer than other levels, though it's not as difficult as it is redundant. You defeat big boss battle number one, leading to bigger boss battle number two, only to have the final boss pull a stunt best summarized as: "No that was simply a flesh wound and now I'm pi$$ed," leading to Big Boss Battle Number Three. None of this is challenging; it just keeps going...and going...and going. By boss number three, you aren't thinking how long and cool this final level is; if anything, you want the game to just...end.

None of this is to belittle this game's one success; yes, it's a big improvement from the prior game. This goes double for the "mini missions" Sonic endures if he talks to various townsfolk in each level. In the prior game, inane load times led to you choosing a townsperson to talk to, they said, "Hey," gave you a challenge, and the load screen would appear. Then due to an annoying glitch, the same townsperson said "Hey" again, and you had to accept their challenge for a second time and wait even longer, during a second load screen (over a year later, this game glitch has yet to be patched). Then you'd find out that this so called "mission" involved hitting a box with a "2" on it, meaning that you waited almost 90 seconds for a mission that lasted for only 5...only to go to another load screen, have the person thank you for hitting the right box, and then...another load screen (!!!), to get you back to the regular game. Man; that prior game had problems!

Forget all that, because to be frank, the mini missions are pretty cool. Oddly enough; even the "Werehog" mini missions are cool. Many missions have you go through all (or part) of a prior mission with added challenges, like a time limit, a number of enemies to defeat, or most challenging of all; don't get hit! Each challenge leads to either more mini missions or tools you can use in the game (like moon and sun coins) though these extras are completely unnecessary to complete the game; they just are added challenges, that are completely optional. That's what good mini missions are all about.

If only load times were improved all over, and not just in mini-missions. Load times are still plentiful, with the game needing to reload a level if you die, if you leave the level, or most confusingly of all; if you choose to "wait until day" or "wait until night" (was it so hard for the game designers to keep the same level loaded regardless of how "light" or "dark" the lighting was?). This is particularly annoying if anyone plays the recent Prince of Persia game, where entering a "light" or "dark" level is smooth, instantaneous, and if you walk there; without any load times. Sega really needs to hire programmers to solve their load time problems. Do it now!

The final result is a game that is almost literally six of one and half a dozen of the other. With half of the game vintage Sonic the Hedgehog, fans should be pleased. With the other half a very poor platform game in "Werehog" form, will they be able to tolerate the night levels long enough to enjoy the Hedgehog levels? Let me join in the battle cry of Sonic fans who say: No more Werehog. The "Sonic" half of the game would've been flawless, all by itself, without werehog levels. Let's hope "Sonic Team" gets the message, and the next game is not just half good, though completely good. Until then, Sonic!

	Final Rating : Small Crater. A step in the right direction though for much like the classic case of optimism versus pessimism; this glass is only half full.
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Sonic Unleashed

A Techtite Review