Sonic Unleashed
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Sonic Unleashed, known as Sonic World Adventure (ソニックワールドアドベンチャー, Sonikku Wārudo Adobenchā) in Japan, is a platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. It is the last Sonic game to be released for the sixth-generation consoles.
Gameplay
Sonic Unleashed is split into two modes; the daytime levels in which Sonic runs at high speeds, and the nighttime levels where Sonic transforms into the Werehog and gameplay switches to a slower-paced platformer with beat 'em up elements.
In the daytime levels, Sonic is controlled through fast-moving stages that combine both 3D and 2D gameplay, as the camera will seamlessly shift between the perspectives. New to the series is the Quick Step, which allows Sonic to dodge left and right, and the Drift function, allowing Sonic to take sharp turns without slowing down. The game features the Boost mechanic used in the Sonic Rush games, which dramatically increases Sonic's speed and allows him to blast through enemies and objects in his path. Boost is gained by collecting rings (represented by the Ring Energy bar on the lower right-hand corner of the screen) and defeating enemies.
Nighttime levels feature Sonic transforming into the Werehog, and the gameplay becoming a more traditional, action-oriented platformer. Combat plays a large role in the gameplay, as Sonic will use a large variety of combos and different attacks to defeat enemies. When an enemy's health is drained enough, Sonic can perform a finisher move called a Critical Attack to gain bonus points and larger Chaos Orbs, which act as experience points. XP can be used to upgrade Sonic's abilities such as his top speed and the Werehog's strength. Sonic also gains stretchable arms when in the Werehog form, allowing him to swing on poles, climb ledges, and grab, throw, or spin around dazed enemies. Defeating enemies and breaking objects fills the Unleashed bar, and activating Unleashed Mode makes Sonic's attacks more powerful and allows him to move faster. Movable crates and switches will be used to solve puzzles and access pathways to the goal.
In addition to the day and night stages Sonic Unleashed features hub-worlds the player can explore. They can use the Rings acquired in stages to buy items, talk to townspeople, and perform side-quests.
Why It Unleashes Goodness
- The game is a huge improvement over Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic '06, with a much better story as well as bringing back the charm of the classic era.
- Just like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Adventure, this game laid the foundation for later entries in the series such as Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. In fact, this game actually feels like a real reboot.
- New moves such as the Quick Step and Drift abilities are introduced.
- Plenty of extras to buy or discover such as concept art, musical pieces, and souvenirs.
- The cutscenes are really good and are a massive step up from Sonic 06's visuals over-reliance on mo-cap.
- A good story that, while lighthearted, is equally dark, which is what the series needed after '06, which heavily leaned into the darker aspects of a story.
- Chip is actually a very cute and adorable character.
- Much like Shenmue (another Sega game), this game also has incredibly wonderful and inspiring morals (like this cutscene for instance. Check it out and have a watch by clicking on the link).
- In addition to it's morals, the game even manages to have some heartwarming moments.
- The sense of speed you can get is pretty exhilarating.
- The levels often shift from 3D to 2D sections, often to show off differing camera angles, or, in some cases, allowing you to jump on walls.
- The levels are inspired on real world locations, allowing for unique level aesthetics and themes.
- The Werehog combat mechanics are quite satisfying, and there are tons of combos to unlock.
- Beautiful and smooth graphics; this is the first Sonic game to run on Sonic Team's propietary Hedgehog Engine.
- Many epic boss battles, notably Egg Dragoon.
- In the Night-Time levels, Sonic can collect Chaos Orbs that at any time in a level, the player can use to either upgrade Sonic or the Werehog.
- The art-style is very appealing; the locations Sonic visits are stylized and the human characters look like they were designed and animated by Pixar. This works well with Sonic's cartoonish design, especially compared to Sonic '06 where Sonic and his friends are out-of-place and heavily clashing with the realistic setting.
- Excellent soundtrack, including the main theme song, Endless Possibilities.
- Great voice acting. This is one of Jason Griffith's best performances on Sonic, with a lot more emotion put into it.
- Memorable stages (eg. Rooftop Run, Cool Edge and Windmill Isle).
- The hub worlds lets you explore a lot of new locations that you didn't know about (except for the PS2 and Wii versions).
- The Tornado levels are fun and make great use of the QTE.
- The D-Speed and M-Speed glitch, which are the PERFECT tools for Sonic Unleashed speedrunners.
- It got an FPS Boost on Xbox Series X/S which can make the run up to 4K 60fps.
Bad Qualities
- Although still cute and adorable, Chip can be very annoying sometimes.
- The Werehog stages are the most polarizing part of the game to have in mind. While there's a decent variety of combos and moves as mentioned previously and there's fun sections, the combat sections themselves are stiff, clunky (mash buttons to win) and overwhelmingly common, the Werehog controls are slow and not the best, and the levels themselves can be bland and way too long, mostly due to some long empty sections, enemies and exploration. They also take roughly two thirds of the experience, which sucks for a franchise about fast movements and reaction times.
- The Werehog's battle theme, despite being really good, gets very annoying very fast. No matter if you're fighting a group of enemies or just one, the song starts playing at their very presence.
- In order to access levels you need to have at least 120 Sun Medals and 80 Moon Medals, which you can find in the stages AND Hub Worlds. The problem in getting them is that due to the fast-paced experienced of Unleashed, you won't be able to collect them. Looking for them in the Werehog stages makes the levels drag on even longer.
- The camera control is very inconsistent; sometimes you can control it manually, but other times you can only move it left or right and it really has no practical use in the daytime levels.
- Just like Sonic '06, although not as bad, the frame-rate can be incredibly choppy at times; Empire City and the water-running and jungle sections of Adabat in particular are very unstable. This is very noticeable in the original Xbox 360 version and while the PS3 version's framerate is higher, it’s also less consistent. It took until the release of the Xbox Series X to finally get the game running at a solid 30 FPS (60 FPS with fps boost which by the way is very convenient).
- Sonic doesn't always have a drop shadow, which makes platforming more difficult and frustrating than necessary.
- The final level, Eggmanland, is infamous for being very long, full of deathtraps, and extremely hard (excluding PS2 and Wii versions). The final boss (although not the worst) has also been reviled for the same reasons.
- Some of the Acts, like Act 4, 5 & 6, are locked behind DLCs, which you have to pay for to access.
- From this game, Tails begins to lose his character development that had been maintained from Sonic Adventure (Going from being Sonic's sidekick to an independent hero). Although he is still likable for the most part and serves a purpose in both gameplay and story, he also acts more cowardly and less helpful than usual (Case in point: the scene where he is surrounded by the Dark Gaia's minions and his reaction is flying away without even trying to fight the puny Deep Nightmares). This was going downhill slowly in games like Sonic Colors or Sonic Lost World until Sonic Forces (where already in that last one he had lost all the character development).
- Speaking of which, Sonic still hasn't recovered from his character derailment he's suffered since '06.
- Adding to BQ#8, some of the DLC is way too obnoxious. One of the DLC day stages in Holoska requires Sonic to get to the other end of the stage with the time limit. The problem is that whenever you boost around the ice or a small platform, Sonic will slip and start running on the water, and if that happens it’ll be hard to get back on the platform. And even when your drift and boost around the drift section, Sonic will sometimes glitch into the snow, and not get out. If you do, Sonic will then die (demonstrated by YouTuber cobanermani456).
- The Wii and PS2 versions are notably inferior in the graphics and content departments (and a few animations are less fluid). That being said, the mobile port is miles worse.
- The Wii version has motion controls that can be unresponsive. The Werehog attacks are controlled by swinging the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, which can be very exhausting due to the length of the Werehog levels.
- The Werehog can be considered a rip-off of Wolf Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The Werehog sections also feel like a poor rip-off of God of War.
Reception
The game received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised the title for its graphics, soundtrack, and daytime levels while criticizing the nighttime portions and plot.
The fan reception is however very positive for the PS3/360 port but mixed to positive for the Wii/PS2 port
Videos
Trivia
- The game is titled Sonic Unleashed in NTSC-UC and PAL regions, however, it was re-titled Sonic World Adventure in the NTSC-J region, which is what the Xbox 360 demo is titled in some cases internally.
- The plot in some ways is very similar to Star Fox Adventures.
- The character Chip was going to be called Whip, after whip cream; however, Sega was worried that people might refer it to whipping someone with a whip, so they came up with Chip, after chocolate chips.
- It owns a short CGI animated film was released to tie in with the game on November 21, 2008, Sonic: Night of the Werehog.
- One of Sonic's facial expressions while he is being electrocuted by the Chaos Energy Cannon became a meme, same with the Werehog's death scream.
- Sonic Unleashed is sometimes considered a spiritual successor to Ristar due to the Werehog's being given the ability to stretch his arms to grab objects here.
References
- ↑ Additional work by Dimps for the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions. The mobile version was developed by Gameloft Software Beijing and Gameloft Software Chengdu.
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