Sonic Unleashed (Wii)

Episode Transcript
It's time for the Sonic Unleashed review, for the Wii.

Oh, finally, FINALLY, I've been waiting for Sonic Team to create a decent 3D Sonic game for the past SEVEN YEARS! ...eh, okay, maybe four years, but SA2 was way better.

The story starts out with a BANG. Dr. Robotnik is hovering about the earth's atmosphere with a MASSIVE FLEET OF DOOM SHIPS. Where is he even hiding these things? Oh well. Anyway, in the middle of his diabolical laugh, Sonic somehow lands on top of one of his ships, and makes his way toward Eggman. I just have to pause and say, the cinematics are spectacular! Look at this! Who says the Wii stops when it comes to graphics? I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Sega really knows how to create the visuals!

As the video plays through, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and flies after Eggman. Just when it looks like Sonic has the upper hand, Eggman traps him in a force field type thing, and drains Sonic of his powers. Eggman then points a huge gun at the earth, and fires, which- oh, hold on, look at that; (Eggman's gun affects the earth, bringing forth spectacular graphics with it.) awesome- which splits the planet into separate pieces, and a huge monster called Dark Gaia comes out of the core. Makes perfect sense.

After that, Sonic is now morphed into a Werehog, don't ask. Eggman opens a window in his ship, which sucks Sonic out and falls toward the earth. SOMEHOW, he survives and meets a... uh... a thing with wings. The thing has amnesia, so Sonic decides to call him Chip for the time being. Chip agrees and decides to tag along with Sonic.

Sonic and Chip meet up with Tails who tells them that they need to go see Professor Pickle. Pickle?! What's up with all these food names? Eggman? Chip? Cream? Cheese? Pickle?! Ugh, anyway, he tells Sonic that the planet has broken up into sections and that only the power of the Chaos Emeralds will restore them.

So now Sonic starts out on his journey. As usual, the graphics are amazing! And get this: Sonic Team actually made the controls decent! Now what I've heard and read about the 360's and the PS3 controls, they weren't decent. In fact, they were bad. But I can't say anything since I've never tried them. But with the Wii, they worked pretty well. The game plays with the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo, but you can also use the Classic Controller, or the GameCube controller. I found the GameCube controller, like Brawl, to work the best.

The game is split up into Daytime and Nighttime levels. The Daytime levels were by far the better of the two: excelent sense of speed, good controls, fun, interesting levels, and of course, the Sonic Boost. The Sonic Boost is a great feature in the game. It was sort of featured in Sonic And The Secret Rings, but Sonic Team made it better. Sonic has a gauge bar, and he needs just one full bar to pull off his super speed. Just collect enough Rings to fill up the gauge. Oh! I almost forgot, the game does not play on rails! This was one of my favorite things about the game. If it had been, I would have had to write a very nasty letter to Sega. But fortunately, I get to save the ink in my pen.

The Day stages play great. Along with the third person 3D look, the game will often split into Sonic's classic 2D sidescroller, but still keep that 3D feel, and hey, it works wonderfully.

And now, onto the Night levels. After all the nice things I just said about the game, there are still some problems with it as well, and actually, about half the game is a problem. The Night levels just don't do Sonic any justice. I don't know why Sega feels like they have to promote Sonic with new, unique ways of playing him, 'cause they just don't work. The Night stages are a perfect example of this. The number one thing wrong with the Night stages: there's no speed! I thought Sonic games were about speed. Wasn't that the main reason he was so popular back on the Genesis? How could Sega have forgotten so fast their basic, basic principle for Sonic games? The Day levels are awesome because of the sense of SPEED.

In the Night levels, Sonic turns into a Werehog. As I just said, he loses his signature speed, but gains strength. I thought they already had a character for strength. He also gains the ability to stretch his arms really far. It sounds cool, but it's really not. The Night levels get boring really fast, the fighting gets dull after a while, and the joystick was ultra sensetive. Sometimes I would barely push up on the joystick and Sonic would start running full blast... well, as fast as he could, but it was enough to make me die frequently. There were also more Nighttime levels than Daytime; I wish Sonic Team had reversed this, since the Daytime stages were just so much better.

Also, for the Night stages, you can gain experience, just like in Secret Rings, which will gain you new attacks, more health, and a bigger bar for Unleashed mode, where Sonic becomes much stronger for a limited amount of time.

One new thing that caught my ear was the music score. In usual 3D Sonic games, Crush 40 does the soundtrack. Not in Unleashed, though. The music is more like Super Mario Galaxy. I'm on the fence with this one, since the new, different style of music is great, but I'm just not sure if it fits Sonic's theme. The only levels where the music sounded like Crush 40 were the ice levels in the Daytime. (plays a scene to demonstrate: Sonic goes through one of the ice levels to what sounds like Crush 40's soundtrack.)

I've heard some rumors, but I'm just not too sure why with the Wii's version of Unleashed, there is one piece of the planet that you really don't get to play. You just get to fight the boss, and that's it. Bogus! That was the one level I really wanted to play when I first saw it from the trailer. It's available on the 360 and PS3 versions, but I don't own either, so I'm out of luck.

There are also bonuses you can collect throughout the game, like drawings, movie clips, etc. Nothing really too exciting, but it's fun to collect.

Closing Verdict
Sonic Unleashed is a great game. The Nighttime levels aren't the best, but the Daytime levels make up for them... barely. I bought this game for 50 bucks, and now that it's down to 30 for the Wii and PS2 versions, I kind of really wish I had waited. This game is definitely worth $30, but 50? Erm... that's a stretch. This game has potential for future Sonic games, so let's hope Sonic Team can deliver the goods.

This game gets a 3.75 out of 5, with the title of Awesome!

Other Game Information
Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

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