Sonic Unleashed - Previews - The Armchair Empire


	Platform Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2 Genre Action Publisher Sega Developer Sega ETA November 18, 2008
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Sonic Unleashed

* All screens from Xbox 360 version

It used to be that a perfect Sonic the Hedgehog level was over in 30 breakneck seconds. You would zoom though a level so fast that you would barely notice your surroundings and needed to intentionally slow down in order to witness them. With mind-blowing speeds and visually stunning landscapes, Sonic Unleashed looks to be a continuation of the original side scrolling adventure with a difference.

After another long (and graphically pretty) battle with the evil Dr Robotnik (nee Eggman), Sonic finds himself kidnapped and experimented upon. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik shatters the world and unleash a terrifying new threat that only Sonic can defeat. There’s a twist, however, as it turns out that due

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to Robotnik’s experiments, every night, cute and cuddly Sonic transforms into a bigger, angrier and monstrous version of himself (Were-hog?), that has to be seen to be believed.

It’s here that the game splits in half. During the day, Sonic is his original, speed happy-self; burning through levels and running around loop-de-loops at vertigo inducing speeds, while destroying

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enemies and obstacles so fast you will barely notice as they explode. The game runs so fast – 30 fps on Xbox 360 and PS3, and slightly lower speeds on the Wii and PS2 – that levels will need to be re-played countless times to take all the alternate paths that were missed.

Every night when Sonic transforms into a bigger, slower and more violent version of himself, so too does the gameplay. Switching to a completely 3D style, Were-Sonic lumbers through levels destroying every enemy in his path. With immense strength and arm stretching powers at his disposal, Were-Sonic takes on dozens of enemies at once while collecting rings and solving puzzles. Classic dangers such as ledges, spike pits and giant robots need to be passed in order to advance.

Some levels can be played during both day and night, while others have to be played only at on time or the other. However, as for how much time you will spend playing as true blue versus Mr Hyde remains to be seen.

The game looks amazing. The expansive multi-continental backdrops during the daytime segments are vast and incredibly crisp. The frame rate rarely slows down and neither does the action. With over 10 drastically different levels based on Greece, Africa and China among others along with the ability to play as Tails and Knuckles, this game could be every bit the opposition to Mario that the original Sonic the Hedgehog was.

However, I’m still a little worried about Sonic Unleashed. Sega has had trouble perfecting a 3D Sonic game since the Dreamcast version and has been guilty of slowing Sonic down too much in order to make it work. But if Sega can transition between the two segments seamlessly and come anywhere close to maintaining the pace of the action started during the day, that shouldn’t be a problem.

- Karol Kudyba

(September 30, 2008)