After my little break from making my glorious reviews that I know you all loved so much (cough HAHAHAHA cough), I’ve decided to pick up again from where I left off and go onto Sonic Unleashed, skipping some of the other great games in the series such as Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes (Despite people saying that this was where SEGA lost their luster, I did find this game to be very good, so deal with it. ).

Now, here, SEGA didn’t connect any other games to this ones story. It’s completely original, it’s completely new, and it’s completely revolutionary towards Sonic’s speed, adding the magnificent Speed Boost option here. They also included the Ground Stomp, the return of Ring Dash, and introduced the Slide and Side Step options. Ground Stomp, Slide and Side Step are completely original, however, Ground Stomp could be debated since you have the Bounce feature in Sonic Adventure 2 being similar, and the Ring Dash is a more simplistic version of the Light Speed Dash which was seen in Sonic Adventures one and two first. This game could also be debated as the Sonic Adventure 3 that everyone wanted so bad, because 1) The Japanese title is Sonic World Adventure (Not convincing, I know), 2) It features almost the same type of styled game-play as Sonic Adventure, having one story mode be the Sonic speed actions, then the next be a side type of action, in this case being the Werehog stages, and 3) It features all of the different move styles and more as the Sonic Adventures did. Anyways, moving on from that, this is one of those games in which you realize that Dr Eggman is a lot more evil than you last remember him. Instead of turning little furry wilderness animals into robots to rule his kingdom named Robotropolis, here he is trying to absolutely destroy a planet and all of its inhabitants to create the Robotropolis. As expected, Sonic comes out of nowhere to end his plans of taking over the world and goes to destroy his Interstellar Egg Fleet. However, as close as he gets to stopping Eggman here, he fails, and gets the power of Super Sonic ripped away from him, and turned into a Werewolf like creature dubbed the Werehog. On this planet, there seems to be no way of escaping the night’s take over on Sonic, so he must find a way to use this new ability to stop the evil Dark Gaia from destroying the world. After impacting the planet, you find a new friend, but he has suffered a case of amnesia, and as a side quest, you need to help him find out who he is and where he comes from. After some searching, you find this professor, named Professor Pickle, who tells you that you need to place each Chaos Emerald in the core of the Gaia temples to restore the fracture of the planet back to its place. But, you will need the Gaia Keys to access the temple, which can obtain by finishing certain Stages in the game. After awhile, that friend you got at the beginning (The one you named Chip) turns out to remember who he is, which is the Light Gaia, the one who should be fighting with Dark Gaia instead of Sonic, but you still end up having to put up with that nuisance. Anyways, blah blah blah, you restore the pieces, blah blah blah, get to Eggmanland (the new Robotropolis), fight Egg Dragoon, Fight Perfect Dark Gaia, and then finish the game. That about sums up the game. Don’t get me wrong with shortening that section, I do find this game enjoyable and one of the best in the series, but explaining it gets annoying and tedious near the end. Anyways, to start my review, I’ll go over the Graphics, Music, and Difficulty. So, let’s start this off!

Graphics – Now, this one seems kind of like SEGA wanted to try more with the Speed feature and less with the overwhelming colors you’d usually see, making it seem a lot more realistic than the usual type of Sonic where it’s all cartoony and such. While some stages are a lot blander in them, featuring more repeating scenery with not much color at all, Rooftop Run and Skyscraper Scamper as examples, others did seem a bit more colorful and fun as you go throughout them, such as Savannah Citadel and Windmill Isle. Others, such as Arid Sands, Dragon Road, and Eggmanland were a bit in the middle, where it’d seem colorful in some areas, while a bit bland at the same time. However, Jungle Joyride was probably the most colorful out of all of them, while Cool Edge was left as the most boring out of them all. This only applies to the Day stages, however, since I haven’t put as much time into the Night Stages to consider them in any way as colorful or whatnot. Also, as an honorable mention, the Tornado Defense stages were quite a lovely sight, in which you could see a vast ocean, white fluffy clouds, passing islands, and a deep blue sky. Quite an enjoyable and lovely looking level if you ask me.
Overall, I’d give the graphics in this game a rating of 8, because, while some levels were really lovely and nice to look at, others were just boring and a bit of an eye sore after awhile.

Music – So, here, the music in this game could be considered bad, yet wonderful at the same time. Throughout the stages, they perfectly demonstrated how the music of the levels make the feel of the stages seem more right and in place, making it appear more as what SEGA intended the levels to be like, rather than going and throwing in random tunes that don’t make any sense towards the complete level, in which you can see in the level Savannah Citadel, which has a beautiful tune might I add. Now, while these tunes were fitting and quite nice, I did have the feeling that SEGA kind of overdid the guitars in these songs, rather than pumping out regular tunes with an orchestra of different instruments, which can be featured in almost every level, especially Rooftop Run, which Featured a massive Guitar tune that drowned out the drums, and a flute that could be as recognizable as the Guitar. However, some levels were able to escape from that overbearing guitar, such as Arid Sands, which featured amass of different instruments and whatnot used to construct the tunes in the game. This game did, unfortunately, have a huge lack of Piano tunes in this game, whether it is a piano by itself or a piano mixed into the level tunes. Overall, I’d give the music a rating of 8, because while the tunes were pretty good and well organized, they did push the guitar tunes to the limits, having it overshadow much of the other instruments in many levels. But that didn’t stop others from escaping it and getting a tune that featured good and original instruments in them. As a couple of ending notes to this, I would like to point out that, unlike Day stages’ energetic and fun tunes, Night Stages had a more quiet and relaxed tune in them, making it seem much more fitting with the whole Day and Night scheme, where the Night time is supposed to be peaceful (Which is funny, since the Night stages are filled with enemies that you fight in a button mashing styled fighting stage). This game also featured a game theme that was not done by Crush 40, which was the first time since Sonic Adventure, technically (Sonic 06 doesn’t really count, since His World was done by many different people, including Bentley Jones, Zebrahead and Crush 40).

Difficulty – So, in this game, they feature two different styles of action. One is the Speed Style, in which is self explanatory, where you try to finish the level as quick as possible for whatever reason they explain to you, and the other is the Fighting style where you’re battling against an army of Gaia Monsters that not only ravage the night time cities, but also possess the citizens, making them act odd and out of their ordinary, whether it be Party Mania Happy type or An Hero Depressed kind. In the Day stages, the most difficult thing there is the possibility of drowning and bottomless pits, spikes, and if you’re really bad, robots (Boost allows you to avoid getting damage when running into them). In the Night stages, there are a lot more difficulties. Here, you have an army of Gaia Monsters, drowning, bottomless pits, electrocution, and much more. However, your strength, combos, and Button Mashing powers are no match for the armada that is waiting for you! Other challenges in this game include searching for the massive amounts of Sun and Moon medals hidden in the game, much like those Red Star Rings you see now in Sonic Colors, Generations, and soon Sonic 4 Ep 2. SEGA also Downloadable Levels for each area, which adds more fun and challenges to finishing the game. You also have to collect every Chili Dog from each region in the game by completing special challenges, such as beating the level in a certain time, getting a certain amount of rings, and destroying a certain amount of robots. You also can go and collect the Trophies or Achievements in the game (depending on your system), which adds a good amount of challenges that could either be really difficult or really easy. Overall, I’d give difficulty a 9 since they give you a ton of challenges to do that are not only fun, but also take a while to finish, so it’s not like you can finish them all within one day.

Now, as a newly added feature (Which was created on the spot), I’ll basically be going over why I think this game was a revolutionary step for SEGA.
So, instead of just picking up right at Sonic Unleashed, I’ll start all the way at the beginning.
Genesis – Here, Sonic isn’t all that fast, compared to the other games. Sure, you do get pretty fast some times, almost getting outside of the camera pan, but let’s face it, all that speed ends at one point, and it’s never consistent. Other than speed, all the abilities in this game are in the item boxes, which are all scattered everywhere, making you use Spin Dash as your only extra ability. For Sonic, this is like his crawling phase, as you don’t have much with you.

Saturn and DreamCast – Alright, now we’re getting somewhere! As one of Sonic’s first real 3D titles, Sonic R, you are racing around certain locations up against other characters in the series, kind of like Mario Kart, but the only ones with kart like machines are Dr Robotnik and Amy. This definitely brought his speed up a bit and got him standing up.
As for the DreamCast, we saw the two gigantic Sonic titles known as Sonic Adventure 1 and Sonic Adventure 2, which have both been remade and remixed a numerous amount of times. In these games, you get actual abilities that you DON’T lose after a stage or after getting hit or whatnot, and these would the Ring Dash, Bounce and Homing Attack. This game also featured Sonic going faster than ever before, making this like his first steps.

Sonic 06 – And then we get here. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. You’d thank that for a next gen console game; they’d be pumping it up and featuring a gigantic boost in speed. Nope, you’re actually pretty slow in this game, but that’s mainly because SEGA messed up and rushed through it because of all the fanboys pushing for a gigantic quicker release, so they gave them this. Not a bad punishment, if you ask me. Anyways, they tried experimenting with some new power ups and abilities in this game, turning them into “Gems” and buyable power-ups with your rings, but they didn’t work out all too well. A noticeable ability they tried adding was a speed up Gem, which featured you doing what was the beginning boost. This was probably SEGA’s inspiration for the upcoming Boost feature in the next games to come. For Sonic, this was basically where he fell down.

Sonic Unleashed – So, now we’re onto this game! Here, you get the first gigantic speed enhancer in the series, the Ring Energy, or Boost, feature! This makes you go ten times faster than before, which was a gigantic leap in the Sonic series. This game also featured other abilities, such as the new drift, ground smash, and slide and quick step, as mentioned at the beginning of the review. They definitely threw in a ton of effort and gave this game their all, and it’s a shame that this revolutionary game in the series has been ridiculed so badly by the fan community because of the Werehog stages and such. It’s definitely a very under-rated game in the series, and this is basically where Sonic’s stage of starting to be a pro at running.

Beyond – As expected, they kept the Boost feature, along with all of the other features left in Sonic Unleashed (Except for the Ring Dash, technically, which can only be used under special circumstances). However, it was slightly left behind in Sonic Colors, where they tried altering it so that you only get it with the normal Wisps’ power, instead of the Rings, like you would usually get. However, this was luckily fixed in Sonic Generations, in which they went and made the Rings the ultimate Boost power source. If anything, I’m guessing they made the Wisps the power source for the boost just because it was on the Wii . Anyways, I’m sure that they will keep Sonic and his abilities the same as this for quite a long time, unless they come up with some genius new ability (No, that was not sarcasm) for the Sonic games to come out of nowhere soon.

Anyways, this is the end of the review, as you can clearly see, since I have no originality to pull out of nowhere. Anyways, if you haven’t played this game yet, and you do play Sonic games and actually enjoy them, then you must buy this game, as it is the beginning of his best skills. And no, I don’t want you to buy the Play Station 2 or Nintendo Wii versions; I mean the Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 versions, as they are the ones that don’t fail one hundred percent and more. That said, if you haven’t already, go look at some of my other review threads down here, or that one in the Video Games Reviews section (Sonic Generations). Thanks for reading, and hope that this review will help some of you guys figure out that Sonic Unleashed isn’t as bad as you may think it is :3.
See ya, Nya~.

(Just so you guys can know what my next review is, I’ll probably return to Sonic reviews after the next one, which happens to be a review for the game Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Some of you may have heard of me talking about it, some of you may have not heard about it from me, but this is my second all time favorite video game series, which is obviously behind Sonic, and I haven’t nearly put in enough information on why I find this game so good, and I’m sure that this needs to be fixed. The review for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger will probably show up some time tomorrow or the day after, depending on the time I have in the day and such. Wait for me :3)

Well, mega yet another review. I don't think I've ever replied to your reviews, so.... Good job. They are always detailed and worth reading.
Anyways, I want to get a copy of Sonic Unleashed really bad. It seems like at least a rentable game to me.

I played it. It actually disappointed me and I love Sonic games to death. 3 out of 5.

Since I only played this game on the ps2 that is the same as wii, I've never saw the true potential on the x360/ps3 version of this game, but on ps2 I've got a long time to complete 100 percent and I still plays it no matter what.

Good old sonic unleashed. I beat this game 100% twice, but my wii was sold both times, so now all that data is gone. This game was actuall pretty fun to play. Getting an S rank on every mission was a huge pain in the ass, especially in Holoska, Adabat, and Eggmanland, but it was a good waste of time. I agree with many parts of your long, long....long......long review, which I found very good by the way. You should apply for a job as game reviewer.

megamanmaniac : You should probably dig through the RGR Staff Roles section for a bit, Nya~.

MegaRevolution1 : I see that youve already applied for game reviewer. But everyone deserves a second chance right? You got demoted once, no biggie. Just try again and see what happens.

that game sounds fun. and i loved your review hope to read some more of yours once when you make more. good job

megamanmaniac : Dig a bit deeper, Nya~.

MegaRevolution1 : I can't. There's only two pages of site staff user role threads and there's only one thread about you. I did see Davideo7 say that you were stepping down again, so I assume you stepped down twice. It's understandable and surely you can get a job a third time...as long as you stick with it, that is.

megamanmaniac : That's actually about the 6th time I stepped down from RGR staff. Honestly, I did apply again for Video Recorder, but I didn't get the job, which was conveniant due to that being right before my 9 day absence I knew about at the last minute, Nya~.

It just seems like they don't want me on RGR Staff anymore, so that's how it'll be then I guess. Helps me get a better resolution on my videos blocking the RGR info out, Nya~.

MegaRevolution1 : 6 times? Oh man that's a lot. Very well. I guess I can see who they didn't accept but I can also see why you could be given tho job. You'd videos are pretty decent. But do whatever you need to do.

I can say that your review is awesomely awesome! It is the longest review I ever see on Vizzed! Very nice work. You should be a reviewer, you would make the best reviews on Vizzed!