360 REVIEW: Sonic Unleashed

Sonic, Sonic, Sonic... Where do I start?! Having been born in the Eighties I was fortunate enough to witness the birth of the legend. At one time the blue blur was adored by Western youth as much as David Beckham currently is in Asia. But how the mighty have fallen... And Sonic more so. :-) I'm sure every review written for modern Sonic games is full of this nostalgia, all of us babbling on about how great 3 was and then the pants that followed. Well trying to avoid covered ground I'm just going to say this - make sure you've all checked Sonic Adventure and the GBA Sonics because they were awesome!

Anyway I purchased the latest attempt at capturing the glory of our younger days for a bargain price of £20 at Game. I wasn't expecting too much and mostly thought it would be something for the girlfriend to play and hopefully unknowingly rack up my achievement points... see we CAN out think them! Well it didn't quite work out like that anyway... I'd say I've easily put in just as many hours as her. In short, this game is just fun.

For those that now nothing of the game it is not strictly the Sonic that we know and love. In the opening cut scene a series of events leaves us with a dual persona-by day we still have the too cool for school hedgehog of yesterday but by night he is transforméd! Just like Teen Wolf (but less crap) we get Sonic the Werehog, the slower but stronger and more beautiful side of the great S. Now you may wonder what on Earth Team Sonic were thinking when they introduced this semi-new character but the change in gameplay between the two personalities is astounding. The hedgehog levels tend to involve the traditional high speed movement and whizzing through stages as quickly as possible, where as the werehog intoduces the other elements of great platformers like exploration and battle. Instead of simply speeding through each area and bouncing off everything in sight you are forced to use differed skills, with balance and timing being tested far more frequently. You also engage in battle areas (think Final Fantasy) often, where you have to defeat a collective of foes before been allowed to progress. The werehog can attack in several different ways and stringing buttons together creates all sorts of "combo" attacks which become more devestating as you gain experience. You can also educate (maybe?!) your hedgehog with experience (which is actually collected as an object left from battles) though as he is a slightly less complex character you'll likely max out his 2 attributes far quicker than the 5 far more influencing elements of the werehog. Anyway this all adds much needed dimension to the game and in fact opens it up to a much wider audience. What is often forgotten in the Sonic bashing that usually accompanies reviews of the next gen outings is that not EVERYONE has been playing games since the birth of Sega! So keeping the balance between games that are difficult enough to please the die hards and simple enough for newbies is a difficult task. Introducing the werehog! His movement is much friendlier to those new to the platform genre making it easier to familiarize and strengthen their control of the main character. This was incredibly noticable whilst playing with my girlfriend who had far more interesting things to do in her youth (that's a whole different post!) than playing computer games. We'd often have her doing the werehog levels, exploring and experimenting with button combos etc whilst I'd do the hedgehog ones where reactions (i.e. experience) played a far greater role. See it's a game for the whole family!

As for the levels themselves they are incredibly beautiful at times. For anyone who played the original Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast you may remember the "Whoa!" moment of level one when being chased by that killer whale from all sorts of camera angles?! Well I found myself amazed several times at the dazzling twists and turns through beautiful scenery found throughout the various stages. Just watch out for those moments where you have to press A (or another button, Shenmue cinematic stylee) or you'll be admiring them again. Several times! The mix between true 3D and classic side on view is seamless and stays true to the original Sonic ways whilst spicing up the visuals and adding the complexity expected in modern day gaming. I'd love to say that it was without it's fault but there are a few difficulties with the 3d angle from time to time (stop moving around so often!) but in honesty it adds that frustration needed to make a great game what it is. If I hadn't drown so many times in the Labyrinth Zone or been endlessly crushed on Scrap Brain then I probably wouldn't be writing this today! So if you do find yourself cursing the angles or just complaining about the game not doing what you tell it just remember that it NEVER did and we've always been losing those precious 1-ups in such unfair ways. We've just forgotten how infuriating it can be. =]

To round up I don't think I couldve asked for more from Sonic Unleashed. No it doesn't have the breath-taking graphics of your Gears of Wars or the incredible stories of your Metal Gears. But that's not where video games started. Originally they started with you and maybe a few friends just bashing away at the controller seeing who could get passed the big boss. They started with Fun. They started with Sonic. And he's definitely back!!

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