By Kevin "Berserker" Hall
Player(s): 1
Memory: 159 KB
While Super Sonic is chasing Eggman in what appears to be their final battle,
Eggman manages to trap Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds. By firing a beam of reverse
polarity Chaos Emerald energy at the planet, an evil being known as Dark Gaia is
released from the planet's core through Eggman's scheme. While being trapped
along with the Chaos Emerald's reverse polarity while the shot is fired, Sonic
is now transformed into a Werehog at night. In order to restore the planet,
Sonic must journey throughout the world and restore power to the Chaos Emeralds
once again in order to bring the planet back together and stop the threat of
Dark Gaia.
There are two stage types in Sonic Unleashed: Day stages and Night stages.
Day Stages allow you to play with the normal blue Sonic the Hedgehog and these
stages have a very traditional Sonic feel to them. The stages are showcased in
full 3-D with a back view of Sonic as you race forward through the many
obstacles. The sense of speed is showcased well as Sonic zips down a runway and,
much like previous Sonic games, you can sort of let the game play itself as
Sonic runs - up to a certain point of course. There are hardly any barriers that
keep your Sonic from dashing frantically through the various levels. The game
still sometimes switches the camera to the side of Sonic to showcase a side
camera view that resembles a 2-D view reminiscent of the older Sega Genesis
Sonic games.
Sonic still has lock-on targeting jump attacks that allow him to destroy and
bounce from one enemy to the next all while on the move. Stages have pipes for
Sonic to grind on and plenty of turnpikes and other obstacles that Sonic can
zoom by. These types of stages require quick reaction speed at key points in
order to stay on the move much like what we expect from a 3-D Sonic title.
If the full game was composed of Day missions then this game would come
across as a much greater Sonic game. The only flaw that I found with the Day
missions is that the areas for the missions tend to repeat with different
objectives such as collecting a certain number of rings or forcing you to get
through a similar area without hitting any obstacles laid out along the track.
The areas change sometimes but usually Sonic will only have to go through about
half of the same track again after racing through it once; during the next few
times, he will have a different objective and a timer. This isn't really that
much of an issue though since the Day stage areas are very fun to play through.
The Night missions are played with the Werehog. Werehog Sonic is not near as
fast as normal Sonic but he can dash - he runs on all fours if you double tap
the analog and hold in a direction. Night missions take the usual sense of speed
away from the usual fast-paced Sonic gameplay and lay out a stage composed of
several platforming areas and enemies for the Werehog to fight. The Night stages
follow a pretty basic mold - run, jump and swing your way to the next enemy
battle or final goal.
Werehog Sonic can extend his arms to hit enemies or grab onto objects such as
poles or ledges. He can perform an assortment of combos by mixing between the
Square, Circle and Triangle buttons. Using the Werehog's enhanced strength, you
can pick up enemies or crates and toss them. The Werehog can also level up
between stages by collecting red essence from enemies and breakable objects. In
just about any battle, the Werehog seems too overpowered. You can literally
string together any type of chain attack and overpower a whole group of enemies.
With the Werehog constantly gaining new abilities and enhancements, your enemies
don't stand much of a chance. There are tougher enemies as the game progresses
but they don't put up much of a fight even later in the game.
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