Sonic Unleashed

I gave this game to my son for Christmas and he loves it! Mint condition and fast shipping. Thanx!

A good game, some stages are hard to figure out. - quoted by an 8 year old.

Like the title says, Sonic is finally back! I don't care what any other negative reviewer out there might say, but this game is excellent! When I play this game, I feel like I'm playing one of the great Sonic's from the Genesis alll over again.

The story is aight in it to. The way the story pans out and the cut-scenes look, things aren't to far off from one of those 3D animated Disney flicks.

The game starts out a little slow. For some reason, they have you do like 10 missions where you learn the easily understood basics. Which means you'll have to sit through all these loading screens to learn each separate starter move when you could learn them all in one single mission.

Loading is...okay. Each loading screen is about 5-10 seconds long and if you choose to restart from the pause menu during a mission, everything has to be re-loaded. This is different from some games where restarting is instant and without additional loading. So yea, if want to keep restarting that stage to get that 3rd moon/sun medal, be prepared to wait. You also have to wait about 2-3 seconds to load navigation menus once you've really gotten into the game. But outside of all that, it's nothing that won't drive you to insane.

The city parts seem a little meaningless. I don't know, but these city parts where you talk to people seemed "there" to me. All you do is scroll through these bubbles with the words "NEW" over them and read what people say until one says some crap like, "Oh! That place you need to go is there!" and then after that's been said, the day/night stage's are unlocked. It's still good to do the city parts since you can unlock extra songs/art work/movies from talking to the people and it's also one of the main ways you get the tablets.


The sense of speed is great. I've never been a big stickler about mega fast speed, but I like how it feels very engaging to blast off into turbo through the loops and chain your attacks together without a pause in between.

The Wherehog parts seem to be in heavier supply, but they're okay. I'm not far in the game, but I've only done maybe 3 daytime stages and like 10 nighttime ones. Though not necessarily slow, the where stages can be medium paced next to the daytime ones.

So far, I don't feel to much of a challenge from these Where stages either. I've unlocked a few abilities and skill level ups, but nothing seems to hard. I never get the feeling that I can't get away with running into a group of enemies and in turn receive no damage. The fighting is semi-deep, but I never feel engaged enough fighting the enemies. Perhaps since they come off so small and cuddly....

Daytime gameplay is solid though. Like I said before, the daytime stages really take me back to the old school Sonics. It's a blast to collect the line of rings, shoot off in turbo, smack some enemies, and just keep on going. It's a little difficult to get around corners smoothly sometimes with both sidestepping and drifting, but I'm sure that takes practice.

AH! I almost forgot....the music! I love the direction of music in this game. The music's more orchestrated and lounge-esque than that other (imo) bad rock they were trying to work into the series from SA1 on. I like what they've done with it and I hope they begin to use this sound for the future Sonics.

But chea, great game. Way more fun and less overly forgiving than "Sonic Heroes" and a great distraction. If you've given up hope in Sonic, lift your head up and buy this!!

This is the newest Sonic game from Sega and in my opinion is the best Sonic game since the hedgehog's Dreamcast days (Sonic Adventure 1 and 2). The daylight levels are great, tons of fun to play, the graphics throughout the game are gorgeous, and the game maintains it's classic cartoon-ish feel including some fun humor throughout. This game has received some unfair reviews from critics, they say the werehog stages are dull, and slow. While they are slow, I do not find them boring at all. They are very combat oriented, similar to hack and slash style games. This is a new concept for Sonic the Hedgehog, and I think it's nice to do something a little different from time to time. Is this the best Sonic game of all? No, but if you have always enjoyed Sonic games, then this one will be no exception.

This is the version no one ever seems to talk about...the lowly PS2 port of Sonic Unleashed.

And, having never played the other versions, I must say I'm pretty impressed. Perhaps my lack of experience with the PS3 and Xbox versions allows me a truly unbiased perspective...allowing me to evaluate the PS2 on it's own merit. And, it has a lot of merit.

The daytime speed levels are really fun. Never before has a sonic game truly captured the feeling of BEING Sonic the hedgehog. Phases melt seamlessly into each other as first person perspective shifts to side view to front view and back. These levels have mastered the concept of "flow" that the original Genesis Sonic games made famous.

What many people don't seem to realize is that the controversial night levels (featuring Sonic the Werehog) are just as reminiscent of the old Genesis games as the daytime levels. NONE of the original 16-bit Sonic games was 100% speed. In fact, a large fraction of the average Sonic zone was PLATFORMING. And, that is precisely what the werehog levels offer. Platforming, puzzles, and some Streets of Rage style beat 'em up action. If games like God of War and Heavenly Sword can receive widespread acclaim, I don't see why the werehog levels should offend anyone...because they're the same thing.

Plus, the werehog levels provide balance for the frenetic pace of the speed levels. Just as the original 16-bit Sonic games were balanced between speed and platforming, Sonic Unleashed is balanced between daytime levels and night levels. This is nothing new people. I don't see why the official game reviews are so bothered by a concept introduced by Sonic the Hedghog 1: "balance".

The levels (both day time and night time) are well designed and engaging. Victory is very satisfying. Werehog levels, while slower than the speed levels, are not really THAT slow (he can run by double tapping a direction). The semi-frequent fights may become repetitive to some, but honestly, the Final Fight fan in me enjoyed them.

And, besides, if you absolutely HATE the werehog levels, you only have to play them once. After encountering a stage, you are free to choose it again from the menu. So, feel free to replay those unlocked daytime stages exclusively. Even alone they're worth the price of admission.

Bottom line: The game is fun. Colorful and energetic, while paced between high speed excitement and methodical exploration.

An impressive PS2 game. And, hopefully (if enough people give the game a try) this will be the first step towards Sonic's long overdue rebirth.