Sonic Unleashed

Some super-fast blue hedgehog's saving the world from an incredibly stupid "genius" with the help of sacred jewelry; however, a conflict occurs, friendly folk learn valuable lessons, the blue hedgehog begins the realization of the belief in oneself, eventually turning into a super-powered, golden savior, and earth is saved until next year. Sounds a bit "blah" now, doesn't it? Sure, people could always nitpick what is put into these stories, but that's never been the point of what makes a good, old, traditional Sonic the Hedgehog game for what it is, even though that's not what it lately seems. However, story progression seems to take a somewhat important role in Sega and Sonic Team's latest Sonic title for the consoles (this particular version being for the Nintendo Wii), dubbed Sonic Unleashed. This version in particular has you searching over broken fragments of the world in order to find a temple to put that certain region back into place. To do so, however, you need to go through a whole mess of mostly pointless conversations with a majority of random people that live around the area before you reach the actual "game" part. This wouldn't seem so bad, but when, say, that whole adventure aspect is torn away, then it becomes much more apparent that Unleashed just doesn't offer as much to itself as it should. The reason why it should is because, quite honestly, there are good ideas here that work.

Still, there's some sort of point to the narrative, as embarrassingly dumb as it can be, and that's to explain Sonic Team's latest experiment to the hedgehog. This time, the anthropomorphic creature is going through a sort of alter-ego phase. He's his regular self by day; however, at night, he turns into a brutish, stretchy-armed wolf-hedgehog crossover. Such a concept is usually used to experience two different design points in one package: in this case, a fast, typically "Sonic" platform game, and a more "hack-n-slash"-heavy action-adventure take.

The most redeeming quality in the entire game is actually what the animal does best: running around really fast, making hilly, unleveled grounds seem like a roller-coaster ride. As far as the Wii version of the game is concerned, three-dimensional Sonic hasn't been done this well before. It recycles the behind-the-back camera presented in last year's Sonic and the Secret Rings, the difference being that the camera has backed off noticeably more than what the Secret Rings installment had shown. Sonic also brings back a few maneuvers that dates back around the Sonic Adventure series-such as dashing through a trail of rings or using his whole body like a sort of homing bullet-that varies up a few of the obstacles with a flick of the Wii remote (though Gamecube and Classic Controllers are also welcome). Add sliding under crevices, a smooth engine that can keep up with Sonic without any sort of chugs, the brilliant mechanics to drift around corners and sidestep around objects to avoid the loss of momentum, a few appropriately timed button presses, some two-dimensional segments in each level, and pretty decent level design to tie it all together. It works well, and could be reason enough to check it out.

But that is just the thing: this game could very well be worth the time, but it lacks some sort of polish and ends up being too shallow, a common flaw that plagues a lot of recent Sonic games. Those daytime stages are pretty enjoyable, for example, but there are only eight stages. Granted, all of those levels are pretty fun, but it's not likely that you would want to replay those levels constantly. In fact, Unleashed encourages you to play the same level again by forcing you to complete some objectives after you completely go through that level. This is also similar to the Secret Rings, as you'll be required to go through a part of the aforementioned level without breaking pots for some reason, collecting an x amount of rings for some reason, going through the whole level again with a time limit for some reason, etc. It's a bit heartbreaking when all's said and done because, as said, these levels end up being a real blast, and could be even more enjoyable if the designers would just add even more than what's brought out.

And yet, for every five to ten minutes you would spend playing those daytime levels, you'll have to alter through thirty to possibly almost fifty minutes of Sonic the "Werehog" and his nighttime levels (in case if dialogue, cutscenes, or boss battles are involved in between). These are much more slow in pace, and provide different obstacles to endure and beating up a lot of stuff in certain areas. The combat, which has you swinging the Wii remote and "nunchuck" combination like fists (or the shoulder buttons for other controllers), is a bit of a bore, never being as over-the-top or deep as what made games from the same style of genre so fun. The obstacle courses that link these fights together until the goal is reached offer more variety and arguably more amusement, but even these trials, despite how frustrating it can end up being, feel like there should be more excitement pumped into its imaginary veins.

Every time we're introduced with a Sonic the Hedgehog game, there's always something appealing toward every release; why else would you still care about Sonic and his 3D releases? Unleashed may be as right on the track as things can be in this case. The welcoming worldly music is better suited than the cheesy metal anthems that followed the edgy hedgehog since the Dreamcast era, but it's more than that. This time, the traditional levels show more signs of enjoyment, and could be well worth a rent just for those that are curious. However, less interesting experimentations take up too much of the material in the game, and it becomes a common disappointment that should be all too predictable by now. And really, no one's going to care for a meaningful story from Sonic, and no one cares about different types of Sonic. Those that still care about Sonic only care about one thing: his traditional platform genre roots. If Sonic Team still wants to attempt to blow people's minds of anything else he may be capable of, then whatever.