Sonic Unleashed (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

The one where Sonic becomes a werewolf. Er... Werehog.

A slow walk out of infamy.

It’s no secret that during the second half of the 2000s, the franchise had a rough patch. Sonic ’06 left a mark, and it took a while for the franchise to recover. The games that came afterwards tried to regain momentum, with varying degrees of success. Sonic Colors was a return to form, but prior games shook up the formula more than fans were comfortable with. So, of course, it is during this period of experimentation that we got some of the wildest ideas.

Hard to describe the concept behind Sonic Unleashed anything other than wild! I mean, I already spoiled it in my first line of text. Not that it’s a huge spoiler; this is exactly what Sonic Unleashed, released in November 2008 on PS2, Wii and Xbox 360 (and in December the same year for PS3) is known for. Like every game that does things differently from its predecessors in an established franchise , a pushback was inevitable.

But hey, you’re here to read my own thoughts on it, right? Let’s get this started!

Everything’s gone wrong

We don't even know what Eggman did, but that's fine,
we don't need to. A beating is in order.

Classic Sonic finale. Eggman has the world in a bind. Sonic shows up on the doctor's flagship and smashes through his army of robots like they were cheap electronics. Eggman arrives in a higher-end mecha that puts up a better fight… and Sonic goes Super with the power of the Chaos Emeralds and smashes that, too, causing a panicked Eggman to retreat to his quarters.

Gee, is there even a game past this? Looks like our buddy has got it all covered. Nothing to see here!

Okay, props to Eggman, plotting all this just to bring
Super Sonic out... dangerous, but clever. Oh, by the way, I
take my screenshots from a longplay of the game by
FCPlaythroughs. Go check it out!

The doctor begs for forgiveness to an advancing Super Sonic. Until he pushes a button, trapping the hedgehog in a machine with a force field. It extracts the Chaos energy from Sonic directly, rendering the Emeralds black and obsolete. With that energy, Eggman powers up a massive laser… which hits the planet and splits it into pieces floating just above the core. Gee, good thing gravity somehow keeps them together! Also good that the waters of the world don’t all drain down the sides! And the core seems to contain something… alive?? With tentacles?? And Eggman spoke as though he knew about that thing, and did this specifically to bring it out.

Fluffy! ....Toothy.

Worse even is what happens to Sonic. He grows bulkier, hairier, larger, his teeth get bigger and pointier… Eggman snarks about Sonic’s new look before throwing him out with the useless Emeralds.

The lil' guy is adorable. There, I said it.

Despite the high fall, Sonic lands without harm, head first into the ground. When he gets up and looks around, all he sees is black emeralds, and a little dog with wings, and… dog with wings?? Sonic picks up the poor thing and wakes him up, but all the dog sees is the werehog form, so he’s scared and hides. Sonic realizes the extent of the damage, seeing his new look, and proves to the dog that he’s not a threat. He asks the fairy doggo his name, but he has forgotten. Always the hero, Sonic promises to help his new friend retrieve his memories. If this chihuahua can fly, he’s no an average Mobian. The sun comes up, reverting Sonic to his normal form.

A daytime quest for lost memories

Chihuahua: Literal exposition fairy. He's this close
to going "Hey! Listen!"

Oh, that's a Quick Step alright.

The search begins. We open on Windmill Isle, and the first levels are tutorials explaining how to play as regular Sonic. Classic moves like jumping, homing attacks, drifting, sliding under walls, and so on. Collecting rings, drifting, and chaining actions, like hitting multiple enemies in mid-air, fills up a boost gauge at the bottom left of the screen; when activated, a Sonic Boost  will vastly increase his speed for a time and let him break through enemies. By holding down a button, you can switch to Quick Step Mode, where Sonic will quickly move left or right. I went through the game using Wiimote + Nunchuk, and Quick Step is achieved with that controller by holding down the B button and moving with the analog stick. And I don’t know if my aging controller is to blame, but too often the input would fail to register, or register late. This was especially bad at the end of the game, where mistakes were costly. Quick Step is simpler on a Classic Controller, as you can press the L or R shoulder buttons instead; but I would also have had to relearn the game’s controls to make use of it, since many gameplay elements involve waggling the Wii Remote, and swapping to the Classic Controller just for one thing didn’t feel worth it.

At the end of every tutorial, we are awarded a Moon Medal. After these, we play through our first proper stage, where we put all these skills to the test. True to Sonic tradition, at the end you’re awarded a rank based on how quickly you reached the goal ring. You can get up to three Moon Medals during a day stage: Three for an S grade, two for an A, one for a B. That’s for the Wii version; on XBox and PS3, instead the Medals were hidden around the stages, which made them extremely annoying to look for. Remember that 3D Sonic stages are designed to have multiple paths, so someone would need to visit them all to find (and grab!) the damn Medals. Horrible idea. Instead, here, you'll find goodies and bonus content hidden around every level; that includes animated sequences, concept art, music, and even tips and tricks, with the collection accessible from the World Map.

Sonic and his new friend travel the continent of Apotos. Nobody knows the flying dog, so the mystery remains; however, the smol one gets a taste of an ice cream cone as big as him, covered in chocolate chips. He loves sweets. Sonic figures he might as well nickname his friend Chip, to honor this affinity. Chip loves the idea!

And now, I have something to call him by! Nice.

"Welcome to Windmill Isle!"

Past the tutorials and first levels, we’re introduced to the main element of plot progression: Visiting towns on continents, and talking to the townspeople. Not gonna lie, this has the same feel as walking into an RPG town and encountering characters who can often say just one thing. Sometimes, you find someone who mentions a new location that wasn’t available prior, unlocking it on the town map; only then will the plot advance. In short: The idea is fine, albeit somewhat bland.

Oh, and another thing while I’m at it: There was a trend in that era of console gaming to have games that remind the player to take a break from time to time. The intent is to prevent young gamers from spending too long playing, and to do other things, go outside, whatever. When done well, it isn’t intrusive, and only pops up after a significant amount of time has been spent playing. Here? I swear it starts showing up merely 15 minutes after you start, and it won’t. Stop. Coming up. “Continue playing?” YES! God damn, it’s annoying. Can I turn this off? Please? No? Christ. I’m saving the world here, I don’t have time for a break! I don’t know how the other versions of Sonic Unleashed had it, but the Wii version was bad in that regard.

A nighttime quest for lost memories

The shrine should have a sign that says, "Warning:
Only heroes can proceed past these doors".

One of the elderly people of Apotos suggests Sonic and Chip visit the town’s sacred shrine, although he also says they might not get to see much of it. The two head there, and find an odd tablet depicting a sun at the entrance. The temple is barren, with a spot on the left with six platforms. A few doors showing both a sun and a moon; when you approach one, Chip says that door has a requirement of Sun and Moon Medals before it can be opened. At the back of the temple, doors with symbols; the one with a sun on it has lit up, due to Sonic having the tablet that opens it. Chip can open the door by touching it. Wonder how he knew he could do that.

Istill wonder where the Heck does Eggman find the materials
for all of his massive machines.

What follows is another day stage as Sonic, then a fight against a large mini-boss robot, and then an extra level set in the same stage but with a different requirement (this time, collect 100 rings in one minute). Past this, it is now nighttime on the continent of Apotos, and Sonic’s werehog form comes out.

The Flash by day, Mister Fantastic by night.

(Can I quickly address that “werehog” is the biggest misnomer ever? In the word werewolf, “were” means “human”, to imply that the werewolf is part human and part wolf. “Werehog” would imply a being part human part hedgehog. I’ve heard of Sonic ’06, I don’t want to imagine that! I would rename Sonic’s night transformation to “beasthog”, since he turns a lot more beastly while retaining his hedgehog features. But hey, I'm rambling. I’ll stick to “werehog” because it’s the fan-accepted term.)

Sonic and Chip meet the ice cream salesman again, but he's depressed. When Chip takes another ice cream cone, he drops it, and Sonic’s arm stretches from afar to grab it before it hits the ground. Although the new form does away with speed, it’s got enhanced strength and stretchy limbs. Hey, we can work with that! We open the moon door of the temple and walk our first steps as Werehog Sonic.

You could say this Sonic is swinging into action.

This gameplay is wildly different. Sonic at night cannot run as fast, though he can dash by running on all fours and double jump. In this form, Sonic doesn’t lose rings when he gets hit; instead, he has a health bar that depletes when he gets hurt, and the rings he picks up are reconverted into health. With his stretchy arms, He can grab specific ledges and move left and right on them, grab vertical poles and climb them, or grab poles and swing from them. He can break pots and large crates by merely dashing into them, or he can pick up crates and toss them. By pressing a button (C in the Wiimote/Nunchuk configuration), Werehog Sonic triggers Unleashed mode, which increases his attack power and speed for a short time.

Wham! Bam! And then, a Grand Slam!

These stages are a mishmash of genres; they’re platformers, but they also take on beat-‘em-up elements anytime Sonic encounters the enemies that appear at night. He can attack by slashing with his arms; if you play with the Wii remote + Nunchuk, you swing your arms as well! Sonic can chain up attacks for combos, and special moves can also be done with other motions, like swinging both remotes at the same time. Whenever he destroys an enemy, Sonic earns experience, which is added to a wheel after each night stage; this will grant Sonic new special moves, and will also increase his attack power, health, and the duration of Unleashed Mode.

You can even find containers of Gaia energy, which can be
collected from killing monsters as well; you can get a
Sun Medal 

These stages tend to encourage exploration a lot more; the slower speed means that you can freely look around. At times, it is mandatory to do so, as the path forward will be blocked by an impenetrable barrier that can only be broken by gathering shadow orbs in the area. Puzzle elements are involved from time to time, like carrying crates onto pressure pads or using them as shields. Everything about the night stages feels so different from the usual Sonic fare that they might as well feature a whole other protagonist.

At the end of a major Werehog stage, you can get up to three Sun medals: One for achieving an S rank on the stage by beating it within a certain amount of time; one for collecting more than the requested number of rings; and one for collecting more than the requested amount of Gaia energy, obtained by killing enemies, breaking pots, finding secrets, so on.

Sorry about the littler buddy, buddy; he's got a
cacao fixation."

At the end of the Apotos night stages, Sonic and Chip find Tails just as he was being cornered by the night monsters. Sonic makes quick work of them and saves his buddy, who thankfully recognizes him. Tails makes a guess that Sonic’s new form is tied to what happened to the planet. The kitsune also has ties to the world’s scientific community and thinks Professor Pickle, a man who resides in Spagonia, might know what’s going on.

We can stop here for today. I swear it felt like nothing but tutorials, that’s how many there were. Oh well! Come back for Part 2!