Sonic Unleashed!

[Manspeed]

Let me take this opportunity to list what I like about Unleashed so far:

-Lighthearted, non-serious, cartoony asthetics.
-No annoying things like characters talking to themselves in the stages.
-No new playable characters besides the Werehog.
-No Shadow.
-Only two play styles.
-Both play styles involve platforming.
-Decent new moves like the Quick Step and the Sonic Drift.
-Sonic can crouch and crawl.
-The graphics are absolutely beautiful.
-The real world thing was done in a manner that actually fits Sonic.
-The Werehog's game doesn't look too bad.
-RPG stats aren't as forced or arbitrary as in Secret Rings.
-Decent looking hub stages with lots to do.
-Actual multiple paths through the action stages.
-Eggman seems like a pretty bad guy for the first time in a while.
-Jump physics look pretty well-done.
-The game's programming looks top notch with very few bugs.
-Later Sonic stages appear to have more platforming than speeding.

Now let's go to the things I don't like so far:

-Dark Gaia has the potential to overthrow Eggman again.
-Chip may end up hogging the spotlight.
-There's still scripted areas and speed pads all over the 3D parts.
-Werehog stages may get repetitive.
-Rings are like a health bar as Sonic can't drop and re-collect them in this game.
-The Sonic Boost is still a cheap move.
-Sonic can't Spin Dash or do his regular spin moves.
-They mapped the Boost and the Homing Attack to the same button, which may result in frustration.
-Enemies in the Sonic stages don't look like much of a threat.
-The missions in the hub world may end up being stupid and arbitrary like they were in 2006.
-Werehog is kind of pointless; the game could've easily functioned just as well without it.
-The 2D parts are basically just Sonic Rush with fancy graphics.

These are pretty much all based on what I've seen of the game so far. I'm judging it based on how it looks. I can't formulate a real opinion until the game actually comes out, but so far the pros outweigh the cons.

[kirbychu]

Nov 10, 2008 18:19:34 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

-No new playable characters besides the Werehog.

This. I really don't get why a new character is okay just because it's technically Sonic. People would be up in arms if it was someone new.

Sonic fans are dumb.

Nov 10, 2008 18:19:34 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

-No Shadow.

It was confirmed pretty early on by the game's director that Shadow is in the game.

[BeamClaws]

But I think he means Shadow's not playable.

EDIT: Non threatening enemies are a staple of the sonic games.

[Manspeed]

@ Kirbs:
Shadow hasn't appeared since that so-called confirmation. He doesn't even have a slot on the Japanese website nor does Knuckles. I think that might've been fake.

...and...are you insinuating that I'm dumb? I'm well aware that it counts as a new character, and most people I've seen hate the Werehog regardless. I think it's better than a lot of the new characters we've gotten lately (i.e. Silver, Marine).

@ Game n00b:
Since when are Sonic enemies not threatening? Last I checked they got harder and harder to avoid or kill as the game went on back in the Genesis days, but in this game they're all complete pushovers! (Not talking about the Werehog levels, by the way).

[BeamClaws]

There's a game noob? Where? I have to bully him!

And no, I seem to recall all enemies the same difficulty and less enemies as the game went on.

[Manspeed]

What game are you referring to? Either your memory is shit or I'm just a crappy player in general.

[BeamClaws]

Or these options, I'm The Game Master or you're referring to Sonic 3, which I'm playing with Knuckles, and I never made it that far, but I'm still playing.

[Koopaul]

I don't know what some of you guys have against a game story trying to be serious. I actually like serious epic stories.

However, Sonic 06 executed it in a horrid and obnoxious way. I remember Adventure 2 did it right. The story maintained an emotional level that wasn't stupid.

[8bitretroshit]

Having a serious 'epic' story once is okay, but Sonic overdoes it a little. It was neat seeing the good guys and bad guys working together to stop a greater threat near the end in SA2, but it stopped being neat when they teamed up again at the final boss of Sonic Heroes. And Sonic '06. Also he's a cartoony hedgehog, so any story involving him and his colourful cartoony pals saving the real world from a terrible threat can't really be taken seriously.

Anyway this game actually looks pretty decent. Though the thing that determines whether or not I actually buy it is how many sidescrolling levels it has. For some reason I have a feeling it won't be more then 6 or so.

Ohyeah and I'm glad they ditched Robotnik's realistic look from that '06 game.

[kirbychu]

Nov 10, 2008 19:18:27 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

...and...are you insinuating that I'm dumb? I'm well aware that it counts as a new character, and most people I've seen hate the Werehog regardless. I think it's better than a lot of the new characters we've gotten lately (i.e. Silver, Marine).

No, not you personally. Just the fanbase in general. Sonic fans tend to have their heads so far up their own asses (which are in 1994), that they reject any idea that wasn't present in Sonic 3 & Knuckles just out of principle. It's a stark comparison to the Mario fans, who tend to be fairly open minded and embrace new concepts.

...I like Silver. And Marine. They each brought something that'd never been done in the series, unlike the Werehog, whose stages look a lot like Sonic Heroes power-character fests.

[Manspeed]

Marine was pretty useless, and although I certainly didn't like Silver as a character, his stages were pretty cool.... they just didn't really belong in a Sonic game. Then again, neither does the Werehog, but in that case I actually like the character, so I'll forgive it.

I always figured that things like Silver's stages in 2006 and the Tails/Eggman stages in SA2 would've come out a lot better if they were standalone games. If Eggman gets his own game I'd want it to be based off his stages in SA2.

I don't really see how the Werehog resembles the Power areas in SH when there's clearly just as much Ristar-style climbing and pole swinging as there is hacking and slashing. It's looks more like God of War Jr. to me.

Now that I think of it, in a perfect world Unleashed would really be Sonic & Ristar.

[kirbychu]

Nov 11, 2008 9:30:16 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

Marine was pretty useless, and although I certainly didn't like Silver as a character, his stages were pretty cool.... they just didn't really belong in a Sonic game. Then again, neither does the Werehog, but in that case I actually like the character, so I'll forgive it.

See, Silver is actually one of my favourite characters. I wasn't expecting to like him, but when I heard he was a warrior from a ruined future I was expecting a hardened tough-guy character. Instead they took the route of making him innocent and naive, which makes him one of the more interesting and original characters in the series as a whole. Certainly more original than Tails and Knuckles, who are both very much anime cliché characters.

Unfortunately, being made in the last ten years, he has no hope of being liked by the majority of the fans.

[Manspeed]

The thing that killed him for me was his voice (very whiny) and his design, which reeked of hackneyed fancharacter syndrome.Not to mention his character is extremely similar to Trunks from DBZ, though that probably is a coincidence.

Tails and Knuckles weren't that cliched before they started to talk. One might say they got worse somehow once the 4kids actors were inducted into the games' voice cast. I liked Knuckles best in Sonic 3, when he was actually smug and pretty clever in a Rambo-esque way. Now he's a blithering idiot who hardly gets to do anything at all.

A lot of fans I know actually like Blaze. She isn't too bad.

Things like Eggman Nega make me want to smash something, though.

[kirbychu]

Nov 11, 2008 10:38:30 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

Tails and Knuckles weren't that cliched before they started to talk. One might say they got worse somehow once the 4kids actors were inducted into the games' voice cast. I liked Knuckles best in Sonic 3, when he was actually smug and pretty clever in a Rambo-esque way. Now he's a blithering idiot who hardly gets to do anything at all.

Their personalities now are identical to the ones layed out for them in the manuals for the games they debuted in... Knuckles was always said to be hot-tempered and not very bright.

But here, I think, is where a cultural barrier steps in. I was raised on the Japanese portrayal of Sonic, since before I got my Mega Drive, I was playing it on one belonging to a Japanese-English friend who'd got it for a birthday when visiting his grandparents. That kid translated the manual stories to me, and that was what I fell in love with. I wasn't introduced to the Western version until I got my own console, and I was sorely disappointed by the changes.

Christ, what's wrong with Nega? Is it because he looks just like Eggman? Because that's deliberate, you know. XD

[Manspeed]

You're one in a million Sonic fans, then.

Who could've guessed that you'd be raised on the SoJ continuity? I'd think you'd be raised on Fleetway's Sonic the Comic before that.

Ideally, I'd wish all the continuities could get merged together somehow, because I think that the Sonic fanbase has always been divided as a result of that.

As for Nega, I should think they'd be able to come up with something better than an alternate universe palette swap. That shit was already done to death in the Archie comics.