Product Description

Sonic is truly in a world-wide race against time... as the sun sets, a new adventure awakens.

In this new adventure, Dr. Eggman is up to his evil antics again, in his quest for World domination. He unleashes a powerful ray that not only divides the world into several continents, but has an unexpected transformation on Sonic's state.

Sonic must travel across the globe, completing action-packed stages to retrieve the power of the Chaos Emeralds to ultimately save the world... and himself! Sonic's world has been transformed, courtesy of a powerful new game engine that delivers the tight gameplay of a 2D sidescroller in stunning, picturesque 3D environments. Sonic Unleashed takes everything you know and love about Sonic and upgrades it with spectacular scenery, new combat powers, an unexpected storyline, and, of course, blistering speed.

• Introducing the all-new powerful Hedgehog Engine that delivers a revolutionary gameplay experience, combining ultra realistic graphics with seamless transition between 3D to classic 2D high-speed action.
• Accelerate to super speed with Sonic Boost, avoid obstacles instantly using Quick Step and accelerate around corners with Speed Drift - this is Sonic at his fastest!
• Journey and explore seven unique, rich and vibrant continents - sprint across cobbled streets or race through lush jungles on a quest to save the world.
• With a massive world as Sonic's new playground, follow multiple paths and routes that presents different encounters, rewards and obstacles at every turn, as an unexpected storyline unfolds.
• Sonic's transformation brings new powers of combat and movement, giving an innovative and challenging Sonic experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #403 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2008-11-28
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk

Sonic Unleashed is built on a powerful new "Hedgehog Engine", which introduces seamless 3D to classic 2D camera transitions, whilst delivering a rich and expansive world with multiple paths to choose from. Under development for three years, the Hedgehog Engine produces a visually rich next generation look and feel with elements of classic Sonic gameplay mechanics. The Hedgehog engine will help re-define the gameplay experience for Sonic fans and newcomers to the franchise alike.

"By combining rich and vibrant scenery with dynamic viewpoints Sonic Unleashed will provide an immersive 3D experience whilst keeping alive the 2D gameplay elements and fantastic worlds that Sonic fans know and love" commented Gary Knight, European Marketing Director for SEGA Europe. "In addition to this classic Sonic gaming experience, when darkness sets in Sonic Unleashed players will be able to experience a completely new way to play as Sonic… making this his most exciting adventure yet!"

Having been broken apart by the evil Dr Eggman, it’s down to Sonic to put the pieces of the world back together again by retrieving the power of the chaos emeralds. In doing so, Sonic will find himself in a race against time and faced with an unusual situation that will challenge him in ways never before seen. By completing a wide variety of action-packed stages, spanning the seven broken continents of the world, gamers will need to unleash Sonic’s amazing abilities to save the world, and himself!

The opportunity to engage in Sonic in different ways during the day and night time levels brings a completely original way of playing to the Sonic franchise, in addition to running at high speeds in classic Sonic style, combat fighting will become possible. Super quick Sonic’s speed skills will be highlighted by four new modes, whilst the all new combat, movement and functional abilities will offer depth and variety to the game. As the sun sets in Sonic Unleashed, a different type of adventure will awaken in Sonic’s newest quest….

Customer Reviews

A decent sonic game overall
Though many would say this isn't the best game sega have made, i generally think its not too bad because although most of the stages are at night, the day stages are really do give you a decent sonic experience. Compared with the 360 and PS3 versions which show larger stages with more fancy tricks to do in the air, the game play and the graphics really aren't that bad.

The night stages on the other hand can get a little tiresome since your doing the same thing over and over and can get annoying when you miss a jump and loose a life as a result.

Overall I would give 5 out of 5 for pure fun but 4 out of 5 for lack of high speed sonic action and lack of normal sonic type stages

A tremendous disappointment
Having played plenty of previous Sonic games, I bought this on release weekend with high hopes, and started the game the same way. The premise of the game is that Sonic is shot by Dr. Eggman's new gadget, which turns him into a werehog when the moon comes out. Effectively, Sonic is now two different characters instead of one.

By day, it all works great. Sonic speeds around, completes a few missions, and is a joy to command. But once the sun goes down (and you'll spend at least two-thirds of your time on night levels), so does the game. The controls are frustrating, with Were-Sonic speeding away at the merest tilt of the control stick and missing jumps that he clearly should have made. Battles are a button-mashing exercise, and the enemies come only in cakewalk and overpowering varieties. You aren't told what goals you have to achieve at the start of each level. And worst of all, there's no extra lives in the main levels of the game -- just three screw-ups on any level (most of which take north of five minutes), and you're back to the start. You can pick up extra lives in the bonus rooms, but most of the rooms only open after you have several dozen star or moon medals, by which stage you're more than halfway through the game.

I've given this two stars because the day stages give the game some redeeming value, but the night stages will have you utterly frustrated. I'd give it a miss.

Getting there
Trouble I have found with Sonic is he has not lived up to the promise in 3D like Mario or Zelda has. Thats mainly because Sonic is built on speed which is not always easy to do in 3D.

With the seamless 3D to 2D then back againe within Unleashed the game has improved a lot from the ones that have come before it. The only let down for me is the Werehog scenes and the endless cinematics in between levels and the villages.

For me Sonic is about speed and great graphics to go with it. Throw in a few rings, chaos emeralds and a Super Sonic ending and thats the whole package. If the day time scenes with Sonic was the only thing about the game it would be brilliant.

While I still like the game, there are improvements that need to be made and Sonic and the Black Knight on Wii is shaping up to live up to the promised Sonic game fans want when it is releashed in March 2009. Buy this by all means. Just not the greatest but certanly not the worst tite. Its still enjoyable if at times frustrating.