Sonic's OTHER World Adventure: Sonic Unleashed (Wii/PlayStation 2, 2008) Review

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

Alright guys, it’s time to check out the next game, and that’s…

Sonic Unleashed?

Didn’t I already just review though?

Wait a minute, we’re talking about the OTHER Sonic Unleashed, aren’t we?

Background and History

While a Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of Sonic Unleashed were announced about the same time the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were, neither of those systems were able to handle the new ‘Hedgehog Engine’. So while Sonic Team mostly took over the development of the 360 and PS3 versions, another, less demanding version would be handled by Dimps for the Wii/PS2 with Sonic Team assisting in the development of the Werehog stages in said version.

After releasing, this version of the game would become known as the ‘SD’ version of the game, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were known as the ‘HD’ versions. And at the time of releasing, both the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of the game actually received higher ratings from critics than the HD versions, although in the long run, whereas the HD version would become a cult classic and fan favorite, the SD version has sort of sat in a weird limbo of being more polarized and forgotten to an extent. There are some who do like it better than the HD version, but usually when people talk about Unleashed, they usually talk about the HD version in my experience.

Personal Experience

I sort of touched upon this in my review of the HD version, but around 2016 I began to feel more interested in trying this game - around the time I started to grow more appreciation for the Boost formula after (re)playing Sonic Colors and Generations. Unfortunately, there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a PC version of the game, and my brother’s 360 had completely died a couple years prior so I didn’t have a way of playing the game outside of the Unleashed Project for Generations PC.

I did have a Wii, and was somewhat interested in at least playing the SD version there - even with the Unleashed Project, I at least just wanted to experience the game’s story first-hand and at least get a taste of the gameplay and how it may differ from the other Boost games I played. But I initially held off of it since a lot of the people I ran into tended to agree that it was the worst version of the game.

I was still a little curious about it though. In fact, my first post on the r/SonictheHedgehog subreddit was one asking about whether the Wii version of Unleashed was worth playing or not. And around November 2018, I decided to just go ahead and buy it during one of GameStop’s sales, just to experience some form of Unleashed in its entirety.

My first impressions of the game were generally that I found it to be solid overall. It definitely ‘felt’ like an inferior version compared to what I was seeing from the HD version, but I thought it was a good way just to get a taste of Unleashed as a whole, even if it wasn’t the HD version that I necessarily wanted.

That said, I never really ended up going back to it, especially after picking up the HD version of the game. When I did try going back and playing some of the speed stages, they generally just felt slower to me and not quite as interesting. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t exactly have very high expectations going back to this version of the game, but of course, here we are.

Story

The story begins with Sonic confronting Eggman while aboard his ships… in space. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic as he’s captured by Eggman but-

Wait a minute, this is the same story as the HD version, why am I going over that again.

I will say though that the story presentation here does take somewhat of a hit. Both the FMV and in-engine cutscenes are taken from the HD version, but in the case of the in-engine cutscenes, they’re ripped and pre-rendered from the HD versions onto the SD versions. Which is fair, although the compression is fairly noticeable. 

I will say I did play the Wii version of this game and not the PS2 version, but from the footage I’ve seen from the PS2 version, the compression looks even worse there - just being in an even lower quality in addition to being letterboxed to the game only being in 4:3. I also noticed the color palette of the PS2 cutscenes felt a bit… off. Unfortunately that’s not even all I have to say about the PS2’s visual presentation. On that note,

Presentation

Obviously, being on lower-end consoles, Unleashed SD definitely doesn’t look quite as good as the HD versions. I will say that as far as Wii games go, this definitely isn’t what I would consider among the system’s best - the environments definitely look pretty blocky and Sonic’s Werehog model especially looks very jaggy and low-poly.

Still, I think for what it is, the art style of Unleashed does translate to this game pretty well. Despite their blockiness, the environments can actually look pretty good with this game - still keeping true to the style of their HD counterparts while having some fairly impressive lighting and texture work. Another touch I like is seeing parts of the countries that we didn’t see on the HD versions - like the indoor Ice Temples in Holoska, the inner workings of Eggmanland, and just the aspect of jumping through lily ponds in Chun-nan - stuff that further adds to the level themes as based off their respective countries.

On that note, the Wii version of the game actually feels well optimized - running at 480p which, while not great, is about what I expect from this console, but also the framerate feels mostly stable. I really didn’t notice any major frame drops in this version of the game which feels nice after dealing with that a lot on the HD versions.

And then the PS2 version looks like shit.

Okay, I’m sort of exaggerating there, but while the Wii version definitely isn’t one of the greatest looking Sonic games out there, the PS2 looks even further downgraded. I already talked about how the cutscenes are even more compressed than the Wii version, but in addition to that, the colors look less vibrant, the textures are lower-res, and a lot of the models (especially for the enemies) look like something I would expect out of a Nintendo 64 game. 

In fact, to be honest, the first time I even saw footage of the PS2 version of Unleashed, I thought it looked barely better than a DS game. Which, in retrospect, is a bit much, but… still.

And I mean, I get it - the PS2 was never really the most powerful system, especially compared to the Wii (let alone the PS3 and 360), and some may wonder why they even bothered to release a version of Unleashed for the PS2 which… I can kind of understand from a business standpoint. I mean, after all, the PS2 was still pretty popular for a system that was 8 years old at that point, being the best selling console of all time of course, and was essentially the ‘budget’ option at that time. And especially with the The Great Recession and everything, it wouldn’t surprise me if many held onto their PlayStation 2s instead of jumping over to a new next-gen system. So, of course, it makes sense that with the system still being popular, that Sega would release a port of Sonic Unleashed on that as well.

EDIT: I made a statement about the game's sales numbers that was proven false by wonder-inc on the r/Sonic server, so I've retracted it. If anyone has any good info on the game's overall sales, I would like to see that information.

But I think ultimately, considering this was a later PS2 release, I would think the game would look at least a little better. The Wii version itself isn’t great looking either, but that just makes it more surprising when I get the impression that the PS2 version was ported down from the Wii version.

The soundtrack is the same as the HD versions though, nothing to add there.

Gameplay

As you would probably expect, the core concept of the gameplay in the HD version is applied in the SD version. You play as two different versions of Sonic throughout the game - Sonic’s normal state in the Day stages, involving fast-paced, action platforming, and the ‘Werehog’ form in the Night stages that take the style of a beat-em-up platformer. I don’t think those need much of an introduction, especially if you read my review of the HD version, but there are some changes to the mechanics and gameplay of both styles.

Let’s start on the Day stages. The HD version was the first game to utilize the Boost formula, at least in its current and most known form. The SD version also utilizes elements of that formula, albeit differently. A lot of Sonic’s moveset is here - the quick step, the drift, the Light Speed Dash, and the stomp - plus the changing camera angles between 2D and 3D - but probably the most noticeable thing in this game is that the Boost itself works somewhat differently.

In the HD version of the game, alongside the Rush and later Boost games, ‘Boost’ energy is placed into a gauge, and as you fill that up, you can utilize the Boost ability to go to top speed and plow through enemies - which will last if either the gauge runs out, or if you just stop holding the Boost button.

And that last part is kind of what I want to focus on. In this version of the game, there is still a Boost ability and gauge, but it works differently. The gauge this time is split into sections, and the Boost ability itself doesn’t necessarily depend on how much Boost energy is inside - rather, how many ‘sections’ are filled. When you start a level, you only see three empty sections, but as you collect more rings and destroy more enemies, you start seeing more as it fills up.

And I gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of how the Boost works in this game for one simple reason - you don’t actually have control over when to stop or continue Boosting after you activate the ability. Sure, it’s an interesting change of pace and gives the player an added challenge of ‘rationing’ the Boost… but considering this is technically a ‘boost’ game, I kind of wish I had more control over, well, the Boost. 

Thing is, when you Boost, the Boost ability always goes on for how long it takes for a section to drain of ‘Boost’ energy. If you activate the Boost but then want to stop beforehand, you have no way of doing so. If you want to continue Boosting… well, technically you can if you have more sections filled, but Sonic will start to slow down a bit before you get the chance to boost again. Overall, it just makes the Boost itself feel clunky to me, and a lot of the time, I just didn’t feel incentivized to use it unless I was just running on a straight path. I mean, this handling of the Boost gauge is an interesting and unique way to approach it, but it makes the Boost itself feel a lot less intertwined with the actual gameplay, with the Boost here feeling more like a situational ability rather than something to really help you progress through the levels.

I will say, though, that I did find the Day stages to be… actually pretty fun here. Not as good as the HD versions in my opinion (even with some of the trial and error gameplay there), but I think it does a decent enough job of replicating a lot of Unleashed’s Day gameplay style. I mentioned the moveset is still there (with a somewhat gimped Boost), and it still carries a lot of that speed focus - not to the same extent of the HD version, but it’s still there. I will say the levels don’t feel quite as dynamic either, feeling somewhat empty at certain points, for what is there, I think the Day stages play fairly well. I wouldn’t go back to them over the HD Day stages, but I could still find myself enjoying them. Plus, to those who didn’t like the trial and error heaviness of the HD stages, these might at the very least be an easier pill to swallow and better for newer players to get a grasp of.

I don’t really have too much to say about Sonic’s Day control in this game - I think they work fine enough for the level design, maybe a bit stiff and limited in places, but they weren’t much of an issue here. At least, with the Classic Controller Pro. Truth be told, I didn’t like the idea of controlling Sonic with Wii Motion Controls and well, after trying it out, you can probably bet I stuck with the Classic Controller for these stages. I definitely feel like the moveset doesn’t work as well for a platformer, and doing certain actions - particularly ‘shaking’ to Boost and homing attack, just feels awkward to me.

Even with the Classic Controller though, the control scheme itself feels… off, particularly the drift. Again, in Unleashed HD, the drift is activated by using one of the triggers, but here… it’s activated with the Y button, which makes it feel weird to pull off. Maybe I’m just more used to the HD and Generations drift, but at the same time, I feel like using the Y button for drifting just feels odd ergonomically, especially considering the Wii Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro at least have shoulder buttons that could be used. 

Unfortunately I can’t use a GameCube controller since 1. I was playing on the Wii U, and 2. even if I used my OG Wii, I only have the ‘Family Edition’ which doesn’t support GameCube controllers, so either way that just wasn’t an option for me, and as a result I can’t comment on how that feels in comparison to the Classic Controller.

Okay, so that’s all my thoughts on the Day stages, so now we move to the Night stages. If you read my review of the HD version, I didn’t like these there - the combat tended to feel monotonous, the platforming went from being slow and boring to just outright tedious (especially with all those tightrope sections), and overall it just wasn’t a fun experience for me especially when coming from the more fast-paced action from the Day stages. And I can’t say that they’re an improvement here. In fact, in some ways… they’re even worse.

I will say that as far as the control options go, the motion controls do feel a bit better for combat for me in this version. I definitely sort of get the impression for the most part that the SD game’s combat was designed around this, as when playing with the Classic Controller, it just felt sort of sluggish, almost like there was some delay between button presses. As such, the motion controls feel a bit more fluid and make the combat feel a bit faster overall. I actually ended up finding myself switching between the two control schemes depending on what type of stage I was playing, and for the most part used the WiiMote and Nunchuk for the Night stages… except for the Egg Dragoon boss where for some reason I couldn’t get Sonic’s upper punch to work half the time.

Still, even with that in mind, I feel like the combat in this version’s Night stages actually tends to feel even less interesting than in the HD version. The HD version, at the very least, provided you with combos you can pull off - sure, it didn’t do a good job of incentivizing that, but it at least was something that in theory added to the gameplay.

In this version, the combo system feels almost nonexistent to the point where most of the time I feel like I’m just… button-mashing? I guess a better word for that would be waggling or… something, but you get my point. The Werehog combat in the HD felt monotonous as it is, and the Wii version makes it feel even more repetitive.

And the Werehog platforming here… I mean, at least there’s no tightrope sections from what I could tell, but otherwise, I feel like the controls are a tad worse than in the HD Werehog stages. It’s not too significant, but I feel like his jump feels somewhat more floaty here, the Werehog generally feels slower and I find some of the sections where you grab onto poles and walls to be a bit awkward - particularly on those rods you have to spin on to move from one to the next.

But the worst part is easily the running movement. The control scheme alone is weird here - to run, you have to tap the analog stick twice in the same direction, and this really makes trying to do precise platforming and movement annoying. There were definitely multiple times where I was trying to make slight movements with the analog stick, and in the process, accidentally enabling the Werehog’s run without realizing it, which of course would sometimes lead to me falling to my death.

On top of that, you know how I said the Werehog generally feels slower in this version? Well, the run has the exact opposite issue - feeling like when you do run, the Werehog goes from 0 to 100, and feels even more imprecise. Even when I could have stopped myself after activating the run, I really didn’t get much of a chance to because it feels like the Werehog just flies off.

On top of all that, if you didn’t like having to play as the Werehog in the HD version, this version may seem automatically worse for one reason - it’s even more prevalent here. They did at least split the Werehog stages into separate acts, which at least makes them not feel as long (at least allowing you to take breaks or not feel as worried about dying), but at the same time, I feel like the overall amount of time spent playing as the Werehog takes up a higher amount of the game overall than in the HD version.

I feel like part of it is that the Day stages themselves feel shorter than they do in the HD version, and while the individual acts are shorter than most if not all the Night stages, they can still take around 5-10 minutes each, and you have to play 3-5 acts (depending on the stage) to progress. It makes the Werehog feel like a longer part of the game overall, and considering I didn’t like the Werehog as it is in either version, it really starts to feel like an overall slog.

Eggmanland is a good example of this - on the plus side, they did split that stage into multiple acts, which is definitely good, but there’s 5 acts for the Night stages, which again, each aren’t nearly as long in length, but adding them up makes Eggmanland feel even more drawn out and boring than it does in the HD version.

On that note, this game’s structure is also… weird. One big positive this game has over the HD version is the medal collecting - you don’t need to be actively searching for them this time, instead you get them just by completing each stage with a B rank or above. For the main stages, B ranks give you 1, A ranks give you 2, and S ranks give you 3. You can’t go back to the individual stages for more medals unless you achieve a higher rank, but that’s reasonable. But in addition, they’re also not mandatory to progress - you need them to unlock doors in the Gaia gates which contain lives or unlockable content, but that’s the extent of it. I would definitely say this alone makes Unleashed SD’s progression system less annoying than the HD versions.

Hub worlds also have been removed which I can… take or leave, really. While I don’t think they were too bad in the HD version, in some cases I did like scenery and whatnot, I don’t think they added much to the game either, and I can understand not having them here - instead, replacing them with minimap screens with a few specific locations that you can choose from.

But at the same time, particularly when it comes to the Day stages, you have to complete a few mandatory missions to progress. With the Night stages it is a bit more straightforward - just playing through all the acts - but there’s only one Day stage in each world except for Apotos, and instead of playing through different ‘acts’ of them, you have to play through missions. I will say I do prefer the mission system over the one in Secret Rings, where it wasn’t exactly made clear which missions you had to complete to progress - this game at least just sends you to the next missions, and even if you exit the stage, they’re still added in order in the stage selection. 

But at the same time, the missions here still feel pretty repetitive - all requiring you to play the same stage in a slightly different way, like collecting a certain amount of rings, getting to the goal in a certain amount of time, or not breaking any jars. I sort of get the impression that they didn’t have enough time to develop more Day stages for some reason, and with how short the Day stages are as it is, they felt the need to pad the game out with these missions.

One thing I also noticed is that two of the countries you visit in the HD version are mostly absent here. You fight a boss in Mazuri, but then afterwards you never actually play any Day or Night stages, and Empire City is just completely gone. I don’t really know why that is or how I feel about it but it is definitely interesting to note.

Another interesting thing I noted is that a lot of the bosses actually play fairly similar to their HD counterparts. There are changes - the final boss in particular is completely different - but I did that a lot of the other bosses at least had most of the fundamentals of the bosses in the HD version. Particularly in the case of Egg Beetle and Egg Lancer bosses in addition to Dark Moray, which basically has the same setup albeit slightly toned down. Even in the final boss, I noticed that at least the third running section (and potentially the others although I’m not too sure) has almost the exact layout as the third running section in the HD version.

As for the final boss itself, it’s... less tedious than the HD version but still pretty lame. You at least get to fight as the Gaia Colossus against Dark Gaia so that’s good, but otherwise, you still have those running sections, and the ‘Perfect’ Dark Gaia is… eh. Basically you just move around as Super Sonic, collecting rings and dodging his attacks until you have enough energy to fly into one of his eyes.

Conclusion

I still do believe that overall, the HD version of this game is definitely the better one, and this game does have quite it’s share of flaws - the Werehog having more of a prominence and feeling worse in some ways, plus the mandatory missions.

But I will say, while I still consider the HD Day stages better, I could still find enjoyment in this game’s Day stages as well. They don’t feel quite as dynamic or interesting, plus they are pretty short, but at the same time I can at least appreciate that it does capture the core gameplay elements of Unleashed HD even if they don’t have quite the scope - still having a lot of the movements and fast-paced feeling.

Otherwise, this is still a game I’d probably find myself going back to more for the Day stages themselves rather than anything else. While the medal collecting progression system is at least thrown out the window, the greater prominence on the Werehog doesn’t really help the game from dragging in it’s own right.

It’s an okay game overall, and a solid way to experience Unleashed if you haven’t before, especially due to the less steep learning curve to that of the HD version. But… if you’ve played the HD version, or are just more experienced as a Sonic fan, I would probably recommend the HD version over this one - especially since that version’s more readily available with being backwards compatible on Xbox One and Series X.

But at the same time, I wouldn’t pass on this game either - it’s still at least worth trying even if it isn’t quite as good as the HD version is in my opinion. I mean, who knows, you may even enjoy it more than the HD version. I don’t personally, but it’s always good to form your own opinions instead of just listening to a loser like me talk about it.