I like to think it's going to be good, but I have a feeling I'm going to be very disappointed.

this will probably make sonic crash and burn or it could give him life once more... but probably crash and burn... either way i still think sonic is awesome and will still play his good previous games

Well... I've seen a review, and I am very disappointed in the games's designers. From what I read, the TRUE Sonic stages are pretty awesome. The review described them as nearly flawless. The game fails on an epic scale when the sun goes down. The werehog stages completely undermine the point of Sonic: SPEED. It doesn't help that these levels are badly designed. What's wrong with Sega? All the bad Sonic games have had a gimmick to them: Heroes, Shadow(ugh), Secret Rings... Why can't they just make a purely classic 3D sonic game? What's so hard about having a game like they used to? Do they think that we'll be bored by it? Ugh. I had high hopes for it, but I just can't see the series rebounding after this. Maybe they should try to imitate Capcom and make a game like Megaman 9.

insertusernamehere2:

Ragdrazi:
Werehog. Because Link did it?

Because Sonic is now doing EVERYTHING that huge Nintendo franchises have done, interestingly enough, Mario in particular. Think about it: sports game (Sega superstar tennis)? Mario did it. Racing game (Super Sonic racing)? Mario did it. Werewolf idea? Link did it. RPG game? Mario did it and pulled it off nicely. I've heard about and seen screenshots of a game coming up with sonic getting, and I'm serious here, a talking sword that gives him advice. Do I even need to tell you that Link did that from day one? Sega needs to realize that Sonic needs to die. He had his run in 2-D.

Saying that Nintendo did EVERYTHING is narrow-minded. It makes people sound like the kid on South Park who in one episode kept saying, "Simpsons did it." Very annoying. And the Werehog idea, I like this idea. And by the way, Link was NOT the first Werewolf!

Ugh, I hate to say that I've given up on Sonic 3-D as a whole since Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

It's a shame. I absolutely loved the original Sonic Adventure, every last bit of it, even more than the original Genesis games. I always thought Chaos was the coolest boss, and while losing the emeralds to Robotnik after working to find them was really annoying and predictable after the first time, I still had a lot of fun. Oh and the chaos could be addicting, too.

But then SA2:B had similar design, except without character choice. When playing the story, I could only choose light or dark, and not which specific character I wanted to play, which really hurt the game IMO. Each character had a distinct style of play, and if I was in the mood to fly down levels, I'd play as sonic; if I wanted to go hunting, I'd play as Knuckles. In 2 I was forced into those levels. (Not too mention I liked the way they pulled off the story in the original, even if it meant seeing the same scenes an extra time or two.)

I think from there, when they stopped giving people choice, was when the franchise started going downhill. Shadow, Sonic Heroes.. I just lost respect for them. Oh, and my friends tried playing through Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 or w/e over the summer.. it was a very masochistic experience.

The handheld 2d sonics (Sonic Rush at least) have been great - it's just the 3D ones that are going crazy! If Sonic Team would just make a 3d sonic game like Sonic Adventure or even SA2:B, I would pick it up in no time.

Btw Biowares Sonic Chronicles, was good IMO, nice combat system (If a bit impossible to play in a car)good script writing (E-123 Omega referring to the cast as 'Meatbags') GOOD Characterization. Can't wait for a sequel.

as for Unleashed, I'm hoping the Wearhog is optional, it MIGHT be you never know, I think the fact the games at blinding speed for the running part is good for me.

SEGA has to learn that Sonic needs two things, Run Fast, Kill Boss. The speed section emphasize this you just blow through the. Anyway I'm buying it. If I don't like it I'll return it simple.

As a retro Sonic fan I can honestly say that Unleashed is the most promising 3D Sonic game I've ever seen. The Sonic parts look awesome and really fitting of the way Sonic games used to work, and if the entire game consisted of nothing but real, no-bullshit, straight-up Sonic levels, I would be totally psyched about this game.

But what the fuck, Team Sonic. Seriously, I can't think of a single Sonic review from the past 8 years that didn't mention the fact that said Sonic game would be a lot better if it consisted of nothing but levels where you play as fucking Sonic. If I buy a Sonic game for some mysterious reason, I don't want to shoot robots. I don't want to search for chunks of emerald. I don't want to have a gun, or a fucking sword. And I don't want to play slow, arbitrary platforming levels with a character so ill-concieved it makes the designer seem like he was trying to get fired on purpose. I just want to hold my joystick to the right and press "a" occasionally. It really is that simple.

In retrospect this post has a slightly whiney ring to it, but honestly, I'd just love to play a "real" Sonic game.

^ I think that's it, we aren't ASKING for a revolutionary new system, We just wanna run, it SEEMS boring on the outside but it really IS fun, moving slow, solving puzzles, fighting enemies is not what we wanna do. We just wanna run fast and eventually kill a boss over a shiny emerald,which we will eventually combine with others to become a golden Hedgehog and murderize everything.

If there's one thing they could add, it's character selection, but let them run THE SAME STAGES, tails doesn't need bullshit flying missions, sure it might seem boring with just the same stages, but trust me, make some slight alterations or path splits (Short cuts you can use with wall climbing or flying for instance)and everyone will love it.

The thing IS I don't know if there really all that stupid, looking at the RUSH Games and the Advanced games they seemed to know (mostly) what people want, so why is that so hard for Console games! just because you can add brawling segments doesn't mean you should.

Inevitably though we have to compare this to Sonic 06 (IIRC the last one to come out) and well... they can't do any WORSE

To quote Gabe from PA : "They make snuff films. Every game they release anymore involves their legendary properties being fucked and murdered. Is that good? Does it need to be quicker? "Sega makes murder porn." "

As much as we deride Nintendo for not changing their core franchises lets look at what happens when Sega DO change their core franchises..well..franchise. Abominations. Thankfully they're not adding more pointless characters to Sonic anymore but they are still intent on fucking it up.

Dev 1: It's done ! Sonic UNLEASHED!
Dev 2: I dunno...he's pretty fast, but is that really..unleashed? Maybe we need to throw in some unneeded crappy combat section.
Dev 1: What? Did you not listen to the fans? This is perfect.
Dev 2: OH OH!! What if Sonic turns into a Werewolf?
Dev 1: What the hell? Are you high? How would that even work? He's a hedgehog.
Dev 2: A wereHOG then!
Dev 1: ...Shouldn't that be hedgewolf?
Dev 2: Whatever man, this is the icing on the cake.

The best Sonic game of the best few years was on the DS and that is because it kept to the formula that people liked.

First off: I'm not gonna buy the game, as I am too poor to afford anything above my own lunch at the moment

Second: As long as none of the other crap-characters that have been spewed forth into this series show up, and if ware sonic doesn't fail (but it's failure appears highly likely) then perhaps Sonic might still have a chance.

On a side note, has anyone read the fanboy article that was published here last week?

I hope that it would be great, but I feel that sonic, sadly, died long ago and there may not be much anyone can do to resurrect him.

im sure if it sucks, they will try again...and again... and again

I 'hope' the game has at least worked on making Sonic CONTROLLABLE. If he's fast, cool, that's awesome! But the PS3/XBOX360 sonic had a lot of issues but mostly the fact it was just plain ridiculous to try and get Sonic under control, he moved TOO Fast, I suppose. I haven't played a Sonic game until Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, and I just finished it.

They kept the cast small (well 10 characters to choose from for a 4 person team, but still, pretty small as compared to others) and kept true to the characters' personalities. Sonic was confident and snarky, Knuckles was pissy and Shadow was emo. (Admittedly, this is my only experience with Shadow, I didn't get far enough (see: anywhere) in the PS3 Sonic game to play as him, but whatever).

As for the old games ... they were fun, and said a lot without saying anything. That being said, though, I've never finished Sonic 1. Marble Zone Act 3 was as far as I ever got. I think once I got to Spring Yard Zone. Sonic 2 was easier and I managed to beat it, but I never managed to get past Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles .. they'll always be a fond memory, though. I try to keep an open mind about the games, and I do hope Sonic Unleashe doesn't disappoint. but first, LBP and Mirror's Edge

It appears to me that this game was more angled towards the fanboys, what with the regular levels going to 2D and fuck-fast speeds; isn't that what they've bitched for for the greater part of a decade? Filling a niche market is alright, but this is a mascot here, the guy who's meant to flag some appeal to everyone, which is where the werehog levels enter.
Will it save the franchise? I think the result will be the same as all the other "disappointments". There'll be bitching, defending, and there will follow another game funded by fanboys regardless of the performance of this game.

I'm personally not going to buy it; I'd rather play Wipeout if I were to opt for going at high speed along a linear path.

So far the game feels like part dating sim as they try to put together an adventure. I'd say it is a mediocre game right now but I only got through 3 hours playing so I will still reserve judgement.

Sonic doesn't need any new gimmicks to make a game about him. I wish they would make new 2-D Sonic games with the classic gameplay of the first Sonic game only with new levels and bosses. That's all he needs, just some new levels to zip through. Sonic was just fine the way he was back in the Sega Genesis days.

Jeronus:
Sonic is like a Nascar race. Fast, repetitive, and likely to make a lot of money with people gullible enough to pay. At this point, I am waiting for him to hit the wall and catch fire.

Pretty sure he crashed and burnt in '06 with the PS3/360 Sonic game

but back on topic, if they keep the werewolf thing to a minimum (80% regular sonic at LEAST maybe 70 if the combat is actually fun) odds are its gonna play as slowly as the Tails/Eggman sections of SA2

Sasha Janre:

They kept the cast small (well 10 characters to choose from for a 4 person team, but still, pretty small as compared to others) and kept true to the characters' personalities. Sonic was confident and snarky, Knuckles was pissy and Shadow was emo. (Admittedly, this is my only experience with Shadow, I didn't get far enough (see: anywhere) in the PS3 Sonic game to play as him, but whatever).

Sonic Chronicles managed to undo about the last six years of constant character assassination that Sonic Team have been putting their characters through.

Anyway, Sonic Unleashed won't save the franchise unless it has interesting levels with technical platforming and lots to explore. Which is what the old Sonic games were. Note for the thickies: Sonic was never actually all that fast, it was all about the tricky jumps and hazardous geography combined with rewards for exploring (Super Sonic on stage 1? can be done, if you really know the levels) in the first games.