The Blue Blur is back in his latest adventure: Dr. Sonic and Mr. Hedgehog, I mean, Sonic Unleashed
It wouldn't be until 2008 that the Blue Blur would finally get a Next Gen game worthy of his name: Sonic Unleashed. The storyline is fairly straight forward, Dr. Eggman is up to his old tricks again, this time launching a full scale attack, that results in the planet being blown apart, releasing a monster known as Dark Gaia from the planet, and once again it's up to Sonic the Hedgehog to save the day.
Overall Unleashed is a vast improvement over the last few entries in the series, and fixes the problem that plagued the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog, in the form of quicker load times. Graphics wise, the game looks excellent, and is extremely bright and colorful, an other wise vast improvement over the extremely dark and graiy visuals present in many of the Post-Sonic Adventure games.
The gameplay has also been vastly improved, especally in the day stages, which have restored much of Sonic's traditional game play, of spin dashing into enemies, and running at supersonic speeds through loops and jumping across platforms, which feels more like the traditional Sonic gameplay.
Of course the big feature is that in this game Sonic has contracted a serious case of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Part of the plot line involves the machine used by Dr. Eggman altering Sonic's very DNA causing him to transform into a Werehog at night. Over all these night stages are similiar to the day stages, except that the Werehog is far slower then Sonic, and the stages are constructed similar to beat-em-ups like Devil May Cry and God of War, which may appeal to fans of the beat-em-up genre.
While Unleashed is a vast improvement over previous Sonic games, it still has some flaws. The worst feature of this game is the introduction of a new character named Chip, while intended to appeal to little kids, Chip is by far the most annoying new character ever introduced, and believe me, you won't get past his debut scene without wanting to reach through the screen and beat him to within an inch of his life. The only reedeeming quality is that he's not present when you actually play a level.
The controls are actually fairly tight and responsive, however there is one problem: STOPPING. During the night stages, it's fairly easy to stop, owing to the Werehog's slower speed, but in the day stages Sonic is moving so fast that you'll probably find yourself saying "where are the breaks on this thing." While Sonic is known for his speed, stopping has never been his best feature, and at times you'll find yourself going so fast you won't be able to see an enemy, obstical or the edge of a platform until you either run into it or off of it.
Overall, Sonic Unleashed is actually one of the better enteries in the Sonic Series, and is a must have for Sonic Fans and casual gamers.