Gets alot of things right but has a way to go.
Sonic Unleashed was Sega's newest attempt to "reinvent" Sonic and help correct mistakes of old and much like "Secret Rings" before it, It makes two steps forward but one step back. After reading IGN's warning article about the Wii version vs. the 360 version, I'm rather glad I decided to go with the Wii version (though I may eventually rent the 360 version). The Wii/PS2 version was made by Dimps who of course made the excellent Sonic Rush series and when you can see the Sonic Rush influence in this title.
The story compared to past games, is a bit more stripped down. No more angsty emo hedgehog babbling on about his tragic past and no more cross species love story. This time Eggman's newest plan involves him blowing the world into pieces and releasing dark Gaia energy across the planet. Sonic shows up at his space station to smash things up as he does and the opening scene is excellent. It just would've been nice to have been able to PLAY this as a level. Don't you hate it when cutscenes hog all the fun? Sonic smashes some robots, gets caught, turns into Super Sonic and when just when Sonic thinks he's won, Eggman traps him in a machine that extracts the emeralds from Sonic, drains their power in order to fire his Death Star like cannon. This defeat of Super Sonic causes the werehog transformation. Sonic this time sets out to restore the Chaos Emeralds power and put the Earth back together and cure himself.
Despite the whole Dark Gaia thing the story does return to a more lighthearted feel no longer taking itself so seriously like some bad anime. Also Sega finally got it through their heads that us old school fans don't give a sh-- about every little furry Sonic friend. Shadow, Rouge and the rest of the Care Bear colored carboard cutouts sit out this time. Only Tails and Amy appear as part of the story though we are still force fed another useless new character in the form of Chip, who is apparently the love child of Navi and a Chiuauah, though I feared he'd have a whiny high pitched voice like Charmy or Bokun (Sonic X), his voice is tolerable. Chip has lost his memory and Sonic, being the nice guy he is offers to help.
First of all, the part that Sega finally gets right is that this game has some of the best high speed platforming stages to date. Finally playing Sonic in 3D feels right and fun. The camera stays behind him. The controls are tight. When I nudge the left analog stick slightly to the left, Sonic moves slightly to the left instead of kareening left off a cliff. Also moves like drifting, boosting and quick step help to keep things going. The day stages are full of dash pads, bumpers, and multiple paths and have nearly endless replay value. One thing that helps as well is this transistion between 3D and 2D because Sonic's always done best in 2D. The game even gives you a target time to get the S rank. Honestly if Sega could do an entire game of this, we'd finally have the great 3D Sonic game we old school fans dream of.
However Sega has this crippling fear of if they just make a game with Sonic running fast it will be too short so they had to throw in some "filler." In between stages you have to visit a village, but unlike it's HD counterparts, it's more like the island in Sonic Rush Adventure. Select a location, talk to someone, get an item then head to the Gaia Gate to open the next level. No aimlessly wandering around a hub world.
Now comes the werehog, Sonic's night form. Now I wasn't thrilled with this idea but it's not that bad, but I could've done without it. Sonic's larger, slower form plays like Crash Bandicoot. Linear platforming mixed in with mindless beat-em-up action. Honestly I liked the platforming though Sonic doesn't handle as tightly as Mario and let's face it, there aren't a lot of decent 3D platformers these days at least not based on a kid's cartoon. You run, jump, climb and every so often you have to stop and take out some dark Gaia baddies. Using the Wii controls to punch and smash was fun for me though I got annoyed with the fixed camera which wouldn't let me spin around to get a better angle on things of course if you get tired of flailing, you can always switch to the Gamecube controller.
The biggest complaint with the game is it would've been nice to have more Sonic levels because not only do the werehog levels take longer, there seem to be more full levels with it as well.
That aside though the graphics are excellent for a Wii third party game. Despite not having a "hedgehog engine" the Wii stages are all well done with a lot of detail and compared to Next Gen, is nearly free of the bugs and glitches. The music is also excellent. Gone is the Crush 40 butt rock of past games replaced with tunes more reminscent of the Genesis era.
In the end I still have had fun with Sonic Unleashed. It could still be way better and Sega still needs to get it through their skulls that if they take the day stages from this and just make a game with that, we'd all be happy.