Review – Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360 / PS3)

Sonic Unleashed, Sega’s latest attempt to reanimate their mascots’ mangled corpse in three dimensions, is split into two very different sections.

One is relentlessly fast and almost impossible to follow, a blur of colour against blue skies and bluer oceans, littered with rings and springs and things than end with ings. Bouncy and fast, Sonic is an effervescent navy haze that loops the loops and thwarts nuisance robots with a single hit, the camera dancing between side scrolling nostalgia and 3D contemporariness.

Stages offer the speed and fluidity of a racing game but call on the need for faultless timing and course mastery. Through the game’s grading system, optional time-trial challenges and a number of tricky speed based achievements, Sonic Unleashed has the ability to wake that long dormant satisfaction of learning, mastering and retrying a level until every stage is mapped into your mind, and graded S on your score card.

Jump here, speed boost there, take this shortcut but avoid the next – it’s an exercise in quick thinking and intense concentration, the cognitive-athletics that drive gamers who can complete Super Metroid at an ungodly rapid gait, and those with impeccable three star records throughout Mirror’s Edge’s campaign. Like dropping a seasoned gamer into Green Hill Zone, Act 1, and watching them effortlessly complete the stage in a matter of seconds, avoiding every nasty and collecting every power up, Sonic Unleashed is the closest we’ve come to his 16 bit heritage, so far.

But by night, the game takes a bizarre turn for the worse. Sonic transforms into a “Werehog”; part Werewolf, part Hedgehog, part tattered remnants of a childhood idol. Sonic swaps his trademarked speed for uncharacteristic brutality, losing his spiky mop for furry, elasticised arms. The game devolves into a tediously slow God of War clone, mixing in a little Tomb Raider for good measure. Suddenly, the camera issues come flooding back, Werehog’s slippery controls make navigation a chore and the difficulty has more spikes than Sonic’s back.

It’s the same old embarrassing Sonic Team; boring design and frustrating mechanics, all while the glistening oceans of Sonic’s daytime jaunts plague your mind. Five minutes ago you were riding a bobsled down a whale’s back, now you’re tip-toeing a plank of wood over four feet of water that will no doubt kill you on impact – what happened?

Everything outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog levels is pure, unadulterated trash, charmless bullshit that stings of Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic’s most recent Xbox 360 exploit. You’re expected to wander the street and listen to the townspeople’s inane ramblings, complete dreary button-tapping flights with Tails and endure the maddening yelps from the red thing that’s following your every move.

The map is confusing and your current objective is hazy, you’re forced to replay levels and find hidden medals to boost your solar and lunar powers, it’s one bad design after the other. Sonic Unleashed includes a really good game, but it’s hidden under an immeasurably thick crust of disappointments and tediousness.

The blue blur has often failed to meet his much requested, and potentially impossible, opus of a full game focused on his signature speed, but Unleashed is the closest we’ve ever come. Yet, it’s impossible to advocate with a sliver of conviction, a dicey recommendation at best, served with a mountain of caveats, warnings and stipulations.