Video Game Review: “Sonic Unleashed”

If you’ve been playing video games for a while, chances are you’ve played a Sonic the Hedgehog game or some other game where he makes a guest appearance.   The character first made an appearance back in 1991 when Sega was looking for a mascot to compete with Nintendo’s highly popular Mario character.  With his signature blue spiky hair and amazing speed, Sonic has become one of the most recognized and played characters in the world.

image: IGN.com

In his newest adventure, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic must thwart the actions of Doctor Eggman after he splits the world into pieces by using Chaos Emeralds to unleash the powerful beast, Dark Gaia, from the center of the earth.  The Chaos Emeralds also have an affect on our favorite protagonist – Sonic gets turned into Sonic the Werehog.  I’ve got to say that when I first saw that thing, I was immediately disappointed.  I know this might appeal to some gamers but many purists have been unhappy with this transformation.  Fortunately, when the sun comes up in the game, we are able to play with the hedgehog but, as night falls, that beast returns.

image: IGN.com

For much of the game, we get to experience some familiar things.  Sonic races around the game (during the day) at an incredible speed picking up rings and breaking objects along the way.  During the night-time scenes, Sonic the Werehog emerges and he’s slower, bigger but his arms can stretch and he’s stronger.  I don’t really know if those are good enough benefits to outweigh how clunky he is to play with.  The good news is that Sonic Team/Sega realize that there were some problems with this character.  The (possible) bad news is that the werehog may be gearing up for another appearance.  Hopefully, if they do that, they will implement enough changes to make this alter-ego more congruent with the Sonic we all know and love.

I loved the levels and gameplay but that werehog just started to annoy me after a while.  Watch the trailer here: