Sonic Unleashed?

[Zeta]

Spike is 100% correct when he says the games aren't coming to Wii "because of the graphics"; Poor(er) graphics turn away the "hardcore" gamers who might've played Resistance, Bioshock or Fallout.

I would agree with you, except we already saw that didn't happen with the Game Cube. Like it or not, Nintendo's branding of Mario and Pikachu turns off a lot of the people who play Fallout, BioShock, and et Al. They're forever branded in the brains of fratboys, hardcore FPS fans, and probably even developers as "For teh babiesfagz lol".

[Dasher]

So..did the game arrived today or something? is there a demo coming?

[gr4yJ4Y]

I think it arrived today, but the only review I've seen for it is from Nintendo Power.

[G.Silver]

here are a LOT of games that 360 and PS3 are getting and Wii is not, all because Nintendo decided to half ass it in the graphics department.

This is the line that gets me. Sure, everyone would like nicer graphics, I mean, why not, but really, who cares if there's a multiplatform game and the Wii doesn't get it? Why would we want three consoles that all have the same games? That's RETARDED. I bought a Wii because I wanted games that weren't on the PS3 and 360. Anyone who thought they were going to get the same experience for $200+ less was seriously kidding himself.

The games I really wish were on Wii are the Arcade and PSN original titles like Braid, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and Castle Crashers, the ones that don't actually require the muscle those systems have. I still haven't bought into either system, and the fact that most of the games that interest me don't use half the power you're paying for with those consoles has been a bit of a deterent.

[Esrever]

I'm in the same boat, Silv. I'm probably going to pick up a 360 this winter, now that they've come down in price so much, but it's a decision driven primarily by some of the amazing Live Arcade titles and a handful of proper full titles like the new Resident Evil and Prince of Persia. Most of the 360s big, "hardcore" games just honestly don't grab my attention in any way, and I hate this notion that because I prefer platformers and puzzle games over RPGs or shooters, I am somehow not a "serious" gamer and am a part of Nintendo's Great Casual Conspiracy.

I like the Wii, a lot. It's a bit undersupported, no question, but I know I can count on it having somewhere in the range of six or seven really good games annually in genres that are generally ignored on the other systems... stuff like de Blob, Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes, Boom Blox, Elebits and Trauma Center. Those are the kind of games I like, and the Wii is where they are... along with all of Nintendo's proper traditional 1st party games, which -- in spite of the slams they've taken for their biannual "mass audience" escapades -- have been pretty much as numerous and as high caliber as they were in the previous two hardware generations.

[Esrever]

In other news, here is one of the first reviews for the 360 version of Sonic Unleashed!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandte ... eview.html

I was kind of suprirsed to find such a thorough and generally thought-out review in the Telegraph, of all places, but it has a lot of new information about the structure of the game. In particular, it explains in detail how the hub world and between-level progression works:

Each of these countries have two (count 'em) hub worlds, the first of which can be more or less ignored save for a few time trials and sidequests or if, for some reason, you want to talk to the citizens. The second hub world acts as the gateway to the "action stages". To get to each stage portal you must perform some rudimentary platform puzzles marred by a dreadful camera that isn't as consistent as in the werehog sections. This wouldn't be so bad, but to then enter the stage you need to have collected enough of the sun and moon medals that are scattered across the game. Meaning that, should you wish to progress in the story and find yourself lacking in collectibles, you must redo previous levels or wander around the hub worlds, poking your nose into every corner or smashing crate after crate, hoping that they contain one of these medals.

Collectibles like these are a fun way to appeal to completionists but they should be an optional extra. Sure, give us a nice bonus for finding them; but to inextricably tie them to the main game's progress is a baffling decision. There's little more frustrating than finding your way to an action stage portal, only to discover that you haven't picked up enough spinning collectibles. Frankly, it's enough to drive you to the off-switch.

The writer is much more positive about the basic gameplay of both the day and night stages. But he does complain about some frustrating level design choices contained in both. For the daytime sections, he says exactly what you think he's going to say... that some of sections more or less play themselves, while some of the parts you DO play are littered with pits and obstacles that you will only be able to avoid after a lot of memorization and trial and error. And in the nighttime sections -- some of which are apparently quite long -- checkpoints are placed much too infrequently, resulting in replaying some sections over and over.

All in all, he seems to suggest that the game is built on some fun gameplay, both day and night... but the occasionally frustrating level design and an extremely, extremely tedious hub world managed to pretty thoroughly ruin his experience with the game.

It's decisions like this that make Sonic Team seem like their own worst enemy at times. It's a real shame, because it's a good game at heart. When it works, it's simple but fun, looks gorgeous and even the story and cutscenes are sweetly endearing in a Saturday-morning-cartoon kind of way.

However, the unfortunate truth is that Sonic, as a series, has become far too overblown for its own good. The irritating padding and poor design decisions in Unleashed often suffocate the otherwise decent gameplay is further fuel for the fire.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I'm likely to pick up a 360 this winter (if I have money left over after tuition) mostly for Resident Evil 5. It will probably be a little while longer until I can get a wi-fi receptor to check out all those XLA games. I'll have to catch up on a few original Xbox games that I missed, until I feel like putting the effort into setting that all up. I don't think I'm going to get the $60 Live subscription though.

I mostly agree with Esrever, but it didn't hit me until a couple of months ago that I mostly use my Wii for Virtual Console and Gamecube games. I only have 5 actual games on disks for it. That number will probably go up a lot after this winter though. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting some for Christmas and my birthday (which are tragically close to each other).

[gr4yJ4Y]

In other news, here is one of the first reviews for the 360 version of Sonic Unleashed!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandte ... eview.html

I was kind of suprirsed to find such a thorough and generally thought-out review in the Telegraph, of all places, but it has a lot of new information about the structure of the game.

I saw that one, but ignored it since it's from a newspaper... and my experience with reading those reviews has been that they're aimed at the casual crowd. But now that I've looked over it a bit, it sounds like a good review.

(And sorry for posting twice in a row like this...)

[DackAttac]

I had a healthy selection of Wii games, but I did something I rarely do since it felt smaller than it was, and scrutinized which ones I honestly never planned on touching again and traded them in. I think I ditched six and it's down to 12 now.

I'll admit Silv's totally right—I shouldn't bitch that I'm not getting the "best of both worlds" when I've only picked the cheapest option. I suppose I observed Wii as the Mario console, and the 360 as the Halo console, and made my judgement based on that. To my credit, though, where was shit like Mirror's Edge and Braid when I was making that decision?

[P.P.A.]

No is not, Sonic and the secret rings was Sonic R all over again, only that you had to level up and had Boss fights.

Ahaha! Don't you dare comparing that piece of crap to Sonic R. The latter has such wonderfully designed courses with an incredible lot of shortcuts, routes and little secrets, and you say it's the same as the linear SSR that automatically shoots though through straight lines? Oh please.
Not to mention the musical and graphical appeal and the controls working a lot better in SR.

I was referring to the wide, barren tracks dotted with nothing more than rows of rings. Secret Rings at least had obstacles.

Wide and barren? I've never seen such lively and charming 3D environments in a Sonic game before. Also why would a racing game have obstacles like enemies and stuff?

[Zeta]

Also why would a racing game have obstacles like enemies and stuff?

. . . Mario Kart?

[Hybrid]

I would agree with you, except we already saw that didn't happen with the Game Cube.

I'd argue that the Gamecube was also a purple lunchbox and had the worst marketing campaign ever (ie. there wasn't one) which undoubtedly contributed to it turning away the "hardcore", but since this is all based on a hypothetical anyway ("if the Wii were more powerful") I suppose it doesn't matter.

So... Unleashed. It isn't looking good, is it?

[DackAttac]

No, but I don't think it's looking awful either. It's looking downright mediocre. Which means Sonic Team's probably throwing a celebratory party concerning their unprecedented success.

I saw that one, but ignored it since it's from a newspaper... and my experience with reading those reviews has been that they're aimed at the casual crowd.

I can understand that. My newspaper runs video game reviews from time to time, and they're pretty much perfect scores every time I read them.

[Locit]

I can understand that. My newspaper runs video game reviews from time to time, and they're pretty much perfect scores every time I read them.

I can't speak for specific reviewers/reviews, but for most papers game reviews aren't really high priority. In my experience, anyone reviewing games at a print news publication can usually pick and choose which titles they want to play due to limited space available in the paper. It's not like they'll intentionally use what few inches they're allotted to write about games they hate.

[Dasher]

So...how bad is the game? too lazy to read.

[Zeta]

Most people playing the game on messageboards are saying that the game play is actually 25% Sonic and 75% Werehog.

[Shadow Hog]

Given that the Sonic gameplay didn't really look all that compelling to me, that might be a good thing.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Wide and barren? I've never seen such lively and charming 3D environments in a Sonic game before. Also why would a racing game have obstacles like enemies and stuff?

What's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. Especially if the goose is decade-old 32-bit racer. The tracks may seem lively, but it's tucked away behind invisible walls, out of the player's reach.

[Dash]

Requiring you to collect things within the quick action stages to progress? Very few checkpoints on top of that? Geez, those are dubious moves. I'm sure they just wanted to pad the game's length some, but of course those chose the cheapest way of doing it.

Otherwise, it sounds pretty much like I expected. They got the "charm" right, have some reliably fun gameplay, and faltered a bit with the level design. Playable, entertaining, but nothing that puts the franchise back into the upper echelon of gaming. I wish it were more, but as a fan I'm just glad it doesn't seem to be the catastrophe Sonic 06 was(I tried to stomach the demo recently. Man, just... wow. I'm in awe of how bad the controls are.). Hope it sells all right- at least well enough to show them they're getting closer to the right idea.

[Dasher]

Most people playing the game on messageboards are saying that the game play is actually 25% Sonic and 75% Werehog.

Thats for the wii ver or 360 ver?

[CM August]

The story of Unleashed runs thus: Dr. Eggman (Rebotnik[sic] to the puritans) has used the Chaos Emeralds to call the spirit of the Dark Gaia. In doing so, he has split the planet from the inside, causing continents to break apart. Sonic's task is to piece the planet back together by restoring the emerald's lost power. To do so, he must visit various different countries in search for the Gaia temples.

Admittedly this is the first I've heard of the temples. What the hell is this, Starfox Adventures?

Anyway, good review. I think I'll keep my cash.

[DackAttac]

IGN's reviewed the Wii version. They liked it.

These stages, which regularly shift from 2D to 3D perspectives, are executed so well, in fact, that I feel they not only successfully capture the frantic pace and addictive play mechanics of the long-gone classics, but surpass them.

In other words, take this shit with a grain of salt.
But it's IGN, you probably already knew to do that.

[Radrappy]

http://gameinformer.com/Games/Review/20 ... .47190.htm

More reviews from game informer. The things they complain about don't seem to justify scores on par with sonic 06 but whatever.

See you next time guys.

[Esrever]

Here's a YouTube video of daytime Holaska stage. The stage itself starts about 6 minutes in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJe58zgCwk

If this - as opposed to that boringly vacant Apatos stage -- is typical of the Sonic daytime Wii levels - I can see why they are being generally well received. Very Sonic Rush-esque. Looks fun!

Shame if these types of stages really are so thoroughly outnumbered by the nighttime ones. I'm still not totally clear on how true that is -- the IGN review's wording suggests that it might only be the earlier portion of the game that has 3 times as much werehog as hedgehog, and apparently the game has you constantly hopping back in forth between the different continents opening up different missions in each instead of just playing through them one world at a time. I'm kind of hoping someone will come along and post a complete breakdown of the stages in order so we can see for ourselves how many of each playstyle there are.

[Locit]

More reviews from game informer. The things they complain about don't seem to justify scores on par with sonic 06 but whatever.

I've never heard of Game Informer, and while that's not a good reason to discount a review, a haughty tone, vague writing and crappy reasoning is. Feh, I say, on your game informer, sir. I mean, obviously the game has big problems, but the pure condescension of the reviewer makes me want to gag.

That Holaska stage looks pretty fun! I sort of wish that they'd just made a bunch of Sonic levels instead of wasting time on alternate gameplay styles. It's like JoD, but worse somehow. I think this lends further credence to my theory of excellence in Sonic game design: don't let Sonic Team make Sonic games.