I bought Sonic Unleashed for the Wii yesterday.
I will rate it on several different items crucial to a game's success, then give my personal input.
Story: 3
The whole destroying the world thing was pretty good as well as traveling the globe to solve the issue. What I could have lived without was the new character Chip, the Werehog, and the Gaia Manuscripts. I really didn't need the scripts. If this is what the fans were asking for, then I must have missed 1 too many meetings, because a simple "Robotnik destroys the world and Sonic fixes it" story would have gotten a 10 in my book. The story was ruined the second Robotnik said "Gaia Manuscripts", which was around 2 or 3 minutes into the opening scene in case anyone's wondering.
Graphics: 10
I've yet to see a Wii title with such flare. The presentation is lush and the in game graphics are second to none on a Wii console, a bit scratchy though, but still good. If you're a graphics whore, then you should definitely but this game just to marvel at its shininess.
Concept: 5
The world travel dealy was good. And the Werehog was kinda acceptable too, but both of these were poorly executed. Its hard to explain, but it could have been much better had Sonic Team put another year of work into this. I wouldn't have minded waiting.
Controls: 5
Daytime--Its good for its purpose, but when you want to go outside the box, it's a real nuisance. The controls are only good for if you're going fast, but if you get knocked down or slow down for one reason or another, you can't do much. Not versatile enough.
Nighttime--Pretty Decent, but nothing special, some of the action controls are delayed, blatantly, so it can be annoying to deal with sometimes. You just need to have faith in the fact that the input went in.
Gameplay: 6
Daytime--Pretty fun, not as exhilarating as the trailers made it seem, but a fun experience none-the-less. The drifting could be a bit better and the Quick Step is only useful where it's supposed to be, its hard to customize a unique playstyle, pretty much, if you've seen someone play the game, you're not too far from playing like them.
Nighttime--I can honestly say that this was more fun than I feared it wouldn't be. The beat-em up actually gets pretty enjoyable. My primary beef with the Nighttime stages is that there is too many of them and not enough Daytime stages (at least for the Wii version). Most of the overall points in Gameplay goes to the Nighttime stages.
Music/Sound: 4
So far, the only song I've enjoyed was Holoska, everything else sucked, especially the battle music for the Werehog stages, which sounds like some Casino-esque music. Imagine a more lively version of Casinopolis, and you're not too far from the Werehog battle theme. You'd expect the song "Endless Possibilities" to be in the game, perhaps in the intro, but not only is there no intro, but that song is nowhere to be found. Its like Sega was blatantly trying to piss me off.
The sound effects could be better, standard issue, but thats the problem, nothing unique.
And the voices were taken down by the infamous 4kids staff, enough said.
Replay Value: 7 *kind of a shot in the dark*
While I haven't beaten the game yet, this would seem much more enjoyable once I've completed the game, so then I'd be able to select the stages I want to roll in, instead of having to go through 3 nighttime stages after one and a half daytime stages (true story).
Overall/Conclusion: 4
This game is like a buffed up version of Sonic 06, except without the painful loading times. The controls are stiff, especially when you're moving slow, save for the nighttime stages where the controls are more fluid, but slightly delayed in some areas. I was honestly optimistic about this game, thinking that there would be an even number of daytime and nighttime stages, but I was gravely disappointed by the first stage, where I had to go through many tutorials that I could have lived without and that bastard Chip running me through it, pausing the gameplay to tell me shit that the manual already did. In speaking of which, I come to the one thing I enjoy about the game the most, in the manual, Dr. Robotnik's name is acknowledge as Robotnik in his actual name.
Dr. Eggman (a.k.a. Dr. Robotnik). I smiled when I read this.
Its nice to make good use of a new concept in a game, but its a horrible idea to force the concept into the game and the players by giving more of what they don't care of and less of what they originally wanted. I wish I could end on a positive note, but I can't. (Un)fortunately this is the Wii version and I expect the 360 (and PS3) version to be much better than this, because aside from the stunning graphics, this game isn't advisable to buy unless you only own a Wii and nothing more.
Luckily, I'm getting an Xbox 360 in January and Sonic Unleashed is on the list of games I'll buy for that console, once I do, I may never look back on the Wii verison, I may trade it in while I'm at it.
And for the record, I've never, ever, considered trading in a Sonic game in my life (unless to exchange it for another Sonic game).
All and all, if you don't own a 360 or a PS3, then get the Wii (or PS2) version, but don't get your hopes up.
I honestly feel betrayed by Sega.
They listened to the fans and still fucked up.
