Sonic Unleashed thoughts

I liked it a lot. The daytime stages are excellent, if a little linear and the nighttime stages were ok, if a little long. A rerelease with alterations to the overall control to make it less stiff would make it one of my favourite Sonic games. Best looking game in the series to this date.

Good daytime, shitty nighttime. And the nighttime stages were much longer than the daytime ones.

Sonic Generations + Unleashed mod is the best way to play

>>375974930
I've only played the ps2 version and it was garbage.

>>375974930
Overrated by Sonic fans, underrated by everyone else.

Doesn't deserve nearly the amount of shit it gets for the Werehog, and it's easily the best Sonic game of all time on a purely technical level, but there's still too many bad design choices to make it better than mediocre, even the day levels.

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>Nailed balance of music, story, scale, variety, length, and content that a Sonic game should have, and had great expanded DLC.
>Formula gets downgraded severely with Colors and added gimmicks to core Sonic gameplay
>Made it closer to Unleashed with Generations, but still missed the mark, and still didn't let unbastardized speed-based Sonic be its own thing
>tfw it peaked with Unleashed and we're never getting it back, nor will it be surpassed

I personally enjoyed it a lot, and is probably one of my favorite sonic games. I enjoy the soundtrack the most, although the problem is that every fucking time you get into a fight on the night stages, it cuts to some generic action song.

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>3D sonicfags have jumped on the "Anyone who doesn't like my game is a Game Grumps faggot" wagon
>They think this gives them the high ground
>In actuality it just outs them as Game Grumps watching faggots.

>>375974930
shit like most 3d sonic

>>375976072
Hows high-school goin?

>>375976072
Yeah, because it's not like Game Grumps opinions are parroted and memed everywhere to the extent where you don't even have to watch them anymore to the the general idea of how they feel.

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>>375976438
>>375976441
I-I don't want it! Honest! I just heard from a friend!!!

>>375976072
>attempt to discuss 3D Sonic games
>The Game Grumps eventually get mentioned

Every time

>>375974930
I think the general consensus is that the day stages are fun but just about everything else in the game is garbage.

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It's okay. The werehog is still pretty bad, especially if you're well acquainted with real beat-em-ups and hack-n-slashes. Chip is still a shit character, the last boss is still terrible and medal collection is still a nuisance, but it's really not a bad game.

It has become heavily overrated recently due to the fact that people who were kids when it came out are now full-blown adults. I know it's pretty cheap to play the nostalgia card, but a lot of its recent praise really DOES come down to the generational/nostalgia factor, combined with the fact that people have realized Sonic Colors, the previous golden boy of the boost formula, was only good in theory (i.e. it was all boost formula) and not in execution (i.e. shitty rehash acts, Happy Tree Friends, 70% janky 2D).

I'm skeptical the boost formula will ever put out a game that deserves any higher than a high-7/low-8, but that's still better than games like Heroes deserved, and a lot higher than much of post-Dreamcast Sonic. At the very least, the developers of Unleashed had their hearts in the right place. In many ways I'd consider Unleashed to be the true sequel to the Adventures - the good bits of Unleashed were amazing, but the bad bits of Unleashed were dogshit.

haha

It's a lot like Sonic Adventure. Horribly fucking flawed at times but has a enough heart and soul to it, along with enough good ideas that shine through the dirt, that I really love it.

It's gorgeous, the art style is great, the music is great, the plot has enough to stay hooked without going overboard, if it was a movie it'd be perfect. Unfortunately there are just too many basic design failures as a game.

Secret Rings and Black Knight suffer from the same problem. Everything about both games is excellent, except for the actual gameplay which is complete ass.

>>375976072
d-delet this!!

>>375974930
Would have been better received if it was called Sonic World Adventure & Knuckles desu senpai

I like beat-em-ups so I enjoyed the werehog stages but they were way too long and, more to the point, they were in the wrong game.

Though I imagine that, if I replayed it, I'd like them a lot less.

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>>375976072
The worst ones are the ones who parrot the "previously recorded" opinions on why 2D Sonic was never good

Firstly, because their math on the framerate and speed of 2D Sonic is all wrong

But mostly because their "Sonic goes too fast to react" and "Sonic is all about memorization" criticisms not only ignore the culture of gaming during the early 90s (much of which WAS about trial and error and a very different learning curve), but also didn't even exist as a criticism of old Sonic until their video happened. 2D Sonic was nigh-universally considered "one of the easiest 2D platformers and "hold right to win" up until their vid came out, at which point 2D Sonic became "impossible to react to obstacles without prior knowledge". It's the biggest example I can think of when it comes to /v/'s digusting youtube hivemind copycat behavior.

The day stages were great and it saddens me that Sonic Team kept the gameplay but left out the good level design. Whereas 2D sections were merely a part of the level, they seem to encompass almost the entirety of levels now, making it hard to consider subsequent games using the formula actually 3D at all. I like that Colors and Generations at least tried to build upon the formula but they're using those 2D sections as a crutch now and I don't understand why. Maybe it's just easier to design that way.

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I remember the hype surrounding the game, and people being disappointed.

I thought the game was alright. Stages were fun, but the Werehog did drag on too much. I kinda look back at it as a mistake, but apparently it was made because the speed stages were literally too fast.

Music was great. I remember liking the Chinese one the best.

Hunting for medals was pretty annoying.

For some reason I played the Wii version of it as well. It was cheap as fuck.

>>375974930
you can see they really tried

there was a lot of effort and care put into everything, shame the werehog sections had such a bad pacing

>>375979992
Honestly, boost works better in 2D from an actual gameplay standpoint. You actually have to use it to platform whereas in 3D any platforming is so wide-open it's brainlessly simple, and most "3D" is just boosting down a narrow corridor quick-stepping to avoid obstacles, which is a glorified endless runner. And of course from a design standpoint in 3D they need to build massive fuck-off levels just to keep the level from ending in under three minutes, which kills the budget, whereas in 2D the levels can be smaller and can get away with using pre-rendered backgrounds.

>>375980435
Either way I would prefer they just drop the formula altogether if they're not going to go all the way with it. Honestly I just want them to go back to doing it Sonic Adventure style, except this time have actually good level design and physics. And y'know, drop the shit gameplay styles, ESPECIALLY the shooting stages. Though I will admit I would play an Eggman game in the style of something like Armored Core.

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>>375974930
I loved it. It was never the best 3D Sonic game, not by a long shot, but it had the benefit of being much more polished than any of the 3D games that led up to it, especially '06 and the Adventure games. It's a fun, solid, colorful, and most importantly, an enjoyable game. Even the shittier PS2/Wii versions without the hub worlds and more levels from the PS360 versions was still fun and endearing.

This is probably the first time Sonic's nailed really good models and animation in a 3D game, both in-game and in cutscenes, but I'm talking mostly in-game. It also had those neat little skits going for it when you weren't playing the game, not to mention the excellent Night of the Werehog short film. Between those and the game itself, it really made Chip a lovable character to me. I was genuinely sad while the credits rolled.

As for the game itself, it gets off to a dumb start with the tutorial stages in Apotos and Chip popping up like the annoying Navi reference he starts off as, and then dropping you into the Werehog night stages. After a while, though, I found myself enjoying the wandering about and the beatings I gave to baddies. It's hilariously fun being able to throwing boxes at enemies with your big stretchy arms, and overall the mechanic itself was well done. It just had the misfortune of being in a Sonic game, but for what it's worth, it did well for itself before long and grew on me.

So, not the best game, but I really liked it. I haven't even played the definitive version.

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>>375976072
The only good Sonic playthrough they did is with Jon on Sonic '06. Everything else after that was either boring or autistic screeching.

You have to admit, whatever happened between them, they made pretty swood music together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9H8yJRD-hw

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>>375977657
Pretty much this, and I like Sonic Adventure best for what it managed to do well with the Sonic part of the game.

>>375977785
Secret Ring's gameplay was alright, it was just locked behind the fucking horrendous mission format.

It's nowhere near the best Sonic game, but I like it. Hell, I'm one of the few people that actually liked the Werehig combat.

I wouldn't mind a PC port of the game.

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>>375974930

After 2006 Unleashed was like a 180 degree turn around in production values. The game felt like someone actually gave a shit.The art style and baked lighting makes the game still look great 10 years later. It was cool to see Rush in 3D, but it was harder to get used to after Adventure/Heroes style controls dominated the 3D entries. The day stages were a novelty, but the Werehog brought things down with the half hearted combat, and slow, plodding platforming. It gave off good vibes with the music being excellent and the hub worlds maxing comfy. More Sonic games need a soul crushing, life destroying endgame level like Eggmanland.

However the game suffered heavily with frame rate issues. Jungle Joyride was nearly unplayable. The day stages were too straight forward and very barebones on the 3D content. The level design was constantly removing control from the player. Sonic was way too slippery, and going fast with the framerate problems made it seem like there were input issues with the game. Mapping the homing attack to the air dash button was a fucking mistake. Keeping 2006's homing attack miss instead of defaulting to how the Adventures did it was also a dumb move. The metal system was annoying, and Werehog was a complete slog every time you went to play a night stage. Also the battle music interrupting the stage music was cancer, as was adding the white out noise filter for boosting Sonic.

You can access the day stages with the Unleashed mod from Generations. You miss a lot of other things that were nice, but you skip a lot of the shit as well.

>>375974930
>shitty GOW-clone night stages
>shitty Temple Run-clone day stages

Sonic Heroes and Sonic and the Secret Rings are still the best post-Dreamcast 3D Sonic games.

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It doesn't deserve to have a soundtrack as ridiculously good as it does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiiAlLHUB50

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>>375981947
>>375982284
>Secret Rings gameplay

First time I played it I stopped when I had to hold B and release to jump or some shit. As if it wasn't bad enough I was plodding along on rails.

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>>375982442
Well, it IS a Sonic game. 9 times out of 10 the soundtrack is gonna be great even if the game is trash. Unleashed had some especially good tracks though. This one always gets me pumped, especially from 1:25 and forward.
>that fucking drum beat
>that sinister version of The World Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkp2-SuZ0vU

>>375974930
My favorite game ever made just for its sheer beauty. Everything is so picturesque and the attention to detail is ludicrous. I enjoyed both gameplay styles, the story, the DLC, and all the replay value and side content. Music is incredibly high quality and is very thoughtful of all the different types of places in the world.

The last good Sonic game.

>>375982636
It was different and a bit weird at first but not necessarily bad, it had a unique learning curve which made it interesting and once you got into it it was actually really fun. I wouldn't know if it stayed that way because after the 8th inane and ridiculously hard side mission that was necessary to advance to the next stage I dropped it.

The reqson werehog is in the gsme was because the developers were having too hard of a time to make enough day stages to make a long enough game

If we removed every nighttime stage in exchange for 1 daytime stage, would you take it? Would it be too short?

>>375983315

They needed someway to reuse assets. They should have attempted to make proper Act 2s. They could have made the werehog a slower, beastly Sonic without it being such a plodding babby platformer. If Werehog Sonic played like a 3D Ristar where you could swing around like a madman and launch into the air it would have been 100% better. People saying that it should have been swapped in as Knuckles stages are idiots, because everyone would then fucking hate Knuckles.

>>375983315
I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, that's for sure. The Werehog was a great idea to act as a balance to the game's structure. Nothing was detracted from them being there anyway, as the day levels are leagues beyond anything that came after them anyhow.

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I enjoyed the Wii version
I preferred the night stages to day, motion controls were definitely what the Werehog was meant for

>>375984579
How? The levels are so boring and flat in the SD versions, the combat is missing tons of combos and impact as well as stylistic flair, and there's nothing to collect or look out for.

>>375974930
I liked the whole game, except maybe Eggman Land the first time.

>>375984579
If I could combine the HD day and hub levels with SD's Werehogs level you got yourself a pretty 7/10 there.

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>>375979398
>not only ignore the culture of gaming during the early 90s (much of which WAS about trial and error and a very different learning curve)
topkek
>B-B-BUT THATS HOW LITERALLY EVERY GAME WAS IN THE 90'S!!!!
I can finish Super Mario Bros without memorizing enemies location through trial and error.
>but also didn't even exist as a criticism of old Sonic until their video happened
Didn't exist my fucking ass. It was a common opinion between my group of friends when I was a teen. It was commonly accepted that sonic's mechanic of gotta-go-fast'ing was contradictory with its level design, that forces you to stop. It's common-sense and 100% objective. BUT RED LETTER MEDIA SAID SO UR NOT ALLOWED TO SAY IT, HURR DURR. Literally kill yourself. Any ITS ONE OF THE BEEEST GAMES EVAAAAR is just nostalgia fueled crap.

>>375986386
If you're going so fast that you keep running into things that you're not prepared for then you're going too fast for yourself and not paying attention to very clear level design ques that are taught from the very beginning of the game to show what's coming. Stop holding right and thinking all you have to do is "gotta go fast" and realise that's a byproduct of how well you're doing and a technique for getting past areas rather than the default state. The level design is also generally made so that any time you're better suited to moving slower is when more platform intensive areas and ambushes happen. I don't even have to bring up rings and this false notion that getting hit once in Sonic is somehow the end.

>>375974930
>day time stages
Great, legit 10/10 fun all around

>werehog
Fucking terrible and repetitive

>>375975976
wow