digibutter.nerr

[Spiny]

After finishing Sonic Unleashed's story mode, I think I can make a decent review.

Story:It's a slight turn from the Sonic formula.
Instead of collecting the emeralds, you already have the damn Plot Coupons. However, they've lost their power after Robotnik used them and Super Sonic's power to fuel what could be considered his own from scratch Eclipse Cannon. The resulting impact of the wave splits the planet into seven pieces, though they are still stable around the core. Out of the center of the Earth emerges the beast of the night, Dark Gaia.
Who promptly collapses under it's own weight due to not being fully developed yet, and scatters across the planet, creating a majority of the Night Stage enemies. Sonic has taken on a stronger, more wild form known as the Werehog, who is then ejected into space and down to one of the world's shards along with the now useless Chaos Emeralds, due to the doctor's hasty actions. Sonic crash lands on the first continent near a Windmill. After observing his surroundings, he discovers a small creature that he accidentally fell too close too, and ended up giving the little guy amnesia. The basic goal is now set, Restore the Chaos Emeralds, reassemble the planet, Seal Dark Gaia away, cure Sonic of the Werehog form, and help "Chip" regain his memory.

Graphics:Everything has the proper tone to it. Not too bland, but not overly distracting. The characters are well designed. There was one boss design that was just lazy, though. They took the first Robotnik mech, painted it black, and gave it the second mech's weapons.ಠ_ಠ

Gameplay:The Day Stages are well designed, and are a decent challenge.
Especially Eggmanland, which took up alot of time to beat.
As you race along sunny enviroments, you'll get all the fast paced action Sonic has become known for. Wall jumping, hair trigger stunts, and plenty of speed. As you collect rings, you'll be able to do Sonic Boosts, which make you invincible to any non electrified robots you bash into. If you hit a speed up tile, it will turn into the SuperSonic Spindash, meaning the stall for slamming into enemies decreases as you saw right through them.

The Night Stages were abit rushed, by the feel of it.
Sonic controls akwardly in that when he only runs and runs faster. No walking, meaning you can fall off edges pretty easily. And you have to hold down the grab button to lift and hold onto things.Aside from those issues, it was fun going through moonlit settings and beating the crap out of anything that gets too close. There's an EXP gaining system in the form of Dark Gaia's power. By the time the game ends, you'll be able to use a fair amount of the beast's power. The combo system is decent when you get the hang of it.
After beating full Day levels, you'll get three moon medals.
One for beating it with a good rank, one for A Ranking, and one for S Ranking.
Night levels awared you with Sun Medals.
One for meeting the Ring quota, one for collecting enough pieces of Dark Gaia(defeat enemies, break containers and find bubbles), and one for beating the time expectation.
Along with these are single medal missions, which commonly have you collecting a certain amount of rings, going through a part of the level without getting hit, or beating the clock in a time attack.

Inbetween those, you'll find yourself in the Gaia Gates, which are basically Continent HUBs. here, you can get extra content with enough Sun and Moon medals to unlock the doors. Then you have to solve several small puzzles. You can get permenant life count expansions, since you can't get any from getting a hundred rings.

When you aren't playing in the levels or gates, you're talking to the villages in each city for the seven continents, except for Eggmanland, where everyone wants to kill you(No village).
If you talk to certain people during certain times, you'll get bonuses like soundtracks and concept art.

Music:All the tracks are well composed for the most part. Especially the main themes, World Adventure and Endless Possibilities(Preformed by Bowling For Soup).
Barely any I didn't like.

Specials:There's alot of unlockable content.
But it's all summed up as concept art, soundtracks, and cutscenes.

There are bonus missions aswell, which give it some replayability.

Overall, I'd say buy it when the price is low.ಠ_ಠ