Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed – Bigger than the big bang?

For me, I grew up when Sonic first was launched on the original consoles and in truth I was never too won over by the spikey haired blue hedgehog with attitude. Sure it was a hit at the time and cutting edge as far as gaming was concerned but I don’t think I really appreciated for what it was.

Now as games have grown up and things have moved on, the big kid in me craves the retro games and actually a good Sonic came is just what the doctor ordered. The familiar spinning ball of spikes instantly wins me over and I soon become engrossed with this game.

It appears that Sonic’s had to move with the times and rather than purely doing his thing of running very fast and defying gravity in headspinning moves, but he has turbo power which doesn’t involve him curling into a ball and bowling everything in contact out of the way. Another twist to this game is that Sonic’s been transformed into Werehog, yes you are reading that correctly. In the day he’s the Sonic we all know and love, but come the night and he transforms into a Werehog, who bashes and smashes his way through things rather than the more familiar spinning attack.

Depending on which ‘hog you have, you must try and adapt your game play accordingly and roam through the levels collecting gold coins along the way, avoiding spikes and mechanical baddies which litter the course. The trickiest thing is that not all levels can be whizzed through in a mad dash to the finish. Instead, you must navigate your way through the level and then defeat waves of opponents which appear through portals. If you manage to beat these bad guys you may progress to the next stage or you may have to fight an end of level boss.

The game acts just like all the others, in terms of its controls. The keypad or d-pad control the direction and moves Sonic makes. Pressing left and right (4 and 6) moves him in that direction. Pressing up (2) causes you to jump, pressing  1 or 3 causes Sonic to jump in that direction. Down or 8 will get Sonic ducking and if he’s running he’ll do his spinning ball attack. Pressing OK or 5 will use your turbo ability when Sonic, and use Werehog’s arms to hit or grab when in that mode.

As you’d expect, the levels are multifaceted and there’s plenty of obvious and hidden treats to find and explore along the way. The graphics are crisp and the controls are quite responsive. The trouble with this game is that you more often than not end up having to go through the level a few times to do everything spot on. It’s easy when whizzing around to miss something or possibly getting hurt.

Ultimately if you love platform games and enjoy Sonic then this will be a great addition to play. If you’re interested in retro games then again this would be worthwhile.

Rating 81%

Positives

Addictive retro game in its element

Good controls

Two Sonic’s to play with

Good ol’ fashioned fun

Negatives

Quite fiddly playing on the handset

Repetitive

It’s not always obvious what you need to do