What are your thoughts on Sonic Unleashed?

[DG!]

With the recent release of the unofficial recompilation to PC, I wonder what are your thoughts on the game?

 

[Graw]

I never played it but after Twilight Princess I didn't have any interest in yet another game where they force you to play as a wolf part of the time because reasons.

 

[Eclipse14]

I played the Wii version of it ages ago, and I did have my fun with it. I heard that one's different compared to the other releases of it, however.

 

[dropsmegamega]

I never actually played the whole thing, but I played a port of just the normal sonic stages for Sonic Generations and it was pretty good.

 

[Annohalder17]

Excited. I'll try and see.

 

[J.F.C]

It looks nice but i'm not a big fan of the boost gameplay nor the Werehog so the game isn't all that fun to me.

 

[RageBurner]

I played the PS2 version back in the day, I liked quite a lot. In my book, Unleashed was the only really good 3D Sonic until Generations came along. Should be interesting to try this one.

 

[ZeroDuplicate]

I did like Sonic Unleashed.

I played the PS2 version years ago and thought it was really fun. And the music was amazing. I eventually found out that the PS3/360 game was the original version and the PS2/Wii one was kind of a port/remake, but both games follow the same structure and plot, even if the stages are designed differently (and you can kind of feel when some things were cut out).
Years later I played the PS3 version, but I still prefer the PS2 game. On PS3 the performance is awful, sometimes, and the night stages are way too long. The PS2 night stages aren't perfect but they didn't feel annoying to me. Although, the PS3 version has the better final stage, and you can actually roam around the cities, and it's the original vision, so there's that.

I had no idea that there was a decompilation project, I'll check it out.

 

[bjork]

I don't know much about the game because I only played the demo, but I do know that Rooftop Run is a great song

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

THERE'S A RECOMPILATION?! SIGN ME UP

 

[Jeff]

It was good. I played it on Wii and while it's inferior to the 360/Ps3 versions, I had a fun time with the Sonic levels, the werehog levels were a bit meh.

 

[dilsworth]

Enjoyed it. Played the PS3 version.

Day missions were okay, while night I did not like it at all. Hot dog vendor missions though... :/

 

[Dawg19]

I was first exposed to the Wii version, and I didn't like it. The constant waggling turned me away, but the classic controller made it more bearable (though it took me years to get my hands on one). I had saw the PS3/360 version and was absolutely blown away from how fun it looked, kind of like Generations. Overall, I still have some fond memories of it, but I would much sooner replay Sonic Colors than Unleashed.

 

[FreshDinoBone]

Literally just learned about it, I'm HYPED AF!!!

 

[thanonyx]

I'm glad it's finally getting its dues. People had a serious kneejerk reaction to it when it first came out. I think enough time has passed and enough people have played it to look past the absurdity of the whole "werehog" thing.

 

[Johnathan Smikey]

Never played Unleashed. I mean, why would I when peak exists (Sonic and the Secret Rings & Sonic Colors)?

Jokes aside, I do want to play it sometime. I have been getting into the games again after the release of the 3rd movie.

 

[Mr. Daddy]

I couldn't really get into it. I actually remember when I was a kid seeing ads for it, and I wanted it for forever. Years later I found a PS2 copy really cheap, and finally picked it up, played about half of the game, and just finally decided it wasn't for me. My biggest disappointment was the werehog levels themselves. I really liked the design, so it was like the main thing that drew me into the game, but when I actually played it, I just wasn't really fond of the combat and eventually I just realized that I didn't really enjoy any levels focused on playing the werehog. I'm glad to see that a lot of people nowadays are enjoying it though, I just wish I could feel the same.

 

[trickybus]

The E-Rank song is the only reason I know about it lol

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I really like it! Boost formula is my favorite format for 3D Sonic (it’s the most unique and interesting style they came up with for Sonic, really leaning into the idea that this character can do things no other character in any other game can), so the more difficult stages for daytime are some of my favorites! Werehog is okay, it’s a silly but fun concept, but they really don’t lean into it very hard. You can very much tell that it wasn’t initially part of the game, even though it’s very much a part of it now. Not to mention, it seems mechanically lackluster in comparison to the daytime stages. For day, every aspect of the design is so finely considered, almost TOO MUCH to where breaking one thing can cause the whole illusion to break. Meanwhile, nighttime is just kind of thrown together. You have a bunch of moves that don’t really have much of a use, not to mention a guard that is fundamentally USELESS. But you still have these moments of spectacle brilliance with things like the QTE counters and such.

Unleashed has a very strong direction. Whether you like or don’t like that direction is person dependent, because it’s very different from everything that came before. It’s trying to be a hybrid of aesthetics and vibes, and I think a lot of it does work out! Unfortunately, it had to follow up from 06. So, making a game that makes such a strong statement maybe wasn’t the right place to go. I like Colors less than Unleashed, but I MASSIVELY respect Colors for many reasons, one of the main ones being that it presents a very simple and agreeable overall experience that a lot of people can get behind. Unleashed isn’t like that.

Unleashed is the dark chocolate of Sonic games. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. Everybody has their reasons, but ultimately it’s always going to be divisive.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2025

One final note: it probably also didn’t help that the game got two different versions from two different dev teams. A lot of people in this thread mention the PS2 and Wii versions, and those are legitimately not the same game. They’re still good! Ish. They’re substantially less polished and fun than the HD versions, but they’re nothing to sneeze at. Still, this game’s divided reception was probably only made worse by the existence of such versions.

 

[olli64pc]

I originally played the ps2 version growing up as a kid Then I got the xbox 360 years later I hold deep nostalgia for both of them now. and in my opinion I think they're the best sonic games Besides sonic frontiers Which is my favorite sonic game

 

[Mr. Andersom]

With the recent release of the unofficial recompilation to PC, I wonder what are your thoughts on the game?

 

[ThirteeTooBeets]

I remember looking the way the werehog controlled more than the running stages, I don't know if it had something to do with the PS3 port I played in but the blur was Not Good.
Still those combat stages weren't that hard to begin with, but I like beat em ups so it activated those neurons for me I think

 

[Ikagura]

I feel like the werehog would've worked better with Knuckles or even as a Ristar game.