Sonic Unleashed

/360 version) Sonic Unleashed is a platform game in which the player controls the titular Sonic the Hedgehog in two modes: fast-paced levels that take place during daytime, showcasing and using Sonic's trademark speed as seen in previous games in the series, and slower, night-time levels, during which Sonic transforms into the Werehog, and gameplay switches to an action-based, brawler style of play, in which Sonic battles Gaia enemies (those created by the main enemy in the game, Dark Gaia). Each level takes place on a particular continent, each of which is based on a real-world location. Daytime levels focus on Sonic's speed, and to this extent, sees the player control Sonic through fast-moving stages containing both 2D and 3D styles of gameplay. The amount of Boost remaining may be increased by collecting more rings, and is decreased by using the Boost. Collecting rings replenishes the Werehog's health, After night-time levels are completed, Dark Gaia Points are gained, allowing access to bonus moves. In addition to these two gameplay types, Sonic Unleashed also features hub worlds, in which the player may reveal, as well as advance, the story of the game. Hub worlds operate differently depending on the version of the game being played; the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions feature fully interactive, explorable 3D hub worlds, similar to those in Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Adventure, in which townspeople may be interacted with and side quests may be undertaken, in order to gain experience or unlock items, such as artwork, videos and music tracks. In contrast, the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions feature menu-based map systems, in which players simply click on areas to talk to townspeople and find information, and Gaia Gates in which players can access levels using the tablets that open doors. Within both day and night-time levels are medals that Sonic may collect, two types of which exist: Sun and Moon. In the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, collecting these medals allows the player to level up Sonic's Sun and Moon stats, and these must be increased to reach new stages in the game, with a certain number of Sun Medals for Hedgehog levels, and a certain number of Moon Medals for Werehog levels. Because only the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions feature playable hub worlds, these are also the only versions in which Sun and Moon Medals may be found by exploring the towns, talking to the citizens, and completing side quests. In the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions, Sun and Moon Medals are earned after completing stages and clearing their objectives. The medals are used to open up doors in the Gaia Gates, which allow players access to puzzle rooms where they can earn bonus content. ==Plot==

Sonic is pursuing his nemesis, Doctor Eggman, bounding around a fleet of spaceships. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and corners Eggman on a nearby space station. from the planet's core, which shatters its surface into seven pieces. Eggman ejects Sonic into space, who then lands safely onto the planet below. After landing along with the Emeralds, Sonic encounters a friendly creature who appears to suffer from amnesia. Sonic decides to assist him in his quest to find out who he is and the creature becomes a guide for Sonic; he eventually gives him the nickname "Chip". Sonic's quest begins and with the help of some old friends, such as Amy Rose and Tails, Since the beginning of time, the duo had been in an eternal conflict where Gaia would break the planet apart and he would put it back together. Chip was released along with Dark Gaia, but because both of them were released prematurely, he lost his memory and Gaia was broken apart. They are able to place the last Chaos Emerald in the shrine on the final continent at Eggman's new empire, "Eggmanland", but are intercepted by him; Sonic then takes on the doctor's latest contraption that utilizes Dark Gaia's power. Following the battle, the trio wind up in Earth's core and encounter Dark Gaia, whom Eggman orders to finish Sonic, but it ignores and swats him away before absorbing the power that turned Sonic into a Werehog, curing Sonic of that condition. Gaia then attacks Sonic and Chip, but Chip protects Sonic and calls all of the Gaia temples together to form the Gaia Colossus and fight his opposite. Even though the duo gain the upper hand, Gaia soon envelops the planet in darkness and fully matures. Chip then gives the restored Chaos Emeralds to Sonic, allowing him to turn into Super Sonic and continue their fight, until Gaia is finally defeated and returned to dormancy, but the battle takes its toll on Super Sonic. Chip saves Sonic by sending him back to the surface before returning himself to his own dormancy; he leaves behind his necklace and some parting words. Sonic fashions the necklace as a bracelet to remind him of their adventure together before speeding off with Tails. ==Development==

Conception Development on Sonic Unleashed began in mid-2005 at Sonic Team, with Yoshihisa Hashimoto as director. It was originally intended to be the third installment of the Sonic Adventure series and subsequently, at an early development stage, had the working title Sonic World Adventure, complete with a work-in-progress logo. However, the development team began to introduce enough new innovations to separate it from the Sonic Adventure games, and so a new title, Sonic Unleashed, was decided. Sonic Team decided early on in the development process to reduce the number of characters present in the game, as well as to make Sonic the only playable character; this decision was taken to get more quality out of fewer characters. While it felt that these ideas combined with traditional Sonic gameplay was a good beginning, it also had to consider how to introduce newer gamers unfamiliar with the Sonic franchise to the series, and so the concept of the Werehog was born, in addition to exploring its own mythology and ideas for the story. The opening was animated by Marza Animation Planet with Shinji Aramaki as director. Design Sonic Unleashed ran on the Hedgehog Engine, which began development in mid-2005 after Hashimoto was put in charge of making a Sonic game for high-end hardware. While excited at the prospect of creating a game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with no development environment prepared for them, he and several other developers spent a year figuring out the technical aspects. To this extent, development on the renderer for this process began, and the final solution allowed the developers to use distributed rendering over hundreds of computers to calculate lighting for each 8 to 20 kilometer action stage in around two or three days. Characters, enemies and objects are then lit at run-time with Sonic Team's "Light Field" technology to blend them in with the surrounding pre-calculated lighting. Due to the size of the GI maps, the developers considered splitting the game across two or three discs on the Xbox 360 due to space limitations, but eventually decided to instead reduce their resolution so the whole game to fit onto one disc. In addition, the Xbox 360 version is capped at 30 frames per second, while the PlayStation 3 version is uncapped and can reach 60 frames in some areas. Hashimoto, who had never directed a Sonic game before, Hashimoto sought to combine the best qualities of 2D and 3D Sonic gameplay while night-time levels include a mostly behind-the-back view and different platforming styles and combat mechanics. In addition, overall, the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions have fewer daytime levels than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 counterparts. == Release and marketing ==

The title Sonic Unleashed was trademarked by Sega on March 12, 2008. Screenshots of cutscenes, artwork, and a video were leaked ten days later from their FTP server, with the title confirmed by Sega on April 3, 2008, with a small selection of screenshots and an updated video. Initially, it was stated that Unleashed was to be intended solely as a single-player experience, and would not offer any multiplayer or online modes. This was cast into doubt when references to online modes were alluded to around E3 2008, but later interviews re-iterated that Unleashed would have no online modes at all. and on the American and European PlayStation Stores on December 18 and 24, 2008, respectively. The demo does not contain any of the Werehog stages. The PlayStation 3 version was released a month later on December 9 in North America, on December 18 in Australia, and on December 19 in Europe. In Japan, the Wii version was released on December 18, 2008, with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions being pushed back to the next year due to manufacturing issues, on February 19, 2009; the PlayStation 2 version was not released in the region. It was revealed that the game's name in Japan would in fact remain Sonic World Adventure for its release there. DLC was later released for the remaining stages except for Eggmanland. A short animated film was released online to tie in with the game on November 17, 2008, titled produced by Marza. In the short, Sonic and Chip come across a haunted house during the night and are hounded by a group of ghosts. Archie Comics also published an adaptation of Sonic Unleashed featuring the opening cutscene and Sonic's transformation into the Werehog. In May 2009, mobile game developer Gameloft announced that it had secured a licensing agreement with Sega Europe to produce Java versions of Sega properties, and that its first game would be a version of Sonic Unleashed for mobile devices. It was released in June 2009 in PAL regions. The mobile version of Sonic Unleashed is strictly a side-scroller reminiscent of the original Genesis games, featuring new level designs and character abilities. While a 2010 quote from Sega's at-the-time SVP of EMEA caused many to believe Sonic Unleashed would be removed from retail, a later quote from SOA's VP of sales and marketing proved this to be an exaggeration, and that the game would not be removed from stores. The PlayStation 3 version was added to PlayStation Now in April 2017. The Xbox 360 version was made backward compatible for Xbox One in November 2018; on November 15, 2021, its compatibility was extended to the Xbox Series X/S, including FPS Boost to allow it to run at 60 frames per second. Music The game's soundtrack, Planetary Pieces: Sonic World Adventure Original Soundtrack, was released as a three-disc set in Japan on January 28, 2009. The vocal theme track, "Endless Possibility", written by longtime Sonic game composer Tomoya Ohtani, features Jaret Reddick of the American rock band Bowling for Soup. The ending theme, "Dear My Friend", features vocals by singer Brent Cash. ==Reception==

Initial anticipation when the first media for Unleashed was revealed was high, as the demonstration videos hinted at a possible return of Sonic to his traditional platforming roots, especially because of the series' declining quality in recent years, and a number of poorly received games in the franchise that preceded it, such as the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog. The added element of motion controls for the Werehog sections, as well as text-based hub worlds and better Werehog level design and camera system, were reasons cited for the higher review scores for the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, though a few review websites, such as 1UP, gave the Wii version a lower score than its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 counterparts. Nevertheless, the game was a commercial success and sold 2.45 million units combined making it Sega's third bestselling game during their last fiscal year period of 2008. Positive elements of Sonic Unleashed remarked upon by reviews include the environments, such as the "postcard-perfect architecture", with one reviewer comparing them to a playable Pixar film. with the game being nominated for Best Graphics Technology for the Wii by IGN in its 2008 video game awards. The soundtrack to the game was also praised as being an improvement on more recent installments in the series; were described as "plodding", while IGN stated that they have "nothing to do with Sonic whatsoever", feeling that the Werehog was "being slapped on" to the Sonic experience. In stark contrast to the Werehog sections, many reviewers found the daytime levels to be enjoyable, especially the "exhilarating" GameSpot's review for the Xbox 360 version, however, argued that the controls were "unresponsive" in the daytime levels, and that most of them were "horribly designed", instead describing the Wii version as a "vastly superior experience", with its daytime levels praised for better control and design. Aside from the criticism of Werehog levels, further aspects of the game were criticized, contributing to the mixed review scores. The quests that players must undertake in hub-towns were described as "inane" and "tedious", where "figuring out what happens next involves aimlessly wandering through towns and speaking to citizens, only to discover that most of them don't know what we're looking for". The story and overall tone of the game, including the new character Chip, were criticised, some remarking that it was too juvenile, or comparable to that of a Saturday morning cartoon. ==Legacy==

Speaking after the game's release, Sonic Team member and Sonic and the Black Knight (2009) producer and director Tetsu Katano remarked that although he did not feel the Werehog concept was a mistake, time and resources were a limiting factor in the game's production. He also remarked that the Werehog may reappear in future games, or possibly in a sequel to Sonic Unleashed, should one be made. In the lead up to the release of Sonic Colors (2010), producer Takashi Iizuka expressed regret at the inclusion of the Werehog, stating that it clashed with Sonic's core gameplay. Another short featuring the ghost characters from Night of the Werehog, titled Ghost Tale, was released by Marza Animation Planet on October 31, 2023, 15 years after Night of the Werehog's release. The gameplay of the daytime stages would be reused and expanded upon to become the defining gameplay of the franchise for the following decade, with Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations (2011), and Sonic Forces (2017) taking inspiration from Unleashed. The home console/PC versions of Sonic Generations contain remakes of the "Rooftop Run" stage and the Egg Dragoon boss fight. Sonic Forces also contains a re-imagined version of the Egg Dragoon boss. The Hedgehog Engine would be refined for future entries, being reworked into Hedgehog Engine 2 starting with Forces. Due to the game being released exclusively on sixth and seventh generation video game consoles as well as the instability of video game console emulators like RPCS3 and Xenia, fan efforts emerged to port the game to personal computers. In March 2013, a group of fans created a mod for Sonic Generations titled the Unleashed Project, which ported the daytime stages of Unleashed to Generations. On March 1, 2025, an unofficial PC port of the game called Unleashed Recompiled was released. The port contains numerous enhancements, including support for high resolutions and framerates, as well as mod support. The port was made using an open-source binary recompiler of Xbox 360 executables. The port supports both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. ==Notes==