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YMMV / Sonic Unleashed

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  • Angst? What Angst?: Sonic is pretty mellow about Eggman completely beating him and his nightly transformations. Maybe beating down pieces of a Cosmic Horror is a great stress reliever?
  • Anti-Climax Boss: In the Playstation 2/Wii version, you can keep the Egg Dragoon from launching any nonscripted attacks with enough effort.
  • Awesome Music: Considering that this is a Sonic game, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise.
  • Badass Decay:
    • This game is given flack for the cutscene where Tails gets scared by some Nightmares, despite being able to fight off threats like them in past games. It's also blamed for starting a trend that would go on for many years up to Sonic Forces.
    • Sometimes it's blamed for putting Eggman through the same as well, with a significant amount of cutscenes involving him treating him as a Butt-Monkey, ridiculed not only by Sonic, but by his assistant SA-55 as well, overall making him look less of a threat than in earlier titles, which would continue through the next decade, though seems to have died down with the release of Forces.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Chip. Some find him and his relationship with Sonic over the course of the game to be adorable and heartwarming, others hate him for being an annoying, unfunny Exposition Fairy with a very unfitting English voice.
    • The Werehog. There are still many people who dislike the form for its design, the sheer audacity of being a "werewolf hedgehog with stretchy arms", and especially the slower-paced Beat 'em Up gameplay that continues to be a sore point to the game. But there are plenty of vocal fans of the Werehog who find its design to be cool or even adorable, find the concept awesome or at least no more bizarre than other "strange" concepts in games, and either genuinely love the Werehog's gameplay, think it flawed but not irredeemable, or can agree to the gameplay being more bad than good but don’t consider it a problem inherent to the Werehog.
  • Best Boss Ever:
    • For Daytime bosses, the Egg Lancer, and that goes for both versions. It's a very challenging and elaborate boss fight with sections involving wall-running, dodging lasers, and making successful quick time events to do massive damage to the boss. It's quite telling that it's arguably far more elaborate and challenging than the final boss of Sonic Colors.
    • For Werehog bosses, the Egg Dragoon, due to the awesome music, the epic scale, and the incredibly satisfying QTEs. Plus, Eggman gets to be the Climax Boss!
  • Best Level Ever:
    • The general consensus for either version seems to be Rooftop Run Day Act 1. Apparently SEGA was listening, because Rooftop Run Day Act 1 is in Sonic Generations.
    • Dragon Road Day Act 1 is often regarded as being one of the best daytime stages in the game, due to its Chinese theming, memorable set pieces, gorgeous visuals, having a good mix of platforming and speed and of course, its fantastic music.
    • Jungle Joyride Day Act 1 in the HD version is to this game what "Final Rush" was to Sonic Adventure 2, being a very challenging, but fun level that has you run at the speed of sound through lush jungles, above sparkling blue waters and at the end, across large and sprawling temples. The pumping music helps keep the intensity through the stage. This stage can be That One Level for newcomers due to a mixture of precise platforming, awkward water sections and framerate issues (which isn't as much of a problem when played on the Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S, which ramps up the framerate) but when mastered, it can truly be well, a "joyride".
    • As far as the night stages are concerned, the general consensus is that Cool Edge Night Act 1 is the most enjoyable out of the night stages, due to its chill soundtrack, good mix of action and platforming and the beautiful visuals.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the cutscene where Sonic and Tails learn that Professor Pickle's been kidnapped, Chip says he'd rather be dead than hungry, and proceeds to die and become a ghost, before reverting back to normal with no acknowledgement.
  • Breather Level:
    • In the Wii/PS2 version, Jungle Joyride Day is this (in stark contrast to its HD counterpart, which falls on the opposite end of this spectrum). Both sections it's sandwiched between, Jungle Joyride Night and Eggmanland Day, are long, difficult, and have several tricky jumps that are incredibly easy to screw up. In contrast, Jungle Joyride Day is a short straightforward level with a few obstacles, with the only challenge being if you're going for the S rank. Even then, it's much easier to S rank than the previous stage Arid Sands, and the final level, Eggmanland.
    • Also in the Wii/PS2 version is Dragon Road Day, which is the easiest day stage in the game to S rank by far. Helping matters is the multitude of shortcuts and alternate paths for Sonic to take, allowing him plenty of opportunities to cut down on time.
  • Broken Base:
    • Do yourself a favor, don't ask the online fanbase if this game is good or not. Another point of contention is Wii/PS2, with many arguments over whether the game is better than the HD version, not as good but good in its own right, or an abomination that never should have been made. The only thing that is agreed upon amongst the fandom is that the Wii/PS2 version handles the sun/moon medal collecting far better than the HD version did, as it simply rewards you with them upon completing a level instead of them having to be found within levels. Some reviewers such as ExoParadigmGamer and ClementJ642 have made the case that a great game could have been made by combining the best features of the Wii and HD versions.
    • Within the game itself, fans are split on whether or not the Final Boss with Dark Gaia is one of the best or worst boss fights in the series. Those that love it point to the scope of the battle, the awesomeness of using the Gaia Colossus, and the fantastic music that plays during the battle. Those that hate it point out that the Gaia Colossus is extremely slow and hard to control, the large amount of quick-time events, and the final phase being underwhelming.
    • Eggmanland, the final zone, is one of, if not the most divisive final stage in any Sonic game. On one hand, many absolutely despise Eggmanland and view it as everything wrong with Unleashed in one zone, as it is brutally difficult, has some of the most precise platforming in the series, is insanely long and tedious by Sonic standards (a flawless playthrough can still take 15 minutes) and the constant switching between Hedgehog and Werehog can be a major pace breaker due to how different their styles are. However, many of the criticisms people have had towards Eggmanland are exactly why many adore the zone, who see it as a fittingly climatic, rewarding and epic final stage that works well as a true test of everything the player has learned thus far, on top of having incredibly epic music and some of the most diverse and open level design in the boost games thus far. This largely only applies to the HD version though, as it is a bit more well liked in the Wii/PS2 version, which is segmented into separate acts, making it a bit less of a slog to get through.
  • Camera Screw: The camera is actually pretty good at doing its job for the most part, until you reach balance beams, when the camera constantly swings around to get behind Sonic. Impatient players may find themselves suddenly falling off the beam, and, at worst, plummeting to their death.
  • Character Perception Evolution: While the Werehog had always been a Base-Breaking Character, fan reception was especially vitriolic at the time of this game's release. For one, it debuted just two years after The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, leading to accusations of Sega stealing the idea of a werewolf alter-ego from that game. This was also when the Sonic franchise was still in its most infamous Audience-Alienating Era, when fans were aversive to anything too experimental for the franchise. Over time, both of these sentiments have faded away, and fans have warmed up to the Werehog; fan art is made to this day, and is even applied to characters other than Sonic.
  • Character Rerailment: After being flanderized into an overly obsessive Clingy Jealous Girl since the early-to-mid-2000s, Amy's more heartfelt and caring traits are made more prominent again in this game, with barely a sign of the clingy and aggressive traits in her previous portrayals.
  • Common Knowledge:
    • People call SA-55 (Eggman's assistant mini-robot) "Ergo", because he keeps using that word. The name however was originally used on the game's now-defunct American and European websites.
    • Fans refer to Eggmanland's Action Stage as "Crimson Carnival" in the same vein as the other Action Stages (e.g. Apotos' Action Stage is called Windmill Isle). However, "Crimson Carnival" has no actual basis in-game—in all versions of the game, including the Wii/PS2 and the original Japanese versions (which fans claim the name to be from), the stage is simply called Eggmanland.
  • Critical Dissonance: While the HD version of the game got lower scores on average than the SD version, the fans thought the opposite.
  • Demonic Spiders: Dark Titans (incredibly powerful and can stunlock Sonic to death), Killer Bees (incredibly hard to hit and ridiculously damaging), and Fire Masters (need to be put out with a water barrel, otherwise just touching them will set you on fire).
  • Disappointing Last Level: Eggmanland is reviled by some for its insane difficulty and nearly 20 minute long length, both of which combine to make a level that can take almost an hour and is very probe to draining your lives. That being said, the boss fights against Egg Dragoon and Dark Gaia compensate it.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • SA-55 - The character appears alongside Eggman again in Sonic Colors as Orbot, and is joined by a second robot, called Cubot (Hint: He's shaped like a cube).
    • Professor Pickle is also rather well-liked, for his friendliness and strange attributes. Being played by Dan Green likely helped.
    • As a boss fight example, the Egg Dragoon has proven to be one of Eggman's most popular mecha in the franchise due to its sleek design and memorable battle, with it making return appearances in Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces as a boss encounter.
  • Evil Is Cool: Dr. Eggman. Despite being hit with Badass Decay in his personality, he still manages to successfully bait Sonic into a trap, use a massive laser to crack the planet open like an egg, and finally construct Eggmanland, a colossal Amusement Park of Doom that he's been dreaming of since Sonic Adventure.
  • Fanon: Although there's no evidence for it, fans commonly assume Empire City is part of the United Federation, given both locations are based on the United States, and Empire City's flag is clearly inspired by the American one (but looks nothing like the United Federation's).
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Because the non-HD version of Unleashed is more known for being on the Wii than it is the PS2, it frequently is known by the name "Unwiished".
    • "Werehog" for Sonic's lycanthrope form started out as this, despite it being a misnomer - the affix 'were' means 'man'.
    • Gaia Temple Megazord for the Gaia Colossus, the Humongous Mecha Chip creates out of all the world's Gaia Temples.
    • The Orbot prototype, who didn't have an official name besides being named "SA-55" in the script, was often called "Ergo" by fans due to his constant use of the word as a catchphrase.
  • Franchise Original Sin: Listed on the franchise page.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • At least for Werehog stages in the HD version, once the player unlocks a certain move (Dash + Jump + Straight attack; which is the Spinning-Needle Attack), there is really no fight in the game that will give them any trouble. It hits harder than the average attack and has massive knockback and hitstun. To put this in perspective, it stuns Dark Titans out of any of their attacks except the jump shockwave.
    • The Wii/PS2 version doesn't even take as long to obtain the game-breaker, as your dash attack is all you'll really need in most fights.
  • Genius Bonus: Remember Popping Eggcorn sold at Eggman Land? Well, "eggcorn" is a real word. It was coined in 2003, meaning the word was only five years old before it appeared in Sonic Unleashed. It's used to describe a phrase that is mangled but still working in the original context on some level.
  • Goddamned Bats: Fittingly, the Electric Bat and Dark Bat Sniper enemies (in contrast to their Helpful Mook relative). Also, enemies like Frights and Rexes can be annoying in large numbers. Let's just say the vast majority of the mooks in this game basically fit this trope, when it comes to the werehog levels anyway.
  • Good Bad Bugs: Not a bug per se, but traveling salesman Wentos can be exploited for nearly infinite rings, cutting the level grinding time required to unlock special moves considerably.
  • He Really Can Act: Jason Griffith, after years of criticism of his Sonic voice, surprised everyone with his solid performance. He stated in an interview that he took voice training after the completion of Sonic 06, and it paid off well. More impressive, he explains in this interview that he had to do all of the game's lines with a strep throat.
  • He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: IGN and Gamespot gave Sonic Unleashed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 a 4.5 and 3.5, respectively, which attracted widespread backlash from many Sonic fans, who were quick to accuse both outlets of being unfair and negatively biased towards the game (to the point that IGN's Youtube video of the review has 20k dislikes over 1.4k likes). It didn't help that the scores they gave to Unleashed are lower than the ones they gave to the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (which got a 4.8 and 4.0 from IGN and Gamespot respectively), which even fans who disliked Unleashed thought was too harsh. The "inferior" PlayStation 2/Wii version (by Dimps of Sonic Rush fame), however, got a 7.0 from both (though they were done by different reviewers).
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: A 3D platform game starring a colorful mascot character embarking on a adventure across the world, with lot of different NPCs and varied cultural environments and joined by a floating little sidekick with a major gameplay gimmick centered around transformation? Complete with a vocal theme song? Sure enough, here comes a certain game made by Sonic's ex-mascot rival, a decade later.
  • It's Hard, So It Sucks!: The daytime stages are often criticized for being too fast, as the game throws a lot of reflex-based obstacles at you with barely any time to react, and the speed blur exacerbates the problem by making them harder to see coming. Later boost-based games have toned the speed down because of this.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Most people play this game for the daytime stages, to the point where all of those levels were ported over to Sonic Generations as The Unleashed Project.
  • Mandela Effect: "Endless Possibility" is almost always referred to as "Endless Possibilities".
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Narm: The QTEs can be pretty hard to take seriously when they’re accompanied by a loud, generic doorbell sound effect. Nothing like taking the sails out of a dramatic fight between a Werehog and a giant mecha while falling down into the Earth’s crater with music to match than a dissonantly cheery chime.
  • Polished Port:
  • Porting Disaster:
    • Unlike the Xbox 360 version, which was rereleased natively on Xbox One and Series X, The PlayStation 3 version was not so lucky, instead being rereleased on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 through PlayStation Now, meaning it is streamed from cloud instead of running natively. To put it bluntly, combining the unreliable and unpredictable nature of internet cloud gaming and the already major performance problems of Unleashed results in a miserable experience that is filled with frequent input lag, screen tearing, occasional crashing and additional performance issues on top of the performance issues that are already present in Unleashed. Unsurprisingly, it is widely considered by most to be the worst way to play Unleashed amongst the ways to play it.
    • The PlayStation 2 version is also equally dreadful compared to the Nintendo Wii version it was based on. While the Dualshock 2 has a more comfortable button layout compared to even the Classic Controller or Gamecube configurations, the visuals are massively downgraded to compensate for the weaker hardware (the Werehog's fur looking more like a marble slab than actual fur). Making this worse is that while the game does support 480p Progressive Scan, it strangely doesn't allow for 16:9 viewing unlike the Wii version (despite the PS2 being more than capable of supporting that aspect ratio), leading to a much more cluttered UI and a case of the Werehog's health bar overlapping the mini-map when fully upgraded.
  • Popular with Furries: This game introduced the Werehog design for Sonic. Furries took to him very well, either because they like werewolves or because they like how Sonic looks that way.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • Medal collecting is highly despised, as it is required in order to get into new levels, and finding the medals frequently requires the player to slow down and explore, especially with the day stages, as the gameplay doesn’t support exploring the level to find medals. It's more bearable in the Wii/PlayStation 2 version as the medals are awarded for clearing stages instead.
    • Many have complained about how Quick Time Events are overused, especially in the later levels.
    • Back upon release and for some years afterwards, the Werehog was hated for ruining the pace of the game. It was occasionally said that if the game were just the day levels, it would be considered on par with the best games in the series.
  • Signature Song:
  • Slow-Paced Beginning: The Wii version suffers from this due to a large amount of forced tutorials for both Sonic and the Werehog (along with Chip stopping you to explain every single little thing), and a bunch of long unskippable cutscenes back-to-back, which is made worse by the Mazuri levels being cut out since there's no gameplay to spice things up. Once the Egg Beetle is defeated and the player gets to Spagonia, the game thankfully begins to pick up the pace.
  • So OK, It's Average:
    • The game as a whole leans towards this reception. On one hand, it has a lot of strong elements, such as the Sonic/daytime stages, the impressive production values and the wonderful music. On the other hand, aspects such as constant performance and frame rate issues, pacing issues, the Werehog/nighttime stages and the mandatory medal collecting bog down the experience considerably. That said, the game has slowly begun to move away from this territory and more into positive territory in recent years due to the game becoming Vindicated by History.
    • The SD version (aka: the Wii/PS2 version). It's not a bad version of the game and it can be enjoyable in its own right, even having some advantages over the HD version (such as the medals being rewarded to you instead of having to collect them and having a more fun final boss), but it is relatively barebones and lackluster compared to the HD version and there isn't much of a reason to play it over the HD version unless it's the only option one has.
  • Squick: Perfect Dark Gaia. He opens his mouth and seven freakishly huge eyes come out, surrounded by masses of tongues, as well as two pairs of arms that literally rip through the skin of his body and make a bloody mess. You eventually defeat him... by ramming said eyes. Blergh. And did we mention that when the eyes are rammed, you can see Dark Gaia’s sickly green blood gush out of it?
  • Surprise Difficulty: Make no mistake, people, this game will rip you several new ones if you get careless. Don't let the gorgeous visuals and Lighter and Softer feel fool you. ESPECIALLY during Eggmanland...
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: It is usually agreed that this game is miles above some of its 3D predecessors, especially its immediate predecessor.
  • Tainted by the Preview: When the Werehog was leaked, many fans and even professional sites basically immediately starting slamming it for being "another dumb gimmick". The main reason for this is because the franchise at the time had become rather infamous for including mechanics that were largely considered gimmicks that detracted from the overall game itself. The Werehog being considered particularly gratuitous, many immediately considered it to be spark that finally lit the powder keg for the fanbase, regardless of whatever the gameplay style ended up being.
  • That One Level:
    • Eggman Land: 15+ minutes of nonstop Platform Hell, instant death-on-fail quick-time events, vicious combat, and (in the HD version) constant Sonic-Werehog shift. Fitting as it was the culmination of several attempts by Eggman across several games.
      • The Wii/Playstation 2 version isn't much better, with the daytime level being filled with tricky and dangerous obstacles (including a miniboss halfway through the level), and its missions being among the toughest in the game. Special mention goes to the time trial mission, which forces you to play through the entire stage under a very strict time limit, and it's required in order to beat the game. Then after all is said and done, you have five nighttime levels to go through...
    • Savannah Citadel Day Act 2 is a perfect example of awful game design. The stage is a railless track with multiple sharp turns that are incredibly easy to fall off from. The level was designed with the intent of teaching the player to use the drift mechanic. But the drifting is so imprecise that you'll often fall off-course even if you seemingly do it right. Eventually, you'll find that drifting alone isn't enough—you have to do it at an *exact* spot where you'll stay on the road long enough without under-drifting. On top of that, this you have to complete this stage within one minute and fifteen seconds! You'll be lucky to last the first thirty seconds.
    • Dragon Road Night Act 3 (The Wii version, at least). The level doesn't get so bad until you get to a part where you have to fight a bunch of enemies on platforms with no safe ground below you, and it can be frustrating as most attacks move you forward and closer to the edge of a platform, some of which aren't that big, and it can be easy to accidentally dash and start running too fast and right off the platform.
    • Jungle Joyride Day Act 1. At first, it's not so bad; a fair quick-stepping challenge with a lot of alternate paths to go through. But when you get to the water-running sections, it starts getting difficult for first-time players due to those sections' awkward sense of direction. Also, the stage is marred by more framerate issues than any part of the game, which can definitely throw you off.
  • That One Sidequest: The Shamar quest "Save Yasmine". A timed course lasting two minutes, and all but the most skilled players will need every second. The course lasts much longer than other timed challeneges, and there's next to no margin of error. To make it even more frustrating, beating it requires finding a shortcut near the beginning that you're only likely to find by complete accident, as it requires making a jump after going through a loop. In game full of punishing sidequests, this one takes the cake.
  • They Copied It, Now It Sucks: Among other complaints regarding the Werehog, at the time of release it was compared unfavorably to Wolf Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which had been released just two years prior. Over time, these comparisons have faded out as the Werehog became judged on its own merits.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • There are those who think the Werehog itself was an interesting concept that simply wasn't used to its fullest potential in the narrative and the Beat 'em Up gameplay by itself was not a good decision to begin with, the latter only serving to make an admittedly difficult to swallow idea more polarizing. If the Werehog been given more importance to the plot and had gameplay that wasn't both a huge departure from Sonic’s gameplay and blatant Padding, it could've been a welcome addition to Unleashed and not draw nearly as much ire as it did.
    • For those that dislike Chip and Dark Gaia overall, some people tout the opening itself as missed potential, seeing as an awesome confrontation of that scale and level is never properly replicated in the game itself and feels like the end of an entire adventure that could have been a game all of its own.
  • Ugly Cute: The Little Rex Dark Gaia minions. Sure, they may be made of pure dark energy, but they look like an adorable mix between a puppy and a baby t-rex and make cute whining sounds whenever they're attacked.
  • Uncertain Audience: Even among fans who simultaneously like both the daytime and Werehog gameplay, it's frequently noted that attempting to have both in one game led to this issue. The problem is that the two gameplay styles are diametrically opposed: the Daytime gameplay favors quick movement, blowing through generally unthreatening enemies, and flashy level setpieces; meanwhile, the Werehog gameplay focuses on slower movement, chipping away at enemies with combos, and more thoughtful puzzle solving. The opposing nature of the two gameplay styles meant that most players were likely to prefer one over the other, seeing the other gameplay style as an obstacle to getting to the part they liked. Even among fans of the Adventure games who like this sort of gameplay variety, it's argued either that the two gameplay styles were too divergent even to those fans or that the Werehog gameplay should have been given to a different character to make it more appealing. The daytime gameplay and eventually the Werehog gameplay were found to be well-made individually, but as a result of them sharing a game, the disparate appeal of both gameplay styles created a major obstacle to the game being accepted by the fandom.
  • Underused Game Mechanic: Using hourglasses to switch between the Hedgehog and Werehog. They're heavily used in the level hubs, but the only level the mechanic is used in is Eggmanland, the last level of the game, nullifying any possible exploration of switching gameplay styles mid-level.
  • Vindicated by History: The game was subjected to mixed to negative reception back in 2008, with the Werehog in particular catching a ton of heat. It reviewed poorly enough that it was among the games Sega de-listed to help rehabilitate the brand in 2010. While the game remains heavily divisive in the years that followed, it isn't uncommon to find more defenders towards Unleashed, celebrating the game's creativity and production values, graphics that hold up well today, the varied and excellent soundtrack, and a plot that is generally considered solid. Many also appreciate the scope and ambition present in the game, which many felt that subsequent Sonic games lacked. Nowadays, the title often comes up in HD Remaster and PC Port requests, especially after the release of remasters and PC Ports of other PS3/360 SEGA titles that were released at the same time as Unleashed, such as Bayonetta, Vanquish, Valkyria Chronicles, and Resonance of Fate. The game was even relisted and rereleased to retail stores after being delisted in early 2010. As a sign of the game's changing perception, IGN, who had previously gave the HD release a 4.5 score when it came out in 2008, would give the game the number 10 spot on their The 10 Best Sonic Games video in 2022.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: It says quite a lot that a late 2008 title still holds up so well. The CGI is gorgeous, the lighting, especially at night, is atmospheric, and models are very detailed. Sonic Team seems to have gone out of its way to show off the Hedgehog Engine, and succeeded.
  • Win Back the Crowd: This game was enough for some fans to let go of their resentment for Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), though it would take a string of well-received games and a very long time for most to actually forgive Sega for it.

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