Sonic Unleashed: The Comeback 10 Years In The Making 

The sense of adventure is why Unleashed is in my top 3 Sonic games, along with the Adventure games. I actually did a podcast a few years ago with a buddy of mine, and he was being pretty harsh towards Unleashed, and I had come to the realization that his criticisms were just a bunch of prescriptive criteria, which is totally fine, and I think we all have prescriptive criteria to an extent (*cough* Last Jedi *cough*) but it's important to be able to distinguish between your own personal preference and actual quality. A friend once asked me "What do you think a Sonic game should be?" and I said "Who cares? Just make a good game. Sonic Unleashed is good."

With all the current hype around sonic colors ultimate and fans hoping if we get an unleashed ultimate, watching old sonic unleashed videos are giving me a warm sense of comfort and pride that I'm still in this community

We already got the Sonic Movie with all the cutscenes of Unleashed strung together

This entire video hurts my soul because it brings back the good memories of me and my brother playing it for months and months just appreciating the levels and the music. You were quite humerus mate and I thank you for talking about this game. It was literally my childhood.

Really terrific video mate, thanks!

Eggmanland is the endgame, it's suppossed to be hard. Its the culmination of everything you've learned throughout your entire playthrough

i still have cravings to visit and play stages from unleashed. it's my favorite game and i love the world from it and the music is divine.

"Endgame actually difficult = bad" ok

Eggy for best NPC in the series. As much as I dislike this game, I will agree that there are some parts that can be improved on. People ask for a remake of the game, but I would prefer an reimagining. Something that keeps the main story and interaction with the NPCs, while improving the controls and performance. Maybe even improve some of the camera angles. Anyways, great video Ryan.

Great Review dude! This is my favorite game of all time and you gave it a fair and positive review glad I saw this video.

Thourgly enjoyed this video, came from the Golden Sun videos but really think you deserve more attention to your channel after binging your videos

I agree on Tails being poorly portrayed in Forces, but I disagree on Unleashed; in the latter, between him and the Dark Gaia monsters, it was 7 against 1 (one of which was a giant one), they were in an enclosed area, and it was Tails' first ever time seeing them. When I saw him flee from them, I was releaved, because I thought he was gonna get kidnapped and till Sonic saved him, like in the AOSTH cartoon. I found his portrayal boring and lame there.

I actually think phase 2 of Dark Gaia is the best boss fight in the game. I really enjoyed flying as Super Sonic and it felt like a climatic experience. Oh, I also thought the quick time events in the fight were pretty good.

Absoloutely stellar review! I pretty much agree with how you feel towards unleashed. I like it in very short bursts due to the fact that it packs so much content, and in turn it's a lot to take in, especially if you're beating off the game back to back to back to 100% the game gradually. Also, the werehog is definitely a bit of a buzzword in the sonic series for some due to it's gameplay, but I would actually say that the gameplay for him is perfectly fine and very tight with tonnes of polish and variety. But the levels themselves can be very "stop and go!" where it drops you in corners of a level with barriers that halt progression, and be extensive to where it can be a bit monotonous to revisit compared to the thrill-ride that is the daytime stages. I personally never had much hassle with the medals since I instinctively felt like there could be a medal hiding in a little crack in a wall or pathway that the level design can direct to, even in the daytime stages for as blast-happy as they can be. Either way, i have a very conditional love for this game, and even for it's downsides, I think it doesn't get the amount of love it deserves and needs, since this was sonic's grand return from the ashes and the last game I ever really could appreciate for being as ambitious and taking so many risks when compared to the likes of today's more accessible sonic games nowadays.

Unleashed is my favorite 3D Sonic game I loved Sonic and chip's relationship in the game

I don't get why people act like the werehog form is an odd and unfitting transformation for sonic. Super sonic has him suddenly gain the ability to fly, his pupils turn red and his quills stand up. All from the power of the chaos emeralds. All the werehog form does is make him bulkier, darker, adds claws, grows fangs, and the ability to stretch his arms. Plus he gained this form by indirectly absorbing dark gaia's energy thanks to eggman. The werehog is totally suited tot his series especially when it has a small robot that can transform into a giant dragon version of itself, and chao that became a water morphing water monster, time traveling animals with super powers etc.

I used to just consider this game one of the bad games for years but I had no experience with it or any real reason to believe it was bad, other than just that’s what everyone said. I remember doubting if it really was bad for a while as in 2013 my brother told me about how he played it on his friend’s PS3 and it was great. This year I got curious and watched a bunch of reviews of this game and after each one I saw the game looked less and less bad, it really seemed like it was just misjudged. The real moment where I decided I wanted to play it for myself was when I watched Scykoh play the game on RU-vid and he was enjoying the game, even the Werehog stages, and it hit me: he was enjoying them since he was actually playing it properly, he wasn’t just mashing X and Y for hours he was actually using the combos and attacks and it turned out to actually be quite fun. So it was really starting to look like it was a good game, and since I was already considering buying an Xbox 360 this game was the nail in the coffin that decided I needed to buy one, and since then Unleashed has been the game that I’ve played the most. After beating the game, I honestly think it’s tied with Sonic Adventure for the best Sonic game ever, the graphics are incredible both day and night, both gameplay styles are really fun, the music is some of the best in the franchise, the hub worlds are awesome and fun, and I love the collectibles and the way it makes you want to replay the levels and unlock everything, the XP system is such a nice touch, I mainly ended up putting my XP into the Werehog as the daytime Sonic was good enough from the start, but it meant that I was able to unlock all the combos before beating the game, something most game reviewers missed because they just mashed buttons and put all their XP into Sonic’s speed. The collectibles never bothered me, in most Sonic games finding the red rings isn’t really that enjoyable of a task to me, and there’s rarely any motivation to collect them, but in Unleashed there was enough of a motivation to make me get some of the medals so I could unlock all the stages, and then I’ve collected the majority of them (and since collecting them is really fun) it made me want to go and collect all the rest, along with the art books and music discs and video tapes, I really love collecting them and seeing the stuff they reveal at the lab with professor pickle. I also love the ranking system, I suck at Sonic games and indeed most games but I find Sonic Unleashed has the perfect difficult curve, I love the stages and enjoy replaying them even more than Generations, and after playing a lot and practising I can now S rank 4 of the stages (2 day 2 night) and I love that, it really feels like I earned it and it’s so satisfying to get a perfect run, in Generations the ranking is too easy (I shouldn’t get S ranks first time, and I do get that occasionally, and I’m terrible at games. In Unleashed I usually got Cs first time) and the levels don’t entice me to replay them as much without the sun and moon medals and the concept art books. I think the story is really good too, in some ways it’s a rehash of Adventure but I find the characters really entertaining and it’s well presented, and it really gave me some new respect for Jason Griffith, I typically preferred Ryan Drummond but Jason just nails Sonic in Unleashed, it feels like you’re seeing the most mature version of Sonic we’ve seen yet, he’s more serious in some ways but he still has cool moments and lines without trying way too hard to be cool like Adventure or trying way too hard to be funny and failing like Colours. I would’ve loved to see Sonic written more like he is in Unleashed. Overall though, my favourite part is the gameplay, the day stages have the best boost controls I’ve used yet, and it feels great, it’s so far and hectic and I love the reaction based gameplay, it feels incredible to nail the level and go incredibly fast and perfect a run. The night stages are also really good I feel, the platforming is entertaining and fun and I love how it uses the stretchy arms, and the puzzle aspects can be fun. The combat is also entertaining when you use the combos and special moves, it certainly can be frustrating with the Titan bosses throwing you off the edge in Skyscraper Scamper, and the awful water in Dragon Road, but for the most part I really enjoy it! Finding medals is also really good as the Werehog, you’re slow enough to make it easy to search for stuff, but you aren’t too slow to be irritating. I used to think the Werehog gameplay was dumb and shouldn’t be in Sonic, but after playing it and thinking about it logically it does make sense, it’s still related to platforming and has all of the good building blocks of Sonic, just exchanging the speed for combat, but that doesn’t bother me since I would take a million Werehogs over another mech stage from SA2, those are atrocious unlike SA1. In conclusion, I agree with a lot of your points, and I really love Unleashed, I’m so glad I gave it a chance and was able to play it on my 360, I really hope it gets a PC port someday still and they don’t screw it up like Colours. I still love SA1 a ton, but Unleashed is definitely tied with it for my favourite Sonic game.

41:28 The moral of the story: Just form your own opinions, already! Don't let others do it for you.

Great video man, I have thought about playing Unleashed before, and you definitely pushed me in the direction of trying it out. All the best 👍🏻

The reason the Werehog thing is kinda dumb sometimes is because the Werehog stages are so much longer than the day stages that it's kindof an imbalance. Meanwhile in Twilight Princess, you spend just as time as Human Link as you do as Wolf Link, if not more so. And you can switch between them with like 2 button presses. So you can just stick to the playstyle you want for most of the game. And that's why it's easier to take in Zelda. It's not just bias. It actually was just executed better in Zelda. Also, there was no torture in Forces. That was an English dub only thing. It's not in the Japanese version. Also I don't think Sonic cares about the attention he gets from Amy, I just think he sees her as a really good friend. Like he's been saying for years now. And like he said in the recent lore-exposition explanation video Sega put out. And as for Chip's voice... got into "Options" and switch to Japanese voices. There ya go. Fixed.

1 YEAR LATE SQUAD WHERE YOU AT?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

This video pretty much describes all my feelings on this game. There's a lot of beautiful things in it along with some "so-so" to just plain "terrible" things mixed into it. The day stages were awesome but sometimes the mechanics just didn't work properly, while the night stages was a slow platformer that was more memorable for its platforming than combat. I dunno why it's my favorite Sonic game though. Probably because I had more fun with it than any other and put more time into it than Generations as well as loving the story... but then again I never played the Adventure games so eh.

Sonic Unleashed was never one of the bad ones. Whoever thought that was either high on Mario's magic mushrooms or part of the "Sonic shouldn't take himself too seriously" crowd. And journalists... well we all know about journalists. They're a bigger joke than Sonic Boom.

Yo, what's the song at the end? That sounded like fire.

nice review, i wasn't going to watch this video because of the comment, thinking this going to be a straight up negative review, but i decide against, and i glad i did, you really upon a lot of the fact i love about the game. good stuff :)

1:26 music? I think it's from 06 but I can't place it. Is it the extras theme? Also, loved you on unversed cast. Hysterical.

Here's a lesson folks. Sonic is not stopping anytime soon

I always kinda preferred the looser controls of Unleashed. Generations doesn't feel tight to me, it feels stiff and restrictive. Anymore even when I play Generations it's typically with mods that restore Unleashed's physics.

Tbh I actually loved arid sands, both day and night.

Get good dude. Arid sands day is a lot of fun for me now. But... I must admit that this took a while to do. When I played this as a kid, the controls felt way more clunky then I would have thought.

i think this is a completely fair review i disagree with somethings[ this is my favorite video game after all] also game journalism is a joke.

Man it's been so long since I've watched you.

I live for the Stretchy arms! Ha ha!

Well a lot of the frame drop problems have been fixed on Xbox series X and S which it runs consistently at 60fps

maybe you should cover some sonic fan games

I personally think sonic unleashed was a big step in the right direction at the time if not flawed in the fact that the wearhog levels were stupidly annoying and difficault in a lot of areas the speed stages were awsome but always felt interrupted by the fact you had to slow down around parts where you’d fly off if you didn’t slow down in advance. But I always felt the music and bosses to be the high points of the game not to mention eggman land was fun

You've also said in the past you like the wii version more. Have you played that version recently?

How to fix the boost formula a bit: Get rid of the 2D parts, make the levels a bit longer (but not too long), make the levels more open while still being linear (expand on what Generations did), and make Sonic's momentum a bit smoother and if you want to stop or turn while being slower it doesn't feel too slippery. Also I do like this game, I just don't love it.

16:17 16:22

Play this on the Xbox one X/series X(update) and the frame rate is fixed!

but the werehog ova was better and shorter, dir. by the shadow the hedgehog game opening director.

This game has always been a mixed bag for me. I do like the sense of speed the daytime levels offer, but the overemphasis on that speed comes at the cost of control when doing precise platforming or exploring, which really shoots the Boost playstyle in the foot when the levels shift to 2D or when you're going for sun and moon medals. And plus, it doesn't give you as much time to react to enemies and hazards, so it's makes the game harder to jump into compared to other Sonic games. Mastering the levels pretty much boils to trial and error and memorization, and not so much improving your skills, and not everyone appreciates that kind of design. The Werehog I honestly enjoy more than the daytime levels. It's not something I'd look for in Sonic, but I love the sheer variety in the Werehog's combat potential, though his levels do overstay their welcome, and the lack of a drop shadow makes some platforming sections a little tense. I really want to like Sonic Unleashed. I really mean it. It's arguably the most ambitious Sonic game to ever be released. From its opening cutscene, to the phenomenal soundtrack, amazing visuals, decent story, and oodles of charm. It felt like Sonic Team wanted to apologize for the hardships of the 15th anniversary and treated it as though it was their final Sonic game, and they went all out with making this game. But when I look past all the mad high production values and sheer ambition, and look at it as a video game......yeah, I don't see this as the perfect Sonic game that fans keep making it out to be nowadays. You can have all the ambition in the world, but that doesn't mean anything to me when the game itself has problems that get in the way of my enjoyment. More power to those who legitimately enjoy this game. I can respect that, but Sonic Colors and Generations, despite retaining a few similar problems, to me, did the Boost formula so much more justice.

Am i the only one that thinks this game is better than generations....plus you can get this game in ps4 but its the exact same no Fps differences nor the graphics...using PS Now subscription I repeat this is not an advertisement

I was never a fan of the boost style because it sacrificed control over emphasis on speed. While the player is given the opportunity to experience the fast pace speed and take it all in, I think restricting the player to a more shallow and condensed open hallways just aren't worth the sacrifice of control. And usually I find myself bored after boost gameplay and it doesn't coexist well with the platforming aspect of Sonic. (Although I do enjoy Generations from a gameplay persective because its the least bad when it comes to any of it) Namely when you're forced to go in 2D sections to platform, only to have your jumps feeling heavy and stiff, Sonic having no momentum when he jumps and the control being stiff overall. It feels like it's punishing you for not playing the game the way it wants you do, which is just going fast in a straight line down condensed hallways. As for Sonic Unleashed as an experienced, I think it's the best in the series presentation wise. That opening cienmatic is easily the best opening of a Sonic game. I just wish Sega would take more tips from that. I also find the amount of bullshit obstacles you only have a split second to react to outright kill the experience in most cases. Because of how many of them exist I find myself gravitating toward the Werehog over the daytime stages. Which fit the criteria of sacrificed control and momentum. I'm also not a fan of running bosses either. I've said before that I think the Ryan Drummond era was the best for the fact that every character feels included, it had the most amount of fun games (minus a few exceptions like Sonic Battle) and every character felt like characters. Rather than slowly fading into irrelevancy and being inconsistent like the Dark Age did or being living props who provide exposition like in recent titles. However here I feel the 4kids cast were at their best. Even if it did begin Tails' decline in usefulness I liked his voice performance. I also enjoyed Amy's voice despite not really doing much. That's not to say the Dark Age was completely bad, it did have fun games when it mattered like Rush titles. But it's better than the state Sonic's in right now. I loved your comment about Amy's playstyle in Adventure 1. I'm one of the rare people who actually liked playing as her, though her momentum and speed could be better I enjoyed playing Sonic better with a balance of speed and platforming over when Sonic games emphasize speed at the cost of control. It's the reason why Sonic Advance 1 is my favorite and don't like 2 or 3. In fact Sonic Advance uses Amy's adventure styled gameplay and improves over what was wrong with her (while the slowest in run speed) she still runs at high speeds comparable to the other three and her gameplay allows the player to approach obstacles much differently to the point where I only go to Advance to specifically play as her. Her gameplay is fun and she trivializes most of the in game bosses when utilized correctly. Amy still feels like a Sonic character, only with her own playstyle that changes up somethings, despite what critics and most sonic fans will have you believe in using her as a core of how "playable characters don't work" (the only one I found bad was her Sonic 2006 playstyle). Her underdog status is part of why she's my favorite Sonic character (other than Tails) I also think the hate she gets from the fandom is often exaggerated.

"I like the tone and feel of sonic colors" like you made me cringe more than i have ever cringed with that line like excuse me but other than some good spectacle for the wii once in a while this game is absolute trash , i know that i sound like an IGN or Metacritic reviewer but they actually praised and i believe this game was the start of the downfall for sonic team , literaly.

need russian voice translate. its interesting but i more better in russian. please anyone

We all know the Wii Version is better

sonic unleashed is bad