Sonic Unleashed

THE GOOD:
Hilarious dialog, night stages are easy to get, simple (in ways to beat) bosses, tons of extras, soundtrack alone could sell millions, astonishingly well graphics, epic in several places.

THE BAD:
Day stages are frustrating, final boss is seriously hard, learning curve is in the mesosphere.

SUMMARY:
Wow. I did not believe that game reviewers were dissing this wonder game. When I got Sonic Unleashed as a gift from a friend, I was like "Who the glitch is Sonic?" I was strictly a Nintendo fan back then, but now Sonic has a spot in my gamer heart. Hard to believe that one game did all that!

When I started Sonic Unleashed up, I thought I put a DVD into my Wii, because of the graphics. Why Sonic and Dr. Fatso (aka Eggman) were fighting was beyond me, but the way they did it was thrilling. The cut scenes had me laughing like a hyena pack on several lines, like "If you played nice, I wouldn't have to break all your toys." and...

It's fair to say that Sonic has attracted a fair amount of cynicism. First they gave us that multiple character system from Sonic Heroes. Then they plonked Shadow in the driver's seat and gave him his very own game. And Sonic and the Secret Rings... it would take me all day to describe it.

Unleashed also introduces something new, but - good bit - it works. It begins with what's typically the climax of a Sonic game. Sonic arrives on Dr. Eggman's spaceship, blows up several robots, and confronts the Doc himself. However, there's a catch, as Eggman tricks Sonic and steals the Chaos Emeralds, draining their power to split the world into seven parts and turning Sonic into a hairy wolf-like "Werehog". On the surface, Sonic runs into new ally Chip, and sets out to stop Eggman. The catch is that when night falls, he morphs back into his Werehog form.

I've only seen the Wii version of the game, but it looks spectacular. The...