Outside gameplay

Continuing on comes the game's interface and menus. At best, these features are passable. To progress through the game, you must trudge through tons of text and menus. You can't access a continent's stage selection until you talk to a bunch of people in the town area. This seems like a pointless speed bump in a game all about momentum and adrenaline. The fact is that you will be spending a huge percentage of the game outside of gameplay completely. It is a sad realization, as the speed levels are pretty fun, and I would have loved to see them built on more.

Graphics and sounds

When the game opens, you are greeted with a very impressive cut scene. Not surprisingly, the actually gameplay looks nothing like it. Now of course, I know all too well that the Wii is not the powerhouse that is the Xbox 360 or PS3, but I can vouch that better graphics than this game can be achieved. It becomes obvious that the visuals were snatched from the Playstation 2 version, a console that is even less powerful than the Wii's predecessor: the Gamecube. While graphics certainly don't make or break a game, it is upsetting to see that some developers still don't care about reaching the full potential of this platform.

One bright note in the game's presentation is its soundtrack. The audio quality is top notch, and the music is fun and catchy. My compliments to the composer of this game, as frequently the tracks that play outshine the actual game. On the topic of sound, I should mention that Sonic Unleashed is almost fully voiced. The strange text-fueled town segments of the game are all silent, but the numerous scenes that play through the game do have voice actors. The acting isn't really bad, but the dialog is. It is hard to impress someone of your voice acting talent with lines like, "Want some chocolate?".

Could do better

I really wanted to enjoy Sonic Unleashed, but it seems that once again the blue hedgehog has slipped and fallen in the transition from the 16-bit era. Had Sega focused their efforts purely on the more traditional daytime levels, I could definitely see myself having a better time with this. Unfortunately as it stands those parts make up a small portion of what is otherwise a pretty average game. You could do worse than Sonic Unleashed, but you could also do much better. Unless you are among the die-hard Sonic fanatics, I can't really recommend this one.