Sonic the Plumber! Reviews

Platforms: XBOX 360, PS3

Developer: Sonic Team

Genre: LUDICROUS SPEED Platforming/Beat ‘em up

Release: November 21 (XBOX 360), December 12 (PS3)

ESRB Rating: E+10

    SEGA created a game where Sonic can be controlled in 3-D and stepping back a decade and a half and using what made him popular, 2-D Sidescroller platforming.  The gameplay is phenomenal, about as “classic” as modern Sonic can get, with a ton of speed.  No doubt, this is the fastest (In-game speedwise) the hypersonic rodent has gone in any of his games. Unfortunately, there is a prominent “Press boost to win” feeling here, since you rarely slow down to do som of the platforming Sonic is known for.  The control scheme differs noticably from the Sonic Adventure series, among these is the button mapping.  Sonic’s Homing Attack is now mapped to X (Square for PlayStation owners) from tapping the jump button again after jumping and the Lightspeed Dash is now assigned to the Y button (Triangle) from X.  It sounds simple, but immediately after playing the Adventure series and popping Unleashed in your console, you’ll be thrown off momentarily. Controls set aside, Sonic’s gameplay in Unleashed is definitely a step in the right direction.

When the opening cutscene plays, you’ll notice Sonic gains an elastic Lycanthrope Alter Ego – the Werehog. He plays similarly to God of War and Virtua Fighter mixed, taking the combat from God of War and the combos from Virtua Fighter. He is greatly slowed down compared to his normal self, but as a tradeoff, is much stronger and.. Stretchier. At first, the Taffy-limbed Werebeast will feel boring, but when you level up his skills to unlock more moves, it feels much more fun and rewarding. Even still, the Werehog is a very forgettable, thoughtless attempt to add a different twist on Sonic’s Gameplay.

The Graphics engine for the game is appropriately titled “Hedgehog Engine”. It does a few things that no other game engine has done, among them is Global Illumination.  What this does is have every object reflect light (matted or otherwise) off of another object, onto another object, continuing this pattern until every object reflects off of every other object. A better explanation and visual examples can be found by clicking here. 

 The Music is simply a joy to listen to, the whole soundtrack is filled to capacity with upbeat music reflecting each nation’s culture. You will hear Chinese Music in Dragon Road (China), Early 1900’s/contemporary jazz in Skyscraper Scamper (New York City), and European sounding Orchestrated Rock hybrid in Rooftop Run (Europe). Every piece of music in this game is beyond memorable.

Click to enlarge.

Sonic Gameplay- Rating: Probably the fastest consistent gameplay experience I’ve ever had. It’s the most solidly built 3D Sonic game since the Dreamcast days.

Werehog Gameplay- Rating: Not terrible, it’s a fun beat-em-up, but the controls are far too loose when precision platforming is key. It also isn’t the best character SEGA could’ve added as an alternate game experience, since Knuckles could easily fill the Werehog’s spiked shoes.

Learning Curve-  Approx. 30 minutes, mainly due to button mapping and the Werehog’s gameplay.

Graphics- Rating:   Hedgehog Engine does its job and then some, producing some of the most gorgeous visuals on the current generation of consoles so far, without any doubt. Now if only these consoles could generate foliage correctly. Oh well.

Sound- Rating:   The music is fast paced and fun, the best that Sonic’s had in a very long time. (Not counting Sonic 2006, which had beautiful music, but a mediocre game.) The only problem with the sound is that Sonic repeats something he’s said while boosting a bit too early to say it again.

Glitches- Rating:   Nothing game breaking, but it’s hard to get the Werehog to jump off of a pole. Also, most of the known glitches are really useful, such as ones that enable you to access areas cut from earlier builds of the levels.

The Verdict: Overall Rating:

Take Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, remove game breaking glitches, pile on the speed, and add a Werehog. and you have about as good of a game as the Sonic the Hedgehog stages.  If Elastic-Armed Lycanthropic brawlers aren’t your forté, then you probably won’t enjoy 40% of the game, even though a lot of the Werehog stages are optional.  Even still, this game is like most High School students.  It just doesn’t know what it wants to be. A very fast platformer or a Clichéd brawling platformer.