Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The latest trailer for the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed depicts the two aspects of Sonic's latest game. The good news is that those of you who complained that the world seemed too realistic, Sonic's daytime adventures are full of the loops and giant springs that make Sonic's world what it is. The buildings may look kind of European, but the looping sidewalk is classic Sonic.

And then there's the nighttime, which is less "classic Sonic" and more ... Dragon Blade? God of War? Some kind of 3d brawler with two long-range weapons. We kind of like the idea of using Sonic the Werehog's big stretchy arms to swing around, since it's a sort of Bionic Commando grappling, but we have yet to be sold on the idea of a brawling Sonic. How about that music, though?

Hey, Sonic Unleashed on the Wii looks great! Sure, this level appears to pretty much play itself, requiring only occasional input from the player, but it's fast, the graphics are incredible, and the music is classic Sonic silliness. It looks much better than that other Sonic game in which he turns into a werehog with stretchy arms for some reason.

... what? That's this game? Oh, crumbs. This is how we'd want a 3D Sonic to be --not terribly 3D, and starring Sonic. Even the simplistic "hold right" gameplay is enough to sustain us for the single level we'll enjoy before the werehog, or Sonic's friends, or mandatory Rouge the Bat level, or cutscene, or whatever else shows up to ruin it.

The real attraction to these Sonic Unleashed scans is what seem to be tiny screens of the Wii version in action, including a couple we've seen and many we haven't. But we found two somewhat ancillary news bits related to these scans too distracting to ignore.

First, the Japanese title for the game is Sonic World Adventure, which ties the new game more closely in with its Dreamcast predecessors. Second, like Bruce Banner, who gained the ability not only to transform into the Incredible Hulk, but also to involuntarily turn his pants purple, Sonic has acquired shoes that change when he becomes a "Werehog." Whenever the moon is full, his shoes sprout cleats.

The current edition of UK magazine GamesTM has a bunch of new details for Sonic Unleashed, mostly gleaned from chatting to lead designer Yoshihisa Hashimoto. In the four-page piece, we learn that the game eschews traditional Sonic locales in favor of nine different worlds, each set in a themed geographical location -- so instead of Green Hill Zone, we'll be guiding the blue one through levels based on The Great Wall of China, an African plain, New York City, and a Spanish villa.

Stages are short (apparently, no stage lasts more than five minutes), and will contain both 2D and 3D sections that last for around 15 to 30 seconds each (this snappy level design, explains Hashimoto, is intended to prevent players from growing bored). Perhaps most importantly of all, the 3D sections will only use techniques that have proved successful in the past -- so there's the rail grinding from Sonic Adventure, and the ability to switch lanes, a la Sonic And The Secret Rings.

Of course, the Wii version is being outsourced to Dimps, so we'll just have to wait and see how much of this applies to the game on Nintendo's console.


[Via videogaming247]

Gamekyo (formerly known as Jeux-France) posted up some new scans for the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed, which show us a handful of new screens for the blue hedgehog's upcoming title. Considering that the images are based on scans, they actually look pretty nice. There's only a handful, but they show Sonic doing what he does best -- attacking robots and collecting coins.

We're curious to see what the "very different" Wii version of the game will be like when compared to the 360 and PS3 ones, but at least it looks like it's going to be okay. We'll just have to wait until this fall (specifically November, according to Gamekyo) to find out for ourselves.

Hidden deep within Matt Casamassina's eyes-on preview of Sonic Unleashed on the PS3 and 360 is the news that the Sonic Team Dimps-developed Wii version would not only support a Wiimote/nunchuk combination, but also the GameCube controller, and possibly the Classic controller.

Being the outrageous cynics that we are, we initially suspected this meant we'd be getting a downgraded port of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 game, but Casamassina also points out that the stages in the Wii iteration are "very different." So now we don't know what to think -- heck, maybe Dimps just believes the game feels nicer with the Cube controller.