[Editors Note: James had the wonderful opportunity of seeing Sonic Unleashed, first-hand at E3.  Be sure to thank him for this detailed writeup of Sonic’s new adventure!  He’s pretty beat from all the events this week!]

Sonic Unleashed is a unique experience because Sega has decided to return to Sonic’s original winning formula: fast paced gaming with occasional platforming qualities, bosses, lots of jumping and Chaos Emeralds.

As you well know, the story goes like this. Dr. Eggman (still Dr. Robotnik in my heart) managed to collect all the Chaos Emeralds and used their power on Sonic, causing him to turn into Weresonic at night. Sonic must cure himself and get back at Eggman for his devious ways.

There are several important changes that have been made to Sonic Unleashed. For starters, rings don’t simply act as 1-Up counters and health-bars anymore. Now collecting enough will enable Sonic to have speed bursts. And unlike some previous games, being hit by an enemy won’t make Sonic lose all of his rings.

As Sonic, Sega is utilizing a proprietary engine that they’ve worked on since 2005 called the Hedgehog Engine, made specifically to stream architecture quickly for high-speed movement in-game. While the current build is still a little sluggish, it proved to be very good at what it’s made to do while keeping the framerate steady most of the time.

With Sonic running so fast much of the time, the problem previous titles had was that people couldn’t keep up because the game wasn’t accommodating to them. It simply let sonic run along and players were left wondering what was going on. Not anymore. Now when Sonic runs at the speed of sound, the camera goes into 2-D mode, either from a side angle (as we’ve seen in the trailers) or from behind Sonic. When looking at Sonic from behind, the controls switch from using the left analog stick for movement to using the right and left bumpers (on the 360 version) to perform “quick steps”. Hitting the right bumper will move Sonic one space to the right, and the left bumper to the left.

At the same time, when not running, Sonic Unleashed acts as a platformer. The demo I saw first-hand had Sonic jumping up a set of ledges on moving platforms with rotating spikes looking for blood, just like the good ol’ days. Sonic has his typical running gameplay, and pushing the X button is a homing attack that becomes very useful and necessary when getting through levels. B is for crouch and A is for jump (Xbox 360 version was shown).

As Weresonic, the rules change drastically. Controls change to the Y button being attack, X being an attack throw and B being a grab. Weresonic doesn’t run nearly as fast as Sonic does, even if he’s on all fours. However, Weresonic has many other qualities that Sonic doesn’t have that change the pace of gameplay significantly.

Weresonic has long arms that stretch, making him an excellent climber. Much of the game as Weresonic will have him climbing different areas, making his sections of the game more vertical as opposed to Sonic’s horizontal gameplay. Weresonic is also a fighter; as explained by the controls, he’s got three different attack buttons that can be performed on enemies at any given time, and he fights lots of enemies. All in all, Weresonic has over 30 different fighting combos’, many of which are unlocked after gaining experience points. He also won’t lose rings because Weresonic uses a health bar, though to compliment that he also has a shield bar. This bar is for blocking attacks. The more attacks Weresonic blocks, the lower his shield gets, but he won’t lose health while blocking.

There is no online multiplayer, so don’t expect to be running next to friends playing as Tails or Knuckles. Also, don’t expect to be playing as other characters; this one is purely Sonic or Weresonic, though mini-games will have players as other characters in the Sonic universe.

Sonic Unleashed is set for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PS2 November of this year in the US and Europe. No release date has been set for Japan or other regions. The Wii version will of course have motion controls, but will also allow players to use their Gamecube or Classic controllers. The PS2 version will be completely different from the others, though no details were given on what those differences are.

Thanks to Rox for the heads up!

Here’s a quick run down of what was discussed (Sonic Unleashed related) during the interview:

• Sonic the Werehog is not as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog.
• There are no space or pinball levels in Sonic Unleashed.
• The whole story is about the earth, so they’re sticking to the whole feel of our world.
• New moves… Sonic drift… blah, blah blah - you know, the second point here is the only thing we really didn’t already know, so I’m just going to cut things off now.

I have a feeling that we were supposed to learn more during the interview, but things got changed last minute, as IGN’s own schedule is wrong, and they definitely were not speaking with Sean Ratcliffe as they indicate on their live wire…

UPDATE: They were speaking with Tali Fischer , a PR manager from Sega of America (I think).  They just updated the name… so, guess they had a problem finding Sean.

Thanks to Chaoscontrol for the heads up!

The next-gen graphics look good. Sega even threw in a proprietary engine they have been working on since 2005 optimized for rendering textures at high speed. But the overall feel of the game looked a little flat despite all the speed. As a 2-D sidescroller you could at least appreciate the full size of the levels as you navigated them. There didn’t seem to be any real evolution in the game that have kept Mario fresh through the decades. In the scenes that I saw the landscape shoots past at a pace that makes the key to gameplay seem more like muscle memory than reflexes. Hats off to the Sega associate producer who put on the furry suit for a few shots. It was hot as hell in that booth.

And hats off to you Das Gamer.  I know what I’ll dress up as to scare the neighborhood children come Halloween!

Note: a bigger photo can be found over at Das Gamer.  Also, we’ll likely have a nice glance at the gameplay ourselves later tonight, so be sure to check back with us later!

But with all the high paced action, it was really easy to miss some things in the video.  I’ve brought it upon myself to watch the whole thing frame by frame to see if I could find anything we may have missed after the first 20 times of watching it.

Part 1: CG Introduction

Like mentioned earlier, the new trailer is Epic.  However, most of the epic-ness comes in the form of a cutscene that will be used in the very beginning of the game.  According to Patrick Riely (Sega of America Producer), it’s the “…coolest opening cinematic ever seen in a Sonic game.” While the full opening scene is obviously not in the trailer, I’m going to go ahead and agree with Mr. Riley.  The CG is beautiful, loaded with action, and certainly something Sega can be proud of.

It all starts with an overview of the world, which quickly pans to Dr Eggman’s powerful armada of spaceships.  Being subtle as he is, it’s not too difficult to figure out which ship carries Robotnik, who we get a good look at pretty soon into the new trailer.

One thing that was a bit more difficult to make out in the above cut were some of the panels surrounding Robotnik.  On the right side of the left panel in the image above, there is a rotating outline of Sonic.  From a different angle layer on, we can clearly make out what appears to be an outline of a Robotnik inspired ship design (or it could simply be a stylized version of Eggman’s face).

Also worth noting is Eggman’s awesome stache… more bristly than ever & majestically flowing as Eggman moves…  It’s awe inspiring really.

While Robotnik is laughing like a madman, we of course are quickly introduced to the classic Blue Hero… the one… the only…

Cue Sonic crash landing on the front of Eggman’s cruiser.

Nothing short of a grand entrance for Sonic the Hedgehog - who is well received by Dr Eggman with at least 50 cannons pointing straight at him.

Without breaking a sweat, we watch completely stunned as Sonic dashes through the fiery explosions of the pounding cannons, quickly dismantles one of Eggman’s robotic henchman, and…

It cuts to gameplay, but since there is so much I want to talk about, I’m only going to discuss the CG portions in Part 1 of my nitpicking.

Eggman decides to take care of Sonic himself with the aid of a massive both he’s constructed.  At first, the robot’s huge arms act as turrets that fire insanely large bullets (see the shell casings in the back of the picture above), an attempt on Eggman’s part that is useless against the speed of Sonic.  Shortly after this realization, Robotnik shoots fingers our of the turrets to form a mechanic hand, fires an array of missiles at the Hedgehog, and then sends his newly formed hand shooting after Sonic in a final attempt to stop our Hero.

Sonic easily evades the missiles, and looks like he’s feeling pretty good about himself for a second.  Then, he sees that giant hand shoot our from the dusty remnants of the missile explosions, and things go awry for the Hedghog.

Suddenly, Sonic isn’t feeling so confident, as he deforms his shape to try and get away from the huge hand.

Spoiler Alert: He fails.

Eggman retracts his arm with Sonic in his grasp, who is probably not too pleased with his sudden defeat.  On a rhetorical note, that arm must have a ton of cable attached to it… I mean, if Sonic’s moving at the 300MPH Sega claimes he’ll be reaching in Unleashed, and his run only lasts for… let’s say 10 seconds… that’s still basically a mile under his belt.

I digress.  Sonic is captured -

But is Sonic really captured so easily?  Of course not.. at least, not yet.

A sudden transformation into Super Sonic quickly renders Robotnik’s suit useless, shortly followed by Super Sonic crashing straight through the center of the bot, and flying into the distance as the cruiser detonates in a fiery explosion.

Has Sonic really escaped, or by transforming into his Super form, has he only fallen victim to Eggmans diabolical scheme?  It’s not clear what happens, but one way or another, Robotnik get’s his hands back onto Sonic, and ALL of the Chaos Emeralds.

Without wasting much time, Eggman traps Sonic in a contraption of his powered by the Chaos Emeralds, built to unleash massive destruction upon the world, among other things.

With both Sonic, and the Chaos emeralds captured (We can see a few floating around in the top left panel), Eggman pushes the “DO NOT PRESS THIS NO MATTER WHAT OR SOMETHING REALLY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN” button, followed by a powerful laser blasting out of his… laser-shooting-space-ship.

And what does the laser do?

Well, since you asked…

That’s right!  It shoots down at the planet, severing it into 7 different parts, and awakens a beast from the depths of the planet as revealed on Sega’s Sonic Unleashed website.

Other side effects of shooting ginormous purple lasers at the World include transforming our friendly blue Hedgehog into something a lot less friendly looking.

Sonic the Werehog.

As if Sonic’s day wasn’t bad enough already, Eggman decides to finish the job by opening a chute that sends Sonic the Werehog flying out into space.

At this point, we get a pretty good look at what’s become of the planet below as Sonic falls towards the World below.  One thing that is interesting to note are some strange purple, tentacle-like beams of light that are weaving in and out of the planet.

They almost seem familiar… like we may have seen them before…

Note: The above is actually from a series of screenshots leaked a while back, and was not actually shown in the trailer.  The whole idea of this thing being the beast awakened from the center of the world, and then engulfing the planet in strange tentacles of light is entirely speculation, and could be completely false.

And so ends the CG from the E3 trailer.  Like I said earlier, this can’t be the opening scene in it’s entirety, as there are definitely a few missing pieces - but it does give us a good idea of how the story will begin in Unleashed, as well as a feel of how Epic this story could end up being.

We’ll continue our analyzation of gameplay shown in the E3 trailer in Part 2.  There is just too much to cram everything into one article.

Anyways, here’s a quick roundup from Wednesday just in case you missed anything.

• Sonic the Werehog: Our First Impressions - Chances are, Sonic the Werehog will make (or break) Sonic Unleashed.  Check out our initial impressions of the hedgehogs counterpart in the upcoming title.
• Live Coverage and Gameplay of Sonic Unleashed at E3 - We dissect how the Sonic Unleashed plays LIVE during an interview demonstration with Gamespot and SoA’s Ken Balough.
• 25+ Minutes of Game Demonstration - Catch our coverage of the live game demonstration, but miss the actual video?  Gamespot has now made it available to the public in a high quality format.
• Shadow Confirmed to appear in Sonic Unleashed - Many will be ecstatic, while many others will riot in angst.  Sure to cause some fighting in the Sonic community, but regardless, Shadow will be appearing in Sonic Unleashed.
• Online Mode in Sonic Unleashed - No details on what it is, but the official word is that Sonic Unleashed will feature an online component.
• Sonic Unleashed E3 Trailer Alternate Downloads - Not able to grab the HD E3 Sonic Unleashed Trailer revealed a few days ago?  We’ve put together a short list of links that work, and will have you downloading in no time - with the help of the greater Sonic Community.

Today, we’ll be wrapping things up with E3, but coverage, insight, and additional news will likely continue throughout the rest of the week.

If you’ve been looking for some real gameplay of Sonic Unleashed, this may be the best thing you’ll see all of E3. Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Werehog… it’s all there folks, and in much better quality that we saw streaming live earlier. You can set up the quality of the video from the Menu in Gamespots viewer!

Thanks to iNAUDiBLE and Timmit for bringing this to our attention.  And thanks to everyone else who kept reminding me while I was out!

Seems like SEGA’s PR server took quite the beating yesterday, and it’s no fun spending 3 hours downloading a movie, only to end up with a half-finished file not capable of playing anything.  Luckily, lots of people have been working hard to bring us the Hi-Res footage from other places.  Here’s a quick list that you may find useful:

• Gametrailers.com
• Torrent on The Pirate Bay
• UploadHyper.com

Alternatively, Svend from TSS has compressed the video to a more managable size of 58.1 MB.  You can grab the compressed HD version over at The Sonic Stadium.

Our guesses:

• Online leaderboards for Timed portions of the game, or Minigame scores?
• Versus mode? Doubtful after it was confirmed to be one player.
• Downloadable content?

What do you think?

I’m a bit worried about this choice, but I’m sure Shadow fans everywhere are rejoicing.  So long as he doesn’t have guns in this installment… and doesn’t act all *gangsta* or any of that crap, I’d say there’s still a chance he’ll make a good addition to the game.