Destructoid: 6.5 for Unleashed 360

Sterling: Like a Chocolate Cake with “Nails”

One of the better reviews of the XBOX360 edition of Sonic Unleashed, if you can even call it “better,” is coming from a longtime Sonic fan currently in a pretty high place.  But that doesn’t mean the score in Jim Sterling’s review of the game for Destructoid fared much better.

You may remember Jim Sterling from a story we did in the middle of November.  He disclosed some intimate bits of how the Werehog played.  Back then, he seemed pretty OK with it.  While Sterling praises the brawling nature of the night, overall, he didn’t seem thrilled with the mechanic overall:

At its core, the nighttime stages make for some simple but pleasant brawling, with Sonic able to pull off some great moves — including the Sho-Hog-Ken uppercut. However, the Prince of Persia-style environmental acrobatics simply don’t work. The controls aren’t responsive enough for these platforming sections, and you’ll often find yourself falling to your death thanks to sluggish movement, poor camera angles, or both. If Sonic Team wanted to rip off PoP, it should have also ripped off the intuitive, fluid controls.

Overall, Sterling is in agreement with most–if the daytime prevailed, this would have been Sonic’s second coming:

All Sonic Team needed to do was to maintain the sheer fun and thrill that makes up roughly 40% of the experience and we’d be looking at a must-have title, and a score verging on a ten. As it stands, silly mistakes and ignorant design choices have trashed this game’s hopes of being anything more than a decent rental at best. By all means, play this game just to experience the high points, as they are worth experiencing. Just be careful about dropping full price for a game that has screwed itself over so badly. It’s like Sega baked a delicious chocolate cake, but mixed a bag of nails into it.

TSSZ News editor Ryan Bloom will put in his two cents on the XBOX360 edition of the game soon.  Also, be sure to check back with us later today, as it’s expected IGN’s US division will be out with their review of the 360 edition.  From the chatter we have heard, that review will not be a good one either.