First Sonic Unleashed review from British newspaper
Posted by Hudson. Filed under Europe, Hudson, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Sonic. Tagged with Sonic Unleashed.
In a strange, strange, extraordinarily strange reversal of coverage trends, the first Sonic Unleashed review to hit the ‘net comes to us from Tom Higgins at Telegraph.co.uk- the Web site for one of Britain’s national newspapers, The Daily Telegraph.
That’s right. A newspaper beat 1up, IGN, and all the other games journalism giants to the punch. What’s more, it’s a review of the Sonic Team-developed Xbox 360 version that’s not due for release until Nov. 28 in Europe.
Most impressive of all? It’s well organized, insightful and gives plenty of context to demonstrate that Mr. Higgins knows damn well what he’s talking about.
So go on, give it a read! As you might expect, it sounds like Sonic Team still can’t leave a good core concept well enough alone.
[via Telegraph.co.uk]
Comments on this article
There have been 21 responses to this article.
my heart is broken, lets hope he’s a nintedo fanboy
joei
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 7:35 pm.
A post about someone whining.
I wonder who this is.
Kogen
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 8:09 pm.
Any one looking at the tons of vids posted by Sega could have written such article. No information nothing. I doubt they played it.
Psycho_Echidna
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 8:10 pm.
Review for the Wii version on IGN is up - 7.2 (Decent).
I still don’t know though. Matt Cassamassina is notorious for being one of those “Sonic is all about speed-speed-speed. Interactive rollercoaster! Wheeeeee!” types who never “got” the originals.
I’ll still give it a look, but I’m still hoping in my heart of hearts that one day we’ll get a new Sonic game that truly looks, sounds and FEELS like a Sonic game.
Resident nEvil
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 8:20 pm.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/931/931596p2.html
George
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 9:21 pm.
I read both reviews, and I have decided to take both with several grains of salt. The newspaper article reads like it was cut, paste and slightly edited from all the major gaming website previews. Several sentences were almost word-for-word, and the rest sounds like he only watched the videos. To sum it up: I doubt this guy actually played the game, or if he did he was too lazy to come up with something original.
As for IGN’s review of thw Wii version: half good, half bad. The writer, as someone else pointed out before, is biased as all hell and was determined to dislike the Werehog levels from the start. That being said, I choose to ignore that part of the review until I have had a chance to play the night levels myself; and the daytime critique is good because if it made this guy happy, we’ll probably all love it.
I’d still bet $20 that if Sonic Team made an all-speed game, the reviewers would whine that the game got too monotonous and wished something would be there to vary the gameplay.
Mess
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 9:43 pm.
Wow, the writer did nothing but fury bash sonic. It’s not entirely in sega’s defense, but that appeared more targeting than anything else. Even if the game doesn’t turn out that good, it doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.
Taco Lord
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 9:51 pm.
I could not agree more with that news paper review… Sonic Team are their own worst enemy.
They how have the engine to make a fantastic Sonic game… they just don’t know how to.
Ryan
Posted November 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm.
People can say wait they want but in the end it will come to this. The daytime is revolutionary sonic the hedgehog/sonic adventure game play. The were hog is mediocre tomb rator game play. Also Sega did work hard on this, but not on the were hog but on perfecting the hedgehog engine/daytime game play which means that know we can get a lot of good sonic games just with the engine!! SO in the end I think we will all agree that this game helped unleash sonic.
nam1018
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 12:03 am.
The only issue I have with this review is the comment “a fresh approach from a new development team”. The game still says “Sonic Team” but it certainly wasn’t handed over to exactly the same people responsible for the last few 3D iterations of the game: we know that the reins were handed over to a different producer, and that Sega Studio USA apparently doesn’t even exist anymore.
Aside from that though the review falls in line with what I was expecting the gaming press to come out with.
Angelo
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 3:09 am.
Well, I can understand the point about “padding” the more recent Sonic games. I do believe they should be somewhat simple like the originals. But then again, they would be pissing all over it for being “too simple”. We just can’t win!
Screw the reviews though; I’m still buying it on launch for my 360.
Volvagia
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 4:32 am.
Im still annoyed that the reviewer spelt Dr. Robotnik wrong!
“Dr. Eggman (Rebotnik to the puritans)”
*Goes into fanboy rage - breaks a pencil, and then cries about splinters*
Graham
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 6:17 am.
My respect for relying on magazine and internet reviews is rapidly deteriorating.
Daryl
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 9:21 am.
I have long been jaded when it comes to reviews from gaming websites. As far back as the Dreamcast days, actually. I wish I could remember what they were, but I remember them trashing a game I really liked and exalting a game I thought was mediocre at its best. Since then, I haven’t taken most reviews that seriously… I only use them to get some info on the games and mostly ignore the opinion parts.
Mess
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 10:35 am.
I still picked up the wii version. I figured the motion controls were going to be properly utilized because dimps did well with Sonic and the Secret Rings.
I also figured if I need to, I can always still give the other one a try later.
Daryl
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm.
Daryl: Eh? Dimps didn’t have anything to do with SatSR. It was a completely different team who developed that one.
Pur
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm.
Anyways, after playing it I can conclude that it really was designed for the wii. Yes they ported it to the ps2, and yes you can use alternate controllers.
But it’s really not ideal. It feels like it is supposed to be played with motion control.
It may be worth getting the hi definition versions too, as they will feel like they are designed for the systems they are used on, but I’d hate to only have a ps2. You’d get a game that was designed for motion controls, without the actual motion controls.
Daryl
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 6:24 pm.
I read the ‘first review’ of Sonic Unleashed in Nintendo Power, and it got an 8/10. I’m rather satisfied, but considering some of the crap Nintendo has given a good score to, I’m still a little cautious.
Well, we’ll just see how I feel when the 360 version comes out. THEN we’ll be talking about a game.
Gamerschoice
Posted November 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pm.
What I gathered from that review was:
He thinks it’s a good game at the core, but felt it was too difficult at times and didn’t like the extra padding they added for forced replayability, and those were killers for him.
Those aren’t killers for me. (/’o')/
- Different Ryan from earlier post
Ryan
Posted November 20th, 2008 at 2:04 am.
ill wait until u guys play it and review it!!
who else that a sega fanboy knows what a sonic game have to be.
ill wait for ur review
alexer
Posted November 20th, 2008 at 9:43 am.
I played the PS2 version today, and it’s okay so far. I just wish they hadn’t made it so cartoony. I’m not talking about the graphics, I’m talking about the actions and dialogue. I actually felt uncomfortable when the Werehog fell to the planet and started talking to the flying douche.
Gamerschoice
Posted November 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am.