Autumn, 2006. Play samples Sonic The Hedgehog on the PS3, vomits into a dish, moves on with life. Seriously, if we were to list every one of the Sonic games that have disappointed us over the past ten years, we would probably cry giant man-tears into our Mega Drive controllers. Unlike every other franchise on the PlayStation 3, we want to see Sonic succeed, no matter how many times the franchise is soiled by stupidity. We’ve seen him seduce women (well, kind of), race his way through two monotonous PSP titles (they were a waste) and we’ve had a black version of him shoot it up with dual pistols (racial irony intended). His CV makes for pretty depressing reading, and it seemed like the franchise had no hope in sight. Meanwhile, his close rival Mario had just about managed to perfect the platform genre on the Wii – it seemed like Sonic was never going to get back on track.

It’s now the summer of 2008, though, and we’ve invested a little more faith in the franchise than usual. We’ve seen Sonic Unleashed in-game, and, with a partial return to the 2D perspective that anyone older than 20 will probably appreciate, it looks impressive enough to put the long-running Sega icon back on the videogaming map. Then again, we can’t help feeling like we’ve written something very similar to that in the past, perhaps about the first Sonic game to be released on the PlayStation 3. Bearing that in mind, we took everything we saw of Sonic Unleashed with a large handful of salt.

By seamlessly blending 2D platforming sections with 3D, Sonic Team is hoping to restore the franchise’s sullied reputation. We saw four of the game’s stages, and each one was inspired by a different part of the world, including New York, China and Greece. We say ‘inspired’, because Sonic Team isn’t exactly gunning for realism, here; we’re fairly certain we saw a Chrysleresque skyscraper lingering in the background, but it didn’t really matter. These ‘real’ locations are just there to add flavour to the relentless, motionblurring speed of the platforming. The China level, for example, featured a huge, spiraling red dragon, while a giant clock tower occupied another level. Together, these clever design quirks make for distinguished, fine-looking levels, and along with a number of pipegrinding asides, ensure that playing as Sonic is never mundane or predictable.

Sonic is faster than ever. Yes, we know he was pretty speedy in the 2006 game, and we’re aware that it was more of a burden then than a help, but it seems to elevate the experience in Sonic Unleashed. As the blue hedgehog goes through each level, sporadically switching from 2D to 3D, the speed increases to a maniacal level. The game should eventually run in 30 frames per second, and it still looks damned skippy in its pre-Alpha state, but we’re yet to see it in full, unrestrained motion. Some sections, though, looked near complete, and it was hard not to sit there, jawdropped, as Sonic sped his way through the presentation.

… continued