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Sonic Unleashed Vs. Sonic Unwiished; Which version do you prefer?


Willsy

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I thought I'd create this thread as I'm quite curious for the community's opinions on these two different version of the same game. There's the HD version on Xbox 360 and PS3, and the SD version (commonly referred to as Unwiished) on Nintendo Wii and Playstation 2.

The two versions both have the same ideas of gameplay, but are different in execution. The HD version has better visuals, slightly narrower level paths, and uses better visuals. It also ran on SEGA's (at the time) new Hedgehog Engine. 'Unwiished' was created as the Wii couldn't handle the Hedgehog Engine and the gameplay that came with it in the HD version. SEGA outsourced the Wii version (a PS2 port was also created) to a different development team (I beleive it was Dimps?). This version was of course toned down technically, but was it any more or less fun than it's big HD brother?

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In my opinion, it's really hard to say. I really think that the HD version has great gameplay on the daytime levels, but the Werehog levels were very long, monotonous, and got tedious very quickly, not to mention breaking the flow of the game. There were also control issues all around, with the controls feeling stiff and a notable presence of input lag, at least on the 360 version. This version, unlike the SD version, had the Empire City and Mazuri stages, which were very strangely omitted from the SD version. The graphics in this version are breathtakingly gorgeous, with a Pixar-like art style and high fidelity for the time (though there were framerate problems).

Now, the SD version, or Unwiished. Daytime stages were great in this too, boost was handled slightly differently (you get one burst of speed at a button press rather than how the HD version handled it), but there were control issues here too. However, they were the polar opposite of the HD version's control issues funnily enough. The Werehog stages were actually fun in this version, and a lot more interesting. Graphics are okay for a Wii game, but they just can't compare to Secret Rings, Black Knight, or Colours.

Overall, I'm really stuck on what version I prefer, and I think I might like them both equally.

What version do you prefer, and why?

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I actually played the Unwiished version first, but after playing 360 Unleashed a year or two after err..yah, the 360 version wins hands down. Better graphics, proper hub worlds, nicer looking cutscenes and a LOT less Werehog (always a bonus!). However, it did have those annoying medals hiding in each stage and no cool temple stages with nice music. And really, really long Eggmanland! *shudder*

BUT it is still a lot better than Unwiished.

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I played the PS2 version, and I thought "meh".

 

Then ClementJ642 started playing Unleashed HD, and now I think "fuck, I got the shit end of the stick".

 

Unleashed HD looks more enjoyable to me honestly: there's a better Day/Night stage ratio, extra levels, gorgeous graphics and the Werehog gameplay doesn't look half bad. Only drawback I can find is the medal collecting, but I tend to collect everything in a level as I go along anyway, so yeah :U

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I'll have to say that even though I say that Unwiished is the inferior of the two, I enjoyed both of them. SD was the first version I got, and while it could be blandly designed, the hubs boring, and the motion controls iffy, I can't say I really disliked it by any means. The HD version is better is many aspects, but I do think many of the stages were a little bit too long, and certain design choices like mandatory medal hunting and EVIL FLYING SIMON SAYS could have been dealt with better.

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The medals actually caused me to stop playing Unleashed for a few months, meaning that I never completed it in one run. I can't believe they thought that was a good idea. I think earning them might have been a better way to go, or just have them only for unlockables.

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There's nothing really to compare? UnWiished is literally barren corridors in slow speed with shit level design, the game. HD Unleashed shits all over it, it's a much grandiose experience, from fully modelled NPC's to explorable hub worlds brimming with detail.

 

I'm honestly baffled when people say the Werehog stages are better in the downgrade compared to the HD ones, seriously you must be delusional to choose UnWiished over HD if you've got access to either options. 

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I had the PS2 version since it came out a few weeks before the PS3 version. It is garbage. The game looks terrible, controls terrible... it is terrible. 

 

Then I got the PS3 version.

 

It is superior in every way.

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I thought the 360 version was better, but the Wii version was fun, too.

 

Part of the preference is that the daytime and nighttime stages were more or less balanced in the 360 release, while the developers of the Wii version must have fallen in love with the nighttime stages, seeing as how there are more of them than daytime stages.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCvuGg-3w5g

 

This sums it up, really. And that's not getting into the hubs. The only thing I think Unleashed HD is missing out on is the Gaia Gates, partly because they're a neat idea and also dat music. There's also the fact that, in the SD version, you can actually destroy the Interceptor which is kind of satisfying, though I think it should have only been possible in the last encounter in Eggmanland.

 

Apparently you can destroy the Interceptor in one of the DLC levels in the HD version, though, so there's that?

 

Bosses aren't too different, but I think the Egg Dragoon fight looks cooler in the HD version, and while UnWiished probably has the better Perfect Dark Gaia fight, it still isn't all that interesting, and doesn't really have the wow factor the same fight has in it's HD counterpart. Then again, no QTEs of the "MASH X 60 TIMES" fashion. It's all about the pros and cons, I guess.

 

UnWiished is literally barren corridors in slow speed with shit level design, the game.

Switch "slow" with "fast" and you have what everyone who hates the boost games generalizes them as, anyway. tongue.png

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The two versions both have the same ideas of gameplay, but are different in execution. The HD version has better visuals, slightly narrower level paths, and uses better visuals. It also ran on SEGA's (at the time) new Hedgehog Engine. 'Unwiished' was created as the Wii couldn't handle the Hedgehog Engine and the gameplay that came with it in the HD version. SEGA outsourced the Wii version (a PS2 port was also created) to a different development team (I beleive it was Dimps?). This version was of course toned down technically, but was it any more or less fun than it's big HD brother?

Something that was quickly proven wrong with Colors. As for graphics, it's not hard to tell that the SD version of Unleashed is inferior both to its HD brother and even games on the console it was made for. The visuals are washed out and really rough looking, considering just about all the other games that effectively used the Wii's graphics well (the Sonic storybooks, the Mario Galaxies, Skyward Sword, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (though that one maybe less so), Xenoblade, etc.).

That said, I've only played the Wii version, so I don't think I can have much of an opinion on the matter. What I observed of the HD version, it does win, hands down. The Daytime gameplay blows the SD version out of the water and it wasn't bogged down by annoying tutorials. I can't comment on the Nighttime/Werehog stages in HD, since they looked alright to me and not too different from the Wii version in terms of gameplay (design and layouts are another story), and I honestly think those stages were more fun than the Wii's Daytime stages, which were barren and dull (but with some occasionally cool moments, but nothing terribly exciting) and had a woeful lack of platforming the HD version enjoyed. I am impressed they translated the boss battles over well and I think the Wii version's final boss fight is less busy as the HD version's; while it's watered down, I think that overall experience was a little more interesting than what I saw in the HD version, but that's me.

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HD version all the way. Unwiished is nothing more than a pale imitation and is clearly not the experience that Sonic Team truly intended. To this day I've wondered why it got consistently higher scores than the HD version when;

 

- The ratio of Werehog stages to Hedgehog stages is enormous and they're much, much longer than day stages/missions.
- It's missing two entire countries for no discernible reason (Mazuri and Empire City)
- It's visuals aren't anywhere near as breathtaking,
- It's "hubs" (Should I even call them that?) are half-assed static screens
- The Werehog's roster of moves have been tremendously cut-down and he is far more repetitive to play as
- The enemies in the Night stages are much more annoying than their HD equivalents. Remember those amazingly irritating Cure/Fright/Power Masters that will flee from you at any opportunity when they don't have this behaviour in the HD version?
- There's nowhere near as much elaboration on the world and it's inhabitants like in the HD version, making Unwiished a much less lovingly-made elaborative experience.

And yet it got much higher scores in the press. The eternal question is why is this so when Unwiished is so vastly inferior in so many areas?

 

Overall, I consider Unwiished a game that is very half-assed. I mean static map screens are hardly permissable in handheld games these days let alone ‘big console’ games. And I saw no good reason as to why Mazuri and Empire City got the shaft. The game hasn’t got anywhere near as much as an authentic and in-depth feel to it’s world that the HD version has, detracting from the game’s overall premise.

 

Everything about it feels so cut-down from it’s HD counterpart and the substitutes in it are questionable. The Werehog has only a fraction of the moves he can access in the HD version and they all come about from repetitive pressing of the L and R buttons (I use the GC controller when playing) and some of his enemies even exhibit extremely irritating behavior that they lack in HD such as the Wizard enemies constantly flying away from you. I’ve always wondered why his gameplay is prized above the HD version when it’s inferior in every way. Day stages are only decent and have very little of the feeling the HD versions encapsulate and I strongly dislike how Sonic’s boost bar is segmented because it hampers consistent speediness.

 

I always personally found it rather unfair how you have to garner Sun and Moon medals to unlock tasty extras and even then, Wii/PS2 owners only get one of those awesome Sonic & Chip vids that they have to go above and beyond in earning when all that was needed to be done to get these videos in the HD version was feeding Chip a certain food item.

 

That said, the Gaia Gate puzzles were truly clever and the game still had charming little aspects I wish were in the HD version (I lol at Sonic going flat upon running into a wall). It’s iteration of Eggmanland is less painful too.

 

Overall, I always did consider Unwiished a vastly inferior game to it's HD 'counterpart' and I feel that it’s clear that it’s not the “Unleashed experience” that Sonic Team intended as it has very little of the aspects that make HD unleashed particularly awesome.

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Let's not forget that Unwiished missed out on an entire stage as well, which was Empire City! I think even Mazuri was left out except for Egg Beetle and a hub world! Now that I think about it, the HD version really was the better and more complete version of the game.

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I've never touched the Wii/PS2 version so I have no reference for comparison. But the point is I don't feel like I need to touch it. Even from the outside, the Wii/PS2 version looks like an extremely rough shell of what is currently my favorite Sonic game- stripped of features that are important to the sum as a whole- thus I see no reason to waste my time on it just to discovery discrepancies or whatever the little nuggets of inspiration are. I'm perfectly content with my purchase, so much so that I rarely acknowledge that this version even exists.

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Switch "slow" with "fast" and you have what everyone who hates the boost games generalizes them as, anyway. tongue.png

Haha, yeah...

But even with that, there's really no competition. Pretty much every problem I have with Unleashed HD, the Wii version either does the same but worse, or manages to be bad in some other way. The things that the Wii version does better are few in number and small in effect.

I wouldn't say that I like either version, but if I had to choose one to play, it'd be the HD version, without hesitation.

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Unleashed all the way. It's longer, has more replayability, more variety in it's level design, and well obviously better graphics. Also you only have to do 1 act of a night time stage instead of oh try 3-5 in eggmanland.

 

About the one thing superior in unwiished was the perfect dark gaia fight, even if it had some riduculously hards dodges to pull off sometimes. Oh I forgot unwiished has a life cap, that can only be increased to 13 and you don't continually collect lives, you have to search through gaia gates, some were fun, some were hard, and some were just ridiculous. Oh wait it doesn't stop there, you had to complete a mission(s) before you were done with a continent, and some like dodging ice blocks were stupid. The werehog controls were so difficult to pull off. Left hand is your left hand, right is your right hand, swing both to well swing both; I mean it makes sense considering all of the buttons had assigned controls already, but in execution dry.png. Most of these problems were unnoticable to me at first since I didn't know there was a difference between wii games and xbox 360 games, also it was only a few days after I got my wii, so I was pretty excited.

 

Now to unleashed, the problems I had with this title can be more equated to sonic's momentum. He is far too fast to the point of being uncontrollable, oh and having to collect sun medals and moon medals, yah backtracking... sleep.png. The bosses though and the graphics even to this day blew me away, everything about unleashed was better than unwiished pretty much, besides a mass amount of qte's, but a few did seem to add some flair except mash the x button 60 times, mash y 80 times, etc. Oh then there was empire city, the level not present in unwiished, now mind you I got this version 2 years ago, but I'd seen enough footage online to know alot of the game. I still found the levels to have infuriatingly difficult level design, more due to the wider drift turn and uncontrollable speed.

 

Then we come to the unleashed project mod for sonic generations pc, the levels are pretty much the exact same with a few differences, but actually playing through the levels again I found those infuriatingly hard levels were actually absolute cakewalks, and that jungle joyride lag I never noticed, yah I see it. This is how unleashed (and in the future unwiished) should be played. no qte's no moon medals. Oh and did I mention the DLC levels are getting ported too.

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In addition to the above (I'm glad the majority have been in my camp with how lame WiiS2 Werehog is - so slow and not at all acrobatic), even the 3D areas of WiiS2 Unleashed look so lifeless.

 

Every stage looks like a freaking wasteland, there's no movement to them, just huge stretches of nothing.  The environments are so unbelievably massive and empty that the illusion of crashing through a living breathing world is completely lost (not to mention the hubs).  I'll never understand why people praised the graphics of this game, it's leagues behind Secret Rings and Colours.

 

Anyway, I like the WiiS2 version and it usually just about satisfies when I'm craving more after finishing the PS360 version, but yeah it's so lacking.

 

Something that was quickly proven wrong with Colors.

 

Eh, Colours was still pretty scaled down in terms of excitement compared to Unleashed HD.  Hell half the reason for fluffing it out with colour powers and reusing geometry across multiple acts is probably because the system couldn't handle levels as long as Unleashed while being as complex as Unleashed HD in particular.  See also: 2D 2D 2D everywhereeee.

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Unleashed Wii is such a horrendous title I don't know what there is for people to possibly defend. Sonic controls like a tank on ice in both daytime and night-time stages, and inputs are hugely unresponsive. Couple that with the insanely floaty jumping movements and you've got a recipe for disaster right there. And what of the level design? Empty, barren and boring. Day or night, the same applies.

Unleashed HD is a thoroughly enjoyably, albeit far-from-perfect, game. Unleashed Wii is genuinely a piece of shit. It's of a different calibre to ShTH and '06, but shit is shit.

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The only good version of Unleashed is the mod version for Sonic Generations PC, because Generations has better controls (drifting is better, the homing attack is on the A button like it should be, and Sonic's control is less slippery overall) the PC version can run at 60FPS, and you don't have to deal with the horrible bullshit that is the man-pig.

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The only good version of Unleashed is the mod version for Sonic Generations PC, 

 

Yeah no. The version that takes like no time to beat? The version with no plot? The version without the NPCs and sidequests? I'd rather have all the good content as well as the middling content like the Werehog, rather than a barebones, if polished, experience with little more than the day stages.

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Something that was quickly proven wrong with Colors. As for graphics, it's not hard to tell that the SD version of Unleashed is inferior both to its HD brother and even games on the console it was made for. The visuals are washed out and really rough looking, considering just about all the other games that effectively used the Wii's graphics well (the Sonic storybooks, the Mario Galaxies, Skyward Sword, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (though that one maybe less so), Xenoblade, etc.).

Colours used neither the Hedgehog engine nor the Unleashed HD style of level design.

No really, that last point is so very, very true. Why do people think Colours level design is like Unleashed HD? It's not at all!

Welcome_to_the_Aquarium_Park.jpg

The 3D areas are wide, barren stretches of nothingness, and the 2D areas mundane, blocky platforming.

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After spending a bit more time with Unwiished, I think I'll say that I prefer the HD version, but I still really like the Wii version. I prefer HD for everything but the Werehog and the crappy medals system, but I prefer Unwiished for Werehog. But it's still good in my opinion.

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The 3D areas are wide, barren stretches of nothingness, and the 2D areas mundane, blocky platforming.

Yes, it's a boost game.

I mean, yeah, Colors is generally emptier and blockier, and has a hell of a lot more 2D, but it's still cast from the same mold.

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I still, to this day cannot fathom why the Wii version go better reviews.

 

Most likely because the Wii is so full of shovelware that Unwiished stood out in comparison, versus the HD title compared to other 360 and PS3 games. It was most likely a matter of two completely different consoles having two completely different sets of standards, rather than every reviewer saying that the Wii version was in fact better than the 360/PS3 version.

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