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Sonic Unleashed Day Stages...


Chaosmaster8753

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Love the style, the fluidity of movement, the sheer joy of playing through them. In the HD version. Wii version can suck it.

What do I hate? The Wii version ruined every single one. Also where you have to figure out that you don't boost all the damn time and it's kinda hard to learn.

(cue so much down rep. all of the down rep.)

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Love the style, the fluidity of movement, the sheer joy of playing through them. In the HD version. Wii version can suck it.

What do I hate? The Wii version ruined every single one. Also where you have to figure out that you don't boost all the damn time and it's kinda hard to learn.

(cue so much down rep. all of the down rep.)

you can boost a lot of times on Wii, in fact their are rings every where that you can boost any time ...

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you can boost a lot of times on Wii, in fact their are rings every where that you can boost any time ...

He was probably referring to continuous boosting, as in literally from the level's start to it's end. I have the game for 360, and that's actually what happens. Though I'm not complaining, the sense of speed was incredible.

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The Good:

Who cares what's scripted and what isn't, they're damn fun to play.

Perfect lengths for Sonic stages, between 2-6 minutes (having said that I never disliked Eggmanland's length because it felt epic to me).

On 360: So very pretty, great mixture of platforming and thrills.

On Wii: The only 3D Sonic game to really have the full fledged multiple routes of the classic games.

HOWEVER

On 360: I do kinda dislike how, while they brought back the "Act 1, Act 2" stuff, only Act 1 (Apotos excluded obviously) is only ever a full stage. I'd have rather the "Act 1's" just been called Day Stages then had the rest of the acts be called "Bonus Acts" and numbered seperately.

On Wii: As said, lots of platforming is... not to be found here. But I still say the Unleashed Wii engine would be perfectly fitting for a Sonic R sequel considering it feels so much like a racing game. 8D

In both though:

I love that getting good at the level is it's own reward. Being able to get through an entire stage, boosting the whole way, without hitting anything, is intensely satisfying and cool to watch. But I do wish they had communicated this better to the player, since apparently most people disliked the game coz they were like "DERP DERP IT TOLD ME TO PUSH X TO BOOST SO I SHOULD JUST DO IT ALL THE TIME WHUT WHY DID I DIE THIS GAME SUCKS DUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRR" and other overblown caps lock stereotypical examples here.

Frankly the 360 version is certainly my favourite iteration of 3D Sonic, and the pure fun-ness just proves to me, personally, that 3D Sonic doesn't have to be like the 2D games in 3D to be fun. 3D Sonic just has to be fun to be fun.

Edited by JezMM
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I love the speed, I love the 2.5D platforming sections, and I love the level design, and I love that it generally controls well. Unfortunately, the 360/PS3 build does have a noticeable lack of polish. Like that one speed booster in Shamar that shoots you off a cliff if you hit while going super-fast, or those optional levels like Mazuri Act 3 that make it apparent that the drifting controls could be a little tighter. Other times levels can be pure trial and error, and feel more like padding then anything else.

As for the Wii/PS2 version, I'd say it has a bit more polish but the level design is a lot more basic and less exciting, not to mention they're shorter and there are only a handful of them.

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Wii version generally fails, with a couple of exceptions (Cool Edge day certainly looks prettier on the Wii, if not graphically, with all the nice, indoorsy-cave sections). As others have said, no real platforming, broken boost and really dodgy handling in places. Too much drifting and too race-tracky.

My single biggest gripe with the HD version day stages is actually the extra acts, side missions and hotdog missions. I've personally found a lot of the extra acts (and DLC acts, too), to be insanely unforgiving and sadistically harsh to the point where they're just infuriating and not fun. Sorry, but when a stage throws extra lives at you every five seconds because it knows it's horrifically unfair, that's just ridiculous. Granted, I'm not a brilliant gamer by any means, but I'm not a bad one, either- I've managed to 100% every 3D Sonic game so far (save for Shadow the Hedgehog- didn't get all the keys, and Unleashed HD/ 06 which I only just got recently), including all A/S-Ranks. Yet I find most of these extra stages absolutely hellish to the point where they're more infuriating than enjoyable.

By far the worst offenders are the mini-stages that involve silly amounts of running on water, dodgy air-boosting and mental drifty lap-based or enemy-killing ones with insanely strict time limits and bottomless pit death everywhere. The main day stages are fine for the most part, it's just those damned extra day acts that are absolutely ridiculous.

Oh, and the hotdog missions (my rant at these applies to night stages as well). You already have to finish the level under a certain condition (time, enemies, rings)- the fact they demand that you do that all without dying once throughout the entire stage is just cruel and again, ridiculous. They even have checkpoints in the hotdog missions, for crying out loud, almost as if to taunt you. D: I also reckon you should be able to aim for multiple conditions at once- i.e., if you finish a level in a certain time limit, defeat a certain number enemies and have a certain number of rings all in a single run, you should clear all three hotdog missions in one go, rather than having to replay the whole (often long, especially for the Werehog) stage again just to do a different condition. Having to play the stage three times over without dying (nine, if you count every level of mission) is a really poor attempt at replay value. How they imagined anyone could find that enjoyable is beyond me.

Anyway, I've had a bit of a rant, so I'll summarise- Wii version is generally bleh, HD version is generally okay but fails epically on most of the extra stages due to insane, unfair difficulty.

Edited by Mahzes
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My single biggest gripe with the HD version day stages is actually the extra acts, side missions and hotdog missions. I've personally found a lot of the extra acts (and DLC acts, too), to be insanely unforgiving and sadistically harsh to the point where they're just infuriating and not fun.

Hell yes.

Chun-Nan Act 5 DLC (I think) was designed by sadists. It's one of those 'complete laps' act, each lap more excrutiatingly hard than the last. Unless you've got both eidetic memory and the best Unleashed-playing skills in the world, you are not going to clear that act with anything above E rank.

Holoska Act 2 is just cheap with the falling icicles and colums into/on the water, spikes on water, ice jets on the edge of that ice shelf and rapid QTE jump pads.

And the DLC hard versions of the Act 1's are insane in their difficulty. Only exception is Jungle Joyride. For all Jungle Joyride's hardness, it's personally a pleasure to play through. The part near the end where Sonic gets to run on the waterfall near the end is short but freaking awesome.

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People really hate Chun-Nan Act 5 that much? It was hard, but getting an S rank was nothing compared to the brutal Holoska Act 3, which I still sometimes have trouble just finishing during playthroughs of the game.

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Pros:

They were fun the first time.

They were very, very pretty on the PS360.

Cons:

They weren't fun after the first time.

The difficulty curve was all over the place. It went Easy, Easy, Easy, Easy, Fucking Impossible.

As the game got towards the end, the game didn't get any harder. It just got more and more obnoxious.

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Xbox360:

I love the speed, the 2D to 3D changes, the graphics (absolutely gorgeous) and that special adrenaline rush you get you get from playing each stage.

I'm not too crazy about the Wii version though.

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I would have to say that I absolutely loved the sense of speed that the levels had in the PS3/360 versions of the game. I also loved that it flowed nicely from 3D to 2.5D without any major hiccups. I also enjoyed how most of the stages had a great mix of speed sections and platforming.

Now what I hated was that some of the gimmicks (like running on water in some levels) never seemed to work too well for me. Also the times when the transition between 2.5 D and 3D wasn't smooth, it really messed up my perspective, and it caused me to take damage or die unexpectedly.

Other than that I really enjoyed the day stages in Unleashed.

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The day stages are lovely. I pretty much adore them! If I have to complain I think I'd have to complain about the DLC levels.

They're fucking hard. GEEZ! I managed to beat most of the day DLC levels, and some of them I never want to do again. So of them are pretty good though despite insane difficulty, the packages for Apotos (I loved how they expanded on Act of Windmill Isle Day), Spagonia, Empire City, and Adabat are pretty good!

However, Holoska, Mazuri (I've always hated this place's levels anyway), Shammar (except that awesome chao level) and Chun-nan (minus like... two levels) are evil. Especially Holoska, unless you're a master of air boosting and drifting you're losing a lot of lives.

Imagine if they made a pack for Eggmanland. I shudder at the thought! :(

Also, while I like the missions, some of them are just brutal. Find Yasmine? Hell no, that bitch can rot for all I care. :angry:

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I love that getting good at the level is it's own reward. Being able to get through an entire stage, boosting the whole way, without hitting anything, is intensely satisfying and cool to watch. But I do wish they had communicated this better to the player, since apparently most people disliked the game coz they were like "DERP DERP IT TOLD ME TO PUSH X TO BOOST SO I SHOULD JUST DO IT ALL THE TIME WHUT WHY DID I DIE THIS GAME SUCKS DUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRR" and other overblown caps lock stereotypical examples here.

This game obfuscates most of its hazards. It often isn't even apparent that they are hazards.

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This game obfuscates most of its hazards. It often isn't even apparent that they are hazards.

I agree with Phos. The stages took alot of getting used to. It took me a few days to master it and I still haven't A-ranked all of the stages. I think I didn't A-rank the NYC level(Fuck that stage) and Eggmanland.

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I agree with Phos. The stages took alot of getting used to. It took me a few days to master it and I still haven't A-ranked all of the stages. I think I didn't A-rank the NYC level(Fuck that stage) and Eggmanland.

I got stuck on one of the wall running segments in that level because I couldn't figure out what lane I had to be in to avoid being exploded. I would go around one of those turns, and then I was suddenly in the wrong lane for the next part.

During the Sega Addicts interview with the producer of Sonic Colors, the producer guy basically said that Unleashed's difficulty wasn't fair and the team made it that way because Sonic was practically unkillable otherwise.

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Am I the only person who doesn't think Eggmanland was THAT BAD? Sure it was difficult, but what really does it is the length. I've gone through the level a few times and I've even come to find it enjoyable! It took me a whopping 70 minutes at first and now I can do it in 40. Cannon's Core is almost 10 years old, and that level still strikes more fear into me than Eggmanland EVER could.

Hell, If it weren't for the fact I always die at some point, I'd have an S rank because I have easily A ranked it.

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every body mentions platforming in XBOX360/PS3 Versions but I see :

adabat and eggman land has lots of platforming

holaska and chunan has a tiny bit of platforming

but that is it. all running and QTES and homing attacks and kiling enemies and racing through them (which looks fun), I haven't played this game i just saw the videos.

so correct me if i am wrong...

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every body mentions platforming in XBOX360/PS3 Versions but I see :

adabat and eggman land has lots of platforming

holaska and chunan has a tiny bit of platforming

The only one that is just boost and forget is Apotos Act 2. That is literally the only stage where you can actually get away with holding down X for 99% of the stage.

Holaska is one of the better platforming levels, and so is Spagonia. However, they both can still be traversed while boosting, but the platforming is there.

Also Chunnan is the second heaviest platforming level. It gets pretty good at times.

but that is it. all running and QTES and homing attacks and kiling enemies and racing through them (which looks fun), I haven't played this game i just saw the videos.

QTEs don't get really bad until Eggmanland. Past that they're usually once per stage and aren't always instant death.

Also the rest is just Sonic games in general. That's just how they've always been. Running and smashing shit.

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I thought they were fun, but shallow (in both versions of the game). Far too fast. Speed is an important part of what makes Sonic great, but it isn't the only part and the day stages seemed to ignore that. It barely feels like you're playing the game at some points.

Sonic games need precise platforming, puzzles, hidden paths, collectibles, and branching level designs for exploration.

For me, Colors is what the Unleashed day stages should have been.

The Werehog levels, frankly, were more like classic Sonic aside from the button mashing combat. There was platforming, there were puzzles, there was (light) exploration, and a lot of people seem to forget that the Werehog can get going at a pretty good rate himself. Critics act as if the Werehog has cement shoes or something, when in reality he is only slow in comparison to the day Sonic from Unleashed. Werehog at top speed isn't much slower than Sonic from Adventure 1 and 2.

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Like - They look fantastic. I love that there are actually NPCs inside the action stages. It gives Sonic's world a little more life. If only they could do that without need of a hub. I'd like to see more of this in future games. Maybe some of Sonic's animal buddies just sitting around. We really have yet to see them at all outside of the koalas and polar bears in Sonic Rush Adventure, or the little dudes that come out of exploding badniks.

Hate - Way way way way too fast. I have been playing Sonic for a long time. I never had any issues controlling the characters until this game ( and the speed zones in Sonic 2006 ) ....even if you never upgrade your speed its stil really hard to controle him, it's hard to see incoming obstacles, and there is a very poor focus on platforming. Im no fan of the running on water sequences, or button combos to keep from falling off the wall panels either. Spamming of bottomless pits. I have other reasons too, but I think I have to cut it short here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What I love:

They look awesome, the hedgehog engine does some amazing things.

The sense of speed is unmatched while it still focuses on challenging platforming too - the way you'll go from an insanely fast section, side-stepping away from enemy attacks, smashing ground robots into aerial ones etc. to a side-on precision platforming challenge where every jump counts, is perfect and often what people say the classics were always about, being rewarded for platforming with bursts of speed. If you ask me, it got this down perfectly and this is a formula they should stick to.

There's a feeling of polish and care in them, which is pretty much a first since the Dreamcast games because to me Sonic Heroes onwards always felt like corners were being cut in the level design and development.

Boosting. It's a great risk/reward thing, and the fact that you collect rings to fill up the boost meter instead of perform stunts and things give the rings much more use and significance and also ensure you don't just fill the meter up then boost the hell out of the whole game like Rush. If you can manage to boost consistently all through a certain section, having memorised the hazards and everything, it looks amazing and there's a real sense of achievement because it's not something you can do easily, it requires skill.

What I dislike:

Drifting. I love the idea of it but it doesn't seem to work quite right in parts - some levels will offer you up a corner which you can drift around but the drift won't cut a tight enough curve, or will go too tight, there's no real precise control of the drift and so sometimes that route is best avoided. There's one act in Mazuri which is like a racetrack up high in the trees which you're supposed to drift around with a time limit, luckily you can just about make it around in time without drifting as doing so usually sends you flying off the course.

Real world locations. I'm fine with the whole Sonic Adventure thing of how environments are a little more realistic, but in this game every pre-eggman level was pretty much a city based on a real world location, meaning none of the variety you normally get from a platform game, where you'll go from nature to technology etc. I mean sure there's a jungle and an ice cap and things but I'd have gone for caves, lava, factories, casinos, twisting highways... I think these real world locations limited the game a little and also made the floating grind rails, springs and booster pads we're used to seem so unusually out of place, kinda "good job these were here!", haha.

Surprise hazards. The speed sections are amazing, and the precision platforming parts are really cool too, but I think there were occasions where there'd be a hazard in a speed section you couldn't see coming etc. This wasn't as common as some people would have you think but it definitely occurred.

Slow/precise stuff. Sonic's controls are designed to be used at high speed, this is perfect for the high speed sections but there are also slower and more precise sections like jumping on certain switches and some hub area puzzles and the controls are very twitchy since they weren't designed for this. I still don't think we need these hub worlds and puzzles, just good platforming and good speed.

What I love in the Wii version:

The multiple routes are really good this time, the levels really give you a tonne of options of which way to go and what you can find each time, as well as the traditional Sonic trial and error of finding which route is the quickest.

There's a real sense of flow in the levels, while it switches between sidescrolling platforming and 'view from behind' running, the pace doesn't seem to change in this one, it's always going fast and you rarely, if ever slow down, everything's strung together with homing attacks etc. creating a Sonic Adventure 2-style consistent pace.

They claimed Sonic Unleashed's daytime levels to be a totally new rethinking of how 3D Sonic should work due to the switch between sidescrolling and 3D, but playing the HD version of SU next to Sonic Adventure they're surprisingly similar, with the only major difference being a style of camera shifting. The Wii version, however, does what they said and rethinks the way Sonic works in 3D. It's totally different. 3D sections are more like a racing game of sorts and the 2D sections are more Sonic Rush style. This doesn't necessarily mean I like the Wii levels better (actually I'd pick the HD version) but it's cool that they actually did do something totally new with it.

What I dislike in the Wii version:

These levels seem so empty. I mean something seems to be missing, perhaps it's because the running areas are so long and open or whatever but it just feels like you're in these dead, empty places, there's not much ornament, aside from a windmill here and a tree there mostly what you see only exists to be part of the level layout and challenge, there's not much there for the sake of eye candy and atmosphere.

The controls feel kinda rigid. Sonic's almost 'locked' in the direction the game wants him to go. Turning around is slow because the levels almost never requires you to actually turn, but sometimes you want to explore or go back on yourself to try a different route and it doesn't work out so well.

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I like the fast paced, beautiful stages.

I hate the sometimes unforgiving, and obnoxious difficulty, where the level seems to laugh in your face at times!! ...and lack of platforming.

lol

But I really do love how beautiful and vivid some stages can be. I catch myself taking a casual stroll, rather than blasting through Apotos and Spagonia's stages sometimes, exploring the multiple paths slowly, taking my time. lol

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