Today at E3, I got to take a look at a couple of Sega’s upcoming Wii titles behind closed doors. The first one I got to see was the somewhat-highly-anticipated Sonic Unleashed. As far as story goes, it seems that Dr. Eggman has unleashed some sort of dark creature, and in a possibly unrelated move, a weird reaction he caused between Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds caused Sonic to turn into a werehog, which presents the second half of the gameplay that divides Sonic Unleashed.
It was this kind of gameplay that we got around to first; Sega showed off the nighttime portion of the level seen in the first few trailers. Right away, the gameplay is very different; Sonic can’t run fast in any way, and there’s a heavier emphasis on combat that almost reminds me of games like God of War – not in the ultra-violent sense, but in the sense of enemies bumrushing you and you taking them out in chunks with combos. Almost as soon as we started, the music underwent a jarring change and several purple blobby enemies headed toward Sonic, who proceeded to tear into them with his stretching arms and huge fists. I must say, it is incredibly amusing to watch Sonic pick up one enemy and beat other enemies to death with it. The combat isn’t horribly repetitive, either – you’ve got a variety of combos you can use to take out enemies, so you can switch things up for some variety. Once you defeat some enemies, too, you’ll get a bunch of purple orbs that basically function as experience points, for you to buy more combos with later on.
With some combat sections out of the way, they proceeded to show how the werehog portions acted as a more traditional platforming experience. Sonic would solve some basic puzzles, climb up walls, walk across narrow railings, hang from edges, and even swing from poles. The whole thing seemed kind of Prince of Persia-esque, but it seems to work well from what I saw. Platforming of that nature can go well with heavy combat, as recent games have shown to us. Overall, the whole experience is quite a departure from typical Sonic fare, but my motto is, if it’s fun, don’t whine about it.
In any case, the daytime sections are still Sonic through and through. We were shown a new level, based off of China, which had Sonic running along what seemed to be the Great Wall. As with the shown trailers, this gameplay was FAST, with a capital FAST. Sonic moved at some pretty crazy speeds, smashing through boxes, going through loops, taking out enemies, etc. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be a case of "hold right and win" which the first trailer had me worried about; you’ll be needing some reflexes and good timing in order to get through these levels as best you can. Additionally, some Sonic Adventure-esque platforming will occur as well; we saw our Sega rep jumping over spikes on a rotating platform while a nearby enemy fired homing missiles. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this game.
All the levels will have a nighttime portion and a daytime portion, though which one you see first may be switched up a bit. There’s also a main hub world, but you don’t have to do much there to get to the action. Since we were shown the Xbox 360 build and not the Wii build, I can’t make any comments regarding how the game controls, or how it looks, but the gameplay should generally be the same. The representative on duty mentioned that for the werehog combat, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk would act as the right and left fists, respectively, and you swung them to fight. The game will also feature Classic Controller and Gamecube controller support.
Next, we headed to another room to watch the producer of Mad World show off what that game was looking like, and I have to say it’s looking delightful. He wandered around, grabbing enemies and killing them in a variety of bloody ways, including tossing them into a dumpster with a razor-tipped lid, shoving street signs through eyes, and my personal favorite, repeatedly slamming somebody onto a wall covered in spikes. According to the producer, being creative in the way you kill people nets you more points, and lets you get to bosses at the end of levels. How finishing moves work depend on your location, and the environment, and that sort of thing. Your primary murder weapon is the chainsaw, which you swing with the Wii Remote, and I saw that the direction you swing the remote in influences the way the chainsaw swings on-screen. The environment is also full of weapons; many things can be picked up and used to help kill your way through levels.
The game seems based on over-the-top violence and inappropriateness, to the point of total hilarity. As the producer ran through the lovely black-and-white world, withdrawing from the Blood Bank of Your Fellow Man, two announcers were commentating almost nonstop on what was going on onscreen, and it was fun to listen to, though peppered with curse words. Overall, the game seems geared to deliver a ridiculous experience, and I can’t wait to get any hands-on time with it, if that’ll be happening here at E3.
Tomorow I’ll be heading to the show floor to try out the multitude of Sega offerings that weren’t shown at the meeting room, such as Samba de Amigo and Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood. Stay tuned to see what those games play like, and keep reading NintendoGal for impressions on all sorts of titles being shown at E3.
