Note, this does not mean it is GOOD.
The load times are among the worst of their generation.
But there is a kernel of a good game there, had Naka not fucked over the team working on it.
It's generally actually like. Okay.
It's not the great and mighty disaster that needs to be flogged endlessly in every Sonic analysis ever made over the last 18 years, and it's not worth Sega having bent over backwards to flee away from it.
I do think the Gigaboys came away hating Unleashed far more than it deserves but also, man.
Shadow? SECRET RINGS? RISE OF FUCKING LYRIC.
from like 2005 to 2009 sure was the darkest of dark times.
no i get why they came away hating on Unleashed. I actually felt it when I tried to replay it myself a couple years ago.
Unleashed begins with a decent first impression.
Werehog is kinda fun, if a lamer version of God of War, speed stages START fun.
But once you realize all those medals you sped by need to go back and be collected.
The BONKERS amount of medals you need to PROCEED in the game.
I stand by the opinion that the game would go up a whole letter grade without the medal hunting. But also 1) I don't think Bob and Dan ever figured out how to drift in the daytime stages, which uh. IS IMPORTANT. And 2) I don't think they EVER understood how the mission hubs worked.
The esoteric specific ways you have to gather them with the really fucking fiddly controls that don't want you to slow down in the speed stages.
Like. I get it. I stopped playing it and sold my Xbox because it was of no use to me anymore, lmao.
It's imo the best of the Worst Generation Of Sonic Games.
Shadow and Secret Rings are just goddamn AWFUL, top to bottom
how did EITHER of those ship.
It was still refreshing to see someone approach Sonic 06 and walk away going. "It's fine, it's not the game you should be flogging in that generation, its problems aren't even fully the devs faults."
I finally did not feel fucking insane.
Because I have had this take forever.
But that brings me to my next point:
Sega should remaster/finish 06.
At the end of the day we should all be glad Yuji Naka, third-greatest gaming criminal, is finally in jail-
in 25 days they are putting out what is BASICALLY a sequel to Shadow the Hedgehog.
They can fix that fucking game.
Like, I know Inafune is #1.
Yeah I usually think about it as Moleyneux 1, Inafune 2, Yuji Naka 3.
And the thing about the Unleashed hubs is that they're not like. Very intuitive.
When I tried my replay a couple years ago, I vividly remember in the process of trying to unlock something in not-China, I lost all my lives in the hub and went into a stage with 0 lives.
So like.
I get it.
But yeah no it's like, genuinely impressive how many Sonic games came out in like, that small stretch and also how many of them were just. COMICALLY dogshit.
It does make me look back at Forces and go.
"Okay you weren't good. But. But. You were really just undercooked, there was far worse."
and they've clearly re-assessed themselves, they've gotten to show the execs the results of letting the development process actually finish.
So I'm like. Fairly confident Shadow Gens is gonna be pretty decent.
(I also came out with the reminder of a LOT of questions about the 4Kids localization process on Shadow............................)
looks at having gotten 06 running on rpcs3
Heroes: 2003.
Advance 3: 2004.
Rush: 2005.
Shadow: 2005
'06: 2006.
Secret Rings: 2007.
Rush Adventure: 2007.
Chronicles: 2008.
Unleashed: 2008.
Black Knight: 2009.
yeah no surprise a LOT of Sonic is really just undercooked
The beginning and end of that list I like! But. Yeah.
Some franchises have a tailspin but when you look at what the entirety of the aughts were for Sonic after Adventure 2. Holy SHIT.
Yeah I think Heroes gets too much flak and Black Knight is actually like, decent to good.
Black Knight should not work as well as it does and Heroes is good, I'll still fight people on that.
But they're good book-ends for that reason.
Putting out like. 2 games a year is too much for ANY franchise, even if you have different studios.
Which 06 and Secret Rings didn't
its what burnt out Mega Man
Anyway. Remaster 06. We have literal proof positive its stages can be good and fun as a SINGLE DUDE remade them from SCRATCH.
(Hell, they recently made a redesign of Elise that's more in line with the more anime-like design Maria is sporting now.)
WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS SEGA
That said rolling ALL the way back, you're right that Unleashed would absolutely go up, I think, multiple points without the medal hunting.
Unfortunately, it gates itself so severely by them that you can run up against that very early and then that's Just The Game for a good while afterwards.
If they ever remaster it, giving medals as rewards for stage scoring and lowering the amount by... a lot is something they need to do.
The way they're designed you should never have to be searching for those in the speed stages, to do otherwise was just a monumentally psychotic decision.
kinda hard agree on sonic 06 not really being that bad other than the part where it's broken. Like, the game frustrated me enough that I had to stop playing multiple times when I played it back when because I was about to scream at the TV. But that's not really design problems as just... game buggy and broken
Yeah. It's not finished! They didn't let them finish it.
And compared to Shadow and Secret Rings on EITHER SIDE of it.
Mephiles is one of the best villains in the franchise
also re: no. 3 gaming criminal Naka, remember he forced Iizuka to work on Heroes levels SOLO while the man was sick and nearly half dead
Iizuka-san is Sonic's strongest soldier
Something were now seeing that I no doubt expect Flynn is party to, is that there’s good ideas to be mined out of that era, they just need games they’re allowed to complete
Shadow Gens will be the first time he’s been allowed to write Mephiles. How wild is that?