Sonic Unleashed begins with a fast-paced movie featuring Sonic completely demolishing Dr. Eggman's space forces, quickly confronting the evil doctor himself as Super Sonic with the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman begins begging for mercy, and as Sonic begins to gloat about the situation, Eggman springs a trap, capturing both Sonic and the Emeralds. Eggman uses a machine to extract power from them and direct it at the planet below, which cracks the planet into pieces and awakens a demonic beast within. The energy transfer drains the Emeralds while simultaneously transforming Sonic into a beastly, fanged werehog. No, it doesn't really make sense.

Of course, it doesn't have to make sense to be fun to play, and the alter-ego of Sonic does introduce new gameplay without introducing silly new characters. The levels of Sonic Unleashed are divided into two main classes: day and night. These levels can be chosen from; they don't have to follow a strict sequence. The daytime levels are similar to the gameplay Sonic fans are familiar with, namely a fast-paced race to the finish. Conversely, the nighttime levels star Were-Sonic and play more like a Devil May Cry-style brawler than what we're used to in Sonic platformers. The game also includes boss stages and plenty of unlockable stages, which have different types of goals from the main stages.

The daytime stages are an interesting synthesis of classic 2-D Sonic, 3-D Sonic, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and even a bit of Sonic Riders. The main goal of these stages is to reach the end, and Sonic travels along relatively linear paths meant to be raced through. However, like the Genesis games, these paths often diverge if players are quick enough to react. Certain segments even switch seamlessly to a side view, especially when Sonic is running through the Sonic-staple loop-de-loops. As Sonic races along, the player can switch targets with the A button and then attack by flicking the Wii Remote. This flick can also release built-up energy for a burst of speed. While running through curves, Sonic can perform Mario Kart-esque mini-turbos with the Z button. Sonic also has a strafing move, which is controlled with the B button and a direction on the control stick. One of the early bosses features a high-speed race along a track against a giant wasp-like enemy. Here, the sidestep move is critical to avoid obstacles. The sense of speed is excellent, yet it never feels out of control and never lags. It really feels like a Sonic game should.

More platforming-oriented, the nighttime levels involve lots of climbing and jumping. Were-Sonic moves much more slowly than regular Sonic, but he is also much more powerful, pounding and slashing enemies with his fists and claws rather than with a spin attack. Sonic can chain together brutal moves by alternating jolts of the Remote and Nunchuk. A combo meter keeps track of hits, and special finishing moves can be performed. These moves are a little less intuitive than the daytime gameplay, mostly due to the heavy reliance on gesture controls. Even climing ropes involves motioning with both hands.

Somewhat oddly, the unleashed Sonic can also unleash his arms in a Gumby-like fashion. With these appendages, he can grab ledges that are far away with his elasticized arms. In his transformed state, Sonic has a life meter rather than the traditional one hit to lose rings and second hit death. However, his life meter is still powered by rings. He also has an “unleashed” attack meter, which is powered by collected power orbs. Though he can't run like normal Sonic, he can dash with a double stick tap to clear frequent chasms. Sonic will also fight bosses at night, though like the rest of the gameplay, these battles will greatly differ from their daytime counterparts. Though markedly different from classic Sonic, the brawling experience is still fun.

Sonic Unleashed includes a new graphics and physics engine, which is a huge improvement over previous iterations. The automatic camera system appears to work as well as the one in Super Mario Galaxy, and levels switch between 3-D and 2-D seamlessly much like the recent Sonic Rush DS games, except with more emphasis on the 3-D sections. The 2-D sections are reminiscent of classic Sonic gameplay. The graphics are crisp, and static screens do not do the game justice due to the heavy use of motion effects.

Though the basic premise is the same between the Wii/PS2 and PS3/Xbox 360 versions, the levels are totally different. The Wii versions' levels have been tailored more toward gesture controls; however, the game also supports the Classic Controller and even GameCube controllers, though I didn't get a chance to try them. The Remote and Nunchuk controls are just a little cumbersome, particularly in the nighttime stages where a lot of left and right coordination is required for successful combos, so these options are welcome.

Sonic Unleashed is very promising, and by getting back to core gameplay and polishing the overall experience, it looks to mend most of the problems that its previous generation predecessors had. From what I've seen and played, the variety of gameplay looks balanced without being forced. Sonic features several locales, each with their own style, challenges, and most importantly, fun.