Why doesn't Sega ever port Sonic Unleashed to the PC?

I think everyone's falling into the old trap of "people who like this must like it for X reason" again.

Personally I'm not a fan of the Adventure era games (Chao Garden excepting) and I love Unleashed entirely for gameplay reasons. The day stages are the best the series has ever had, the night stages are tolerable and don't need to be replayed to replay the day stages. I also like Colours and Generations for (attempting) to push that gameplay forward, although both fall short of Unleashed's day stages by trying to force in slow platforming sections that simply don't work in the boost style (but Colours at least has Wisps and a scoring system to keep things interesting and add replayability).

If it were a full game of day stages of the same quality as Jungle Joyride 1-2, it would probably be my favourite game of all time.

And I couldn't give a shit about the plot.

 

See, but I agree with you 100% about Unleashed's story, and I still love it. The plot was the last time a Sonic game ever made me cringe to that degree, and everything about Chip just felt like the game was talking down to me. (But looking back, I think I was also JUST young enough to feel self-conscious about playing a kids' game, haha.

So yeah, I don't think there's a one size fits all answer here, but pretty much every reason I love Unleashed IS in the Unleashed Project. The game took me three years to finish even though I played it weekly, because I hated the medal progression, ignored the town missions, and found the Werehog dull, but I never stopped replaying day stages.

Personally, I think Generations is the S3&K of the boost formula (with Unleashed standing in for Sonic 2, and Colors mirroring 1/CD). That is, Generations learns from what worked and what didn't about each of its predecessors, and refines the formula. It strikes the right balance between the speedy spectacle of Unleashed and the platforming and discovery of Colors, and does a notably better job than either at blending depth into its level design with alternate pathways and secrets. But eh, tomayto, tomahto. Same as the classics, it's easy for me to see why someone might prefer any of 'em to the others. And it *would* be nice if S-ranks weren't such a given, haha.

 

Ive played other action games and I still like the Werehog.

But then again I dont like Classic Sonic in Forces (which is a crime here on Retro*) so maybe I'm just out of touch with whats currently in vogue.


* for legal reasons, thats a joke

 

While I'd say that may be painting in broad strokes, it does remind me of something:

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Power Rangers the Movie for the Genesis. It was a co-op beat-em-up, first one I ever played, and my friends and I played it ALL THE TIME. It was also, in retrospect, an absolutely undercooked, uninspired, unchallenging, repetitive, and above all much WORSE version of Streets of Rage 2. It had the framing, but none of the depth.

But I loved it anyway. (Still do, actually, in spite of being able to acknowledge all this!) I was literally 7 years old, I had never heard of Streets of Rage, and if I had, I'm sure it would've been too hard for me. Power Rangers was a perfectly suitable adaptation of the beat 'em up genre for kids.

That's kind of what I think the Werehog was going for: It's trying to be to God of War what Power Rangers was to Streets of Rage. And some people who grew up with Unleashed seem to speak highly of it when nobody really did before, so I suppose Unleashed hit its target at LEAST as well as Power Rangers did, haha.

 

Having never played Unleashed, and still lacking any desire to experience the Werehog stages whether they control decently enough or not, I can say that the Unleashed mod for Generations is the only reason I'd consider giving a potential PC port a shot. The stages are such a blast to blaze through, or to just meander through while absorbing the gorgeous scenery. They're probably also some of the longest and/or most challenging stages I've experienced, especially compared to those of Generations, Forces, and much of Colours.

So yeah, I wouldn't doubt that the mod put Unleashed on the radar of more folks than just myself, and could possibly sell decently well on PC thanks to the interest generated by it.

 

You never fail to make embarrassing posts.

runs

 

I'm perfectly content with having a full fat FPS boosted game on Xbox Series S now myself since it's actually happened but I do hope SEGA eventually does a PC only port for Steam or whatever client they choose to sell it on so others can experience the game via official means + eventually being modded to remove that god forsaken battle music.

Also Adventure kids is certainly a term I have never heard until now but makes me chuckle.

Plot in Sonic is kinda irrelevent to me as I've always wanted good gameplay and levels over boring, nonsensical story telling about a blue rat that saves the world from a fat evil genius. That's me but good gameplay comes first...

 

Was Unleashed HD combat as bad as people say? I remember liking it, but I was a kid back then.

For some reason people always liked SD version of it much more, back in the days.

 

I only like Colors and Generations so I'll just sit here eating popcorn and watching the argument.

 

Yeah and there's no problem with people feeling that way. I had a similar experience growing up with Nickelodeon themed 3d platformers over the big IPs at the time.

I just want people to keep that in mind before they make bold declarations about Unleashed or the people who didn't like it. They came at the Werehog with a completely different reference point and it doesn't hold up in that context.

 

I like his posts tbh. I don't agree with him on almost anything but it's nice to read his opinions on things. Different perspective than most people on here.

And I find his melodramatic writing style quite endearing.

 

I can imagine the endless possibilities.

I think a big reason people see the writing as above Colors onward is because it's not Sonic telling the lame jokes. He feels levelheaded and serious in Unleashed (but still a little cocky, like when Chip asks if his normal form is the "real" version of him and he replies "pretty cool, huh?")

As for my take on things, I'm only now playing for the first time and I just completed Chunan's night stage, and I'm playing on my 360 because I don't have any newer consoles besides the Switch, but I find the difficulty very frustrating in parts. Doing the hub platforming as normal Sonic is insane because he controls like a tank on ice, and I had a lot of trouble with Holoska day because the bright colors were so detailed and the framerate so choppy that I kept running into things I couldn't see, so I ended up with a D rank on that stage.

The Werehog stages are also full of pits and "think fast or you're dead" sections, like in Chunan's night stage where you need to fling from poles and at one point you need to quickly grab onto another pole but you only get a second to react and I imagine a lot of people died to that their first try.

I do think the combos the Werehog can do are fun enough, even if there's not much depth. I haven't played a God of War or Dynasty Heroes game, but I've always been meaning to get back around to it (and no it's not because I was a baby playing Sonic. I'm catching up there too. I just missed out on a ton of stuff growing up!), but damn, the game starts out super hard combat-wise but you can just pump all of your EXP into upgrading the Werehog's strength and combining that with the Unleash, you can just take anything out, even bosses super quickly later in the game, and at this point is falling into pits that's causing the frustration.

 

For me, I think half of Werehog stages can be fun and another half frustation, that's it. Neither amazing or awful. I will say it tho': Fuck the Savanna Citadel Night stage, I think that's the one I dislike most.

 

I consider myself to be more into Sonic's story/writing than most folk, but it's a video game first. In addition to that the plot in Unleashed just isn't anything to write home about imo. It's got a lot of well produced sequences and the cutscenes are much better than the other modern games but it still leaves a lot to be desired. I could go into more detail, but this isn't the thread for it.

The main thing you're missing out with the Unleashed project is the way the hubs and the night stages flesh out the world. You get surprisingly little time with these lovingly crafted cities if you stick strictly with the day stages since they're over quickly and there's almost nothing for you to interact with aside from the occasional level gimmick. Night stages let you see the inside of buildings, deal with more level specific gimmicks like the clock tower and the icicles hanging from the ceiling, and take in the atmosphere a lot more. Neither of these features are remarkable mechanically, but then neither are the day stages when you get down to it. Sonic Unleashed just isn't a tight mechanical marvel. It's appeal is something much more akin to something like an RPG or a more traditional adventure game.

I've never been interested in the Unleashed project for this reason. No doubt Generations's cleaned up controls are nice, but when you're used to Unleashed's control quirks already it doesn't feel like a worthwhile trade-off.

 

I played the Unleashed Project once or twice. Its nice. It's a decent enough collection of the nine best levels in Unleashed. But Unleashed is so much more than just those nine levels. One of the reasons why Generations fails to hit the highs of Unleashed is that it completely lacks all of the depth that Unleashed has. The hub worlds, the NPCs, the wealth of collectables and yes, even the nighttime stages, all add so much to the experience.

Whether or not Sonic games need a huge plot and deep lore is not a discussion for this topic. But I think its difficult to argue that Sonic games don't benefit hugely from interacting with the world around you and really getting to understand the setting you're in. S3K did it masterfully for the Mega Drive games by making the two acts of each zone distinct and having both Sonic and Knuckles explore them differently. Plus it also introduced the level transitions, which for such a small feature just adds a ton of atmosphere. SA1 was much the same, and had the benefit of intertwining stories and Adventure Fields that really gave a sense of location. SA2 also did it well by making several distinct levels in the same locations. And finally Unleashed really brought it all together by creating several unique cities with unique characters and at least two full, very different levels per city. You can get so absorbed in that world. It's great. The Unleashed project forgets all that.

And just as an aside, I'd say that I much prefer the way that Sonic controls in Unleashed to Generations. Unleashed Sonic is slippery to the nth degree and stupidly maps the homing attack to the air boost button combo. But Sonic is actually responsive in Unleashed, especially when jumping/in the air air. His movements are fluid. Generations has him feeling much heavier and more like a car. You'll struggle do much to control him and make him actually turn without coming all the way back down to a walking speed (or using the homing attack, which is what Generations very often does) Navigating some of the wide open Entrance Stages like Mazuri or Chun-Nun would be really hard with Generations' controls.

 

Yeah, I'd say immersion was a big goal of the series from Sonic CD onward which is why I can look back on some of the weirder choices SA1 and Unleashed made earnestly. In Unleashed specifically, I don't think a strict focus on day stages would have done the overall game justice, and in Colors I just end up wishing I had more time with these planets than I do. It's strange to play a game like that and have the scope feel so small.

I think those games make the strongest case that Sonic shouldn't have embraced the boost style. It'd be so much easier to integrate the charming worldbuilding of Unleashed into a single, more Classic/Adventure type game where stopping to smell the roses is a valid playstyle. Then everyone would be able to see what was great about Unleashed and not just Sonic fans that are used to having to do some digging.

It would probably fit the game's themes a bit more than just blowing past everything, too. The only tricky thing is that you'd lose a lot of the spectacle that put the game in the public eye in the first place, but I think the top tier visuals and revamped artstyle would still convince people that Sonic had pulled it's head out of it's ass.

And I actually like some changes they made with gens controls since there's no fun "quirks" like the drift punishing you for using it how you'd expect it to work, but things like context sensitive special moves bog it down for me. Unleashed didn't have enough places for players to use the light speed dash or wall jump, but that doesn't mean limit it even more.

 

It's not the worst thing ever, I always think some people confuse how much of it you have to play with its real quality, but it's also incredibly barebones and a rough early game of feeling like you're just using a couple moves endlessly. Certain enemies are also way more of a pain in the keister than they probably should be, which only cements that early game hell.

Even when you're a walking force of destruction by the endgame if you leveled right (or grinded a bit), it never escapes a sorta mediocrity that feels like the game style exists almost entirely to pad out the product.

 

I think the Unleashed Project is great for what it sets out to do, which is to port the Daytime stages to Gens. A fun way to play through those levels. But I agree that its not the complete experience. I strongly dislike Unleashed, but the whole point of the game is the juxtaposition of the Day and Night, as well as the worldbuilding of the Hub Worlds.

 

I think the boost levels worked in Unleashed's favor. They were huge by necessity, fitting Unleashed's grand scale. When I play Dragon Road daytime I feel like I'm running half the length of the Great Wall and tearing through China's countryside.