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Sonic Unleashed's Silver Lining

Posted by Bob Mackey

The reviews for Sonic Unleashed are out, and they ain't pretty.  It seems that the enthusiast press is showing a lot more skepticism about all of the recent hedgehog reboots, too; Sega's claim of "This time we did it, guys!" has been used so many times that I honestly can't see what angle they're going to approach the next Sonic game from.  Really, the only way that they could save face would be to include a formal apology signed by every member of Sonic Team and a crisp, new one-hundred dollar bill inside every copy of Sonic 2: Unleashed Further.

But recently, a magical thing happened: something of moderate to good quality related to Sonic the Hedgehog has been released to the public.  Obviously, this is big news.  The item in question, Night of the Werehog, is an animated short which I assume was made to promote Unleashed.  This CGI cartoon may star a character I've grown to hate and a new character I hated immediately, but it's also cute, clever, and, most importantly, tells an interesting story without a single line of dialogue.  We can only hope Sonic Team can learn from this:



Of course, Sonic Team has a distinct habit of not learning from their mistakes in a way that pales in comparison to the efforts of toddlers and household pets. They're the only development team that keeps touching that hot stove just to remember what it feels like. Maybe they just need a social worker?

Related Links:

Sonic Bound: After Three Botched Reboots, Sonic the Hedgehog May Finally Get His 3D Due

The Aberration of Sonic
For Love of the Game: Sonic 2 HD


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Nemo Incognito said:

The cartoon is wonderful.  Not just because someone finally realised how well Sonic works as a cartoon but because they had the decency to mute him, which is something he's needed for YEARS.

November 25, 2008 6:09 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

Still holding judgement until I've played the 360 game; while the Wii version is pretty reviled, that one's gotten a lot of love that seems to keep growing.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

November 25, 2008 11:09 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

In agreement that shutting Sonic up amplifies his charm tenfold.

November 26, 2008 1:13 AM

AlexB said:

I know you're familiar with Cartoon Brew Bob, since you wrote that really great parody a while back, but I thought it was funny that this cartoon even raised eyebrows within the animation community. They definitely did something right... a cute idea executed with good character animation. Who knew they had it in them.

November 26, 2008 1:56 PM

Demaar said:

I liked Sonic & the Secret Rings, and I ain't ashamed to admit it. So I'm really looking forward to Sonic & the Black Knight, which is made by the Secret Rings team.

I never had that much hope for Unleashed, so I never got the chance to be disappointed by it.

Anyways yeah, Sonic was probably my favourite video game character right up until he opened his mouth in the cartoon. This was a pretty damn nice short. Even if I hate that werehog non-sense, there's no gameplay to mess up with it here.

November 27, 2008 2:07 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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