Sonic Unleashed E3 Trailer Analysis Part 1
The new Sonic Unleashed Trailer unveiled at E3 was epic. Fast paced footage from Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay, plus some bits and pieces of the Full Motion Video that will be used to open up the game, and the first ever Sonic the Werehog footage served as a very informative, and exciting way to show the title off at E3 2008.
But with all the high paced action, it was really easy to miss some things in the video. I’ve brought it upon myself to watch the whole thing frame by frame to see if I could find anything we may have missed after the first 20 times of watching it.
Part 1: CG Introduction
Like mentioned earlier, the new trailer is Epic. However, most of the epic-ness comes in the form of a cutscene that will be used in the very beginning of the game. According to Patrick Riely (Sega of America Producer), it’s the “…coolest opening cinematic ever seen in a Sonic game.” While the full opening scene is obviously not in the trailer, I’m going to go ahead and agree with Mr. Riley. The CG is beautiful, loaded with action, and certainly something Sega can be proud of.
It all starts with an overview of the world, which quickly pans to Dr Eggman’s powerful armada of spaceships. Being subtle as he is, it’s not too difficult to figure out which ship carries Robotnik, who we get a good look at pretty soon into the new trailer.
One thing that was a bit more difficult to make out in the above cut were some of the panels surrounding Robotnik. On the right side of the left panel in the image above, there is a rotating outline of Sonic. From a different angle layer on, we can clearly make out what appears to be an outline of a Robotnik inspired ship design (or it could simply be a stylized version of Eggman’s face).
Also worth noting is Eggman’s awesome stache… more bristly than ever & majestically flowing as Eggman moves… It’s awe inspiring really.
While Robotnik is laughing like a madman, we of course are quickly introduced to the classic Blue Hero… the one… the only…
Cue Sonic crash landing on the front of Eggman’s cruiser.
Nothing short of a grand entrance for Sonic the Hedgehog – who is well received by Dr Eggman with at least 50 cannons pointing straight at him.
Without breaking a sweat, we watch completely stunned as Sonic dashes through the fiery explosions of the pounding cannons, quickly dismantles one of Eggman’s robotic henchman, and…
It cuts to gameplay, but since there is so much I want to talk about, I’m only going to discuss the CG portions in Part 1 of my nitpicking.
Eggman decides to take care of Sonic himself with the aid of a massive both he’s constructed. At first, the robot’s huge arms act as turrets that fire insanely large bullets (see the shell casings in the back of the picture above), an attempt on Eggman’s part that is useless against the speed of Sonic. Shortly after this realization, Robotnik shoots fingers our of the turrets to form a mechanic hand, fires an array of missiles at the Hedgehog, and then sends his newly formed hand shooting after Sonic in a final attempt to stop our Hero.
Sonic easily evades the missiles, and looks like he’s feeling pretty good about himself for a second. Then, he sees that giant hand shoot our from the dusty remnants of the missile explosions, and things go awry for the Hedghog.
Suddenly, Sonic isn’t feeling so confident, as he deforms his shape to try and get away from the huge hand.
Spoiler Alert: He fails.
Eggman retracts his arm with Sonic in his grasp, who is probably not too pleased with his sudden defeat. On a rhetorical note, that arm must have a ton of cable attached to it… I mean, if Sonic’s moving at the 300MPH Sega claimes he’ll be reaching in Unleashed, and his run only lasts for… let’s say 10 seconds… that’s still basically a mile under his belt.
I digress. Sonic is captured -
But is Sonic really captured so easily? Of course not.. at least, not yet.
A sudden transformation into Super Sonic quickly renders Robotnik’s suit useless, shortly followed by Super Sonic crashing straight through the center of the bot, and flying into the distance as the cruiser detonates in a fiery explosion.
Has Sonic really escaped, or by transforming into his Super form, has he only fallen victim to Eggmans diabolical scheme? It’s not clear what happens, but one way or another, Robotnik get’s his hands back onto Sonic, and ALL of the Chaos Emeralds.
Without wasting much time, Eggman traps Sonic in a contraption of his powered by the Chaos Emeralds, built to unleash massive destruction upon the world, among other things.
With both Sonic, and the Chaos emeralds captured (We can see a few floating around in the top left panel), Eggman pushes the “DO NOT PRESS THIS NO MATTER WHAT OR SOMETHING REALLY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN” button, followed by a powerful laser blasting out of his… laser-shooting-space-ship.
And what does the laser do?
Well, since you asked…
That’s right! It shoots down at the planet, severing it into 7 different parts, and awakens a beast from the depths of the planet as revealed on Sega’s Sonic Unleashed website.
Other side effects of shooting ginormous purple lasers at the World include transforming our friendly blue Hedgehog into something a lot less friendly looking.
Sonic the Werehog.
As if Sonic’s day wasn’t bad enough already, Eggman decides to finish the job by opening a chute that sends Sonic the Werehog flying out into space.
At this point, we get a pretty good look at what’s become of the planet below as Sonic falls towards the World below. One thing that is interesting to note are some strange purple, tentacle-like beams of light that are weaving in and out of the planet.
They almost seem familiar… like we may have seen them before…
Note: The above is actually from a series of screenshots leaked a while back, and was not actually shown in the trailer. The whole idea of this thing being the beast awakened from the center of the world, and then engulfing the planet in strange tentacles of light is entirely speculation, and could be completely false.
And so ends the CG from the E3 trailer. Like I said earlier, this can’t be the opening scene in it’s entirety, as there are definitely a few missing pieces – but it does give us a good idea of how the story will begin in Unleashed, as well as a feel of how Epic this story could end up being.
We’ll continue our analyzation of gameplay shown in the E3 trailer in Part 2. There is just too much to cram everything into one article.
69 Comments
His gloves are magic! I mean, where have those things gone? And they’re still completely immaculate and clean! I’m more shocked about the fact that Sonic is now confirmed to have humanoid fingernails instead of more obvious claws!
I feel bad for Fluffy the Were-hog.
Maybe this game has a bit of a horror movie parody going on about it. It’d be cool if they referenced King Kong. Y’know, Fluffy randomly grabs Amy and climbs up the Empire State Building?
@Umiyuri:
he normally has’t got fingernails,those where grewing out before it bursted out of the glove.
Oh. Meh.
You know, a lot of people here seem to talk to me like I’m an idiot. I’m actually a fangirl. We’re slightly different. As in, another species to humans entirely.
@Umiyuri:
You did’t anything wrong.
In secret rings,sonics darkspine form had no gloves and revealed normal nailness hands.
But it could be that he has nails..
Perhaps when he transforms back?
Great analysis. ;)
Wow… Sonic really got deformed. Kinda like the cartoons, but more creepy, because it’s 3D life-like.
I really like the colors of the cutscene. They’re very alive, and surprisingly, it beats Sonic Next-Gen’s CG. :D
AH-HAH! So Sonic DOES have finger nails. I noticed that for the first time in one of Sonic Next-Gen artworks. But why? He doesn’t have toes, so why have finger nails in his fingers? He’s already cartoony enough (and the humans are too, as it seems). Well, never mind. His claws are cool.
Speaking of which, is it just me, or does Weresonic’s transformation gives the creeps? After his past, I wasn’t expecting him to turn into a monstrous creature. 10 years ago, were you capable to imagine Sonic with guma and teeth like that? Not me. Is he still himself, or is he being controlled by something else? Would he be capable of hurting his friends? If not, would Tails believe him?
Sonic has always been cute and cool at the same time. Now, the cute part has slightly vanished. “Slightly” because, somehow, he still looks like the same hedgehog. :) By cute, I don’t necessarily mean “adorable”, I mean cute as all the cute mammals you see in real life, but with attitude. But he’s less cute than Kirby. It’s just because he’s so cool. :D
@TrueBlueJ7:
A lot of people enjoyed the transformation, as did I. I’m a fan of TF artwork, so yeah, it’s understandable for me to like it.
The thing that did give me the creeps was his elastic arms. SEGA said nothing about them before E3. O.o
@Chaos Blast:
Yeah, I know. Who would guess? A wolf with elastic arms? Weird…
And I have to mention his sneakers. Oh boy… Before the second Weresonic artwork came, I thought Sonic would be without shoes. I mean, his gloves, for the first time ever, get torn off. The same should have happened to the sneakers. But it didn’t. Instead, they suffered a transformation as well. They give Weresonic a cooler look, though. Still, I think it’s just as weird as the elastic arms. Sonic transforming into a werewolf is supposed to be an organic mutation. The fact that the sneakers were affected too leaves me with just one comment: “It’s a videogame. Anything can happen.”
@TrueBlueJ7:
True, a lot of people did think he had clawed toes showing.
SO TRUE. I’m one of those people who rants on about the physics of videogames, becuase it’s fun! Like;
“How can a 3ft blue hedgehog with legs like matchsticks run at the speed of sound?”
If just realised, The Werehog is like a negative Sonic. All Sonic’s leg strength has been transmitted to his arms, because Sonic uses the positive energy of the emralds to go super, I think Eggman used the negatiove, having negative effects on Sonic.
i think this game is going to be really addicting. I’ve always been a good sonic fan. I thought this was going to be a sequll to sonic and the secret rings but this is far then i imagin. Its cool that in the day, its all about speed, and in the night, its all about bashing threw everything. I still wonder if at the end theres a cure for the wharehog? Its also cool that u can travel all over the world. I bet the ending is going to be worth it alot.XD
Okay, I’m sorry. Bit silly for me to blow up like that. Who am I, ML?
Whoops, sucky joke.
Anyway, Sonic has retained his cuteness for a while. In fact, for this game he’s been made to look younger and rounder when in 2006 he was designed as being dynamic and sharp. I think the way that Fluffy there is designed is also to make him look as appealing and cute as possible.
But NOTHING can be designed as horrifically cute as… THE POWERPUFF GIRLS!!!
Sonic is really cool and he is totally better than the power puff girls i mean they have no fingers!!!!!! ate least sonic uses gloves xD and has a cool attitude OOOOOOO that reminds me. I have a horrible anouncement Soni and the Black Knight its true :S
@RockerDuDe:
And the horrible announcement is?
@SuperWerehog: I think RockerDuDe is saying the horrible announcement is that
Sonic & the Black Knight is TRUE,
as in it WILL BE MADE.
i think.
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I’m loving these blogs, keep ‘em coming! bye :)
You make valid points all of them. I think that we want to be heard as much as we don’t want to leave comments in the wrong circumstances. It’s a human response to a human problem — as contadictory as we all are.