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For the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise it has been a tough and struggling last couple years.  Sega's mascot has been knocked out of the game (um, no pun intended)  and that was since the originative platform game, the games that motivated the super-fast hedgehog into the public eye in a blur of blue spikes and red boots. Seems misfortunate old Sonic just couldn't make the jump into 3D, the sensationally fast gameplay bombing in interpretation to say the least.   In the years since gaming went all three-dimensional, Sonic has endured from a long line of poor attemtps, an overburden of bothersome and unneeded patronizing characters, flavorless spin-offs (like Sonic Riders), and crying missteps, such as the gun-toting Shadow the Hedgehog. He did deal and finagle himself into worthwile title on the DS with the blemished but experimental Sonic Rush (a 2D side-scroller, naturally) but home consoles haven't seen a great Sonic game for over a decennium. It all came to something of a head in 2006, when the comical Sonic the Hedgehog came to the Xbox 360 and PS3. A horrifying title, torn apart by miscellaneous stupidity.

So, now we have Sonic Unleashed. Possibly a last ditch effor for the ontogeny crew, Sonic Team, who advisably seemed to regard calls to go back to basics and centralize on the retina-scorching swiftness that made the archetype so democratic.

But then they brought in the werehog. When those first pictures of a beefed-up, fanged Sonic came along, you could almost hear fans moaning across everywhere.  So. if you where desiring and trusting that the werehog was only a small part in Sonic Unleashed, let me be the first to tell you to run the other away now.  However, the good news is that even though the werehog is a huge part of Sonic Unleashed, playing as him doesn't entirely suck.

The werehog sections seem to display only at night when, due to a fortuity of sorts, as it comes about in the opening cutscene, Sonic transmutes into a muscular monster with huge arms that can, for reasons never explained, stretch over great distances. The action stages that you play as Sonic the Werehog are best described as God of War-lite, right down to the pushing-block puzzles and lever flexing. It's an arcade brawler where Sonic must use his new-found forcefulness to smash the waves of foes that come down upon him to smithereens. The battle is enjoyable stuff, if a little simple-minded. You can chain together combos using the two attack buttons, pick enemies up and launch them at other foes and even finish them off with a devastating attack, performed by a quick-time event where button combinations appear on screen and you must hit them quickly to defeat your opponent.