Despite being voted the UK’s favourite video game character of all time last month, it’s been a rough few years for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega’s mascot has been knocked from pillar to post since the seminal Mega Drive platformers, the games that propelled the super-fast hedgehog into the limelight.

So, now we have Sonic Unleashed. Perhaps the last chance saloon for the development crew, Sonic Team, who wisely seemed to heed calls to go back to basics and concentrate on the retina-scorching speed that made the original series so popular.

But then they introduced the werehog. When those first images of a beefed-up, fanged Sonic appeared, you could almost hear fans groaning across the world.

Those of you who are hoping that the werehog plays a small part in Sonic Unleashed should look away now. For those of you still reading, the good news is that even though the werehog is a huge part of Sonic Unleashed, playing as him is — whisper it — not actually that bad. At least, not at first.

The werehog sections appear at night when, due to an accident that happens in the opening cutscene, Sonic transforms 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 turning. It’s an arcade brawler where Sonic must use his new-found strength to bash the waves of enemies that descend upon him to smithereens. The combat is enjoyable stuff, if a little simplistic. 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.

The real appeal for fans will be the hyper-fast sections, in which Sonic (in his usual blue hedgehog guise) blitzes his way through point-to-point courses involving jumps, ramps and, of course, loop-de-loops. In capturing the series’ sense of speed, these sections are a success. The pace is absolutely blistering, and the spectacle of seeing Sonic tear through the courses is really quite something. Unfortunately, while it’s all very impressive to look at, part of the problem with these sections is that too often you are just a spectator. The camera sweeps gloriously from behind Sonic in 3D to “2.5D”, where the action is viewed side on. Too often, however, it’s just to see Sonic skate across a great looping rail with your only input being whether you hit the boost button to make him go even faster or not.

That’s not to say there isn’t any kind of interaction, of course. There are parts of the levels that do show a glimpse of that old Sonic magic: making the perfect jump, hitting those bumper-jump pads that make that oh-so-satisfying noise.

However, the unfortunate truth is that Sonic, as a series, has become far too overblown for its own good. The irritating padding and poor design decisions in Unleashed often suffocate the otherwise decent gameplay.

Sega needs to think long and hard about where their mascot heads next. A fresh approach from a different development team could be a good place to start.

The Daily Telegraph