Video Game / Sonic Unleashed

The difference is night and day.

Tails: That's a new look. What happened?
Sonic the Werehog: You know me. Never a dull moment.

Sonic Unleashed is a console game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PlayStation 2. It was released on November 18, 2008.

Mad Scientist Dr. Eggman has a new plan to Take Over the World: using the Chaos Emeralds to release a titanic abomination called Dark Gaia from its imprisonment, then building his new empire on the ensuing ruins.

Eggman is successfully able to capture Sonic, drain the Chaos Emeralds of their energy, and use them to power a big honking laser beam that awakens Dark Gaia and shatters Earth into seven pieces. However, this plan has an unintended side effect: caught at the source of the blast, Sonic is bathed in negative energy and develops an awkward case of lycanthropy.

Cursed into the form of a "Werehog" and cast down to the fragmented surface, Sonic must now do what he does best: foil Dr. Eggman by recharging the Chaos Emeralds and putting the world back together one continent at a time. Helping him is Chip, a small critter with amnesia and a mysterious connection to Dark Gaia.

Unleashed is actually technically two games — the version released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was developed by Sonic Team, while the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions were developed by handheld Sonic developer Dimps. While they both share the same story, similar (but not identical) gameplay mechanics, and level names and themes, the actual design of the levels, as well as the way the player progresses from one to the next, is different between the two versions.

The gameplay of the daytime stages would be carried over to the Wii version of its sequel Sonic Colors, which many describe as "Sonic Unleashed minus night stages."

This game was eventually released in Japan as Sonic World Adventure, which was the former localized title for the game before the name change.

Sonic Unleashed has an accompanying short called Sonic: Night of the Werehog.

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What do you figure that was all about? The hair, and those arms, and... and look at the tropes!

• 11th-Hour Superpower: In the climax of the game, Chip, using his restored powers as Light Gaia, summons the Gaia Temples around the world to form a Combining Mecha called the Gaia Colossus, which becomes vital in the fight against the restored Dark Gaia.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Endless Possibilities has Jaret Reddick interrupt himself with a rap verse.
• Absent-Minded Professor: Subverted with Professor Pickle. He is set up to be this early on when he is first introduced, as he shows concern about the quality of the sandwiches than by being kidnapped and than nearly setting off to file a complain to the "chef" after getting rescued… that is, until Tails reminds him that there are more important factors at stake, after which he immediately stops being scatterbrained and becomes a lot more serious and competent, which he remains for the rest of the game.
• Action Commands: This game marked their introduction to the Sonic series. The two Tornado Defense missions are meant to get you used to the button inputs, and there are several points in each level where you input several buttons in a row to perform tricks and reach higher ground. They're also a fast and efficient way to instantly kill enemies in Werehog stages, as well as racking up points in said stages.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: For all the fast-paced action throughout Unleashed, there's several engaging character interactions between Sonic and Chip, with the most compelling probably being Chip revealing his true identity as Light Gaia.
• Action Game: The Werehog controls much like Action Games such as God of War.
• Adaptation Distillation: While Mazuri does appear in the Wii/PS2 version, only the Egg Beetle boss remains intact, with both the day and night stages for Savannah Citadel getting cut out. In regards to how they enter Eggman's facility to rescue Professor Pickle, instead of having to go through a whole stage, the game simplifies it to them finding a random mysterious hole in Mazuri's hub that just so happens to lead to the facility.
• Adapted Out: Empire City (and by extension, Skyscraper Scamper) has also been cut out entirely from the Wii/PS2 version. Savannah Citadel (both day and night) was cut out as well, with Mazuri only housing the town, Gaia Temple, and Egg Beetle boss.
• Alliterative Name: Professor Pickle.
• All There in the Manual: It's never explained in-game exactly why Sonic transformed into the Werehog, but the instruction manual actually contains some insight into this. It turns out, when Eggman used the Chaos Emeralds to unseal Dark Gaia, Dark Gaia and the Emeralds became linked. Due to Sonic's close proximity to the Emeralds at the time, he absorbed some of Dark Gaia's energy. Since Dark Gaia is shown to only affect people at night, this is why Sonic only transforms when the sun goes down. This also explains why Dark Gaia absorbed some dark energy from Sonic to gain power, removing the Werehog transformation.
• All There in the Script: Dr. Eggman's robot assistant is named SA-55, which is Leet Lingo for "sass", which refers to his overall sassy and occasionally cheeky behaviour. The name was never brought up in-game or in guides until 2021's Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia, and Sonic Colors introduced Orbot as either a rename or substitute.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: Eggmanland is a giant gauntlet of some of the most difficult platforming challenges from both the Sonic and Werehog sections, including most of the game's enemies, a bobsled-esque portion like one from earlier in the game, a skydiving section, and generally recalls all your abilities that you've needed to use.
• Ambiguous Gender: According to the Japanese Sonic Channel, Chip's sex is listed as "???" (along with species and age). Though likely unintentional on the developer's part, this may be alluding to Chip's true nature as an immortal, benevolent demigod of light.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Eggmanland clearly has the amusement park aesthetic down-pat, but its dreary and oppressive atmosphere (somehow managing to be both bright and colorful yet dark and gloomy at the same time) and the sheer dangerousness of the place make the "doom" part of the trope abundantly clear. And this isn't even getting into the inner depths of the facility, which any OSHA inspector would weep in fury upon bearing witness to.
• And Your Reward Is Edible: The Chili Dogs that are obtainable from the Don Fachio Hot Dog Vendors upon successful completion of the missions they offer.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Because of the faster pace of the day stages and increased amount of reflex-based hazards, Sonic only loses half of his rings per hit, unless he has less than 40. Plus, rings are incredibly easy to come by (boosting through them will automatically pull them towards you).
  • Eggmanland in the HD version is considered to be one of the most difficult and longest levels in the entire franchise. Despite that, numerous extra lives are very easy to find (sometimes being given one right after a checkpoint) to make sure you don't game over and have to start the stage over.
• Anti Poop-Socking: In the Wii and PS2 versions of the game, every time you finish a few levels, you will be explicitly asked to confirm whether you want to keep playing.
• Art Evolution: Unleashed brings a major overhaul to the series' art style, from realistically rendered worlds with cartoon anthropomorphic animals in them, to stylized backgrounds to better match the characters. The humans are a lot more stylized and cartoony than they were in previous games. Sonic himself also got a slight redesign, shortening his limbs and quills that create a look that bridges the gap between his classic and modern designs.
• Aside Glance: Sonic and Chip both do this at some points. One such example, at the very start of the game:
  Sonic:(turns to face the audience) Uh-oh, did I fall on him?
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Pretty obviously used with the hub worlds. They're all clear expies of real-world locations, and their names (and the names of the people in them) sound stereotypically appropriate of said locations, yet they don't really mean anything. Eggmanland is the only exception, as that name could not be any more self-explanatory.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The goal for boss battles.
• Award-Bait Song: Dear My Friend by Brent Cash.
• Batman Gambit: Dr. Eggman pulls an epic one against Super Sonic in the intro cutscene. He manipulates Sonic by leading him to the center of his earth-shattering cannon, traps him, and then, with his Chaos-energy-altering machinery, forcibly takes Sonic out of his super form. He then uses the energy to crack open the planet and awaken an ancient evil to control it and the world. Unfortunately, it goes south fast.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: An indirect example. The way exorcisms are handled involves taking a picture of whoever is possessed at nighttime, forcing the demon possessing them out while the victim goes unconscious, and then having Sonic in his Werehog form beat the living tar out of them. ^note It's indirect because all of the violence is directed towards the monsters themselves, rather than the people being possessed by the monsters.
• Beehive Barrier: The Egg Devil Ray is covered by this; only the Sonic Boost can break through.
• Big Applesauce: Empire City, a location exclusive to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, is based off of New York City.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Dr. Eggman and Dark Gaia. Though the latter takes the role of Big Bad at the end.
• Big Eater:
  • Chip is able to try all kinds of food during his adventure with Sonic. He lampshades both this and Bottomless Bladder: "I get hungry so easily! I wonder where it all goes..."
  • In one cutscene, Eggman downs an entire sub sandwich pretty much in the span of being offscreen for about two seconds.
• Big "NO!":
  • Sonic in his Werehog form lets one out when he plummets towards Windmill Isle shortly after the forcefield surrounding him disappears.
  • Sonic says another one at the end of the game when he plummets towards Windmill Isle following Dark Gaia's demise.
  • If you finish a daytime stage with a C-rank (in the Wii/PS2 version) or E-Rank (in the Xbox 360/PS3 version), Sonic will exclaim this in the results screen.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Professor Pickle. So big, in fact, that they completely hide his eyes.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Eggman screams this at the end when SA-55 (inadvertently) rips him a new one over his defeat.
• Bittersweet Ending: Surprisingly equal on both the bitter and sweet sides of the spectrum. Dark Gaia is defeated, Eggman's plans are foiled, the planet is put back to normal, and Sonic is cured of his Werehog affliction, but Chip, as a requirement to his duty as Light Gaia, is sealed back inside of the planet along with Dark Gaia, leaving behind his bracelet for Sonic to find and keep.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: In the original, when Eggman attempts to pull an I Surrender, Suckers at the beginning of the game, Sonic tells him that he isn't fooling anyone so he should stop it with his pointless tricks. This was mistranslated as Sonic saying that he wouldn't break his stuff if he "played nice" since the beginning. Later in the same scene, upon seeing Sonic's transformation into the Werehog, Eggman calls his new form amusing. The dub bafflingly translated this as him calling it "festive" instead.
• Block Puzzle:
  • Occurs frequently in the Nighttime stages.
  • The entire point of the Shamar boss, Dark Guardian, in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions (the Wii and PS2 versions turn it into a straightforward slugfest).
• Bookends: Not only does the game start and end with the end of one adventure and the beginning of a new one but the first and last non-CGI cutscene before The Stinger end up with Sonic crashing head first into Windmill Isle.
• Boss Banter: Eggman, as per usual. The Xbox 360 and PS3 version also have the Little Fighters that pilot the Egg Devil Ray and Egg Lancer.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Titans can be this due to their devastating attacks, high health, and near-immunity to flinching. The red ones are even worse.
• Boss-Only Level: Savannah Citadel, a full level in the PS360 version, is only used in the Wii and PS2 version for the Egg Beetle boss.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • In the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version of the game, Sonic blatantly looks at the score panel for his overall rank on the end of mission results, and reacts accordingly. He also glances towards the screen a few times in cutscenes.
  • He does this in the Playstation 2/Wii version as well. If you play as the Werehog, however, whether he rejoices or turns around and slumps onto the floor in a brief hissyfit depends on your end of stage ranking.
  • In the first (or second, if you count the intro) cutscene, when he finds out Chip has amnesia, he basically does this:
  Sonic: Uh oh.
  (He turns to the camera)
  Sonic: Did I fall on him?
• Butt-Monkey: Eggman, of all people. He comes dangerously close to winning and even successfully builds Eggmanland (a goal he's had in mind since Sonic Adventure), only to be repeatedly beaten and humiliated by Sonic due to oversights in his planning that come back to bite him in the ass. Making matters worse, his own robotic assistant continuously mocks him and reminds him of his failures:
  SA-55: Pleasant morning, wouldn't you say, Doctor? You can simply begin your plans anew. Even if all of your efforts this last time were utterly wasted. Even if it was a complete and humiliating loss. Even the most pathetic loser in all the world will surely have his chance to—
  Eggman: Oh, SHUT UP!
• Cerebus Syndrome: This game may be more lighthearted than previous entries, with the artstyle, vibe, and overall tone lending themselves to a more cartoonish atmosphere, but the stakes are very clearly raised as the game reaches its climax. Chip discovering his identity as Light Gaia in Adabat is the point when it stops being a "Roadtrip between two friends" type of story and is treated more like a world-saving crisis.
• Checkpoint Starvation: In the HD versions of the game, one mission involves getting to the end of Eggmanland, a Nintendo Hard stage that indeed is comparable to those of the old 8-bit games — without any usable checkpoints and with a time limit. It is also by far the longest stage in the game, considering the time limit is 45 minutes.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Amy Rose, though this aspect of hers is very much toned down in comparison to previous games.
• Collision Damage: Averted. The enemies have to actually attack you to cause damage, with the exception of enemies that generate electricity.
• Combat Tentacles: Dark Gaia has several of them, not that he uses them during the actual fight.
• Concept Art Gallery: Unlocked piece by piece.
• Consulting Mister Puppet: An NPC, Wentos, in the PS3/360 version of the game, has a Chao puppet that helps him overcome his shyness and generally speaks for him while he is still too shy to interact with others.
• Continuing is Painful: As per tradition with most modern Sonic games, dying in a level resets your points, which can be a major blow if you're trying to rank well, especially after passing through a checkpoint, in which the level timer will not go back.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In his idle animation, Sonic lies down a la Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and at the start of some levels in the Playstation 3/Xbox 360 version, he stretches his legs a la Sonic Advance 2.
  • invoked Also, in the Wii/PS2 version, there's an NPC who compliments Sonic's eyes, then remarks "They don't change color, do they?" Could be a subtle Take That! against people who complained about Sonic having green eyes from Sonic Adventure onward or merely a lampshading that Sonic's eyes do change colour — from green in his normal form, to red when he transforms into Super Sonic.
  • Three NPCs from the Eggmanland hub world, the EF-MD1991, EF-DC1998, and EF-XB2006, reference the years of release and some of the consoles for Sonic 1, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Convection, Schmonvection: A good portion of Eggmanland takes place over lava, which Sonic seems to have no qualms about standing ten feet over.
• The Corrupter: Dark Gaia's energy has a way of corrupting the planet's inhabitants one way or another. Citizens that are possessed by the minions have their personalities flipped over or disoriented. Special mention goes to Sonic and the guardian of Chun-nan's Gaia temple, who both become corrupted physically. While Sonic's sanity is left intact, the guardian is Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: Like with most Sonic games from this decade. However, while most Sonic games of this decade would sprinkle hints of these Lovecraftian elements throughout the story before showing off the monster some time around the climax, Unleashed subverts this by dropping the Final Boss within the first five minutes. It's not seen again or fought until the climax when it's reached the peak of its power, but the player now knows what to expect as they go through the game.
• Cosy Catastrophe: The game begins with the Earth getting fractured and split into several pieces by an Eldritch Abomination who threatens to drown all life on the planet in absolute darkness. Despite such an apocalyptic event, all the cities and locales you visit across the world don't seem any worse for wear.
• Crate Expectations: There are some here and there, used for pressing switches and hurling at enemies. Some of said crates are even explosive.
• Cursed with Awesome: Sonic is transformed into the hedgehog equivalent of a werewolf while retaining his mind and personality. He loses his trademark Super-Speed, but makes up for it with raw physical power.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: If you've trained yourself to instinctively press the jump button in midair near an enemy, you may have to readjust yourself, since the homing attack was moved to share the same button as the boost in the PS3/Xbox 360 versions.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Although Sonic has the same personality in his fierce-looking werehog form, where he is coated in a far darker shade of blue, this is only because of his strong heart.
• Dark Is Evil: All other characters influenced by Dark Gaia become either evil or depressed at night, although a few possessed citizens simply reverse their personalities, making laid-back, meek characters manic and cheerful instead.
• Date Rape Averted: A G-rated version of this trope. Werehog Sonic stops Professor Pickle's possessed assistant from harassing Amy.
• Deadpan Snarker: SA-55 takes every opportunity to snark at Eggman when things go wrong, much to Eggman's annoyance.
• Demonic Possession: Some of the townsfolk become possessed by Dark Gaia at nighttime, either making them depressed, evil, or have some other personality unusual from their normal selves. You can perform 'exorcisms' on them by giving 'em a flash with your camera and then "expel Dark Gaia from their hearts" by defeating waves of Dark Gaia enemies who suddenly appear.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Along with the Hedgehog Engine, designed to make the lighting look as great as possible, Sonic Team also went to a lot of effort to make the animations look smooth. This included minor animations that didn't matter to the game but were pretty cool to be there in the first place. For example, when Sonic walks up to a set of stairs, he will put one leg onto the step in front of him. His idle animations even work with it.
  • The NPC characters in the hubs are also surprisingly well fleshed-out, and have their own subplots and sidequests, some of which span over the entire globe (Hualin from Chun-Nan leaves her village to do something other than make meat buns for the rest of her life, Eric and his wife visit Chun-Nan after it gets restored, Samara from Shamar gets hopelessly lost looking for her home country, etc). If you care to, you can end up doing a whole lot of rather pointless things that amount to little in the overall plot, but still have self-contained meaning.
  • In Eggmanland on the PS3 and Xbox 360 version, if you attempt doing the second Werehog segment (the balance beam pipes) as the Hedgehog, the path to the next area will be blocked by a laser grid with an extra life in front of it.
• Did Not Think This Through: Eggman planned on awakening Dark Gaia to control its power, but did so too early, which kickstarts the plot of the game. Even if he waited until the appropriate time (and that happened to be within his lifetime), he would still have to take into account Light Gaia's role of defeating it.
• Die, Chair, Die!: The Werehog is actually rewarded after missions based on how many orbs (Dark Gaia Force) he collects, much of which can be obtained from destroying random scenery.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When SA-55 snarks about how Eggman's plan is currently failing:
  Eggman: That was... err... all part of my plan! Part of the big picture! Where's the fun in having my plans succeed without any challenge?!
  SA-55: ...
• Discard and Draw: The Werehog transformation appears to strip Sonic of his iconic Super-Speed, but in exchange it grants him Super-Strength and Extendable Limbs
• Does Not Like Spam: Chip really dislikes spicy food and he and Sonic, of course, hates eating anything from Eggmanland. Curiously, Sonic's very low EXP gainage from (presumably nutritious) fish and seafood strongly implies that he hates both.
• Double Jump: Sonic the Werehog can double jump.
• Dramatic Thunder: Shown when you first actually meet Dark Gaia.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Interestingly enough, Windmill Isle, Savannah Citadel, Rooftop Run, and Arid Sands were originally called White Island, Clay Castle, Orange Roofs, and Hot Desert respectively in the original Japanese release before getting completely changed to the former names in the English localization. The other zone names were simply translated as is.
  • The Gaia Colossus was originally called the Temple Giant in Japan.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In regards to the games using the boost formula, the English version is the only one to use the English voice cast that started with 4Kids Entertainment's dub of Sonic X; starting from Sonic Colors, all but Mike Pollock would be replaced and largely become the standard for the rest of the boost formula titles.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Basically the result of Eggman's big laser in the opening — although unusually for this trope, all of the planet's continents are wholly intact, atmosphere and all, merely floating a mile or so higher above the planet's core than usual. In addition, while this trope usually entails killing everyone on the planet, here absolutely nobody is worse for the wear, still living peacefully on the surface; the only issue is some earthquakes here and there, and the gaps between the floating continents being difficult to surmount without air transport. Sonic's objective is to reverse this and set all the continents back down onto the planet's core.
• Easter Egg:
  • In the opening, just before Eggman pushes the button that fires his laser (stop at 3:29), if you look down, you can see a Sega Dreamcast to the lower-left. Who knew Eggman of all people was a classic gamer?
  • And it pops up again, when Eggman is ordering Dark Gaia to kill Sonic. Eggman is such a hardcore Dreamcast fan, he's willing to take it with him to the end of the world!
• Easy Amnesia: Chip. Sonic initially believes it was due to him crashing to Earth near Chip that caused it, but it turns out it's a side-effect of the premature awakening caused by Eggman: Whereas Dark Gaia's physical body shattered apart, Light Gaia/Chip's memories were lost and only recovered upon restoring the sixth Gaia Temple/Chaos Emerald.
• Eldritch Abomination: Dark Gaia is far and away the most monstrous and horrifying creature in the series, along with having the power to back up its menacing appearance.
• Extendable Limbs: The arms of Sonic's Werehog form can stretch extremely far.
• Essence Drop: Enemies and objects contain bits of blue light which are dropped when they're destroyed or killed. These fill up the Unleashed Meter.
• Extra Eyes: Initially, Dark Gaia has three green eyes and two small glowing eyes. When it transforms after having green eyes destroyed, it opens up seven more. That makes twelve eyes in total.
• Eye Scream: This is how Perfect Dark Gaia is defeated: a Super Sonic to the eye.
• Fake Longevity:
  • There are segments near the end of the HD versions where a typical player will probably have to go out and constantly replay the levels for Sun or Moon Medals in order to unlock the next stage. 120 Sun Medals to unlock daytime Jungle Joyride? Ouch.
  • This is also present in the Wii/PS2 version, where (after beating the game) players may need to grind for medals in order to unlock Gaia Gate puzzles, which will allow them to unlock extra levels.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence:
  • Super Sonic struggling and getting forcibly de-powered by being electrocuted and having the Chaos Emeralds ripped from his body then drained. What really makes the scene disturbing is how Sonic is screaming in agony as this happens.
  • Plus, Sonic slamming through Dark Gaia's eyes, causing them to spurt geysers of green blood. This is why the game was rated E10+.
  • Dark Gaia's transformation into his Perfect form involving extra arms ripping out through his flesh with plenty of gushing green blood.
• Fan Remake: As a Game Mod for Sonic Generations, which ports over the levels of the day stages only and addressing much of the complaints about the original (no Fake Longevity, no Trial-and-Error Gameplay, better controls, etc.)
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Every continent in the game is a blatant reference to a real-world location. To list them all:
  • Apotos = Mykonos (an island in Greece)
  • Spagonia = Western Europe, mainly Italy
  • Mazuri = Africa, mainly West Africa, specifically Mali
  • Holoska = the Arctic and Antarctic
  • Chun-Nan = China
  • Shamar = the Middle East, mainly Baghdad and the U.A.E.
  • Empire City = New York City (derived from the state of New York's nickname, the Empire State) and Chicago
  • Adabat = Southeast Asia, mainly Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines
  • Eggmanland = Disneyland (well, it sounds like it should be...)
• Feet-First Introduction: This is how the Werehog is introduced to Chip, as Sonic was holding him upside down whilst he was awakening from unconsciousness.
• Fetch Quest: Bringing the various souvenirs to Pickle. Fortunately, these quests are optional.
• Final Exam Finale: The final stage of the game, Eggmanland, tests the player's knowledge of both the Hedgehog and Werehog gameplay styles by forcing them to repeatedly switch between them in a Marathon Level.
• Fireballs: Fire Masters fire these.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Werehog bosses represent all three elements — Dark Gaia Phoenix (Fire), Dark Moray (Ice), and Dark Guardian (can summon Lightning). There's also the Egg Dragoon, which attacks with all three elements.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: In Eggmanland, there are pipes that shoot out flames at regular intervals.
• Floating Platforms: Present in almost every level. Some fall after being stepped on, others don't.
• Flunky Boss: Dark Guardian, Egg Dragoon, and a few others.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: The boost does this to everything that isn't either razor-sharp or explosive. In fact, many running sections consist of using the boost to knock enemies into other enemies.
• Food Porn: The designers seemed to have a bit of a fixation on making beautifully-rendered, realistic food alongside the cartoony characters. Special mention in particular goes to the Chocolate-Chipped Crème Sundae Supreme — which Chip enjoys so much, that he derives his nickname from it — and Eggman's Hero Sandwich, which the doctor finishes off over the course of about twenty seconds.
• Free-Fall Fight: The fight against the Egg Dragoon is this — towards the Earth's core!
• Funny Background Event: During some cutscenes, while Sonic is talking to someone, Chip is doing something in the background, like swimming in the air, and only contributes to conversations when food comes up.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: The Gaia Colossus saves an unconscious Sonic in his giant hand. Justified in that Chip slowed Sonic's descent before catching him.
• Gimmick Level: All the non-story non-DLC acts are based around some kind of gimmick:
  • Windmill Isle: Grind Rails
  • Savannah Citadel: Drifting
  • Rooftop Run: Homing Attack precision
  • Cool Edge: Boosting across water
  • Dragon Road: Directional Launchers
  • Arid Sands: QTE Pads
  • Skyscraper Scamper: Narrow pathways
  • Jungle Joyride: Air Boost
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The eyes of Dark Gaia's incomplete form glow.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Eggman's Batman Gambit was to trap Sonic and use his Chaos Emerald power to awaken and take control of an ancient evil known as Dark Gaia, but the monster disappears a moment later. The dark energy soon spreads throughout the planet, bringing forth chaotic monsters that wreak havoc in cities and possess and corrupt victims. It would later be revealed that none of this was supposed to happen in the first place, but it did because Eggman woke Dark Gaia up prematurely and results in Chip losing his memories of his role and identity as Light Gaia.
• Gotta Catch Them All: You have to collect medals, save people from spiritual possession, and gain powerup items to advance in the stages in the PS3/Xbox 360 version. This is simplified in the Wii/Playstation 2 version, where you only need to beat the stages and required missions and talk to the right people.
• Green Hill Zone: The first zone, Windmill Isle, acts as this game's equivalent, being a peaceful seaside village with valleys and Windmill Scenery. The Green Hill aspect is far more pronounced in the Wii/PS2 version, which has numerous long stretches of hills and valleys on top of the town portions.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Can be used on any night level enemy that isn't a Dark Titan or Big Mother. The flavour text for the Rex enemies even suggests trying this.
• Guide Dang It!: In the Wii/PS2 version, unlocking the last Chun-nan day mission requires you to collect 150 secret items. And what's even worse, unlocking the last Adabat mission requires you to collect all of them!
• Hailfire Peaks:
  • Adabat combines Palmtree Panic, Jungle Japes, and Temple of Doom.
  • Eggmanland combines Eternal Engine, Circus of Fear, and Lethal Lava Land.
• Hammerspace: Chip has one.
• Healing Boss: In the Wii/PlayStation 2 version, the boss of Shamar; Dark Guardian, will warp to the edge of the arena to heal itself while bombarding you with a barrage of lightning bolts to keep you at bay. If you're skilled enough to dodge the lightning strikes and catch up to it, you can interrupt its healing process and trigger a quick-time event for a bonus chance to undo some of the health it gained back.
• The Heartless: When Dark Gaia breaks apart at the beginning of the game, some of its energy manifests into Minions that are fueled by and feed off of people's negative emotions.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: The controls are explained by Chip in the first level.
• Helpful Mook:
  • The Dark Bat enemies, which are harmless and give the Werehog something to hang on to. There are other variations, which follow another trope entirely. Then there are also fan enemies which can be used to kill enemies or solve a few simple puzzles.
  • Whenever a Thunder Ball shows up next to water, chances are the game's telling to toss it into water to inflict tons of damage.
• Heroic Willpower: The reason Sonic is able to stay in complete control of his Werehog form.
• High-Speed Battle: All of the Hedgehog bosses, as well as the Interceptor's appearances.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • The Gaia Colossus. It's formed from all of the world's Gaia Temples, which are already pretty big.
  • A majority, if not all of Eggman's machines apply as well, mainly the Egg Dragoon.
• I Surrender, Suckers: At the start of the game, as Super Sonic has brought Eggman to his knees, the doctor begs the hedgehog to go easy on him and that he'll turn over a new leaf. Sonic takes the chance to crack wise at his expense (though in the Japanese version, he didn't buy into what eggman said), and is then taken by surprise when Eggman activates the cannon in the space station they're in and traps him as the energy source.
• In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass: All of the Day Bosses. And the Egg Dragoon too.
• Inescapable Ambush: Most of the Werehog battles.
• Irony: Sonic is usually the one who runs away from Amy. Thanks to the Werehog form, however, she's the one who runs away from him, which really bums him out. Interestingly, she was more confused about Sonic's new form, rather than scared.
• Kill It with Fire: Fire Masters shoot fireballs that set Sonic aflame, and are covered in a fiery aura until doused. Sonic can do this to other enemies when he's holding an Egg Flame.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • Jari-Thure comments on Sonic's lack of clothing when the latter first goes through Holoska:
  "You underestimate the dangers of this land. How come you have gloves on but nothing else? You some kind of weirdo?"
  • The Hot Dog Vendor in Chun-nan offers similar commentary to Sonic's unusual ring storage capacity upon completing any of his Ring Trials:
  "Where do you stuff all the rings you pick up?! Don't they slow you down?"
• Land of Dragons: Chun-nan and everything about it.
• Levels Take Flight: Tails transports Sonic on his biplane once more for the two Tornado Defense stages.
• Light 'em Up: Light can expel or suppress Dark Gaia energy. Sonic changes back to normal as long as it's Daytime. As the game continues, Chip obtains an old camera to exorcise possessors.
• Lighter and Softer: Extra ironic considering Sonic's not-quite-Superpowered Evil Side and Dark Gaia being the single most terrifying Eldritch Abomination in the series to date, but Sonic Team still managed it somehow; Unleashed marks the point in the series where the 3D games' plots became as light and simple as the Genesis installments.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Sonic becomes one here, instead of being the usual Fragile Speedster / Glass Cannon, since he only loses rings proportional to his ring count upon being hit (or down to the previous level, in the Wii/PS2's case) and keeps his speed and enough strength to destroy robots (more easily than the Werehog, even).
  • Not only are Red Titans stronger than their blue counterparts, they're also quicker and have faster attacks. There's a reason they're considered to be the toughest enemies in the game.
• Loading Screen: In the HD versions (when switching between day and night), the Xbox 360 version focuses more on Sonic's transformation, whereas the PS3 version has a medallion switching between its sun and moon sides.
• Long Song, Short Scene: The Gaia Gate music in the 360/PS3 version, which only appears in one cutscene.
• Lost Superweapon: The Gaia Temples are really pieces of the Gaia Colossus.
• Lovecraft Lite: The game has shades of Lovecraft's works, especially the backstory behind Dark Gaia, but it has a little bit in common with classic mythological origin/apocalypse stories as well. Yes, there's a giant betentacled monstrosity that destroys the world when it wakes up from an eons-long power nap, but there's also a good entity that puts the world back together and sends Dark Gaia back into slumber.
• Macguffin Escort Mission: Sonic's quest to deliver each of the seven depowered Chaos Emeralds to the seven Gaia Temples in order to repower them and restore the continents of the world.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Eggman pulls this off in the intro movie, trying to catch Sonic.
• Made of Explodium:
  • One sled in Holoska's Cool Edge Act 1 Day stage explodes upon colliding with the side of a glacier. Sonic jumps out just in time.
  • The rollercoaster car Sonic rides in Eggmanland, which spontaneously explodes without warning in midair.
• Magic Pants: Sonic's White Gloves rip off and his shoes change size and shape (and gain spikes) when he becomes the Werehog. They reappear and revert, respectively, when he turns back.
• Marathon Boss: Dark Gaia is every bit as powerful as it has been built up to be and stubbornly refuses to stay down.
• Marathon Level: Eggmanland, a six-act (Wii/PS2) or hour-long (360/PS3) gauntlet through Eggman's main base.
  • All of the werehog levels are about three to four times as long as the day stages, and the day stages are already fairly long by speed level standards in the Sonic series (3-5 minutes). This is averted in the Wii/PS2 version, though at the cost of a greater number of them.
• Market-Based Title: The game was originally called Sonic World Adventure in Japan, but when it came out to America/Europe, it was changed to Sonic Unleashed. Likely to emphasize the Werehog more.
• Meta Mecha: The Egg Dragoon's central cockpit is the repurposed torso of the mech the doctor used in the opening cinematic, looking as if its piloting the Dragoon.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Sonic the Werehog can do this to some of the bigger mooks once he gets his elasticated hands on them.
• Metropolis Level: The HD versions have Empire City (the game's analogue to New York City), also known as Skyscraper Scamper. The day stages focus on running across highways while the night stages focus on platforming across skyscrapers.
• Mighty Glacier: Titans and Big Mothers hit hard, have high health, and won't flinch unless struck with the Werehog's strongest attacks, but move slowly.
• Mini-Boss: Titans and Big Mothers fill this role.
• Multi-Platform: Besides the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions, a version for the mobile phone, the gameplay of such will be more in tune to the Sonic Rush titles.
• Multi-Stage Battle: The Egg Dragoon fight, in which Eggman twice destroys the platform you're standing on.
• Musical Nod: Jungle Joyride (Day) contains a familiar instrument sample that was also used in the Sonic R song "Back In Time", though being a common sample, this was likely just a coincidence.
• Mythology Gag: Back in Sonic Adventure, Eggman/Robotnik dreamt of building an amusement park called Eggmanland/Robotnikland as a start of his quest for world domination. By the end of this game, his dream finally comes to fruition, short-lived as it is.
• Naturally Huskless Coconuts: In one of the cutscenes, Sonic gets hit on a head with half of a coconut shell, followed by bunch of huskless coconuts from a palm tree.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Like the previous games before it, Eggman's drive for controlling a power beyond his understanding always bites him in the ass and dooms the very world he wants to conquer. Here, he builds Eggmanland and a tower that can attract and gather Dark Gaia Energy to restore and control the monster. While the result ends up as you would expect, it did allow Sonic and Chip to save the world by defeating it.
• Nighttime Transformation: Sonic, and in fact the entire world are subject to this because of Dark Gaia Energy.
• Nintendo Hard: The Playstation 3/Xbox 360 non-story Acts, Eggman Land, and Dark Gaia. The Day rankings can also be soul crushingly brutal.
• Nitro Boost: The Sonic Boost.
• No Endor Holocaust: The planet shattering into seven pieces has no noticeable ill effects on the planet other than Dark Gaia being unleashed.
• No Name Given:
  • Professor Pickle's assistant. Surprising, considering that every other NPC has a name.
  • Except for the Ice Cream Vendor.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: After supposedly getting overpowered with ease by Super Sonic, Eggman lures him into a trap and uses him as a power source to blow up the Earth after the hedgehog gets a bit too cocky with him.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Averted, Sonic loses rings proportional to his ring count when he gets hit in this game, with 20 rings being the minimum amount lost. The Wii/PS2 version drops you to the previous level instead (60, 30, or 0 rings, if you had 90+, 60-90, and 30-60 respectively).
• Painful Transformation: Though it's not as explicit or as inhuman-looking as most examples, it's implied that Sonic's under a lot of pain when turning into the Werehog. It becomes really noticeable in Night of the Werehog (the in-house short released to promote the game), because for the last few minutes Sonic's been smiling and messing around — only to stop in front of a window looking out to the full moon, where he breaks into uncontrollable shaking, nearly collapses, and (once it's all over) howls horribly.
  • Averted in the cutscene where Chip reveals that he is Light Gaia — when Sonic transforms here, he barely flinches. It's implied that he's gotten used to the transformations by now.
• Palmtree Panic: Jungle Joyride combines this with Jungle Japes, with the first half having you boost through tropical jungles, beaches and seaside villages, before the second half has you go deeper into the jungle and platform through ancient ruins.
• Pals with Jesus: Sonic's pals with Chip, a.k.a. Light Gaia.
• Pause Scumming: Since the game doesn't hide the QTE prompts when you pause, if you pause every single time the moment a prompt shows up, it gives you plenty of time to see it and hit the correct buttons. This is very helpful in the Tornado Defense stages.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: In the DLC stages, there are none of the usual art/music/video collectables or medals to be found, meaning that secret areas instead opt to reward players with rings, lives, or, on the night stages, EXP crystals. Windmill Isle Act 1-2 and Jungle Joyride Act 1-2 in particular are both very generous with EXP if you defeat every enemy and smash every breakable object along the way to the goal, resulting in around 30 full bars of EXP to spend per visit (compared to the typical full-length story-mandatory stages, which tend to only give out about 10 bars of EXP on average).
  • Windmill Isle Act 1-3 is also rather egregious as far as level grinding goes due to being exclusively a battle royale against a horde of progressively sronger waves of enemies. Provided you're skilled enough to make it through you can easily get a good ten or twenty bars of EXP out of the first wave or two alone.
    • What pushes these levels into this trope is that due to how the DLC was implemented, these stages can be accessed immediately when you gain access to the Stage Select for the respective continent meaning you could access the Apotos acts after clearing only enough of the story for Tails to give you access to the world map. Provided you distribute the EXP you've obtained until that point so that you can comfortably handle the sheer amount of enemies you fight, you can handily power-level both Sonic and Werehog to mid or late game levels with only a couple runs through of either act. The counterpart Daytime acts don't count for this, however, due to needing skills you wouldn't have access to like the Lightspeed Dash and Wall-Jump (and also being Harder Than Hard to the point of not being worth the effort so early in the game).
• Personal Space Invader: The Egg Shackles and the Egg Bursts stick to Sonic and slowly takes rings away before (in the case of the Egg Burst) exploding.
• Photo Montage: There's a photo montage during the credits.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: The Dark Guardian, a boss, is this when compared the other bosses: It's tougher than a Big Mother or a Titan (although way easier to beat than the latter). Can you believe it's barely any taller than a Deep Nightmare?
• Pop Quiz: In HD versions, some of the people in hub worlds can give you some of them.
• Post-Adventure Adventure: The opening cutscene has Sonic attacking a space fleet that Eggman has assembled, which wouldn’t look out of place in the finale of other Sonic games, including Sonic using his Super Mode, which also indicates that he collected the Chaos Emeralds during the lead up to this.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Sonic faints after defeating Dark Gaia, showing just how tough this battle was and how much he had to overexert himself to win. Unfortunately for him, he was in his Super Mode at the time and floating hundreds of feet above the Earth's core — luckily, Chip/Gaia Colossus catches him in time.
• Pressure Plate: In the Nighttime levels, they sometimes appear as a means to open up pathways.
• Press X to Not Die:
  • Jungle Joyride Act 1 and Eggmanland are chock-full of this sort of quick-time events.
  • The HD version's final boss gives us Press X 60 times To Not Die.
• Primal Chest-Pound: Sonic will do this whenever you get an A rank on a werehog stage.
• Pun:
  • The hot dogs sold in Holoska? "Chilly" dogs.
  • One of Eggman's boss machines, Egg Devil Ray, is most probably called so because it attacks you with laser beams. However, the main unit happens to be shaped like an electric ray (as in, a fish). Good luck realising this if you're not a native English speaker — or just happen to not know fish in general.
• Puzzle Boss: Shamar's boss, Dark Guardian (at least in the PS3/360 version; the Wii/PS2's version is a straight-up brawl).
• Quad Damage: One of the powerups in nighttime stages boosts attack.
• Ramen Slurp: Sonic is shown doing this in the photo montage in the credits.
• Reformulated Game: The PS2/Wii versions of Unleashed are vastly different from the PS3/Xbox 360 versions in that they have completely different level design, the daytime boost functions differently in that it has multiple smaller bars that can be spent for a short boost rather than a full gauge that allows a boost as long as it has energy, and the nighttime stages have vastly different combat mechanics and are much shorter.
• Respawning Enemies: Helpful Mooks tend to respawn when killed or destroyed.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: After some pretty bleak games in the era following Sonic Adventure 2, Unleashed sheds the darkness for a happier theme, ironic considering the main antagonist is an Eldritch Abomination of darkness and night. The colors in the world and the art style are perkier and brighter than something like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Rewarding Vandalism: Break pots and stuff, get items.
• Roar Before Beating: The Dark Moray roars before you actually battle it.
• RPG Elements: The PS3/Xbox 360 version has them, where you can collect crystals to earn EXP, which you can then dump into various skills for both Hedgehog and Werehog to improve their abilities (with much more emphasis on the Werehog). The Wii/PS2 has a simplified version in the form of Dark Gaia Force, which automatically improves the Werehog's abilities at set intervals of Force collected.
• Rubber Man: Sonic the Werehog is able to stretch his arms out and attack enemies from a distance or grabbing onto poles to swing around. He first finds this out when saving an ice cream cone from spilling onto the floor in Apotos, where he grabs onto it with one of his arms.
• Running on All Fours: Sonic the Werehog does this to move faster, as his legs are too short to allow easy running in a bipedal stance.
• Satiating Sandwich: The Hero Sandwich food item, which provides a big 50 EXP when eaten by Sonic. They're amongst the best food items Sonic can eat in terms of EXP value.
• Scenery Porn:
  • Particularly daytime stages in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, especially when you are in full motion. Nighttime ain't exactly ugly either.
  • Even the Wii/PS2 version's quite a sight to see, particularly the Gaia Gates.
  • The intro of the game (in both versions) shows a lot of it as well.
• Shifting Sand Land: Arid Sands takes place in a setting inspired by Middle East.
• Ship Tease: There's a bit of it for Sonic and Amy in this game; it starts with Sonic feeling upset when Amy doesn't even recognize him in his Werehog form (ironic considering past instances) and is even reluctant to speak to her afterward. You can even agree to take her out on a date before you head off to Eggmanland.
• Shockwave Stomp: Titans like to do that.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: During the final battle, the comical villain Dr. Eggman, following his defeat in the Egg Dragoon battle, is swatted out of the center of the Earth by the monstrous Dark Gaia.
• Shoot the Medic First: Well, they're called Heal Masters and all you've got is your fists, but you've got the idea. Heaven help you if one shows up with Titan backup. Your death will be slow and painful.
• Shoryuken: Or more like Sho-Hog-ken and Sho-Claw-Ken.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of Werehog Sonic's moves is called the Sho-hog-ken.
  • According to the Directory, Yasmine cannot decide on a team name and had chosen "Full Mettle Shamalchemists" two weeks ago.
  • The final unlockable video (at least in the PS2/Wii version) is clearly based on a scene from Kung Fu Panda.
  • Also, the final battle in the Wii version appears to have a homage to Punch-Out!!.
  • When viewing souvenirs you've handed to Professor Pickle in the PS3/360 version, when you look at the description for the Spagonian Cameo:
    "Ooh, my, it's so lovely... So very... precious..."
• Silence of Sadness: When Amy doesn't recognize Sonic while he's in his Werehog form, Sonic feels rather down. Aside from a few groans, he doesn't talk for the rest of the cutscene and doesn't respond to Chip's unsuccessful attempts to reassure him that he's not scary.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Cool Edge, being set in the freezing, Arctic inspired Holoska.
• Soft Reboot: Unleashed, despite not erasing the continuity brought up by the Adventure games, is a self-contained title that changes the tone of the series. Unleashed goes away with the realistic looking human cast from Adventure 2 and 2006, and makes them as cartoonish as the anthropomorfic Sonic characters. The world is redesigned and retconned to be more fantastical instead of the realistic one the mentioned titles had. Unleashed is more beginner friendly than Sonic Heroes was ever intended to be.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: During the credits, "Endless Possibilities" (Sonic's theme; 90s pop rock) plays first, while "Dear My Friend" (Chip's theme; a slower, more somber song) plays second. The Wii/PS2 version's credits show various scenes from the game, in chronological order — thus, the first song plays while they show cutscenes from the beginning of the game, and the second song plays mainly during scenes from the last few levels. In short, the song about friendship plays while you see Dark Gaia turn into Perfect Dark Gaia.
• The Spiny: Enemies covered in electricity cause Collision Damage. You can turn this on other enemies, too.
• Stalactite Spite: Some icicles in the daytime stages for Holoska tend to fall when approaching them.
• Stealth Insult: SA-55 manages to sneak a few in, though he's usually more upfront with his snark.
  <clapping> "Your skills at self-aggrandizement are unparalleled."
  [Eggman continues to laugh evilly for a few moments, before realizing what he said and smacking him.]
• Stylistic Suck: When you get an E rank, the rendition of the main theme that plays is hilariously awful.
• Super Drowning Skills:
  • Averted in the daytime stages, as long as you're running fast enough (see Walk on Water below). Nighttime stages aren't so lucky — the Werehog sinks like a rock.
  • Sonic the Werehog doesn't actually sink when he touches water; rather, he inexplicably drowns instantly as soon as his head touches water, and his body floats to the surface.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: Right before the final room in Eggmanland, a group of canisters opposite the switch that opens the door conveniently provides all three power-ups for you. Guess what's in the next room?
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For a certain plot device—the Eclipse Cannon is a Kill Sat that can harness the energy of all seven chaos emeralds to fire a Wave-Motion Gun that will create an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, but apparently Dr. Eggman didn't care to use it, so he built his own instead.
• Symbol Swearing: Chip's reaction to eating the Canned Horror.
• Take That, Audience!: If you complete a stage at E-rank, you get a version of the results screen music performed obscenely out-of-tune and poorly-played.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The game's English logo writes its subtitle in a battered-looking font, with a prominent scratch mark in the center. This represents Sonic's bestial Werehog form, which gives him sharp claws.
• Theme Park Version: With the exception of Eggmanland, all the continents are thinly veiled analogues of real-world locations.
• Theme Song Power Up: Endless Possibilities got a completely orchestrated remix for its Final Boss.
• Throat Light: Dark Gaia, who has purple light emanating from deep within its throat.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: After transforming Sonic into his Werehog form, Eggman opens the airlock to suck him out into space, taking the Chaos Emeralds with him.
• Time-Limit Boss: The battle against Egg Dragoon only lasts as long as Sonic has platforms to land on. It is easy to miss since you can whale on his weak points and end it in just a few minutes. That said, if for some reason you take too long (around 8 minutes), Sonic will run out of platforms to fight on, causing Eggman to send him falling to his death with one final attack.
  Chip: Sonic! There's nothing left beneath us!
  Sonic: Rgh! End of the line!
• Tough Beetles: The first boss of the game is Egg Beetle, a giant mech designed after the stag beetle that is quite durable and possesses powerful pincers along with an array of multiple weapons. It also has an updated version called Egg Lancer, which is a combination of salvaged parts of Egg Beetle and Egg Death Ray.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sonic and his chili dogs, as well as Chip and his ubiquitous chocolate bars. Professor Pickle is also very particular about his cucumber sandwiches. Which double as a clever reference to his name, as pickles are made from cucumbers.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The last acts in the game, particularly Eggmanland, have no other way to win aside from dying tons of times and memorizing all the hazards by heart. The level designers were apparently aware of this, given that 1-up tokens (which mercifully respawn on death this time, unlike Sonic '06) are often located in front of checkpoints preceding some of the more frustrating sections.
• True Final Boss: Averted; this is the first game in the series where the Super Sonic battle doesn't need to be unlocked with any extra effort.
• Turns Red: All bosses begin fighting more desperately as you drain their health.
• Twinkle in the Sky: This happens to Eggman in the PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 version of the fight with Egg Dragoon, after Sonic rips and flings him out of the mech.
• Twinkle Smile: In the PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 version of the fight with Dark Gaia, Sonic does this right before destroying its third eye.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Beyond the two primary gameplay styles already present, the Tornado Defense Acts in the PS3/360 version adds in a third entirely different gameplay style by having you complete a series of QTEs to defeat enemies in the air while on the Tornado -1.
• Unexpected Kindness: When Sonic (as the Werehog) wakes up an unconscious Chip, Chip initially panics and fears that Sonic wants to eat him. Once Sonic actually shows concern for his well-being by asking him if he's alright, Chip realizes he's not dangerous. Later, he helps the amnesiac Chip get his memories back.
• Unmoving Plaid: It's very subtle, but in the PS360 version, a static swirly vapor-like texture can be seen through Dark Gaia's creatures.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: All the anthropomorphic characters, but especially the Werehog. Most of the human characters don't seem to care much about a hairy monstrosity with spiky shoes and super stretchy arms.
• Variable Mix: When Sonic uses his speed boost, the bass instruments of the background music almost disappear due to the air rushing by.
• Verbed Title: Unleashed.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Enemies in Werehog stages don't actually fade until their death animation ends. Any attack interrupting that just resets the animation. Knowing that, one can spend as long as they wish keeping the poor abomination on the edge of life and death to rack up a combo.
  • You can attack citizens to your heart's content, and they'll react accordingly.
  • The first few times you meet Wentos, you can tease him through the Dialogue Tree by roaring at him, and then pretending that you're going to eat him.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Eggman in the opening when Sonic goes Super... or at least it seems like he was, only to reveal he was just luring Sonic into his trap.
• Villainous Breakdown: Eggman will get progressively more unhinged and bloodthirsty the further you get into the Egg Dragoon fight, topping with his enraged disbelief at Sonic's continued survival. Take too long to defeat him, and his patience finally runs out before he sends Sonic falling to his death.
• Vocal Evolution: Jason Griffith's performance has Sonic has noticeably become more energized and emotional compared to Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog. Apparently, he took some vocal training after Sonic '06. And according to this interview, he was actually sick when recording his lines for this game.
• Voice Grunting: Both versions have this outside of cutscenes, with the exception of Chip's in-gameplay tutorial dialogue in the Wii/PS2 version, which strangely enough, unlike the 360/PS3 version, is fully voiced — several times over in fact, to account for the button inputs of every possible controller you can use for the game.
• Walking Disaster Area: Pretty much everywhere Sonic runs, he leaves a lot of debris of destroyed public property.
• Walk on Water: Run, rather; this is required in several daytime stages. If you go any slower than top speed, Sonic will sink. This is taken to purely absurd levels in Cool Edge Act 2 and the Downloadable Content stage Dragon Road Act 5, which are composed almost entirely of water!
• Wallet of Holding: Lampshaded after completing some ring trials: "Whoa! Where do you stuff all those rings? Don't they slow you down?"
• Wham Shot: Not just for this game, but the Sonic series up to this point. After a whole game of exploring the planet, there’s just one final part of the world to explore, so by this point, the player is probably assuming it’s another parody of a real-world country, or just a general Eggman base at best. You don’t even go there from the world map- Sonic has to talk to Tails in Shamar to give him and Chip a ride. Following a ride on the Tornado (with a minigame in the HD versions), Sonic and Chip make their landing in a red carnival. Then Eggman’s laugh is heard, and the camera finally focuses on the entrance to this stage, with its name written right across the top— Eggmanland. That’s right- after 10 years and many games talking about it, Eggman’s finally built his life’s ambition!
  Eggman: “Welcome to Eggmanland, the brain child of my heart and soul!”
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?:
  • It is left unclear what exactly happened to Eggmanland when Dark Gaia arose from the core, though it may have been demolished. The park's fate was eventually revealed by Sonic Channel (the Japanese Sonic website) via a 2021 story that had Sonic and Rouge explore Eggmanland, explaining that the park is still intact, but has been abandoned by Dr. Eggman.
  • The fate of the Chaos Energy Cannon after Eggman used it to awaken Dark Gaia is left unclear.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Unleashed marks when Eggman finally succeeds in creating his dream amusement park of Eggmanland. It is every bit as unforgiving as you would expect.
• Why Won't You Die?: Said by Dr. Eggman halfway into the fight with the Egg Dragoon:
  "Stubborn little pincushion! Give up and die already!"
• World Tour: The game uses obvious Theme Park Versions, but they're not fooling anyone. Besides, in Japan it's even named Sonic World Adventure!
• Wreaking Havok: The Havok physics are much better implemented here than in the last 3D adventure. It's best shown in sections where some enemies fly in front of you while you're at top speed to try to laser you, and the best way to beat them is to knock other enemies into them.
• Wrestler in All of Us: One of the Werehog's attacks is a spinning piledriver.
• Your Size May Vary: In the PS3/Xbox 360 versions, the Dark Guardian is the same size as the Werehog. He's almost the size of a Titan in the PS2/Wii versions.

---

"I will never forget you. I will be with you always. A part of the earth you tread."

I see it, I see it!
And now it's all within my reach! (Endless possibility!)
I see it, I see it now!
It's always been inside of me!
(And now I feel so free! Endless possibility!)