Dynamic Reviews - December 1st, 2008

Sonic Unleashed - Well, let's get right down to it, shall we? Sonic Unleashed is kind of stuck between the incredibly awful Shadow the Hedgehog and the abysmal Sonic the Hedgehog (X360/PS3). Meaning: There are actually a few bright spots, but like my grandpappy used to say, "No matter how much you polish a turd...it's a turd nonetheless."

Sonic Unleashed was said to be, according to SEGA, the return of the Sonic you know and love; back to his 2D roots. Unfortunately, as stated previously in a dynamic review, the game barely scratches the surface on that promise.

In fact, the game is predominately done with the "Werehog" sections, which play off as a mix of God of War and Furby. The problem is two things: 1) The camera is very bad when it comes to platforming and 2) As pertaining to the Wii version, using waggle on both the Nunchuk and Wii-mote to attack and the buttons and stick to parry and dodge, combat becomes an arduous task of shaking and convulsing to the point of near epilpetic fit.

Now, if the "Werehog" sections were a minor part of the game, this would be a minor wrinkle in an otherwise decent game. Sadly, it's 80% of the game and it feels like the game uses these sections to pad the rest of the game in time restraints. The good parts of the game, which is the 2 1/2-D old school Sonic style levels, which consists of maybe 5% of the game itself. The last 15% ends up being the 3D, behind the back stages, a la Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Add to the awful amount of cut-scenes and text boxes for incredibly generic characters in the game and you have a 10 - 12 hour game that brings more pain and embarassment than your friends finding out you play as a character called Cream the Rabbit. Current: 33%

Hasbro Family Game Night - Would you believe...nay, WANT TO BELIEVE...that I was excited for this game to be released? Call me crazy, but the fact of playing Boogle, Yathzee, Connect Four and other Hasbro board games had me interested in seeing how it turned out. And you know what, it all turned out just fine.

Games play exactly as you expect them to play, and the added variants of each game (example: Connect Four has "Advanced" and "Power-up!" mode) make the game more fun to play with others or by yourself.

There really isn't much more else to say about this title except that if you want to save money on purchasing these games and you have a Wii, you might be interested in picking up this game. Revolving: 72%

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix - Finally, there's the impossibly long titled (and awaited) fighting game for the XBLA SSF2THDR...hey, I'm not spelling it out all the time. This game deserves a lot of praise by recreating the balance and precision of the last Street Fighter II title.

However, it's not perfect. I have yet to even get into an online match because of the glitchy matchmaking system. A severe disappointment, since this is what people were looking forward to when it came to this game.

Next, some characters and stages actually look worse with the update. Fei Long looks incredibly bland, as does his stage, and Guile looks absolutely ugly in this current state right now.

Only time will tell if the balance is out of whack and who will be a top character (Fei Long and Balrog are my favs thus far), but for right now, I can't whole heartedly recommend the download, even though the updated (read: easier to perform) moves and some excellent stages give reason to keep playing. Revolving: 64%

That's it for this past weekend...next is Far Cry 2