New Sonic Unleashed stages released

[Vic Boss]

I don't really care for Empire City or Eggman Land much, but I'd be most pleased if we got Apotos DLC this week.

[Detective Shadzter]

Apotos and Shamar Adventure Pack now on Xbox Live Marketplace

Seems we've got a bundle of two packs this time.

Still only costs 250 Microsoft Points too but it sucks both areas dont get the same amount of stages as the others have received so far.

Download all-new Apotos & Shamar adventures! Five daytime & four nighttime stages will take you through a quaint seaside town and ancient ruins in a desert oasis! This pack includes three brand new stages and six new missions.

Link -

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/me...5-d80253450812/

[JezMM]

Downloading now. It promises 9 total stages, but only three are gonna be brand new.

My guesses:

Six missions will consist of:

Hard Apotos Day Act 2

Hard Shamar Day Act 1

Alternative Apotos Night Act 1

Extended Shamar Night Act 1

Possibly hard versions of Apotos Act 1 and/or 2. If just one of those, Shamar Act 2 might be rejigged to be a whole different level, like Spagonia Act 2. I can't imagine how they could make that QTE-fest harder and funner with what's already there.

As for three new stages... well, I really hope we get one new day level for Apotos, one new night level, and one new day level for Shamar. I'll give my usual dorky review after playing.

Oh, one other thing... 700mb... Biggest pack yet.

[Detective Shadzter]

Playstation Store Japan has got the pack too -

http://www.nextgamer.nl/index.php?pagina=n...zen&id=2356

I've been downloading the pack for 20 mins now on Xbox Live and still only at 29%

EDIT:

Downloaded now.

Shamar consists of

Sonic:

Act 1-2: Get to the goal in time!

Act 3: Find the Chao!

Werehog:

Act 2: Head for the goal

Act 3: Head for the goal!

Apotos consists of

Sonic:

Act 1-2: Head for the goal!

Act 2-2: Head for the goal!

Act 4: Head for the goal! <--- this Act wants you DEAD at all costs

Werehog:

Act 1-2: Head for the goal!

Act 1-3 Head for the goal!

[JezMM]

Review time from me! As usual may be spoilers of new stuff.

APOTOS DAY

Act 1-2

Expecting a cute little mini hard level of the tutorial? No. This level is awesome and the best on the pack. It's a full length level that takes you from the goal of the original level, across the bridge, out to sea, back to land, to the start, into the sky, back to the start, then all the way to the end again. You go all over and there's a lot of cool new set-ups and platforming. Awesome stuff. 50% new content.

Act 2-2

Standard fare, hard version of regular level. Most difficulty comes from the removal of a lot of automated gimmicks like ramps and orange rings. You have to jump all these sections yourself now. 20% new content.

Act 4

I guess side-stepping would be the gimmick of the day here. Very pretty, set sort of between Act 1 and Act 2 in terms of time of day. It's a very straightforward level. Run to the end, avoid stuff. Towards the end even bottomless pits are on the agenda for stuff to avoid with sidestepping. Interestingly, one tiny segment allows you to pointlessly run on the water if you fall, but it's very hard to recover from here. 100% new content.

APOTOS NIGHT

Act 1-2

Alas, no new content at all for Apotos Night. This act starts you in the final corridor, and you must make your way back to the park area with lots of new hazards along the way. Ends with a very tough fight against a Big Mother, two healing/enemy boosting wizards, and two paralysing wizards. Will be difficult for low level Werehogs. 30% new content.

Act 1-3

A fight to the death in the final area of the stage. Basically, it's you against a constant stream of enemies. The arena changes shape a few times to keep things interesting, and it ends with a fight against the toughest Big Titan yet. In Unleashed mode you do the same amount of damage you'd do to an Eggmanland Titan when not in Unleashed mode. 20% new content.

SHAMAR DAY

Act 1-2

Pretty tough, but no moreso than the Missing Sister mission. If you've cleared that you shouldn't have too much of a problem with this. There are new hazards scattered everywhere, and some added sections of very claustrophobic 2D platforming. Also, the falling columns now fall towards you as well as to the left and right. 30% new content.

Act 3

It's a huge open stage in which you must track down ten chao, as in Spagonia. It's 3D this time though, so it can be tricky. Most of the chao are either in plain sight from a mandatory gimmick, or hanging out in little shop stands (as seen in the town area of Act 1). If you pay attention, you'll find them all along the way, but if you reach the final one at the temple and haven't found them all, you're in for a good search to track down the last one(s)... What doesn't help here is there are a couple of very familiar sections to the level, so there are points you think you've gone round in a circle, but haven't yet. Kinda confusing. Not as fun as it could have been, but alright all the same. It's not just running around finding them just to clarify, as said, the level is more of a wide open space, but you'll have to take somewhat of a linear route to find them all, and there are a few nice platforming set-pieces along the way. 100% new content.

SHAMAR NIGHT

Act 2

Despite being called Act 2, this is the continuation of Act 1. It's a pretty fun level, but quite long - understandable that it was cut. We see some more of the snake type enemies from Act 1, and there are some really cool combat situations they haven't done before. Stop reading now if you don't want em spoiled, but there's a good emphasis on throwing things, involving a fun ambush near the start, and some sniping of flying enemies later on. 100% new content.

Act 3

A huge temple with the majority of gameplay being centered around jumping between climbing poles. Unfortunately... this isn't a very fun level. There are a lot of places where, due to the way the Werehog sort of swings forward as he grabs a pole, you run into hazards at the bottom of the pole and fall on the way, even though you were high enough and targeting a safe part of the pole. It's okay, but, nothing special.

It's a good pack, certainly get your money's worth with 9 missions instead of the standard 6 (for the same price) as 6 too), but I am a bit dissapointed they went down the route of combining these packs (I'm guessing it'll be the same for Empire City and Adabat). Apotos is one of my favourite places, and while Act 1-2 was seriously awesome, Act 4 was just ordinary and we got no new Night stages for it at all. I am a bit sad. Shamar's always been my least favourite continent too, so having one of my faves share with my least-fave was a bit grrr-inducing.

In terms of difficulty, these are some of the hardest night stages yet. For daytime, I'd put it on par with the Spagonia pack.

[Tamaki Kawazoe <3]

Damn, I KNEW I shouldn't have spent all my points in one shot. Now I have to pay. The Act 1 remake of Apotos sounds great.

[JezMM]

A retrospective review of Shamar Night Act 3... it sucks. D=

It taught me to stop raging so much when I repeatedly fail at a game at least, if only because I almost just broke my laptop due to getting frustrated at it not turning off some music after I was already angry at the game.

First time I played I got lucky... this time I didn't and discovered that it's possibly the worst DLC stage thus far. Because I somehow beat it easily first time I didn't feel the need to mention that the stage ends with a fucking Big Titan on the smallest platform ever. All Big Titan's attacks send you flying, and the collision detection is wacky (you can be standing behind him and he'll hit you with an arm swing). Random one hit kills. Not fun. D=

Edited May 21, 2009 by JezMM

[Eternal EX]

^ Lame! I doubt I'll be playing that stae very often.

And lamer, Combining 2 continents for one pack? its a good idea because you do get your money's worth but bad because they know they could've made some more money if they released it separately (and added a few more stages for each area.) And another chao searching thing? Oh come on, why not just give us the chao garden and stop with the searching? The pack sounds kinda fun though (hopefully better than fuckin holoska).

DOWNLOADING NOW!

[Ferr]

WTF was Sega thinking making you fight a Titan in a fucking small platform with 3 fuckin wizards trowing fire to your ass? (lol yeah im frustrated right now I lost like 20 lives on it).

First Titan I was lucky, he send me flying and luckily I hit a checkpoint that was after the fight while flying down to my death lol but now im in the 2nd fight and is driving me nuts...

Anyways, just for Apotos 1-2 and Shamar 3 this pack is really worth it.

I enjoyed Shamar Night 2, though teres still left some beta areas on it (basically the parts with broken pillars and the platform part shown in the trailer).

Edited May 21, 2009 by Ferr

[JezMM]

I enjoyed Shamar Night 2, though teres still left some beta areas on it (basically the parts with broken pillars and the platform part shown in the trailer).

Oh yeah, forgot about those. Oh well. Guess we'll never know how they were originally intended to be played. D=

[Ferr]

Well If im not mistaken theres still one broken pillar accesible via the wall trick if you play the normal stage.

What is lost is that platform section of the trailer

[Eternal EX]

WTF was Sega thinking making you fight a Titan in a fucking small platform with 3 fuckin wizards trowing fire to your ass? (lol yeah im frustrated right now I lost like 20 lives on it).

First Titan I was lucky, he send me flying and luckily I hit a checkpoint that was after the fight while flying down to my death lol but now im in the 2nd fight and is driving me nuts...

Dont feel alone, I too struggled with that shit! All i did was attack the wizards with the water thing and let the titan do the rest lol. Then finally went KAOKIN (unleashed) to hurry and finish the titan. That shit made me loose like 6 lives. Apotos day 1-2 is great! soo is freakin shamar act 2. The apotos night stages weren't really alll good but i did get a kick out of the survival one. But it gave me a B rank. Swear i raped everything especially the over powered Titan. Oh well time to see how Apotos day 2-2 and shamar's day stages are. Hopefully they are kinda fun to play.

Edit:

What is lost is that platform section of the trailer sad.gif

Dammit I forgot about that. Dammit sega!

Edited May 21, 2009 by SHADIC360©

[Ferr]

Dont feel alone, I too struggled with that shit! All i did was attack the wizards with the water thing and let the titan do the rest lol. Then finally went KAOKIN (unleashed) to hurry and finish the titan. That shit made me loose like 6 lives.

Yeah mi problem is I was going raw to the Titan, ignoring the wizards, though those didnt gave me much problem (but now that I think I should have killed them just for Unleash power). The main problem, as JezMM said is that sometimes the Titan would hit you with his punch even if you're on his back.

Oh well time to see how Apotos day 2-2 and shamar's day stages are. Hopefully they are kinda fun to play.

I loved Shamar act 3

[Eternal EX]

Wow shamar's hard mode was brutal. I died soo many times on it but still passed and got a be. I'm not even gonna try shamar's chao mission just because I didn't like spagonia's.

[Blue Blood]

The chao stage is amazing. It really shows how Sonic can work in an open environment. I hope that future Sonic games use stages like this. Really, they rock.

[Detective Shadzter]

Just checked the EU Playstation Store and no Sonic Unleashed DLC this week which I expected since it only just got updated a week ago with the Holoska Adventure Pack and these packs usually release every two weeks.

Also checked the U.S. Playstation Store update on the Official U.S. Playstation Blog and no Sonic Unleashed DLC there either -

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/05/21/...-86/#more-10570

[ovarloard]

Chao stages are looking awesome. It's stages like these that alone make me desperate for a 360 and a copy of Unleashed (360 version, of course).

[Detective Shadzter]

Beware the Invisible Barrier of Doom!

Seems there is a glitch in the new DLC that blocks a path in Arid Sands Act 1-2 unless you use a work around trick. The glitch is an invisible barrier that hurts Sonic when he touches it and kills him when he has no rings. Hopefully Sonic Team will patch this or at least fix it for it's U.S. and European PS3 release.

Link -

http://www.tssznews.com/2009/05/22/latest-...d-dlc-glitched/

YouTube video of the glitch -

[Eternal EX]

What the hell? I'm soo glad I dont take the lower path then lol.

[PSI Wind]

Major lolz is to be had on that glitch.......and my wording .

[Tamaki Kawazoe <3]

I actualy encountered that glitch in Mazuri Act 4 before.

[DaBatGuy]

I would have never known about that glitch. I haven't used that path even once after getting the Speeding Ticket trophy.

[Jason Berry]

Apotos act 1-2 is my favorite DLC level yet!

[TranslucentDuck]

Hmm... weird glitch. I fell down there by accident but I'm sure that didn't happen to me, I'll have to double check.

I think this DLC pack has to be one of my favourites. I love all the Apotos daytime levels and I think that the area where you collect the Chao in in Shamar is the perfect example of what the Town Areas should be.

[speedfreak]

So I haven't really been paying attention to the DLC for SU. I have the PS3 version. Are there any must have adventure packs? Or is it all so-so?

Edited May 24, 2009 by speedfreak