A lot of these level designs look similar to SXSG. It's awesome how a 2008 game is this good back then. Why? Because 2008 is farther away than 2032. 😢

It's funny looking at this knowing Unleashed is already one of the harder games in the series, which makes me wonder how people would've reacted to these if they ever made it into the final game. Also, 56:19 made me laugh more than it should've.

Kind of an aside, but I honestly wouldn't mind Unleashed with a boost gauge drain as fast as it is in the debug. If it's anything like how it affected my gameplay of [the first three levels of] Sonic Omens, it'd make routing a hell of a lot more interesting than 'straight line' by virtue of having to maintain boost instead of reliably having a full gauge nearly all the time. Great video, thanks for documenting this! :)

My few shoutouts to various moments (out of many I was entertained by): GENERAL - I had no idea this game was supposed to have Hard and Very Hard act layouts. 8:36 - ERROR 404: OBJECT NOT FOUND, SONICUNLEASHED.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING 27:40 - It's funny how this Rooftop Run mission's layout is the only one out of the Hard/Very Hard layouts that has a skydiving end trigger...... 54:56 - They really cooked with this act's hard layout! 1:06:20 - Xenia REALLY doesn't like Jungle Joyride D-1 for some reason. 1:17:20 - Oh god, they were planning a hard layout for Eggmanland?!

Can I activate debug mode on the xbox one?

Oh hey! My least played mod got featured! Thanks for showcasing it! P/s: I couldn't implement very hard layout of Cool Edge to the mod bc of the crash so you have always been playing the hard version only. Funny that it already made some ppl lose their minds xD Dragon Road only used hard layout as well bc the very hard one is insanely difficult at the beginning.

1:36 minor spelling mistake 🔥 nah but seriously this video is very cool it’s definitely interesting to see how these stages could of been in the retail game if they had these harder versions, I personally love when things get made harder so seeing this in the game definitely would of been really cool

One thing I noticed, alot of these got combined and then iterated on to form the act 1-2s, like the start of very hard rooftop run for example

That backwards dash panel in Arid Sands is peak level design LMAO

This was an extremely pleasant surprise to have in my sub box. Always love the little sprinkles of humor and running jokes throughout. Kind of a shame to see some of these have some decent work put into them and not all of them being used. It really would have been interesting to see what would have happened if these and the DLC stages were just part of the main game. Certainly, it would have been a bit bloated on content, but still would have been an interesting challenge for full 100%

1:07:30 QTE Failled successfuly….:(

I wondered if these scrapped hard/very hard variants were the inspiration for the DLC stages, and if they were used as the base for them. I also find it interesting how you used a mod to put the PlayStation buttons in while playing the Xbox 360 version. Made me think you were using RPCS3 for this.

This is cool! I love Sonic Unleashed! Does the Werehog levels also have very hard variants?

YESSSSS1!!!!!!!! LETS HAVE MORE OF THESEEEEE!!!!

It’s pretty cool that these unused hard/very hard versions exist even if most are incomplete, I like that they all have a use in the game still with the missions (unless you’re adabat which i never realised that country didn’t have any missions…weird) My eyes genuinely went wide eyed when I saw eggmanland hard because oh god knowing that stage could have had 2 harder versions terrifies me lol.

So the most important question is this: are the layouts hard because they put so many spikes and exploding dudes in the level, or is it merely a skill issue? Also love the video, cut content videos are my drug addiction

How do you make debug work? Do you have to press it on the keyboard? Or on the controller itself? Do you have to disable other mods? I don't understand, I tried using debug, but it's not working for me.

Good to have you back 😄

Happy (early) new year

this is why i loved this bam press boost as super sonic and you would go flying like a god through the stage

That Dark Gaia tidbit is interesting for another reason. Unlike the rest of the game, the Dark Gaia running sections are practically identical to their HD counterparts, even having proper rail-switching (which doesn't otherwise appear in the Wii/PS2 game), so is this also an early look at the HD section? Plus in the final HD game, Sonic and Chip's dialogue repeats for each section... it gives off the impression that they were split up very late in development to pad the final boss length out.

Ah yes. Simultaneously my favourite and least favourite trivia about this game. Because on one hand, it's cool that these are here at all, in missions! But on the other... _I wish I could just play these acts in the main story_

9:07 City Escape has pretty much won. It's the most satisfying in my case.

Honestly, while it would have been cool to play these as full main acts, I am glad that they aren't in the end because that makes the content less redundant. One of the major complaints against the game is that the majority of missions reuse already played leveldesign rather than being original. Makes one think about how much needs to go into a potential Unwiished fanremake to make it reach its full potential. Finish/extend the existing act 2 and 3s and create new ones where they don't exist(Except for Eggmanland, Act 2 can easily substitute for the timed mission and call it a day, we only really need act 1 for main campaign) and redesign all the missions to be more original optional content. At that point we have more original content than preexisting leveldesign in here, which is a pretty big workload, may as well be its own game.

16:43 I have a theory. I think the end of act 4 in shamar was supposed to lead into the boss fight in shamar just like chun nan act 3 did, but i guess the idea got scrapped. Also i find it surprising that act 5 eggmanland doesn't lead to the gaia gate like the ps3/xbox 360 version did. Also jesus christ, why did they make eggmanland soo long? 5 acts? Each act is at least 5 minutes long. I can beat the ps3 version of eggmanland in about 10 minutes.....without dying once.

New conspiracy theory: what if there was meant to be TWO night acts per country? This would explain why some transitions have more substantial evidence for being cut up, and others seem to be intentionally implied via mapmaking tricks. It'd also match with DIMPS seemingly pushing to make 2 day stages per country. While 4 required acts per country seems like a lot, it makes some amount of sense to have Act 1 -> Act 2 for both day and night to ensure you get to introduce ideas and iterate on them. Of course, seeing as DIMPS typically sticks rigidly to the handoff design doc relative to Sonic Team (see Colors Wii vs DS), there's the obvious problem that it implies Sonic Team originally intended there to be 2 main acts per gameplay style per country for 360/PS3 Unleashed and that they got somewhere in development with them. That could be explained by the clearly grafted-on Empire City and Mazuri padding the runtime without using the same location and the fact that Unwiished shows much more diversity within countries in its night stages, but that answer doesn't fully sit with me. Interesting to think about, at least.

Very nice video, I suspected there was cut content based on the mission and was wondering what the original plan was, and you seemed to have solved the mystery (even if there isn't a whole lot more than what we already know in the grand scheme of things). Anyway, assorted thoughts on these acts: -Rooftop Run "Act 3" seems like it's meant to be the last section before the Egg Devil Ray boss. That whirlpool where the Goal Ring seems to have been intended sticks out like a sore thumb and feels like it's meant to be related to the boss. So I doubt it's an extension of Act 1. Act 2 might be plausible, and in fact the weirdness of the bulk of Act 2 being Act 1 makes me wonder, was "Act 2" originally meant to be part of Act 3 and was later added on as an alternate ending to Act 1? "Act 2" and "Act 3" combined feels like a more sensible concept for an Act 2. -Based on how the upper path in Jungle Joyride Act 2 (the one that goes above the Figure 8 section) is at a weird angle compared to the main path, it seems like there would've had to be a set of springs leading to it. -You can see this easily in the Unscathed Mission, but still worth noting here, Jungle Joyride Act 2 Area D ends right before the Egg Lancer arena. It seems like they intended to make the acts connect to the bosses similar to the 360/PS3 version (this is part of the reason why I think that whirlpool in Rooftop Run "Act 3" is related to the Egg Devil Ray). -Looking at the end of Jungle Joyride Act 2 Area B, there is a suspicious looking wall opposite the entrance. Maybe that would've been the entrance to Area C. Perhaps the entrance to that circular room would've had a shortcut that takes you straight through the wall but if you miss it, you have to go down to the bottom of the room and circle back up. My guess is that after the wall, you would've escaped the cave/ruins and Area C would be an outdoor jungle area, similar to the 2D section in the middle of Act 1. Then the 2D jungle area would've exited the jungle at the turn left in the Unscathed Mission, with boost pads redirecting you. Then once you hit the boost pads and turn left, the area would open back up to 3D and you would start Area D. -A second Eggmanland Day act would make a lot of sense if it has more of a factory theme. I'm actually sort of wondering if the latter part of Act 1 was originally part of Act 2. It would make sense for Act 1 to end after the Interceptor battle and Act 2 to start after the Interceptor battle and continue into a new section.

26:50 huh I wonder, with those extra egg fighters do they give enough points for a guaranteed S rank after death at the final checkpoint, I know that maybe unless you have shit time bonus you're guaranteed enough points for an A rank in the final area alone 🤔

The time when sonic outrun rocket in speed highway is🔥🔥

23:57 This is what the E Rank theme was meant for LMAO

This actually makes me really sad. Unwiished is my favorite version of Unleashed, I grew up playing it on my PS2, and I still play it on Dolphin. It always bothered me the fact that you had way more night acts than day acts, and see how this could have been different makes me wish it was the case, if only there was a way to make a mod to restore these stages, or at least change those missions that use these layouts into actual day acts, I'd be very happy.

15:50 That level gives ptsd in unleashed

13:43 best level for autopilot

Between the and knuckles stuff from 1994, qll fhis stuff and kronos ialand, seems sonic team has a little bit of a habbit of swinging way to far, and having to figure out a solution way too late into development.

17:08 62

If Sonic Unleashed got remastered or remade, not only should it be a fusion of both the SD/Wii/PS2 and the HD/PS3/Xbox 360 versions but it should also restore content that was cut from both versions

15:17 I love the idea that sonic can easily fly above but decides to smash through the windows to be a dick.

Its possible the opposite is true, that they thought about adding stage continuity only when they worked on later stages

Bro all these files for day 2/3 stages while missouri didnt have even 1 day or night stage💀💀💀

WHAT !? I'm honestly mind blown right now. How has nobody talked about all these lost levels ? they look so cool and creative and almost finished with alot of effort put into them i don't get why they got cut.

If I had to guess, the jump panels had their programming updated after these abandoned layouts were made which means their parameters no longer work correctly.

If you can by yourself or can get a team to actually make a mod that connects all off the stages like you have shown I would play it in a heartbeat as I think design wise these levels are cooler than the hd ones as it gives more of a story based narrative and my god the adabatian ruins were way better than what we got hd

I hate how this just INHALED your rings.

13:00 *HOW!!??*

the empire city night hub world sounds similar with the song crazy by Aerosmith

My lord, this could be more harder and and brutal stages in a Sonic game

how do you have the 999 rings?

Crisis City with Super Sonic feels so good

my goat

how do you even use the moonjump code provided, it doesn't seeem to work for Gamecube controllers no matter what i do