Some extra things I found; The other 2 missions taking place in Arid Sands Act 2 have an entirely unused layout out of bounds, which seems to be an early version of the layout of the mission shown in the video, and it does not use the sand buggy (wish that were the case for the final) There's a lot misplaced objects which implies the terrain would've been different at one point. View these missions here: th-cam.com/video/k_kkZF34au8/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared&t=1546 While the main .path files cannot be opened, the ".nut" files above them can, and they have a reference to all auto paths(3D and 2D)/wallrunning/grindrails. Note that every stage has folders listed up to Area G, but most are empty, however all unused areas up to E have a single flat plane collision called "Plane collision", but some Areas this collision file is named correctly and slightly larger. I also found the mission folders which have ".set" files for all areas, but most are empty and only the areas used for the mission are modified (in most cases) Note I cannot open these files, but I can see the file size. This mission folder also contains the main act as its own folder which also has the set files, the act 2s have a main act folder, but none of the .set files have any data. Windmill Isle act 1 Area B folder collision plane is named like any finished collision file "Stg011_B_hit" instead of just "Plane collision" maybe the stage was gonna be longer at one point. Rooftop Run Act 1 (yes 1) area F folder actually has a small path file, with 3 wall running references, weird (For reference only areas A-D are used for the stage), Also in the mission files the missions taking place on this act seem to modify something in Area E and F as the set files are 6 and 8 KB respectively Rooftop run Act 2 (the one that's identical to act one other than the new 2D section at the end) has a small path files for Area E, which has 2 wall running references, though the one mission on this stage does not seem to modify it. Rooftop Runs "Act 3s" Area B and C plane collisions are named, hence why they were mentioned in the video. Cool Edge "Act 2" Areas A and B do contain very small path files, area A .nut file has 1 reference to a path, Area B has references to 3 grind rail sections. Area D also has one that references 2 grind rails. Shamar Act 2 actually has a small path file for an "Area D", this contains 2 references to wall running sections, interestingly all 3 missions taking place on this map seem to modify all the areas, even D, but with a much smaller .set file (note the .set files sizes for each area are different for each mission). (Shown in video linked in mission) Adabat Act 2s infamous Area C path file has 13 2D path and 4 grind rail references in the .nut file.
I'll be very honest, but I think the extra stages in the Wii/PS2 version seem much better developed than the ones in PS3/X360. When I was getting the "Day Tripper" and "Hard Day's Night" trophies in Sonic Unleashed on PS3 I noticed that the level design of many of the extra stages are not that good and some are quite frustrating. To bad these stages was cut in the final game, I would probably enjoy play them when I played on PS2 and Wii some years ago.
Someone should really mod the game so that these levels are fully playable. I really like how they have a unique concept, specifically the Sewer act in Rooftop Run and the Bamboo act in Dragon Road. So good.
I remember my dad saying that if you 100% this game you could unlock some unique secret levels, took me 1 year to 100% and i was surprised to see that these unique levels where something real.
well he was not that wrong, in fact if you 100% the game, you will have acces to the last jungle joyride mission wich takes place in a unused area for the boss battle
The amount of unfinished content in this game is crazy. I wish we had more daytime stages finished, as a kid I felt that they were always so short compared to the werehog stages. Idk how this video only has 2k views, this should have more attention.
Well this video was only released 5 days ago, and is my fastest growing video, but still thanks. As for the werehog stages they are actually pretty short in terms of physical length, but the slower werehog gameplay makes them a lot longer in duration.
Actually looking through the files it seems the night stages were originally going to be one long stage, as each act is just its own area within the same stage file. You can also see this as the end of many acts, as the beginning of the next act is visible past the goal ring. Maybe one day I'll make a video on that.
@@TheStormsChannel ohh, thats really interesting, playtime does make it seem much longer than it actually is then. Still, I wish we had more daytime stages, since they were much faster to complete as you blaze through them as sonic.
Yeah me too, they did try to compensate in the final by making some day missions compulsory, (I think the chun nan unscathed is actually one of them) but it's still not enough.
This is why I love the PS2 version. There's so much more in the game than people give it credit for. And the fact that going for 100% unlocks these is extra fun.
This is all I want in a boost game, More fully 3D levels with alternate routes and faster shortcuts if you're skilled enough and utilizing the drift mechanic for hairpin turns. It looks like PS2/WIi version used the drifting way more compared to the HD version
Out of all the sonic games with a drift, this version of Unleashed by far has the best. Unleashed HD is too slippery, colours is too restricted and slippery, gens is too tight and delayed, and frontiers is.... pain,
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.
It makes me convinced more that the game is not just made by dimps, but also the other wii team at sonic team. bc this type of splitting section into additional act/mission is later used in colors as a disguise to be seen more content within the game. but in unwiished case I think bc of deadline, they used the exact same final boss map from the HD version. The rail switching is "only" on that stage, quite a jumpscare.
very interesting that there's a gaia running section area A at all considering the other sections are just straight ports of the 360/PS3 running sections (whereas the rest of the game has entirely unique level data compared to that version)
@@ToonyTails First, they weren't just straight ports because the assets used were still made for the Wii/PS2 version since those consoles couldn't run the assets of the HD versions. It's more like Dimps lifted the level design of the HD version and remade it with Wii/Ps2-friendly assets. Second, this was likely only done for the Gaia running sections simply due to the Wii/PS2 version having less dev time, so it was quicker/easier to take the level design from the HD version (that Sonic Team designed) and remake it for their version. Most Daytime levels in the HD version are too large and expansive to be easily converted into Wii/PS2 levels but the Gaia sections are relatively small and were likely more manageable to remake for the Wii/PS2.
@@WaddleDee105 If the day stages were “too big” then why didn’t they just use the same idea with the night stages and just have one big stage and split into multiple acts.
@@ToonyTails Because the Day stages were already only about 3 to 5 min long in the HD version and cutting them down to merely 2 minutes would've been underwhelming. Probably would've ended up with the mini stages we got in Sonic Forces and nobody liked those so I think Dimps made the right call.
Great video, it's great to see the PS2/Wii version of Sonic Unleashed finally getting more appreciation lately, I grew up with the PS2 version so I'm really happy with that. It's a shame these levels were cut, but it kind of reminds me of what they did in Sonic Colors and even Frontiers too.
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.
I love having the version of Sonic Unleashed for PS2 and Wii that is different from the HD version for Xbox 360 and PS3 since it shows you the levels in a different way, either because it was developed separately from the HD version or due to lack of time in development. These unused levels look great and very creative, it's a shame they weren't used in the final version.
Okay I'm absolutely going to nerd out here but the fact that you went to these efforts hopefully means I'm in good company! Absolutely, beyond words, bless you for your efforts and this extremely comprehensive video. I adore Unleashed, and while I'm less hot on the Wii/PS2 version I still always used to play it alongside the 360/PS3 version whenever I did a playthrough just to have "more Unleashed", lol. Over the years I went from noticing the unique areas used in missions, to making myself a little "playlist" of "what extra missions I should play to see all the daytime "content" each playthrough" (if I was just running through everything on my completed save), to noticing that some are seemingly connected and make up full act 2s when put together. And from there, well, figuring out like... basically EVERYTHING you covered and confirmed here has been a white whale of mine for years - that unused area in Jungle Joyride 2 especially. I recently invested the time in getting the game emulated so I could finally start digging into it with cheats myself to see what I could find, and the rabbit hole of exploring what limited resources and documentation there was for doing that stuff in the game lead me here to your videos where you've... Well, you've done it all! You truly covered every little facet and every little question I had, right down to the relationship between Areas A/B and D of Jungle Joyride Act 2. I had seen it floating up in the sky on videos of the unfinished Sonic Unleashed Wii mod for Sonic Generations and always wondered if that was true to the original game or the modder had made the decision to connect them up. I wasn't able to navigate there with moon jump myself to check so thanks for the demonstration. And... yeah, you saved me a lot of grief too, because, sadly, all this video really did in a major way was confirm that everything substantial that I had figured out existed in the game so far really is all there was. No tucked away Cool Edge Act 2 map that just didn't get used for any missions. Nothing before or beyond the Rooftop Run sewers, etc. That would have been a lot of time spent on my part to discover I really had seen everything substantial (there were definitely a bunch of unique tidbits from you too though - I had found the level files in the folders but couldn't make head nor tail of them). It really is a shame these extra maps were so poorly utilised in the final game though. Even if it was just on those few countries that have a full sequence, offering a full Act 2 for Chun-nan, Shamar and Adabat as part of the story requirements would've gone a long way to ease Werehog fatigue during that first playthrough. But I also understand the awkwardness of presenting Holoska, Spagonia and Eggmanland as "Act 1" with no further Acts beyond them (bugs me that they do that with the single act zones in Superstars too!). Perhaps just calling them "Day Stage" on single act countries and "Day Stage 1" "Day Stage 2" on two act countries would've worked. At the very least, it was always weird to me that they tucked these extra acts deep into the 100% completion content and didn't include a single one in the padding-out missions they make you do during the story playthrough. The only thing I will say is, while I now know it wasn't the original intention, Jungle Joyride 2-D did serve very nicely as a "final secret stage" for reaching 99% completion. A nice little final daytime stage gameplay challenge and all the dramatic waterfalls and rainbows made it feel like a real victory lap stage that was always intended to be a final reward type deal - or so I thought. Gosh, this is sort of the end of an era for me in terms of this particular little background hyperfixation of mine regarding this game's content. Took a decade and a half but I finally have closure on all the little mysteries this game had regarding it's extra daytime content. All I can say is thank you for this, so so much, once again!
I've seen all these stages so its cool that they really did intend to have multiple full acts at some point. Especially since what would've been the end for those acts all end at some kind of temple area. Hopefully some mod or version of the game comes out that puts them together and tries to make them fully fledged levels. Regarding the missing Jungle Joyride section, my guess is maybe that the end of area C would transition into a 2D section that has you climbing up along the sides of the massive room climbing to the surface where it would eventually connect with the following area.
I know that if one day we have Sonic Unleashed PC port, this version could be lost in time and stuck on Playstation 2 and Wii, but since Sega has been playing a lot with Mobile, I think this version of the game could come for IOS and Android, as it is significantly smaller and simpler than the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, and it would be even cooler if this happened by reviving these unused levels.
I always find stuff like this interesting. It's a shame that these levels weren't fully completed and relegated to side missions, but it's cool that some of these are still playable at all in the final game. It reminds me of how people figured out that Sonic Colors' levels were divided up from longer single levels, or how Kronos, Rhea and Ouranos Island in Frontiers were originally one large landmass that was divided into three separate islands in the final game.
Sonic team seems to have a habit of splitting thing up, funny that. (Even the HD version of Unleashed has some night acts being split with the beta section later being used for DLC acts) Heck even back in 1994 they spilt an entire game in half.
@@TheStormsChannel I’m pretty sure the Wii/PS2 version of Unleashed was developed by Dimps rather than Sonic Team, but it’s the same principle. Likely due to time constraints. They may not have had time to develop the additional full day stages AND the side mission content, so they had to prioritize filling out the optional side content instead.
@@JambopaulGamerInPJsdimps helped mostly when it came to the level design of the day stages, it appears that sonic team still handled most of it. But since this game has so many missions and shares the classic habit of splicing bigger stages into short sections with games like colors, forces and frontiers... This has to be the storybook team, which is current sonic team and also developed colors back in the day.
with this, and the extra stages of unleashed in the HD versions, there was so much daytime sonic content that the werehog was completely unneeded to lenghten the game
That makes no sense considering the Daytime levels in the HD version are completely incompatible with the ones made for the Wii/PS2 version. HD Daytime plays different and the levels are of a significantly higher technical quality than what the Wii/PS2 could do. These are two completely different games made by two completely different dev teams.
I wouldn't go that far. What we end up with here is a final day stage count less than double that of what you get from just the Act 1s. Even if they had used them all the game is less than an hour long. And in the HD version, while the daytime content DOES outweigh the nighttime content once you add everything up, the extra acts are all smaller gimmicky affairs with less spectacle, a distinctly different flavour from what are considered the main stages. Even then though, the key point is that the Werehog was never intended as a way to lengthen the game, the reason it exists is because they were trying to attact new players who were fans of combat-heavy action games like God of War etc.
I really wonder why all this content did end up scrapped. It looks amazing. Even if they were short on budget or time to deliver all 2 acts per world, it would be amazing to at least have some worlds with 2 stages.
My impression of the rooftop run “act 2” is that they used to first act as a base and wanted to modify it little by little, hence why it’s almost identical to act 1. I also believe that the “act 3” was going to be part of “act 2” but they didn’t have time to properly connect them so they just made it a separate “act”. As for how jungle joyride “act 2” would have connected Area B and C I imagine that something would have launched Sonic upwards, possibly breaking the ceiling of the cave in some sort of set piece and causing him to land right into the beginning of area C. That’s just how I imagine it would be like judging by the collision map at the very least.
The time i 100% the Wii version i couldn't believe the amount of lost content i missed and how the day stages could have been with like even 3 stages per country. Absolutely crazy how Unleashed keeps giving for me. I love this game in all of it's versions.
Thank you for making this! I've wondered for years how Jungle Joyride Act 2's parts were supposed to connect so it made me really happy to see how it was originally supposed to be.
Holy crap okay I have so much I want to say, this is an amazing video i literally learned new stuff about my favourite game of all time, the idea there was a potential 2nd act we could have played (even 3rd for stages like rooftop run and Dragon Road) is crazy to think about. Sucks all those basically got thrown into side mission content but hey that’s deadlines for you, honestly if we ever get a “Sonic Unleashed Ultimate/definitive edition” I wonder if they’ll add these second acts as flat out new stages…definitely wouldn’t happen but a person can dream lol. Thank you again for this video :)
If we did get a Sonic Unleashed Ultimate it would very likely be the HD version unfortunately, well at least that version also has a lot of interesting things about it too.
For spagonia, my theory is that the areas didn't "meant" to be in any way. They just are prototyped sections. Probably the level designers were constructing the levels in several chunks and then joined together the best chunks to form the final level and those parts didn't make to the final stage.
Oh my God I'm so glad someone finally made this video. I've known about this for years but never had any way to actually get it out to people. You are literally doing God's work, thank you so much ahaha
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
Dude this is gold. I have been OBSESSED with this topic for months and planned to do this research by myself as there was barely any info online. Seriously THANK YOU
@@TheStormsChannel Saw the video and have one small correction though. The cave section of Jungle Joyride Act 2 doesn't end in the circular area. You can go further, but there are a pair of dash pads leading you back to the circular area. If you continue though you can go through it as it has collision. You have to be careful since there are tons of dash pads leading you back and you are on a timer, but if you succeed you will reach a dead end. I highly assume that this dead ends leads to the final area of the level, the one that is blocked with raw earth. Another stuff. I think the beginning of Act 2 of Arid Sands connects with Act 1 ending (if you imagine a couple of doors there). I also think the ending of Chun Nan Act 2 connects with the beggining of Act 1. Act 2 leads to water level and Act 2 beggins there. Futhermore the doors blocking the path are similiar Overall I loved this video. The Spagonia thing was really interesting, I was cracking my head thinking how the indoors section connected with the main stage or the time attack variant
Las thing: you can induce which stages were cut by time. The stages should progressively last longer or around the same time, yet Holoska last one minute more than Chun Nan, Shamar and Adabat, which are later stages (also Spagonia, who immediately preeceds it, is around a minute shorter). For me this is clearly because Holoska wasn't cut and the rest of the stages were. Spagonia, Chun Nan and Shamar were split in halves that sorta make sense into each other. Adabat is weird because there is seemingly no connection between Act 1 and Act 2, but i think it may be because there is a water running section that was supposed to connect both, as there is no water running section in the Jungle J. stage I really wish we could restore this stages and the night stages into full levels if we finally port Unleashed to Gens
For the adabat cave section there is a lower route that also leads to the circular room, which you get to by falling off the higher path (by falling through 2 large holes or off the edge of a thin bridge, at 21:07 I do fall into the exit of this path), maybe you confused it for that route as the ring attack missions do allow you to backtrack. I've checked the stage models and explored around the area with freecam/moonjump and the area past the final room. It may have been possible that the unused sections were once part of the main acts, but seeing as they're in their own folders it's not likely. (Night acts were going to be one whole stage and are still located in the same folder post-split)
Holoska does contains 4 areas opposed to 3 like most other acts, but Spagonia act 1 also has 4 Areas, again is a possibility they were split, but it must've been done early since they are organised into different folders, but in that case why aren't they finished? So many mysteries with this game.
As a kid i felt sad that there wasn't more stages with rankings but rn i can appreciate the extra stages that have diferent sections from the regular Act 1, it just kinda sucks that some of the best ones like the rooftop sewer or the chun-nan bits are non-mandatory/you get them very late I also love the fact that "Area D" of jungle joyride feels like a victory lap coz it's literally the last secret level you can get lol 23:43 That whole section between A&B looks like a very missed opportunity to have the fabled "difficult but faster upper route or easier but slower lower route" Specially with how sonic handles in unwiished, you'd have to be a master at boosting and turning to go quick in the bottom route 30:30 could be HD's 3rd running section collision ported over to SD's files coz iirc in the final game iirc removed the wall running that the HD version has also 20:44 is it just me or did the game load a blue filter on the stage once you went a bit further? Thank you for taking the time and effort to make these videos! I've always prefered this over the HD version (overall, but both have their merits and downsides) so it's cool to see videos like this and it's so fascinating to see beta/unused/cut stuff from your favorite games! I wonder if someone'll ever mod this version to a point where we'll get terrain mods like gens or hd unleashed
This is awesome. This makes me convince the level design in wii and ps2 version is superior to that of ps3 and xbox version in term of gameplay and variation.
16:22 Note how the back of the plane is red, I believe this a leftover from when the team wanted to make this a Mario and Sonic crossover. It really is too bad they ran out of budget to realize their lofty ambitions. Really great video by the way!!
Actually I think that was just a glitch with movie stuido, sometimes it displays certain colours incorrectly if you have an AMD gpu and I forgot to fix it, and the actual colours were just what I used to make it more visible (has no texture and is just plain white otherwise)
@@TheStormsChannelI believe it's probably just a visual indicator for backfaces. Blender has a similar feature where frontfaces display blue and backfaces are displayed as red. Since most games don't render backfaces and physics engines tend to ignore them, allowing objects to pass right through them, it's helpful to have an option to show the face orientation. That way you don't end up with polygons facing the wrong direction.
@@GANONdork123 I used the default windows 3D viewer, and it has some coloir options that can be applied to model, I think the kne I picked was orange and blue, but again movie studio sometimes messes ul colours on an amd gpu. The plane colour is pure white otherwise.
So in summary: Dimps wanted to add more content than they managed to do, but perhaps due to the capabilities of the Wii (being a weak console) or due to lack of time it could not be finished and the content ended up being cut a lot, overshadowing the daytime sonic with a single act and nighttime sonic with 3-5 acts depending on the continent(For Example: EGGmanland)
It's a common trend for sonic games to remove/cut up content due to time restrains. Even for the HD version the DLC stages were originally part of the base game (indicated by their existence in the august preview build, and the fact they still have entries in the files in the base game) but were pushed back to being DLC stages. And some night stages were cut in half for DLC too.
@@TheStormsChannel Well, obviously this has happened since they created Sonic 1, so I'm not very surprised that there was content cut, but rather that Dimps tried to take advantage of the maximum potential for the unleashed wii but it ended up unfinished and they had to cut a lot of content from daytimes and Night Time stages Lmao.
I think Rooftop Run act 3 was cut because it was cut from the HD version. There is a night version of the sewer area in the DLC and there clearly was supposed to be a day area. Don't ya think its weird how you end up in a sewer to in the sky in act 2 lol
A bit sad that these acts were never fully realized in game. Would loved to have seen and played a version that had them along with potential Mazuri and Empire City stages.
I wonder if the scrapped Gaia Colossus data was them trying to put Super Sonic flying towards Dark Gaia like in the HD version, but I wonder if they scrapped it due to the limitations on the PS2/Wii, so in the end we only straight up got Super Sonic instantly throwing hands instead of a flying section (Or since it's Area A it probably the Gaia Colossus fight was gonna having an "approach and hit" gameplay but we got a Punch Out reference instead"
I always knew it was odd that Windmill Isle was the only Day Stage to get 2 proper Acts while it and all the other stages had forgetable and short missions. It was even weirder to me that some missions use whole new level areas that could not have been anywhere else in the game, i genuinly wish they just made the full act 2s and made those the required missions while the random stages woulda been side content.
Not quite, each zone in fact has 2 maps, originally act 1 and 2, which most of were split in half into 2 acts. The smaller acts were originally meant to be mission acts which take place in a small area of one of the two maps.
I was thinking that maybe the Act 2's were all broken up to make the game appear like it has more unique areas like "Here's an area that only appears in this mission".
I always found it weird that they spent time making additional daytime levels only to throw them into random side missions that most people never even played. A shame too cause the Chun nan and Spagonia ones are really cool, and Adabat really could have used it considering how short the regular day level is. On the other hand, i actually kind of like how you get rewarded with extra day levels from taking the time to explore and get S ranks, so at least they're there at all.
My best guess for Dark Gaia Section A comes from the HD version. There, you'd complete a Chip segment, then get sent to Sonic for one shot at DG's eye... then back to Chip again. The first area follows a cutscene, but the rest are direct transitions in gameplay. It could be that at one point in development there was going to be multiple Chip segments, they started programming the path Sonic would transition to, but then realized that didn't work for one reason (programming) or another (it was a bloated and bad idea in HD too). It _could_ also have something to do with the level design itself, given that Unleashed HD and UnWiished have the same three approach layouts for Sonic's sections. Maybe they had that geometry ported over into slot A and for some reason had to recreate it in different segments?
Wow, this video has left me speechless, I can't believe how much content and cut out day level sections there are in my favorite game, I must say you made an amazing video about this. Now my question is: is it possible to restore and reimagine those stages to create a complete level as a second act for those day stages? It would be awesome if a skilled fan could do it and add those unused stages as if they were completely new levels that fit well with the rest of the levels in the final product.
For this version of the game, I don't think so, but someone did port Chun Nan and Adabat's second stage to generations, but that mod is no longer available
8:09 this level is on the back of the Unwiished game box. I always wondered as a kid where that level was. Now I know it was never made in the final game. Crazy shi bruh
Yeah I remember also wondering where that area of Chun Nan was back on the PS2 case, wasn't until I unlocked the ring attack mission I finally found it. I also did mention this at 9:35 in the video :)
When I first played and finished the PS2 version it was really weird seeing that they made these unique areas just for extra missions, seemed kinda wrong that they spent all this time making these areas just for some extra missions. I guess they wanted to make the game a bit longer by dividing the extra Acts into a bunch of missions wherever they could. Couldn't they just keep the original uncut Acts in the game AND make those extra missions out of them? Oh well. All of this reminds me of Sonic Colors, they reused existing areas to make new Acts, though unlike in Colors these extra levels are optional. Great video, very informative! There are a few misspellings and the text fades away a bit too quickly sometimes, but other than that it was a great video! I love that you showed us some stuff like the folder, files and collisions of the areas!
Colours was actually meant to have 2 day acts and a bunch of optional ones orignally (the very short acts were basically meant to be mission acts). But they split most of the main acts into 2 (some actually remained whole, but were pushed later in the act list) and they made the optional mission acts compulsory "main" acts. As for text fading too fast I do tend to read quickly, but I'll keep it in mind for future videos
I always find it odd that Windmill Isle only has 2 acts while the others doesn't and some leftovers of those levels are in the missions levels, shame they weren't used in the final game
Thank you for doing such a comprehensive video covering this, I've been fascinated by these myself since I've been playing through the game the past year and a half going for 100% (still haven't unlocked the final Adabat mission lol, done everything else but I still have some items I have to find). I'm actually a newcomer of sorts to the Sonic series, being a Mario kid my whole life, my first Sonic game being Mania Plus on the Switch, and this was my first 3D Sonic game. Found a copy of it in the back of my Uncle's stash of Wii games in fall 2022 and borrowed it (was previously considering finding a copy on Ebay since I didn't know he had it), and have been having a blast with it enough that I was totally willing to play all the extra side missions even if it would seem at first glance like mere filler to others, and so I came across some of these stages much to my surprise. Didn't take me long to realize that these were entire new acts and many of these missions were actually connected to each other on the same map, and they fascinated me. Would have been nice to be able to play the full stages as single levels but it didn't seem to include that, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I finally unlocked the Arid Sands and Dragon Road time attack missions that did mostly exactly that. And I was utterly flabbergasted when I played the Rooftop Run Time Attack mission, because not only did I already play the sewer stage and thought that was the entire Act II and was all there was for stuff besides the main level, but of course I also thought the Time Attack was just the main act again because it was until the end. So when I suddenly ran into a whole new 2D section that WASN'T in a different level but replaced part of the main level, it was like a jumpscare lol. Because until that point I was just like "okay yeah, these other missions are just unused Act IIs repurposed into these side objectives" but seeing a sudden new section in one of the main levels was a total surprise and made things way more fascinating and confusing. So it's cool to see a thorough documentation of all this. It would be nice for someone to make a mod restoring these as full Act IIs (though from what I've seen there seems to be barely anything in terms of major mods for the Wii Sonic games sadly, in stark contrast to the Mario Wii games I've been familiar with for years that have had made-for-console total conversion mods often the size of full games since basically Day 1 with Riivolution), albeit they'd have to restore some of the missing or incomplete areas as well as figure out WHAT THE HECK was going on with Rooftop Run there lol. The other levels are pretty black and white in terms of what's the intended main act and what's molded from an Act II, they're clearly separated, but with Spagonia it's not black and white at all what happened there lol. This does make me wonder just how far the developers got with making these Act IIs though, because for all we know what was left in the game is not all they had finished. Especially when it comes to Adabat, which is probably the saddest loss with that missing 2D section, I wonder if they truly never finished Area C or if they got much farther but left it out of the final game. Because all the other areas are basically complete, including the area that takes place AFTER that supposed 2D section, so it's kinda hard for me to believe they really had NOTHING of it done. Parts A, B, and D are all finished (yeah the ending of Area A is unused and lacks collision but given the terrain seems pretty much finished I think that's more the result of the full act being scrapped and repurposed than that one spot being unfinished), so it would be REALLY weird for Part C to have absolutely nothing constructed for it at all especially since it's located in what would be the middle of the stage and there's remnants of its end in Part D. Makes me think they DID have something for it even if it wasn't fully finalized, and because they didn't end up using it that section wasn't included on disk and so it's part of their work on the stage that's just lost to time that we'll likely never see, which is really sad.
Console only games are much more difficult to mod, if this version was on PC officially it probably would've had tons more mods, same with the HD version, just look at generations. Although another reason is this version gets overshadowed by the HD version a lot, but I think this version is very underrated.
@@TheStormsChannel Yeah, that's true, but then again like I said people did it for the Wii Mario games from basically Day 1 anyway, in fact for years nearly all the major mods ONLY officially supported playing on the actual console until Dolphin added built-in Riivolution support in 2022, any means of playing mods not on an actual console with the actual game disk wasn't really officially supported by the mod creators. So it is certainly possible (though then again it's also possible that the way Nintendo made those Mario games just makes them easier to mod than this game, idk).
Well mario is insanely popular (and overrated imo) and since it's always been exclusive to Nintendo consoles it probably has a large community of modders on standby everytime a new game is released. If said mario games had a PC port at release I'm sure the wii wouldn't have had as many mods.
watching this video made me realize that sonic doesn't say "WOOOO!!" or "GO!!!!" when boosting like in the 360/ps3 versions in this game, he only says "HRRRRAAH!" which i think is a shame. that's besides the point though, great showcase here, makes me want to play this game again. isn't it crazy how we were robbed of proper act 2s in both sonic colors and this game? what is it about the wii that made sega do this?
In sonic colours the act 1s were the ones that were split, most act 2s were fully playable (but pushed back to either act 4 or 6), except sweet mountain act 2. For unleashed it seems they ran out of time, day stages are many times larger than night stage. For colours it was probably just to increase a 2 hour game to a 3 hour game.
The alternative path of area a 8 track, maybe it was a penalization path. Cause, the 8 path its straight forward to the area b, meanwhile, the alternative path, its more messy and i can feel the diference of going up there and below. My theory its that, in some part of the level, you pressed a switch going in full speed and an internal countdown started. When the countdown drops to 0, the bars appears on the entrance of the 8 track and maybe a spring in a box force field would be accsesible. And, that spring, would get you into the alternative path. But, if youre fast enough, you can enter in the 8 track. Thats my theory on Jungle Joyride "Act 2" But, i want to talk about the beggining of area A on Arid Sands.... Dosent look like its was a rough entrance? Like... you apear like 2 cm behind the boost panel. For me, theres another previous discarded and deleted area. That, transitions to the Area A of "Act 2". .. Call me crazy, but, i think, the end of 2d section of the act 1 of Arid Sands, can concect well with the area a of act 2. Like, if we extend back the rock wall maybe some meters and put the final hole of the 2d section, i can see a true conection. Thtas all.
Interesting theory for the 8 path, though nothing like that ever appears in this version of the game, but would be interesting to see, at 20:15 to the left on top of that structure is where this alternate route starts. A lot of the "Act 2s" do look pretty rough in some areas, possible that maybe some areas were swapped around.
@@TheStormsChannel Maybe. Or, the penalization path was more unfinished that we think. I think the path it was supoosed to have more. Maybe, the start of it, could occured after another path that was planned to do. I can see a boost panel in the start of the upper path for send you directly to the drift curve.
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.
Unfortunately I have no idea how to mod this game, all I can do is extract most of the stage models. I haven't seen a single stage mod for this version that has unique level design, but I have seen stages from this game ported to generations. Even then I have no idea how to mod that game.
I would like there to be a mod or a port, or something similar to make at least a single level as similar as possible to the HD version. Spagonia with a setting similar to the 360 version would be a gem
@@TheStormsChannel Weird because I got every single Sun and Moon medal, went through every single of the Gaia Temple rooms, and collected every single item within them. Maybe I missed an item somewhere in one of them, oh well. I unfortunately don't have the game or my PS2 anymore so I can't look for it. But hey at least I know what it looks like now lol
Some one did make a mod of the ps2/wii stages for generations, it even used some of these unused acts, but it seems that version was unfinished and cancelled and replaced with a newer one that doesn't have them. Edit: A video on it called "The Definitive Wii Unleashed Project Experience" by "Sonic Terminal" shows off the version with some of these acts, however that version is no longer available sadly :(
I don't think the HD levels would gel well with the SD mechanics, and vice-versa. Would be more interesting to see these levels ported to Sonic Colors instead.
Some do only work for the Pal Rom, and some only work for the US rom,. If you're using the US rom codes for moon jump codes make sure to add the joker code to the top, then change the xxxx or yyyy to the correct button (whether you're using a wiimote + nunchuck, gamecube, or classic controller, the list is right below the joker address, so for example if you're using a gamecube controller the code should be 80760BF4 00000100
Why put development resorces on levels that you aren't even going to fully use? And why use them for missions only and not save them for some sort of wiiware dlc? Sometimes SEGA really makes me angry...
@@TheStormsChannel I hate the fact that a lot of Sonic games were rushed just because, in this case at least, they had to tie in to the bigger "HD" version, these stages whould have been tons of fun
![กี่หมื่นฟ้า | Your Sky Series EP.1 [1/4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vLGjxFL6U_I/mqdefault.jpg)
Some extra things I found;
The other 2 missions taking place in Arid Sands Act 2 have an entirely unused layout out of bounds, which seems to be an early version of the layout of the mission shown in the video, and it does not use the sand buggy (wish that were the case for the final) There's a lot misplaced objects which implies the terrain would've been different at one point. View these missions here: th-cam.com/video/k_kkZF34au8/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared&t=1546
While the main .path files cannot be opened, the ".nut" files above them can, and they have a reference to all auto paths(3D and 2D)/wallrunning/grindrails.
Note that every stage has folders listed up to Area G, but most are empty, however all unused areas up to E have a single flat plane collision called "Plane collision", but some Areas this collision file is named correctly and slightly larger.
I also found the mission folders which have ".set" files for all areas, but most are empty and only the areas used for the mission are modified (in most cases) Note I cannot open these files, but I can see the file size.
This mission folder also contains the main act as its own folder which also has the set files, the act 2s have a main act folder, but none of the .set files have any data.
Windmill Isle act 1 Area B folder collision plane is named like any finished collision file "Stg011_B_hit" instead of just "Plane collision" maybe the stage was gonna be longer at one point.
Rooftop Run Act 1 (yes 1) area F folder actually has a small path file, with 3 wall running references, weird (For reference only areas A-D are used for the stage),
Also in the mission files the missions taking place on this act seem to modify something in Area E and F as the set files are 6 and 8 KB respectively
Rooftop run Act 2 (the one that's identical to act one other than the new 2D section at the end) has a small path files for Area E, which has 2 wall running references, though the one mission on this stage does not seem to modify it.
Rooftop Runs "Act 3s" Area B and C plane collisions are named, hence why they were mentioned in the video.
Cool Edge "Act 2" Areas A and B do contain very small path files, area A .nut file has 1 reference to a path, Area B has references to 3 grind rail sections. Area D also has one that references 2 grind rails.
Shamar Act 2 actually has a small path file for an "Area D", this contains 2 references to wall running sections, interestingly all 3 missions taking place on this map seem to modify all the areas, even D, but with a much smaller .set file (note the .set files sizes for each area are different for each mission). (Shown in video linked in mission)
Adabat Act 2s infamous Area C path file has 13 2D path and 4 grind rail references in the .nut file.
they should have released it on Nintendo 64, though.
my favorite mobile game is sonic unleasshed
I'll be very honest, but I think the extra stages in the Wii/PS2 version seem much better developed than the ones in PS3/X360.
When I was getting the "Day Tripper" and "Hard Day's Night" trophies in Sonic Unleashed on PS3 I noticed that the level design of many of the extra stages are not that good and some are quite frustrating.
To bad these stages was cut in the final game, I would probably enjoy play them when I played on PS2 and Wii some years ago.
Someone should really mod the game so that these levels are fully playable. I really like how they have a unique concept, specifically the Sewer act in Rooftop Run and the Bamboo act in Dragon Road. So good.
Someone did mod it, it's finished
@@truemono02name of the mod?
@@GLXY23 The sonic unleashed project
@@truemono02 There was an older verison which had the chun nan and adabat act 2s, but that version of the mod has since been removed.
@@truemono02 what are you on about, that's a mod for generations that adds the daytime stages from the HD version to the PC
I remember my dad saying that if you 100% this game you could unlock some unique secret levels, took me 1 year to 100% and i was surprised to see that these unique levels where something real.
Bro, your dad played sonic unleashed? W dad 🗿
well he was not that wrong, in fact if you 100% the game, you will have acces to the last jungle joyride mission wich takes place in a unused area for the boss battle
The amount of unfinished content in this game is crazy. I wish we had more daytime stages finished, as a kid I felt that they were always so short compared to the werehog stages. Idk how this video only has 2k views, this should have more attention.
Well this video was only released 5 days ago, and is my fastest growing video, but still thanks.
As for the werehog stages they are actually pretty short in terms of physical length, but the slower werehog gameplay makes them a lot longer in duration.
@@TheStormsChannel thats true, but there were also a lot more werehog stages compared to the amount of daytime stages.
Actually looking through the files it seems the night stages were originally going to be one long stage, as each act is just its own area within the same stage file. You can also see this as the end of many acts, as the beginning of the next act is visible past the goal ring.
Maybe one day I'll make a video on that.
@@TheStormsChannel ohh, thats really interesting, playtime does make it seem much longer than it actually is then. Still, I wish we had more daytime stages, since they were much faster to complete as you blaze through them as sonic.
Yeah me too, they did try to compensate in the final by making some day missions compulsory, (I think the chun nan unscathed is actually one of them) but it's still not enough.
i wouldve shit myself if i saw a eggmanland day act 2
This is why I love the PS2 version. There's so much more in the game than people give it credit for. And the fact that going for 100% unlocks these is extra fun.
This is all I want in a boost game, More fully 3D levels with alternate routes and faster shortcuts if you're skilled enough and utilizing the drift mechanic for hairpin turns.
It looks like PS2/WIi version used the drifting way more compared to the HD version
Out of all the sonic games with a drift, this version of Unleashed by far has the best. Unleashed HD is too slippery, colours is too restricted and slippery, gens is too tight and delayed, and frontiers is.... pain,
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.
I always found it fascinating how the game had a bunch of unfinished acts left for missions, glad to get some closure on this
It makes me convinced more that the game is not just made by dimps, but also the other wii team at sonic team.
bc this type of splitting section into additional act/mission is later used in colors as a disguise to be seen more content within the game.
but in unwiished case I think bc of deadline, they used the exact same final boss map from the HD version.
The rail switching is "only" on that stage, quite a jumpscare.
very interesting that there's a gaia running section area A at all considering the other sections are just straight ports of the 360/PS3 running sections (whereas the rest of the game has entirely unique level data compared to that version)
I also find it weird how Gaia running sections are the only ones that were straight ports. Why only those 3 sections?.
@@ToonyTails First, they weren't just straight ports because the assets used were still made for the Wii/PS2 version since those consoles couldn't run the assets of the HD versions. It's more like Dimps lifted the level design of the HD version and remade it with Wii/Ps2-friendly assets. Second, this was likely only done for the Gaia running sections simply due to the Wii/PS2 version having less dev time, so it was quicker/easier to take the level design from the HD version (that Sonic Team designed) and remake it for their version. Most Daytime levels in the HD version are too large and expansive to be easily converted into Wii/PS2 levels but the Gaia sections are relatively small and were likely more manageable to remake for the Wii/PS2.
@@WaddleDee105 If the day stages were “too big” then why didn’t they just use the same idea with the night stages and just have one big stage and split into multiple acts.
@@ToonyTails Because the Day stages were already only about 3 to 5 min long in the HD version and cutting them down to merely 2 minutes would've been underwhelming. Probably would've ended up with the mini stages we got in Sonic Forces and nobody liked those so I think Dimps made the right call.
Great video, it's great to see the PS2/Wii version of Sonic Unleashed finally getting more appreciation lately, I grew up with the PS2 version so I'm really happy with that.
It's a shame these levels were cut, but it kind of reminds me of what they did in Sonic Colors and even Frontiers too.
rooftop run act 2 seems like what the level designers wanted, but for possible matching up with unleashed ps360 they changed it.
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.
I love having the version of Sonic Unleashed for PS2 and Wii that is different from the HD version for Xbox 360 and PS3 since it shows you the levels in a different way, either because it was developed separately from the HD version or due to lack of time in development. These unused levels look great and very creative, it's a shame they weren't used in the final version.
Okay I'm absolutely going to nerd out here but the fact that you went to these efforts hopefully means I'm in good company!
Absolutely, beyond words, bless you for your efforts and this extremely comprehensive video. I adore Unleashed, and while I'm less hot on the Wii/PS2 version I still always used to play it alongside the 360/PS3 version whenever I did a playthrough just to have "more Unleashed", lol. Over the years I went from noticing the unique areas used in missions, to making myself a little "playlist" of "what extra missions I should play to see all the daytime "content" each playthrough" (if I was just running through everything on my completed save), to noticing that some are seemingly connected and make up full act 2s when put together. And from there, well, figuring out like... basically EVERYTHING you covered and confirmed here has been a white whale of mine for years - that unused area in Jungle Joyride 2 especially. I recently invested the time in getting the game emulated so I could finally start digging into it with cheats myself to see what I could find, and the rabbit hole of exploring what limited resources and documentation there was for doing that stuff in the game lead me here to your videos where you've...
Well, you've done it all! You truly covered every little facet and every little question I had, right down to the relationship between Areas A/B and D of Jungle Joyride Act 2. I had seen it floating up in the sky on videos of the unfinished Sonic Unleashed Wii mod for Sonic Generations and always wondered if that was true to the original game or the modder had made the decision to connect them up. I wasn't able to navigate there with moon jump myself to check so thanks for the demonstration.
And... yeah, you saved me a lot of grief too, because, sadly, all this video really did in a major way was confirm that everything substantial that I had figured out existed in the game so far really is all there was. No tucked away Cool Edge Act 2 map that just didn't get used for any missions. Nothing before or beyond the Rooftop Run sewers, etc. That would have been a lot of time spent on my part to discover I really had seen everything substantial (there were definitely a bunch of unique tidbits from you too though - I had found the level files in the folders but couldn't make head nor tail of them).
It really is a shame these extra maps were so poorly utilised in the final game though. Even if it was just on those few countries that have a full sequence, offering a full Act 2 for Chun-nan, Shamar and Adabat as part of the story requirements would've gone a long way to ease Werehog fatigue during that first playthrough. But I also understand the awkwardness of presenting Holoska, Spagonia and Eggmanland as "Act 1" with no further Acts beyond them (bugs me that they do that with the single act zones in Superstars too!). Perhaps just calling them "Day Stage" on single act countries and "Day Stage 1" "Day Stage 2" on two act countries would've worked. At the very least, it was always weird to me that they tucked these extra acts deep into the 100% completion content and didn't include a single one in the padding-out missions they make you do during the story playthrough. The only thing I will say is, while I now know it wasn't the original intention, Jungle Joyride 2-D did serve very nicely as a "final secret stage" for reaching 99% completion. A nice little final daytime stage gameplay challenge and all the dramatic waterfalls and rainbows made it feel like a real victory lap stage that was always intended to be a final reward type deal - or so I thought.
Gosh, this is sort of the end of an era for me in terms of this particular little background hyperfixation of mine regarding this game's content. Took a decade and a half but I finally have closure on all the little mysteries this game had regarding it's extra daytime content. All I can say is thank you for this, so so much, once again!
I've seen all these stages so its cool that they really did intend to have multiple full acts at some point. Especially since what would've been the end for those acts all end at some kind of temple area. Hopefully some mod or version of the game comes out that puts them together and tries to make them fully fledged levels. Regarding the missing Jungle Joyride section, my guess is maybe that the end of area C would transition into a 2D section that has you climbing up along the sides of the massive room climbing to the surface where it would eventually connect with the following area.
I know that if one day we have Sonic Unleashed PC port, this version could be lost in time and stuck on Playstation 2 and Wii, but since Sega has been playing a lot with Mobile, I think this version of the game could come for IOS and Android, as it is significantly smaller and simpler than the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, and it would be even cooler if this happened by reviving these unused levels.
I always find stuff like this interesting. It's a shame that these levels weren't fully completed and relegated to side missions, but it's cool that some of these are still playable at all in the final game. It reminds me of how people figured out that Sonic Colors' levels were divided up from longer single levels, or how Kronos, Rhea and Ouranos Island in Frontiers were originally one large landmass that was divided into three separate islands in the final game.
Sonic team seems to have a habit of splitting thing up, funny that. (Even the HD version of Unleashed has some night acts being split with the beta section later being used for DLC acts)
Heck even back in 1994 they spilt an entire game in half.
@@TheStormsChannel I’m pretty sure the Wii/PS2 version of Unleashed was developed by Dimps rather than Sonic Team, but it’s the same principle. Likely due to time constraints. They may not have had time to develop the additional full day stages AND the side mission content, so they had to prioritize filling out the optional side content instead.
Oh yeah you're right, it was made by Dimps. And yeah time constraints are definitely the issue present.
@@JambopaulGamerInPJsdimps helped mostly when it came to the level design of the day stages, it appears that sonic team still handled most of it. But since this game has so many missions and shares the classic habit of splicing bigger stages into short sections with games like colors, forces and frontiers... This has to be the storybook team, which is current sonic team and also developed colors back in the day.
Same goes for the stages that take place in "City" in Forces. Starts with Sunset Heights, then Park Avenue, then the Metal Sonic boss battle stage.
with this, and the extra stages of unleashed in the HD versions, there was so much daytime sonic content that the werehog was completely unneeded to lenghten the game
That makes no sense considering the Daytime levels in the HD version are completely incompatible with the ones made for the Wii/PS2 version. HD Daytime plays different and the levels are of a significantly higher technical quality than what the Wii/PS2 could do. These are two completely different games made by two completely different dev teams.
@@WaddleDee105 i just mean generally. Both versions have alot of daytime levels to sustain their own games
I wouldn't go that far. What we end up with here is a final day stage count less than double that of what you get from just the Act 1s. Even if they had used them all the game is less than an hour long. And in the HD version, while the daytime content DOES outweigh the nighttime content once you add everything up, the extra acts are all smaller gimmicky affairs with less spectacle, a distinctly different flavour from what are considered the main stages.
Even then though, the key point is that the Werehog was never intended as a way to lengthen the game, the reason it exists is because they were trying to attact new players who were fans of combat-heavy action games like God of War etc.
I really wonder why all this content did end up scrapped. It looks amazing. Even if they were short on budget or time to deliver all 2 acts per world, it would be amazing to at least have some worlds with 2 stages.
My impression of the rooftop run “act 2” is that they used to first act as a base and wanted to modify it little by little, hence why it’s almost identical to act 1. I also believe that the “act 3” was going to be part of “act 2” but they didn’t have time to properly connect them so they just made it a separate “act”.
As for how jungle joyride “act 2” would have connected Area B and C I imagine that something would have launched Sonic upwards, possibly breaking the ceiling of the cave in some sort of set piece and causing him to land right into the beginning of area C. That’s just how I imagine it would be like judging by the collision map at the very least.
The time i 100% the Wii version i couldn't believe the amount of lost content i missed and how the day stages could have been with like even 3 stages per country. Absolutely crazy how Unleashed keeps giving for me. I love this game in all of it's versions.
Thank you for making this! I've wondered for years how Jungle Joyride Act 2's parts were supposed to connect so it made me really happy to see how it was originally supposed to be.
Holy crap okay I have so much I want to say, this is an amazing video i literally learned new stuff about my favourite game of all time, the idea there was a potential 2nd act we could have played (even 3rd for stages like rooftop run and Dragon Road) is crazy to think about. Sucks all those basically got thrown into side mission content but hey that’s deadlines for you, honestly if we ever get a “Sonic Unleashed Ultimate/definitive edition” I wonder if they’ll add these second acts as flat out new stages…definitely wouldn’t happen but a person can dream lol. Thank you again for this video :)
If we did get a Sonic Unleashed Ultimate it would very likely be the HD version unfortunately, well at least that version also has a lot of interesting things about it too.
The DLC is made up from the cut levels as well as challenge remixes
Can you believe that I've waited 16 years for a video like this 🎉🎉🎉?
For spagonia, my theory is that the areas didn't "meant" to be in any way. They just are prototyped sections. Probably the level designers were constructing the levels in several chunks and then joined together the best chunks to form the final level and those parts didn't make to the final stage.
yes. Finally someone else acknowledging these stages
Oh my God I'm so glad someone finally made this video. I've known about this for years but never had any way to actually get it out to people. You are literally doing God's work, thank you so much ahaha
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
I been waiting for a in depth video like this. This game had a lot of untapped potential fr
Dude this is gold. I have been OBSESSED with this topic for months and planned to do this research by myself as there was barely any info online. Seriously THANK YOU
Yeah both versions of Unleashed have quite a lot of unused content, a shame there aren't many videos on them.
@@TheStormsChannel Saw the video and have one small correction though. The cave section of Jungle Joyride Act 2 doesn't end in the circular area. You can go further, but there are a pair of dash pads leading you back to the circular area. If you continue though you can go through it as it has collision. You have to be careful since there are tons of dash pads leading you back and you are on a timer, but if you succeed you will reach a dead end. I highly assume that this dead ends leads to the final area of the level, the one that is blocked with raw earth.
Another stuff. I think the beginning of Act 2 of Arid Sands connects with Act 1 ending (if you imagine a couple of doors there). I also think the ending of Chun Nan Act 2 connects with the beggining of Act 1. Act 2 leads to water level and Act 2 beggins there. Futhermore the doors blocking the path are similiar
Overall I loved this video. The Spagonia thing was really interesting, I was cracking my head thinking how the indoors section connected with the main stage or the time attack variant
Las thing: you can induce which stages were cut by time. The stages should progressively last longer or around the same time, yet Holoska last one minute more than Chun Nan, Shamar and Adabat, which are later stages (also Spagonia, who immediately preeceds it, is around a minute shorter). For me this is clearly because Holoska wasn't cut and the rest of the stages were. Spagonia, Chun Nan and Shamar were split in halves that sorta make sense into each other. Adabat is weird because there is seemingly no connection between Act 1 and Act 2, but i think it may be because there is a water running section that was supposed to connect both, as there is no water running section in the Jungle J. stage
I really wish we could restore this stages and the night stages into full levels if we finally port Unleashed to Gens
For the adabat cave section there is a lower route that also leads to the circular room, which you get to by falling off the higher path (by falling through 2 large holes or off the edge of a thin bridge, at 21:07 I do fall into the exit of this path), maybe you confused it for that route as the ring attack missions do allow you to backtrack. I've checked the stage models and explored around the area with freecam/moonjump and the area past the final room.
It may have been possible that the unused sections were once part of the main acts, but seeing as they're in their own folders it's not likely. (Night acts were going to be one whole stage and are still located in the same folder post-split)
Holoska does contains 4 areas opposed to 3 like most other acts, but Spagonia act 1 also has 4 Areas, again is a possibility they were split, but it must've been done early since they are organised into different folders, but in that case why aren't they finished? So many mysteries with this game.
As a kid i felt sad that there wasn't more stages with rankings but rn i can appreciate the extra stages that have diferent sections from the regular Act 1, it just kinda sucks that some of the best ones like the rooftop sewer or the chun-nan bits are non-mandatory/you get them very late
I also love the fact that "Area D" of jungle joyride feels like a victory lap coz it's literally the last secret level you can get lol
23:43 That whole section between A&B looks like a very missed opportunity to have the fabled "difficult but faster upper route or easier but slower lower route" Specially with how sonic handles in unwiished, you'd have to be a master at boosting and turning to go quick in the bottom route
30:30 could be HD's 3rd running section collision ported over to SD's files coz iirc in the final game iirc removed the wall running that the HD version has
also
20:44 is it just me or did the game load a blue filter on the stage once you went a bit further?
Thank you for taking the time and effort to make these videos! I've always prefered this over the HD version (overall, but both have their merits and downsides) so it's cool to see videos like this and it's so fascinating to see beta/unused/cut stuff from your favorite games!
I wonder if someone'll ever mod this version to a point where we'll get terrain mods like gens or hd unleashed
This is awesome. This makes me convince the level design in wii and ps2 version is superior to that of ps3 and xbox version in term of gameplay and variation.
16:22 Note how the back of the plane is red, I believe this a leftover from when the team wanted to make this a Mario and Sonic crossover. It really is too bad they ran out of budget to realize their lofty ambitions.
Really great video by the way!!
Actually I think that was just a glitch with movie stuido, sometimes it displays certain colours incorrectly if you have an AMD gpu and I forgot to fix it, and the actual colours were just what I used to make it more visible (has no texture and is just plain white otherwise)
@@TheStormsChannelI believe it's probably just a visual indicator for backfaces. Blender has a similar feature where frontfaces display blue and backfaces are displayed as red. Since most games don't render backfaces and physics engines tend to ignore them, allowing objects to pass right through them, it's helpful to have an option to show the face orientation. That way you don't end up with polygons facing the wrong direction.
@@GANONdork123 I used the default windows 3D viewer, and it has some coloir options that can be applied to model, I think the kne I picked was orange and blue, but again movie studio sometimes messes ul colours on an amd gpu. The plane colour is pure white otherwise.
sarcasm or am I clueless?
So in summary: Dimps wanted to add more content than they managed to do, but perhaps due to the capabilities of the Wii (being a weak console) or due to lack of time it could not be finished and the content ended up being cut a lot, overshadowing the daytime sonic with a single act and nighttime sonic with 3-5 acts depending on the continent(For Example: EGGmanland)
It's a common trend for sonic games to remove/cut up content due to time restrains. Even for the HD version the DLC stages were originally part of the base game (indicated by their existence in the august preview build, and the fact they still have entries in the files in the base game) but were pushed back to being DLC stages. And some night stages were cut in half for DLC too.
@@TheStormsChannel Well, obviously this has happened since they created Sonic 1, so I'm not very surprised that there was content cut, but rather that Dimps tried to take advantage of the maximum potential for the unleashed wii but it ended up unfinished and they had to cut a lot of content from daytimes and Night Time stages Lmao.
Honestly i wish they cut more night stages than they already have. Just saying, it would probably have been better
I think Rooftop Run act 3 was cut because it was cut from the HD version. There is a night version of the sewer area in the DLC and there clearly was supposed to be a day area. Don't ya think its weird how you end up in a sewer to in the sky in act 2 lol
honestly someone should make a mod for the wii version that add these acts back in while completing the ones that are unfinished
Closest we almost had was that generations mod I replied to GuriBrk about, a real shame the version in the video is no longer available.
A bit sad that these acts were never fully realized in game. Would loved to have seen and played a version that had them along with potential Mazuri and Empire City stages.
Bro all these files for day 2/3 stages while missouri didnt have even 1 day or night stage💀💀💀
I wonder if the scrapped Gaia Colossus data was them trying to put Super Sonic flying towards Dark Gaia like in the HD version, but I wonder if they scrapped it due to the limitations on the PS2/Wii, so in the end we only straight up got Super Sonic instantly throwing hands instead of a flying section
(Or since it's Area A it probably the Gaia Colossus fight was gonna having an "approach and hit" gameplay but we got a Punch Out reference instead"
I always knew it was odd that Windmill Isle was the only Day Stage to get 2 proper Acts while it and all the other stages had forgetable and short missions. It was even weirder to me that some missions use whole new level areas that could not have been anywhere else in the game, i genuinly wish they just made the full act 2s and made those the required missions while the random stages woulda been side content.
why is chun-nan act 2 so much better than act 1 lmao, good video
And it even has dragons in it unlike act 1,
Act 1 = Road
Act 2 = Dragon Road
true dude fuck act 1
This is similar to the case in Sonic Colors, where each zone has one huge map split into 6 acts
Not quite, each zone in fact has 2 maps, originally act 1 and 2, which most of were split in half into 2 acts. The smaller acts were originally meant to be mission acts which take place in a small area of one of the two maps.
@@TheStormsChannelCan you do a video about that (Sonic Colors) next?
@@Stroutta-oh7mj Someone already has: "The truth behind the stages of sonic colours"
I was thinking that maybe the Act 2's were all broken up to make the game appear like it has more unique areas like "Here's an area that only appears in this mission".
I always found it weird that they spent time making additional daytime levels only to throw them into random side missions that most people never even played. A shame too cause the Chun nan and Spagonia ones are really cool, and Adabat really could have used it considering how short the regular day level is. On the other hand, i actually kind of like how you get rewarded with extra day levels from taking the time to explore and get S ranks, so at least they're there at all.
Maaaan, good video! Everything that is not used in the final version is quite interesting :0
They better add these stages and the other ones from the Wii version into an Unleashed Remaster.
My best guess for Dark Gaia Section A comes from the HD version. There, you'd complete a Chip segment, then get sent to Sonic for one shot at DG's eye... then back to Chip again. The first area follows a cutscene, but the rest are direct transitions in gameplay. It could be that at one point in development there was going to be multiple Chip segments, they started programming the path Sonic would transition to, but then realized that didn't work for one reason (programming) or another (it was a bloated and bad idea in HD too). It _could_ also have something to do with the level design itself, given that Unleashed HD and UnWiished have the same three approach layouts for Sonic's sections. Maybe they had that geometry ported over into slot A and for some reason had to recreate it in different segments?
a very interesting video, it'd be neat to be able to reconstruct these acts, as much as possible anyway
Wow, this video has left me speechless, I can't believe how much content and cut out day level sections there are in my favorite game, I must say you made an amazing video about this.
Now my question is: is it possible to restore and reimagine those stages to create a complete level as a second act for those day stages? It would be awesome if a skilled fan could do it and add those unused stages as if they were completely new levels that fit well with the rest of the levels in the final product.
For this version of the game, I don't think so, but someone did port Chun Nan and Adabat's second stage to generations, but that mod is no longer available
One of the coolest videos on TH-cam!
8:09 this level is on the back of the Unwiished game box. I always wondered as a kid where that level was. Now I know it was never made in the final game. Crazy shi bruh
It's still there, it's just been chunked and hidden in unlockable missions.
Yeah I remember also wondering where that area of Chun Nan was back on the PS2 case, wasn't until I unlocked the ring attack mission I finally found it.
I also did mention this at 9:35 in the video :)
When I first played and finished the PS2 version it was really weird seeing that they made these unique areas just for extra missions, seemed kinda wrong that they spent all this time making these areas just for some extra missions. I guess they wanted to make the game a bit longer by dividing the extra Acts into a bunch of missions wherever they could. Couldn't they just keep the original uncut Acts in the game AND make those extra missions out of them? Oh well.
All of this reminds me of Sonic Colors, they reused existing areas to make new Acts, though unlike in Colors these extra levels are optional.
Great video, very informative! There are a few misspellings and the text fades away a bit too quickly sometimes, but other than that it was a great video! I love that you showed us some stuff like the folder, files and collisions of the areas!
Colours was actually meant to have 2 day acts and a bunch of optional ones orignally (the very short acts were basically meant to be mission acts). But they split most of the main acts into 2 (some actually remained whole, but were pushed later in the act list) and they made the optional mission acts compulsory "main" acts.
As for text fading too fast I do tend to read quickly, but I'll keep it in mind for future videos
@@TheStormsChannel Ah ok interesting, I didn't know they wanted to make optional levels too. thx for the reply!
I always find it odd that Windmill Isle only has 2 acts while the others doesn't and some leftovers of those levels are in the missions levels, shame they weren't used in the final game
Awesome video man, really interesting stuff. For as Janky and Ugly as this game is to me the gameplay was still pretty solid.
Thank you for doing such a comprehensive video covering this, I've been fascinated by these myself since I've been playing through the game the past year and a half going for 100% (still haven't unlocked the final Adabat mission lol, done everything else but I still have some items I have to find). I'm actually a newcomer of sorts to the Sonic series, being a Mario kid my whole life, my first Sonic game being Mania Plus on the Switch, and this was my first 3D Sonic game. Found a copy of it in the back of my Uncle's stash of Wii games in fall 2022 and borrowed it (was previously considering finding a copy on Ebay since I didn't know he had it), and have been having a blast with it enough that I was totally willing to play all the extra side missions even if it would seem at first glance like mere filler to others, and so I came across some of these stages much to my surprise. Didn't take me long to realize that these were entire new acts and many of these missions were actually connected to each other on the same map, and they fascinated me. Would have been nice to be able to play the full stages as single levels but it didn't seem to include that, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I finally unlocked the Arid Sands and Dragon Road time attack missions that did mostly exactly that. And I was utterly flabbergasted when I played the Rooftop Run Time Attack mission, because not only did I already play the sewer stage and thought that was the entire Act II and was all there was for stuff besides the main level, but of course I also thought the Time Attack was just the main act again because it was until the end. So when I suddenly ran into a whole new 2D section that WASN'T in a different level but replaced part of the main level, it was like a jumpscare lol. Because until that point I was just like "okay yeah, these other missions are just unused Act IIs repurposed into these side objectives" but seeing a sudden new section in one of the main levels was a total surprise and made things way more fascinating and confusing. So it's cool to see a thorough documentation of all this.
It would be nice for someone to make a mod restoring these as full Act IIs (though from what I've seen there seems to be barely anything in terms of major mods for the Wii Sonic games sadly, in stark contrast to the Mario Wii games I've been familiar with for years that have had made-for-console total conversion mods often the size of full games since basically Day 1 with Riivolution), albeit they'd have to restore some of the missing or incomplete areas as well as figure out WHAT THE HECK was going on with Rooftop Run there lol. The other levels are pretty black and white in terms of what's the intended main act and what's molded from an Act II, they're clearly separated, but with Spagonia it's not black and white at all what happened there lol.
This does make me wonder just how far the developers got with making these Act IIs though, because for all we know what was left in the game is not all they had finished. Especially when it comes to Adabat, which is probably the saddest loss with that missing 2D section, I wonder if they truly never finished Area C or if they got much farther but left it out of the final game. Because all the other areas are basically complete, including the area that takes place AFTER that supposed 2D section, so it's kinda hard for me to believe they really had NOTHING of it done. Parts A, B, and D are all finished (yeah the ending of Area A is unused and lacks collision but given the terrain seems pretty much finished I think that's more the result of the full act being scrapped and repurposed than that one spot being unfinished), so it would be REALLY weird for Part C to have absolutely nothing constructed for it at all especially since it's located in what would be the middle of the stage and there's remnants of its end in Part D. Makes me think they DID have something for it even if it wasn't fully finalized, and because they didn't end up using it that section wasn't included on disk and so it's part of their work on the stage that's just lost to time that we'll likely never see, which is really sad.
Someone ported Speed Highway to Unleashed Wii for some reason. It's possible but nobody wants to do it :/
Console only games are much more difficult to mod, if this version was on PC officially it probably would've had tons more mods, same with the HD version, just look at generations.
Although another reason is this version gets overshadowed by the HD version a lot, but I think this version is very underrated.
@@TheStormsChannel Yeah, that's true, but then again like I said people did it for the Wii Mario games from basically Day 1 anyway, in fact for years nearly all the major mods ONLY officially supported playing on the actual console until Dolphin added built-in Riivolution support in 2022, any means of playing mods not on an actual console with the actual game disk wasn't really officially supported by the mod creators. So it is certainly possible (though then again it's also possible that the way Nintendo made those Mario games just makes them easier to mod than this game, idk).
Well mario is insanely popular (and overrated imo) and since it's always been exclusive to Nintendo consoles it probably has a large community of modders on standby everytime a new game is released.
If said mario games had a PC port at release I'm sure the wii wouldn't have had as many mods.
watching this video made me realize that sonic doesn't say "WOOOO!!" or "GO!!!!" when boosting like in the 360/ps3 versions in this game, he only says "HRRRRAAH!" which i think is a shame.
that's besides the point though, great showcase here, makes me want to play this game again. isn't it crazy how we were robbed of proper act 2s in both sonic colors and this game? what is it about the wii that made sega do this?
In sonic colours the act 1s were the ones that were split, most act 2s were fully playable (but pushed back to either act 4 or 6), except sweet mountain act 2. For unleashed it seems they ran out of time, day stages are many times larger than night stage. For colours it was probably just to increase a 2 hour game to a 3 hour game.
The alternative path of area a 8 track, maybe it was a penalization path. Cause, the 8 path its straight forward to the area b, meanwhile, the alternative path, its more messy and i can feel the diference of going up there and below.
My theory its that, in some part of the level, you pressed a switch going in full speed and an internal countdown started. When the countdown drops to 0, the bars appears on the entrance of the 8 track and maybe a spring in a box force field would be accsesible. And, that spring, would get you into the alternative path. But, if youre fast enough, you can enter in the 8 track.
Thats my theory on Jungle Joyride "Act 2"
But, i want to talk about the beggining of area A on Arid Sands....
Dosent look like its was a rough entrance? Like... you apear like 2 cm behind the boost panel.
For me, theres another previous discarded and deleted area. That, transitions to the Area A of "Act 2".
..
Call me crazy, but, i think, the end of 2d section of the act 1 of Arid Sands, can concect well with the area a of act 2. Like, if we extend back the rock wall maybe some meters and put the final hole of the 2d section, i can see a true conection.
Thtas all.
Interesting theory for the 8 path, though nothing like that ever appears in this version of the game, but would be interesting to see, at 20:15 to the left on top of that structure is where this alternate route starts.
A lot of the "Act 2s" do look pretty rough in some areas, possible that maybe some areas were swapped around.
@@TheStormsChannel Maybe. Or, the penalization path was more unfinished that we think. I think the path it was supoosed to have more. Maybe, the start of it, could occured after another path that was planned to do. I can see a boost panel in the start of the upper path for send you directly to the drift curve.
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.
If you know some much about this, you should make a mod that restores the zones! It would be awesome!
Unfortunately I have no idea how to mod this game, all I can do is extract most of the stage models.
I haven't seen a single stage mod for this version that has unique level design, but I have seen stages from this game ported to generations. Even then I have no idea how to mod that game.
@@TheStormsChannelThat’s sad.
:(
woah now thats cool. and i just finished unwiished on dolphin. shame how inly windmill isle has more than 1 real day stage tho :(
I wonder if the PS2 port had any additional unused content (the version you're using is the Wii version)...
Mystery here, the guy thanked at the end of the video. PS2 is exactly the same besides slightly downgraded graphics.
are you planning to do the same for night stages as well? as the only werehog fan i would like this very much
Possibly, it seems every act for a zone was part of the same map at one point, could do a video on it soon.
@@TheStormsChannel thanks for letting me know man cant wait for it
@@krub1124your wish was granted
someone oughta contact a modder fella to mod this stuff into the game
Aye, thanks for using my mod-
I wonder if it would be possible to mod these stages and fuse them back together. Like Dragon Road for instance.
With how drowned in repetitive werehog stages this version was (even compared to the HD version) we really could've used these stages.
the dragon :)
how do you even use the moonjump code provided, it doesn't seeem to work for Gamecube controllers no matter what i do
Sorry for the late reply, but try this:
808144A8 00000004
208144A8 00000800
C21367FC 00000004
8223FFFC 2C11000D
4182000C D0230004
4800000C 3E004100
92030004 00000000
E0000000 80008000
208144A8 00000000
041367FC D0230004
E0000000 80008000
@@TheStormsChannel yeah, it works now
Glad I could help, I found the code online and it was formatted like that, and even I don't fully understand it :P
So Rooftop Run had an entire fun 2d section they could've used instead of another annoying auto run robot section nobody likes??
I would like there to be a mod or a port, or something similar to make at least a single level as similar as possible to the HD version. Spagonia with a setting similar to the 360 version would be a gem
mazuri area c seemed look a boss area
Oh so that was the last Adabat Day Stage, an 'Reach the Goal Unscathed" stage. I was able to unlock the rest but not that one. How did you unlock it?
It's the very last one you unlock, you need all sun medals and 70/71 moon medals, it's in one of the gaia gate rooms iirc
@@TheStormsChannel Weird because I got every single Sun and Moon medal, went through every single of the Gaia Temple rooms, and collected every single item within them. Maybe I missed an item somewhere in one of them, oh well. I unfortunately don't have the game or my PS2 anymore so I can't look for it. But hey at least I know what it looks like now lol
Seria daora se alguém fizesse um mod das fases da versão do X360/PS3 para o Wii/PS2
Some one did make a mod of the ps2/wii stages for generations, it even used some of these unused acts, but it seems that version was unfinished and cancelled and replaced with a newer one that doesn't have them.
Edit:
A video on it called "The Definitive Wii Unleashed Project Experience" by "Sonic Terminal" shows off the version with some of these acts, however that version is no longer available sadly :(
@@TheStormsChannel oh ok, thanks for the informarion
I don't think the HD levels would gel well with the SD mechanics, and vice-versa. Would be more interesting to see these levels ported to Sonic Colors instead.
this 2d sonic is kinda slow
I tried the gecko codes that you put in the description but they didn't work for some reason
Some do only work for the Pal Rom, and some only work for the US rom,.
If you're using the US rom codes for moon jump codes make sure to add the joker code to the top, then change the xxxx or yyyy to the correct button (whether you're using a wiimote + nunchuck, gamecube, or classic controller, the list is right below the joker address, so for example if you're using a gamecube controller the code should be 80760BF4 00000100
@@TheStormsChannel Thanks for telling me
17:08 62
Y apotos? :(
Why put development resorces on levels that you aren't even going to fully use? And why use them for missions only and not save them for some sort of wiiware dlc? Sometimes SEGA really makes me angry...
They may have planned to use them at one point but simply due to time constraints were unable to finish them fully.
@@TheStormsChannel I hate the fact that a lot of Sonic games were rushed just because, in this case at least, they had to tie in to the bigger "HD" version, these stages whould have been tons of fun
Niveles beta?
The levels aren't beta, but aren't fully used, in game. Instead they are only partially used for a few optional missions.
this will be a mod someday?
We can all hope.
how do you get to these levels tho
These levels are partially playable in certain mission acts, these mission acts are unlocked in the gaia gate puzzle rooms.