Sonic Unleashed - 360 - Tornado Defense Act 1

Spagonia
Day
Tornado Defense Act 1

Well, this is actually on transition from Apotos to Spagonia. Tails is taking Sonic across the shattered continents to see Professor Pickle, but Eggman isn't going to make it easy.

This is basically just a series of quick-time events, which means you need to press the button cues as they appear onscreen, before the signals pass by. Everything else is entirely automated. (The idea is that Tails is doing the steering, and Sonic is doing the attacking. Look at Sonic when he fires a missile from the Tornado.) Getting an S-Rank should be an easy affair, but I have a tendency to confuse the X and B buttons because this controller is the first one I've ever touched where the B button is to the right of the A button instead of to the left.

The meters on the bottom aren't clear in their purpose, so I'll explain. On the bottom-left is "SHIELD." This refers to the force field Tails has over the Tornado. It's as fragile as any other plane, despite its high firepower. Each time it's hit, the shield goes down. When it reaches 0%, you lose a life. On the bottom-right is "ENERGY." You'd think this would stand for fuel or something, but it actually stands for how ready the Tornado is to fire the next missile. It drops a bit after firing something, but it quickly replenishes--I never had it go below 90% here. Its purpose is to prevent players from mashing all of the buttons and clearing even the toughest of parts with ease, since it will cause the energy levels to drop to zero and prevent Sonic from firing any more missiles for some time. This, of course, leaves the Tornado a sitting duck to all sorts of attacks.

Unlike Act 2, the S-Rank requirements leave very little leeway for error: You need to get a score of 500,000 or more. In order to achieve that, you need to pull a combo of 152 or more. That's because the score you earn for each enemy or missile shot down will multiply with your combo count. I don't quite know the formula, but it seems that for each multiple of 10 your combo increases, the game adds 1 to the multiplier. So for instance, when my combo was at 75, enemies shot down will be worth 7 times more points than if I were at the beginning of the combo. Of course, nearly anything will break the combo.

Getting hit breaks the combo.
Pressing the wrong button command breaks the combo.
Even pressing a button when there are no on-screen cues breaks the combo.

Tornado Defense Act 1 also gives us the first boss stage in the game, the Egg Cauldron. It's still in an unfinished state, which means for us that it has a big weakness. Well, a bigger weakness than the completed Egg Cauldron we see in Act 2. You take on the Egg Cauldron exactly like you would the rest of Tornado Defense, which is to shoot down the enemies and missiles through the cues onscreen. The swarm is simply more rapid here than before, particularly when Eggman yells, "Fire all weapons!"

Now, if you're curious, the difference between the unfinished Egg Cauldron and the finished one is that the unfinished one will defeat itself when the timer reaches zero, whereas the finished one will instantly shoot Sonic and Tails down. That is, it's imperative you deplete the Egg Cauldron's health in Act 2, but it's simply not necessary here. Thus, it's a better strategy to keep fending off attacks from the Egg Cauldron, since you can increase your score and your combo count that way. You get no points, nor does it add to your combo, for shooting into the Egg Cauldron nor finishing it off. All you'd wind up doing is cut off potential for more score.

By the way, a perfect run in this stage, shooting down every enemy and never ruining the combo, gets you a score of roughly 620,000.

Requested by afolita

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• sonic
• unleashed
• sega
• tornado
• defense
• miles
• tails
• prower
• spagonia
• apotos

[diddyknux]

The trophy for doing this without taking a hit.. I think I found it harder then I should have. I guess I'm just not as used to a PS3 controller as I am a Gamecube controller. I still haven't been able to S Rank it yet, though.

[Overhazard]

@diddyknux I can never get used to how the B button is to the right of the A button.

[TheIshmael98]

the best bit :D

[Overhazard]

@game84cube Was it?If it's blue, it's the Tornado 2. So perhaps you're right.

[game84cube]

@Overhazard why was it still blue?

[Overhazard]

@game84cube I believe Tails went back to the Tornado 1 for that one.

[game84cube]

@Overhazard what about sonic adventure 2?

[game84cube]

Anyone else get a sonic adventure vibe from this? there are two acts, one just to fly, and one to get to eggmans base. egg carrier much?

[TheChowderman]

I love the plane it's so epic *-*

[KatsumiM48]

I LOVE THIS MUSIC!!!!

[Speeder109]

I know agree even more the wii port could have been better.

[DarkInfernoMK2]

Why couldn't this stage be like it was in Sonic Adventure!?!?