What kind of car would you associate with Sonic the Hedgehog? Does Sonic have any defining characteristics that some cars share? Ah, that's right! He's small! Smaller than a normal car.

... at least, that's how Sega of France's thinking seems to have gone. A Sega fan spotted this Sonic Unleashed-branded Smart and sent a picture into Sega's Sonic blog. We suppose it's appropriate given the game it's advertising: it makes as much sense to pitch a game about running fast with a pokey, bulbous little car as it does to make half of that game about a stretchy-armed werehog. At least the car's mostly blue.

Gameloft, one of the world's leading mobile game producers, has struck an agreement with Sega Europe to produce mobile content based on Sega properties. The first game that will come from this new partnership will be a mobile version of Sonic Unleashed, which will feature "high-speed 2D side-scrolling action." Sadly, it will also feature The Werehog.

There's no word on what other titles Gameloft will produce for the mobile space, but European cellphone enthusiasts (if there are such things) can find Sonic Unleashed on their mobile phones sometime in June.

Bad news, guys. We were going to pass along that more Sonic Unleashed DLC is in the works (we just read about it on Sega's Twitter feed). But, within the confines of the English language, there's no way we can be more apathetic than the last time we had to tell you about Sonic Unleashed. Last time, we couldn't even finish the headline. We just can't top that.

We've been reduced to using the slightly-profane music you'll find after the jump to express ourselves. That's where we're at now.

We hope you're ready for some more stretchy-armed Werehog combat, because Sega has released yet more DLC for Sonic Unleashed. The Spagonia Adventure Pack, available now on XBLM contains four new levels for daytime Sonic to run around in. Nighttime Sonic gets two new levels to do his thing: Smashing both evil robots and a treasured franchise at the same time.

The Xbox 360 version will run you 250.

[Via Sega Nerds]

Sega's Sonic Unleashed has a new DLC pack available: "Chun-nan Adventure Pack." Weighing in at 528mb, it features 4 new daytime levels, as well as 2 new Werehog locales within a "mountainous region best known for its dragon roads and majestic peaks." The levels actually aren't new to the game, as they were included in the Japanese PS3 release, but all the same will set you back 250 on the Xbox 360. The DLC will supposedly be available for PS3 owners sometime later today, if the self-abuse of already owning this game isn't enough for you.

Download "Chun-nan Adventure Pack" on Xbox Live Marketplace

[Via Sega Nerds]

Sega, whose business is as much about publishing games as it is about punishing Sonic fans without mercy, has revealed in an interview with Videogamer that the future could feature more of Sonic being a Werehog. In discussing the possibility of Sonic's alter-ego emerging from his permanent residence in the clearance bin at your local Wal*Mart, Sega's Ketsui Tatano doesn't think "producing the Werehog was a mistake per se," but he does admit there "were a lot of things we could have done better if we had more time and resources." Then, he delivers this dark omen, saying that should Sega pursue a Sonic Unleashed 2, seeing the Werehog again is "a possibility."

Oh yeah? Well, we can tell you where he won't be, should that dark future come to fruition: spinning inside of our console's disc drive.

Okay, this is all pretty tenuous, but super interesting: apparently, a Sega of Europe employee kept a blog last year in which he revealed some stuff about NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams that he shouldn't have, well before the game's release. The posts have since been removed, but the Wayback Machine allows us to have a look back!

According to the blog post, Journey of Dreams was originally developed as an Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 title, and was hastily shunted to the Wii when the platform's success became obvious -- despite protests from director Takashi Iizuka. The 360 version was at least far enough along to be playable! The quick change in plans meant that NiGHTS' development time was effectively shortened. If you didn't like the game, you have something on which to blame the problems!

Also interesting, if this blog post is really as vintage as it looks (we don't discount some kind of Internet trickery): the blogger dropped a pretty big hint about a future Sega game, saying that Sonic Team should be freed from Sonic games, "... before they release another Sonic game with a transforming Evil 'Night' Sonic who looks like a werewolf and can stretch his arms out Dhalsim-style. It will happen, mark my words."


[Via tssznews, via NeoGAF]

In this week's Zero Punctuation, imperator of ire and maharajah of moodiness Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has taken time out to sling a few quick-witted barbs at Sonic Unleashed.

True to form, Yahtzee quickly sets about smacking Unleashed down a peg or ten; in fact, this could be one of the angriest pieces we've seen from Croshaw in some time. It didn't totally agree with our own mainly scathing review, either: for one, he seems to prefer the Werehog Wolfhog stages (madness, we say, but horses for courses, and all that), and for two, we actually quite liked the day stages, whereas Yahtzee is revulsed.

Call of Duty: World at War (CoD:W@W for the more efficient among you) has defended its number one position on the all-format UK game sales charts, extending its reign to a fifth consecutive week despite heavy holiday competition. Mario Kart Wii took the second spot, followed by FIFA '09 and, still quite bizarrely, Need for Speed: Undercover. Oh, but wait until we tell you what's in the fifth spot. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training. Remember that one?

Further down the charts, Ubisoft's cel-shaded scurrier, Prince of Persia, climbed to the 20th position while Sonic Unleashed went from 33rd to 12th. We'll let that sink in for a few moments.

"Sonic + 3D" is a formula that Sega has scratched its head over for the best part of a decade with ... not a great deal of success. If you ask me, it's the speed factor. Controlling the nippy hedgehog in two dimensions is hard enough. Add a third, and it becomes a twitchy, frustrating experience.

So here's the yaaay news: Sonic Unleashed handles Sonic's speed better than any other 3D game in the series to date. In fact, in its best moments, it's the modern Sonic game I always dreamed of playing: fast, exhilarating, ridiculously fun. Yet this is a game of two halves -- of day and night, of hedgehog and "werehog" -- and while the final product has patches of brilliance that made me love Sega again, Unleashed is weighed down by bloated platform sections of thudding mediocrity.

If you make your way to the Xbox Live Marketplace and navigate to the demos section, you'll spot a fresh Sonic Unleashed demo awaiting your download. You know, Sonic Unleashed. It's Sonic gone beastly.

The demo download is a rather light 187MB, so we don't expect the experience to be too involved or lengthy, but we're sure it'll give those interested in the werewolf looking Sonic a big enough sample of what it has to offer. Now go, go download Sonic in all his Unleashed glory and attain (what the demo description tells us) "speeds that you've never seen before!" Whoa ...

Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War has climbed to the top of the UK all-format game sales charts, blasting its way through countless soldiers, explosive set pieces and Need For Speed: Undercover, which was in second place for some reason. Resistance 2 grabbed the tenth spot in its debut, while Sonic Unleashed, as Eurogamer points out, only managed 23rd ... on the Xbox 360-specific chart.

Though FIFA 09's third all-format position makes complete sense and matches our envisioned UK stereotypes perfectly, it's somewhat harder to justify the #39 spot held by Mirror's Edge, not to mention Left 4 Dead's #34. Tomb Raider: Underworld, however, managed to go from a 9 to a 7 in a week. Not the first time that's happened.

Hedgehog by day ... Werehog by night. Are you ready for Sonic's latest foray into 3D platforming?

Take a deep breath. That's it. Nice and easy. The worst of it is behind us. After weeks of being assaulted by top shelf games, it looks like things are finally slowing down. In fact, about the only notable 360 game this week is the delayed release of Sonic Unleashed (and if early reviews are any indication, even that might be a stretch). So, now that we've been given this respite, we suggest you go play your games in a hurry. After all, Prince of Persia is only a week away.

• Sonic Unleashed
• Winter Sports 2 The Ultimate Challenge
• NPPL Championship Paintball 2009

[Image: Rodrigo Paoletti]