From what the designers of Sonic Unleashed have been saying, the game is going to blow away all the crap that Sonic has gone through since his last good game and re-crown the blue hedgehog as one of gaming’s greatest properties. You’ll excuse me if I’ve been a bit skeptical, but routinely being smacked in the face with suck by Sonic Team isn’t much fun. Plus, while the screens and brief videos of the game we’ve seen have been tempting, they haven’t really showed us that much to put our faith in…until now.

A new trailer shows a whole boat load of gameplay. Not only dooes the level look crisp and diverse, the faux 2D stuff could not get this retro heart beating any faster. The wall jumping, spinning, looping speed looks like they tore it from the SEGA Genesis Sonic games and slapped it right into modern day. Even the behind the back stuff from the newer generation of Sonic games looks like the good kind (remember Sonic Adventure was actually a good game and Secret Rings was at least fun) that doesn’t just have you running on what feels like a predetermined track. Most importantly though, there isn’t a rock song playing over the whole thing desperately trying to make Sonic cooler than cool. To me, this is the true signal that the Sonic of yesteryear might actually be back.

Of course this is all just setting myself up for even more soul swallowing disappointment than Sonic the Hedgehog could have ever dreamed to create.

[See also: Sonic Unleashed gallery]