Sonic Unleashed - 360 - Arid Sands Act 1-2
30Shamar
Day
Arid Sands Act 1-2
That's right--this is the super hard version of the normal Arid Sands day stage. The regular one was already frantic enough as it was; this one is not only a ton crazier, but you're given a time limit of 7 minutes. It might not sound too bad, since the normal difficulty Act 1 can be finished easily within 3 mintues once you're used to the stage. In fact, you earn an Xbox 360 Achievement/PlayStation Trophy, "Speeding Ticket," by finishing Arid Sands within 2 minutes 30 seconds. But 7 minutes will be quite the restriction here, for it's not only harder, it moves somewhat slower, particularly in the 2-D sections. Each of them contains a rather difficult pure platforming section, usually a path up, that will each hold Sonic up for a while whereas normal-difficulty Act 1 just allowed you to zoom right by. (You may notice there doesn't seem to be such a thing in the city area--this is because they're located on the bottom paths, and I took the top ones. I reassure you the one in the city is just as frustrating as the later ones you see, as they involve both wall kicks and using Homing Attacks on enemies to proceed.) In addition, there are a lot of obstacles designed to punish Sonic if he boosts around too much.
When you first see this stage, the first difference to notice is that there are a lot of mines scattered about the city. These mines continue to pop up practically everywhere, but they're not quite as dense later on. It pretty much requires you to navigate Sonic around precise paths, though the high speed is optional (but you NEED to boost around if you're going to get the S-Rank). I will give the benefit of the doubt and say Eggman put them there, just as Eggman's robots seem to be all over the city here. Everyone else seems to be okay though.
The other thing to notice, which isn't as easy to detect, is that the pillars fall from a longer distance ahead of Sonic than normal. In Act 1, they fall right when Sonic gets close, so if you just get by as quickly as you can, Sonic will slip by as they're falling. Here, they're designed to fall far enough ahead that if Sonic is boosting, he'll collide with them as he reaches those pillars. I'm not sure if you can avoid them by sliding or by moving to the opposite side of the path from the fulcrum, or if it's even possible though.
By the way, the launcher at 3:00 requires you to push left as Sonic bounces upwards--keeping the control stick neutral or right will send Sonic into the spike wall.
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