Those who watch Manaita on deviantArt may already know about this, but one of her recent deviations tells about a new character that appears in Sonic Unleashed, and it's not a fan character.
Here's her deviation description (she's not fully English, excuse some parts of the grammar that may be off).

And here is the picture:

What do you think he is? To me it seems like some kind of chihuahua.
Does anyone else have any info on this character? Do you guys think he'll appear in the game or he's made specifically for that comic?

Wierd chihuahua thing. :l Why Sega make another character =_=

I think it's just for that comic. Why would they have a CHIHUAHUA character, which'd probably go stomped on by Were-Sonic?

Looks like another omochao or shahra to me, but unless it comes from an official source, i'm not buying it.

Some people who commented on the picture were talking about that, they also said it's most likely something like an Omochao. Most Sonic fans hated Omochao, and if this little guy's gonna be like him, then he's not gonna have many (if any) fans. x3 If he does turn out to be an official game character, I seriously hope he's only a little added-in helper and not anything major to the plot.

Um....okay? He looks a bit wierd.

He reminds me of that Tacobell Dog xD

"HAY ESSE! PUSH X TO JUMP MAN. AND BUY TACO'S WHILE YOU'RE AT IT."

Lollerballs.

A chihuahua with wings...

Could Sega make an even more random character? I mean come on... hedgehogs, foxes, echinda's okay... but this is getting ridiculous. They already put Were-Sonic in but why put a chihuahua in the game?

Haha, that made me lol.
Hopefully they're not planning to make him have a Spanish accent or anything. x3 But even if they are, I don't think they're gonna follow through with it. I mean, I heard Knuckles was originally going to have a Jamaican accent, but they didn't follow that through. xP

I think he is kyutee. 8D He's like a Kitty Bunny Chihuaha mix with wings! 8D I think he is most likely a guide...

glad he didnt get the accent o.o

but if its like omochao from SA2B that will SUCK. omochao ruined part of SA2B and was very annoying...

still... another character? its like in every game there MUST be a new character...

How in the world does he look like a cat and a rabbit? O_o

Confirmed and manga exclusive(for now). Thank you SEGA for doing something right.

He has a Bunny Tail, and he sorta looks like a kitty! 8D

If this is a main character & not a guide like everyone says, I will probably lose faith in Sega & tell them to do two things: 1 Bring back Yuji Naka regardless of what he says 2. STOP MAKING A NEW CHARACTER FOR EVERY GAME

I HATE CHIWAWAS!!! -KICKS-

What happened to Yuji Naka?

I agree with Aurorae. He looks like a guide or something :3 Maybe he could be a pairing for Cream =D *shot*

He looks really cute :3 I like him

He left SEGA & Sonic Team to set up his own game studio thing, called Prope

No this can't be. Anyway about the pic it does look like a chihuahua. But if it does the same thing like Omochao, I would agree with sonic32 about the Omochao thing. =/

That Chihuaua better not be there.

If there would most likely would be a new character in Sonic Unleashed... let it be a raccoon... The original idea of Tails to let it be a raccoon though they changed it into a 2 tailed fox... so why not making one even now?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is just a rumor. Of course, Sega could come in at anything and make me look stupid. :TailsHeadSpin:

It's funny how many people hate the character just by looking at it. harharhar.

EXACTLY. lol. We must see if it's a good character guide. If it's not then throw it.

The character is actually quite interesting, and pretty different from most characters. I wonder what his role is if he even is official character... hope the game got a good plot.

This Chiuaha is actually ORIGINAL. Most of the characters since 2000, we've got probably 3 good characters, and 500 hedgehogs. I'd be glad to see him, because that might mean that they are finally getting on the track.

It's funny how many people hate this new character with a 100% original design, but love characters like Shadow. ._.

Yeah, that is kinda weird when you say it that way xD

*Or maybe they're just sick of the n00bs in recent games =P*

no...getting back on track would be LEAVING THE FRANCHISE AS IS AND STOP ADDING NEW CHARACTERS. And most of us care more about ROLE then design...shadow/rouge are well liked because they lets us play as the villains for the first time in the series. Silver was well liked because his gameplay was different and interesting, adding a new pace to the game that (unlike big) didn't suck. This one, however, is pretty much another omochao as far as design goes, and i for one liked tikal (or better yet...SONIC HIMSELF <_<) explaining the game then some stupid stalker robot with an annoyingly high voice in the game...

AH! SEGA has created hell on earth! NO!!! will not fall for his smallness, okay. I read the resdt of the post and I agree with tails11
"another sonic character?=_="

I think people need to realize most of these characters from the good games will NEVER get back. I gave up on it, and there's not point anymore. And Guide characters really aren't that bad, people just never give them a chance. And I loved Big's gameplay, and I hated Silver's. Silver I think only has a fan base of fan girls. @_@ Adding new characters is not there problem, the problem is not focusing enough on gameplay.

Exactly my point...I myself didn't mind big's gameplay, i just thought is was too slow and out of place for a sonic game, and the lack of actual bosses didn't help. Silver, on the other hand was really refreshing due to how different and flexible his gameplay was...how he plays depends completely on who's controlling him due to how much you can actually DO with him. (and i'm not a silver fan, despite my username) The main problem i've had with the series lately is the fact that SEGA seems more focused on adding more characters then the SPEED BASED GAMEPLAY that makes up the series, which is why unleashed has gotten as much hype as it has so far.

I don't mind if more characters, aslong as the focus on the game first.

Hey, guys...

Nah, I've seen quite a bunch of male Silver fans, though the more "hard core" fans I've seen are female.

As for Chip, I wouldn't mind him appearing in the game as just a helper or something. The only problem with that is his story; WHY is he helping Sonic in the first place? Yet, Omochao didn't have a story of any sort, he was just kind of there.
And really, I don't think Omochao was that annoying. Everyone's acting like they were forced to listen to him, while 90% of the time he's very easily avoidable. I think the only time Omochao actually frustrated me was in Sonic Heroes on Team Rose's story, where you can't skip the dumb tutorial in the beginning and he keeps on stopping you. But in SA2/B it's not really hard to avoid him.

Now that I think about it, a new character wouldn't be bad if done well. If you look at most of the new characters added into the Sonic team, they are all unoriginal, and very bland to say the least. That's perhaps where the whole idea of hating new characters most likely comes from. Of course, I still don't believe this new character is going to be in the actual game, and will be in just the comic.

I will agree with Tak. Omochao can be avoided easily in SA2. Except in Boss Battles if you lose a life. That's unavoidable. And if you get him as a theme xD
To be honest, I remember picking him up in Crazy Gadget when I was showing off to a friend how easily I can get a Rank A, (because she hates the stage). I was told to pick him up so we could hear him complain. I threw him off into the toxic stuff, and he homed in on a bettle robot! :lol: So I used him as a weapon sometimes.

Besides, Omochao only appeared in Sonic Heroes if you take the optional tutorial, and with the beginning of Team Rose.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Omochao would get shot out of a gun, and would bounce around the place. That was fun.

And then in Sonic and the Secret Rings, Omochao was the Multi-Player host, and he wasn't that annoying.

Omochao may have been really annoying, but he probably was popular, since SEGA brought him back.

Recent rumors of a new character in Sonic Unleashed originally spotted in a promotional magna a few days ago were "confirmed" today by TSSZ News. They were able to find a video of Unleashed that was taped at the Leipzig Video game Expo and near the end of the video, you can clearly see a dog like character in the background. I'll post further details as soon as SEGA confirms/releases info on this new character.

Source: http://www.tssznews.com/2008/08/20/sonic-u...ig-cam-footage/

Oh wow! He must be at least a little bit of a major character, more major than Omochao to say the least. Seeing him show up at the end of the level like that makes me believe he follows Sonic around, probably throughout the entire game. Hopefullly Sonic Team will pull off a good back story for him, or at least a good reason as to why he's a chihuahua with wings. x3

...I hate Sega now...

"HAY GUISE, LES' ADD A NEW ANNOYING CHARACTER K?"