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[RK128]

This game is a 'big' one; something that borders beyond the realm of video games. It got a comic book, TV show and tons of merch; Boom is a big brand for Sonic and is part of Sonic Retrospective. I need a lot of hands to help me with this one, so thankfully, NeoGaf Members Yoshi and Village are going to work with me in making this thread.

Going to let them say there word on Boom before moving on to the history.

Yoshi:
Sega felt the need to rework the looks of Sonic and his friends for his new TV series. Considering Sonic Team by the looks of it did not really approve of the news design as the new standard, this is a bit strange, but it shows that Sega still is willing to take chances with Sonic and maybe establish a side series. The TV series I have not seen, but I have played both games; the 3DS one being ok, but having too long levels while overall being way too short, the Wii U version… well I guess I’ll get to that one a bit later in this topic .

Village:
Ok, so I have a weird relationship with sonic boom, because I have been following this since the news first came out, and as the news rolled out I sort of gathered what this game was supposed to be. They talked about its inspirations and what they wanted to going forward, and from what I have gathered. This, sonic boom is their attempt at the adventure dollar. From the jump, friends back, playable, unique non normal sonic mechanics, a sort of actually serious villain doing a thing, them saying they took inspiration from the adventure games multiple times. Shadow, and the producer talking about all the stuff they were going do with shadow in future. This, hypothetically speaking seemed to be and still is a more adventurous take on sonic. Something more akin to their pursuits in the early 2000's, hell it plays like bad Jak and Daxter.

And if anything is early 2000's more than shit GTA clones, is shit J&D and R&C clones with generic ass backgrounds in nature, I’m looking at you Ty the Tiger and Tak and the Power of Juju. That part of sonic has been underserved for a while, this kind of adventure stuff happening, taking the situation a smidge seriously to the point of corn, has been gone for a while, sounds like a good idea right?

Market desires a thing, fulfill those desires. Easy as... cooking chili-dogs. You know instead of making one revenue stream make 2. Getting back to the days where they strait up were just releasing 2d Sonic’s on hand held. Diversify yo bonds.

Issue is, their attempts this, and sonic in general in the last few years have been half assed. And have kind of given sonic boom a weird reputation, hopefully this changes in future but it is what it is. Also sonic and knuckles designs meh, and raw ass so that's also a thing. I would take a look at Tails, Amy and Shadow as, a lesson in showing restraint.

I shall be covering the Wii U game, I just wish to talk about how transparent the whole thing is, so let’s get started.

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Sonic Boom started way in 2009, with a head of SEGA of America showing interest in westernizing various SEGA IP, with his eyes set on Sonic. Nothing happened......but the idea was planted with SEGA.

Fast forward to 2012 and SEGA of America decided "Lets do what we did in the early 1900's and bank on Sonic's popularity with him being a multi-media star!" But SEGA Japan wasn't that interested in this, so they gave SEGA America a budget of 20+ Million and more or less said 'Have fun'. Considering this, SEGA of America brought in four groups; Archie Comics, OuiDo! Productions, BigRedButton and late in development, Sanzaru Games.

Archie was told to make a comic closely linked to OuiDo!'s TV show.....but BigRedButton was the wild-card here.

They are composed of the following talent:
-Naughty Dog (Crash, Jak & Daxter)
-Insomniac Games (Spyro Series, Ratchet 1 & 2)
-High Impact Games (Secret Agent Clank, Ratchet Size Matters, Jak & Daxter: The Lost Fronter)
-Heavy Iron Studios (PS2 Era Spongebob Platformers)
-Superbot Entertainment (PlayStation All Stars)
-Sony Santa Monica Studios (God of War)
-Infinity Ward (Call of Duty Modern Wafare)
-Animators from Dreamworks and Pixar

So, it’s rumored that it was originally a new IP that SEGA retro-fitted into a Sonic game but information indicates it was going to be a full on reboot for Sonic. Various designs show that he was going to look drastically different than his current form and it made Izuka and other Sonic Team Members disgusted.

They dialed back with the designs but the fact Sonic Team was warry of this western studio working with their IP........had to be angering.

Fast forward to 2013 and the games are announced; Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric for the Wii U and Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS. Now, we got a trailer that looked, quite nice honestly. Lots of detail, various effects in place and level locations hold potential for fun gameplay ideas......but really, this was all PC footage. The game was never running on Wii U tech until AFTER the announcement of the game landing on Wii U.

And Cry Engine 3 while supported on Wii U, wasn't made in mind for the system. All of this lead to the team spending long hours forcing the game to work with hardware that just refused to work for them.

All of this happened while Sanzaru was hired to make Shattered Crystal and got the game content complete within six months, with the remaining five or so months spent polishing the game and adding in content that people liked (rival races and worm tunnel levels).

Both games released on November 2014 alongside the cartoon and both were panned HARD. The Wii U game became this generations Sonic 06 while the 3DS game disappointed some.

With all of this in mind, how does the Wii U and 3DS version fare?

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Wii U version I will let Village and Yoshi take the stand, but I will just say this before they state their thoughts; this game had no excuse to be such a shoddy game. Okay, have at it Yoshi and Village .

Yoshi:
First of all, let me say that the game does not use the same structure as Jak & Daxter, considering it is still broken up in distinct levels and does not really qualify as a collectathon in level structure. The levels are still basically almost as linear as they are in the older Sonic games, added overworlds are nothing new for a Sonic game either. It has one thing that was popular among the PS2-platformer developers though: Collectibles that are sprinkled throughout the game with no real rhyme or reason, certainly not as game structuring elements like in Mario 64, Banjo or, to a slightly lesser degree, Jak & Daxter (1). In that sense, the collection aspect feels more reminiscent of Spyro.

The thing with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is, that it manages to not be outrageously dysfunctional like Sonic 2006, or as incredibly dull as Sonic & The Black Knight, still it manages to take the crown of frown among the 3D platformers starring Sonic (well, tied with Sonic 3D Blast) for me. The overall gameplay is just all over the place. The levels are separated in three kinds of sections, platforming, high-speed areas and fighting. The fighting is hilariously braindead, you just press “attack” to win. You can (and in very few cases need to) use your lasso attack, but that’s about all there is in regards to variation. However, the fights can take quite a while and are never even remotely entertaining. Then there are the high speed sections and even though I am always strictly complaining about the unjustified accusations of “press up to win” for Sonic games – because they are generally bullshit – this absolutely holds true to the speed sections in this game. These sections are entirely worthless and devoid of any kind of thrill. What remains are platforming sections, which often include parallel paths for different characters. They can be of OK quality, but it is quite problematic, considering the success in this game is measured in collectibles rather than rankings that you need to guess the right order in which to take the alternative paths as to not end up on the path leading to the goal without a way back. The problem is that the levels overall are just not fun to play and certainly not fun enough to play them more than once. As a result, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is the only Sonic platformer I have not finished 100% (though I have completed all levels, of course).

Sonic Boom also runs at a miserable framerate, is buggy (but not as much as Sonic 06, at least&#8230 and has some of the most cringe-worthy voice samples I have yet heard. The game starts on a weak note, gets worse, but at least when the game gets slightly harder close to the end it has a small upwards tendency. Nevertheless, this game is a complete train wreck and even if the tech was top notch, including rock solid framerate and bug freeness, it would still stand as a crowning achievement in fuck ups.

Village:
Quick story: So Sonic and Eggman is fighting , and sonic instead of running full speed away from the ambush because him and his friends have the power of super speed, making all types of ambushes completely irrelevant. He decided to walk into a tomb with his face on it because he is a narcissist like that, and gets trapped. Instead of coming back to investigate later, when Eggman isn't chasing you, you know the smart thing. After getting trapped, because he walked into old decrepit magical architecture that could have collapsed at any time with no context because his face was on it, you have to play through some bad 2d platforming to get to this room. In this room holds Lyric a big bad who was just let out because sonic in game forgets he has super speed. And didn't just run away from the ambush, because he and his friends have super speed. They let the lyric the 00's ps2 villain out, he is evil and goes to do evil shit. Apparently he wants the not chaos emeralds and the old world robots to take over...the world, also Eggman wants those, because he has similar ambitions. Later you kick his shit in and save the day. Which makes him as a threat look completely irrelevant because even gathering everything he wanted couldn't stop sonic and crew, so yeah. Also shadow drops by for whatever reason.

Ok so we have talked this game to death, TO DEATH about its flaws. Its badly designed, its buggy as fuck, they didn't listen to the testers, you can fall through the world, there is a knuckles jump glitch that can allow you to beat the game in little over or under an hour. A lot of the staff left during development, and maybe this was supposed to be for different systems entirely.

This is covered ground, what I would like to talk about is the transparency with removed stuff in this game, I’m going to throw some a secret but this game maybe been rushed to market. Wild I know, no sonic game has ever done that before... right

Oh wait the worst one, we haven't learned this lesson still it’s been a decade, or at least 8 years at the time. So, much likes games rushed to market there may be content missing sometimes it’s fairly obvious, sometimes it’s so obvious that you kind of wished they would have just taken their time and polished the game. To see what at least a finished version of this game, what that even is?

So let’s start with Perci and end with Shadow.

So Perci:

Here she is I think her design is cool, her and a chao world, or garden were apparently supposed to be in this game, or things in this game. And her playable, neither of those things are things. I think the sheer amount of playable folks, or rather potentially playable folks in this game, along with the chao thing sort of solidifies the era of sonic they were going for. I wish I could have experienced her character in a playable setting that wasn't the TV show, because the tv shoes does has her character, it falls into that female sonic character hole a lot of them tend to and it kind of sucks. But we will get to that bridge.

Shadow, shadow is a particularly interesting puzzle piece in this entire thing because his is more clear than anyone there has to have been cut content. But before I get that, I want to note, his character is shit in this game, like so bad that apparently in the Japanese dub of the game, and it suggests he was mind controls to skirt around the shitness of his character entirely. But back to his place in the game, so shadow shows up, seems like he is investigating something, leaves. Comes back, fights sonic for no reason, gets jumped, gets knocked someplace. At the end of the game, shows up like he was fighting something else, seems to have context of everything gives sonic and crew a glance and leaves. It’s almost as if shadow was investigating the thing, gloated sonic into taking him where he needed to go because he knew the threat ( and by the way if you all are asking, village how do you know he knew who lyric was , in the next game he knows who lyric is and goes after himself, and has a context of how dangerous he is, he already knew who lyric was) and something else happening elsewhere, and went on an adventure in another dimension that you would have played through giving context to all that. A sort of... dark story line... like... a 2nd adventure.... would any of you know what a thing like that might be called? Anyways, along with him being the only boss fight that like DMC4's Dante fights looks like you are fighting someone who is supposed to be playable.

There is a lot of this game, that's not just not here. Not only on a technical, bug level or a quality level, but just not here in general. As we all know the development for this game was apparently nothing short of shenanigans. So this is to be expected, but it is, very apparent. If I were them I would have just removed shadow from the game, clearly he wasn't ready to leave the oven. But hey I guess they thought they could get some sales off him anyway? I don't know. But you can say that about the whole game, this game needed to cook for a lot more time. Because the ambition behind boom in general is great despite some questionable character design choices, but you can't half ass it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The 3DS version of Boom is where I will talk a lot, as I own the 3DS version and it was a lot better than I expected it to be honestly.

The core gameplay set up like a normal 2D Sonic game but after fully playing through it, the game is a odd hybrid between the Advance Series and the Rush series. I say this as while you have an option to 'Boost' (pressing Y), you don't damage foes until a late-game upgrade. And even talking about the Advance series is not really fair as you don't run unless you press the Y Button; you walk at a nice jog. This is not a problem, as the game's level design so focused on exploration. You have more traditional platforming ala Sonic Color's 2D Sections, so with the slower controls, it allows for more control over your character when jumping about.

You have four playable characters; Sonic, Tals, Knuckles, and Sticks. Sonic has a spin dash and air-dash, with the spin dash being able to attack foes (like it should XD). Tails can throw bombs, hover in the air & use his Sea Fox (a nice nod to the Game Gear games). Knuckles has a dash-punch and can dig into the ground (mirroring how the Drill Wisp works; you press the Y button when drilling to go faster). Sticks has access to her boomerang and you can either just toss it around or have more control over her throw (hold the X button and let it fly with the Circle Pad).

Note how I don't mention the iconic homing attack? Everyone has it and can stop when pressing X + Down. It makes every character equal control wise and it makes switching characters (D Pad Presses) really natural. However, it goes into my biggest issue with the controls; the lack of a spin jump. Sonic and friends don't curl up when jumping like in most games in the series, so you either use the X button moves or homing attacks to defeat robots. The problem, is that the homing attack does not always work and it’s tied to your double jump; you might end up hitting yourself instead of hitting your foe.

I hated this but thanks to Sonic's Air Dash, Sticks Boomerang, and Knuckles Dash Punch, its not that bad. Just a really strange design oversight on Sanzaru's part.

The Level Design is interesting, as I both really like it but have issue with it. What I mean, is that the speed sections are just nice little cut-scenes you earn from the platforming, but you have great sections that have you timing your homing attacks, enerbeam swings and jumps to have some really fun speed-based platforming. I also love the fact each character is Sonic-like but has a unique feature. It’s something I loved in the Classic Series and the Advance games, so it is awesome Sanzaru does that here.

Sonic and friends have level gimmicks that we see in many other Sonic's; grind rails, lop-de-lops, springs that bounce you everywhere and some new gimmicks tied to character abilities. You will be swapping between characters rapidly in latter levels, leading to some really fun platforming that uses everyone's abilities.

......But note how I said I have issues with the level design. The game is exploration focused and I like that, as its a nice nod to the Game Gear games (that push for exploring for getting rings to access special stages or in Tails Adventure trying to find all the items in each map). But trying to find everything is a bit annoying at first. You only have Sonic at the start and it isn't until the Scrapyard level (about.....four levels in) until you can play with all the characters. So you will be backtracking and this might be a problem for some.

If you like the gameplay and like exploring the entire level map ? Great! But do you just want to run to the goal and call it a day? Ugh......this game doesn't work that way. You have Emblem systems in place and you have to collect X amount to unlock specific levels. So, if you don't explore and get all the Crystal Shards/Blueprints....you are locked out of stages. Many hated this in early reviews and it’s an issue Sanzaru is fixing with Fire & Ice (launching this year), so it IS a problem. And some levels are maze like and it’s hard to get to the goal at points (Robot Facility is a good example of this; got lost for a good five minutes).

But the core Adventure stages are enjoyable enough for me that I 100% the game .. The game also has two other gameplay types; Worm Tunnels and Rival Races. The former is Sonic Dash-like stages where you collect rings and move across different lanes. Its high speed, fun and rewarding to get great times here.

The latter is Sonic Rivals done right, as rather than races, they are just timed levels where you have to get to the goal as fast as you can. It’s really rewarding to get great runs and the enerbeam, Air Dash and homing attack work so well with each other here. These are so fun, that Sanzaru is making an entire MP mode out of them with Fire & Ice, so they must of struck a chord with people.

The last element to gameplay are the Blueprints, as when you collect a set of six, you can unlock new abilities that are shared (mirroring the bottle vault items in Sly 4). You can expand your map to pick up where items are, increase you resistance to damage (lose less rings when hit), or even gain a Sonic Boost when you collect all the Blueprints. Nice reward for exploring I feel.

Presentation of the game is quite strong. It visually it looks nice. The models are quite detailed and the levels have nice designs to them. My favorite levels are the Air Fortress and Scrapyard locations; the former being a Sky Sanctuary-like location while the latter has moody rain effects in the background.

The musical score is Sonic-like, with Richard returning from All Stars Racing Transformed and Sonic 3D Blast Saturn making new tracks for this game. They are all strong and range from 3D Blast Saturn like atmospheric tracks (Seaside Jungle 2, Scrapyard 2, Air Fortress 2) too more Modern Sonic like music (Worm Tunnel, Robot Facility 1, Robot Facility 2, Seaside Beach 1).

This soundtrack isn't the best in the series, but it is strong and a step-up from the Wii U Boom game in spades. Though the shared-title theme is still quite nice.

The story is this: You like the Boom Cartoon? Or something like Sonic Colors? Take that but make it more simplified. Its light hearted, cheesy and a bit stupid. Ah, the good ol' silly Sonic we all know and love. To be serious, the writing isn't very strong at all and it’s passable but it has charm. The Archie Comics made an opening to the game (accessible with Sonic's Home) and it’s well written. Shadow isn’t nearly as useless compared to how he is in the Wii U version. Knuckles is funny here and its nice seeing everyone play off each other so well. Nice precursor to the Boom cartoon to be honest. Unlike the Wii U game which doesn't really match the show at all, the 3DS game mirrors the show very closely in tone and style (Sanzaru worked with the Show Writers more closely then Big Red Button did).

I came in thinking I was going to play a horrid piece of crap, walked away surprised. I got a fun platformer that while far from perfect, is a nice first step for Sanzaru Games making Sonic titles. It felt like Sonic, it sounds like Sonic, it looks like Sonic; that was important to nail and Sanzaru did that in spades. Shattered Crystal is a fun game that while flawed, I had a lot of fun with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Overall, both games have a lot of issues and the 3DS version while something I enjoy, is far weaker compared to other handheld Sonic games like Advance, Pocket Adventure, Rush or Triple Trouble.

This sub-series could of launched well but SEGA botched it with a really poor Wii U game.

 

[RK128]

Not enough space in the OP, so included Village's comments on other elements of Sonic Boom in this post. Consider this part of the OP .

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The mobile game, Sonic Dash 2 - Sonic Boom, it’s a thing. I want to talk about it.

It’s an infinite runner you run forward, jump, spin dash, or chaos spear in the case of shadow, to work your way through this infinitely running landscape you can collect rings and red rings for currency. You can also buy both because ftp mobiles games gotta make their money somewhere. You also collect weird glowing blue orbs, to charge up your dash attack which is an invincible running attack that wrecks everything's shit until the meter goes out. There are this... still unexplained thing called sprites, what are sprites? Still unexplained, maybe they are this world’s Chao, I don't know they haven't really explained it. What they do in this game however, is they provide odd sometimes permanent and sometimes limited power ups, extra lives more rings, longer dashes, that sort of thing. You feed and evolve them with your rings and red rings because mobile game shit.

There is a boss in this game apparently? I have never fought it.

This game was a bit glitch, with recent patches, its largely fixed, so technically speaking it’s the best sonic boom game on the market currently. It’s a fun thing to play on a train or on a ride somewhere. Also it has the added bonus of being able to buy characters, you start out with sonic, then you can buy Amy or knuckles relatively cheap (buy Amy, knuckles is shit and Amy’s ability allows you to get rings with ease) and things get more expensive, with sticks, tails and then and most recently shadow. Though it says there are more to come so get ready for Perci I guess. You buy the characters with red rings, you can get 5 of those per day unless you buy participate in daily events where some might be a reward, or buy them because mobile games.

So remember I mentioned buying the characters, this game has the only mobile game purchase I have ever made, to buy shadow. You had to get a fairly large amount of red rings, or do this crazy hard challenge to get him, I just didn't give a shit and bought him. I am happy with this because in sonic runners, you have to get red rings to play a lottery for the chance of maybe getting a character, for the chance of maybe getting the character you want. Fuck that, saw the psychological trap at the door and bailed. Apparently a lot of Japanese mobiles are like that, I’m not fond of that model. So I’m glad in this game if I want the character I can just get it.

Another fun thing, Kirk Throtan in his like one line in this game, has the best shadow voice acting he has ever done, he stopped trying to be shadow's previous voice actors and decided to just make his voice gravely and it works well and shadow sounds badass. Hopefully his voice in future is like that.

- - - - - - - - -- - -- -

For the TV Show, going to let Village cover this one but I will say that the TV show is something I enjoy. It is light hearted, up-beat and matches the tone with SEGA Sonic well.

Shame it’s linked to such toxic products .

The show is ... fine? Like its nothing, it’s kind of just nothing sonic and friends get into shenanigans for 15 minute stints Its... passable C- entertainment I guess. I'm not particularly fond of it, but i'm not going to tell you it’s Satan like some might, the joke wears off after a few episodes and you kind of want them to do something. But its fine?

I have some issues, there is an episode where they tried to make a "super relevant on time" Justin Bieber joke, when you have access to all the sonic music, you know that thing you are using that has some of the best music in all of video games. Who' shit games have soundtracks who will shit on your favorite. But you went with the ever relevant JB joke. Yep... that's the tone were setting here. It doesn't help that the game's music is bad, so maybe they just have shitty taste in music, I don't know.

The show also helps with the transparency of the Rise of Lyric game, at the end of the show Perci, a character who was supposed to be a thing in that game but wasn't. Metal sonic, and shadow a person who was supposed to be more of a thing in that game it seems, but wasn't. Maybe if everything went as planned you would have played a good complete ROL, with all the intended playable folks, got yo the cartoon saw them and got hyped for future stuff. But that didn't happen.

Perci is your generic the boys think I’m hot girl character, because its sonic, and even though they made sticks, they can't get away from that shit can they, women in sonic fall in a few category's and rarely diversify, outside of the comic because good writing, and it sucks despite sticks being a ray of hope and sunshine, another character falls back into that hole. But maybe things will change in future.

Metal sonic does nothing because Sega decided in all forms he is generic robot who looks like sonic, so he is... that.

And Shadow, makes a return in the "please watch this please" season finale, with his character changed again, I assume after fan yelling and random IIzuka stabbings that they would try and get his character to some degree right. In ROL... well we talked about that, in shattered crystal, which s actually good, his character is a self-righteous asshole, which is interesting, and in this he just seems like a loner willing to help people. He feels sorry for Eggman and helps him fight sonic, to which he kind of beats sonic ass actually. Eggman keeps fangirling out so he gets distracted, after taking a couple hits he shouldn't have because of Eggman's interference, he dips and that's it. Nothing too great kind of C- like the rest of the show. But there are a bunch of cool gifs of it floating around out there now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sonic boom comics, there were a few, the run got canned, like the mega-man comics and now they pop up with new sonic boom comics in the supersonic special large collections. They are pretty good , they are written by the comic book folks, so already better than everyone else writing sonic in the moment. Though rumor is Ian might be getting his spotlight in the games soon enough.

 

[RK128]

The OP didn't have enough room for everything, so including a link to a playlist of the soundtrack to the 3DS game.

It sounds great, thanks to Richard coming on board as sound director of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijD2yC87bs&list=PL74J84MMs4fFkU5pEyaXaPbLioRZPaTpq&nohtml5=False

 

[TimmiT]

Hi

Also great write-up.

 

[RK128]

Some final stuff I want to share, as Sonic Stadium did an extensive dig into the games development history and wanted to link that here:

The Spin - Part 1: https://www.sonicstadium.org/2014/11/the-spin-sonic-boom-what-happened-part-1/
The Spin- Part 2: https://www.sonicstadium.org/2014/11/the-spin-sonic-boom-what-the-heck-happened-part-2-4/

Also found cut audio files within the Wii U's disk, someone posted it online and it has a lot of interesting elements.

Story bits for one character and dialog for what sounds like a cut level before you reach Lyrics Lair (final level): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBh9SJ2crLY

 

[RK128]

Hi

Also great write-up.

O_O! XD! I'm sorry about that image man, trying to find images on Google and I didn't notice the name....sorry man :').

I guess I have to thank you for the image, so thanks for sharing it buddy .

 

[The Cool One]

you guys are legendary.

i here by dub thee the Super Sonic Search and Research Squad

Spoiler

Sorry no S5

 

[Vaughngief]

Wait, Ian might write a Sonic game? That'd be amazing.

 

[RK128]

you guys are legendary.

i here by dub thee the Super Sonic Search and Research Squad

Spoiler

Sorry no S5

Why thank you XD! Me, Village and Yoshi had a lot to say across the many sectors of Boom, so I hope you all enjoyed our findings and views on the sub-series .

Also, consider this link part of the OP; What happens when you have the constantly voice clips from the Wii U version in Sonic 1? THIS horrid mess XD!

 

[TimmiT]

O_O! XD! I'm sorry about that image man, trying to find images on Google and I didn't notice the name....sorry man :').

I guess I have to thank you for the image, so thanks for sharing it buddy .

Don't worry, I don't have any problem with people using screenshots I took. I'm just surprised to see it turn up.

 

[The Cool One]

Why thank you XD! Me, Village and Yoshi had a lot to say across the many sectors of Boom, so I hope you all enjoyed our findings and views on the sub-series .

Also, consider this link part of the OP; What happens when you have the constantly voice clips from the Wii U version in Sonic 1? THIS horrid mess XD!

horrid mess? Bruh i was in tears

 

[RK128]

Thank you all for making this retrospective so much fun!

Up next is Generations and I can't wait to cover that .

 

[RK128]

Can't believe there is only one more game to cover the the Retrospective......it felt like it was yesterday when I first made the Sonic Heroes thread late February this year :').

Thank you all for sticking around with all these Sonic threads; very cool of you all to share your thoughts, comments and view-points on each game I cover!

 

[Mr-Joker]

Sonic Boom is a horrible mistake that did not need to exist at all.

Note all my thoughts come from my time playing the demos and what I have seen and heard about the game itself. I did not buy the game and have no plans to do so.

-The redesign was stupid and unneeded.

-The game threw away all good will that Sonic Team did with Colours and Generation I mean sure Lost Worlds was meh but at least it was a polished game with rooms for improvement Sonic boom however is a mess that people poke fun at because of how bad it is.

-The fact that this was the third and final Wii U Sonic exclusive game was just downright insulting to Sonic fans on the Nintendo system, Sega must have been like "Ah just release it those stupid Sonic fan base will just buy it regardless."

-The 3DS game was not a Sonic game, Sonic is not about Metroidvania style level, nor did I care about switching between characters mid-levels and good lord why does Sonic have a run button? Stop doing that he's Sonic the fucking Hedgehog not Super Mario.

-The Wii U version is a mess and should have not been released in that state at all it is shady, scummy and illegal in Europe as you are blatantly false advertising that the game is in a coherent state.

-Both version did not play like a Sonic game at all, they were slow, clunky, uninspiring level design and the Wii U version seemed to think that Sonic should be a brawler despite the fans not liking the Werehog from Sonic Unleashed but at least the Werehog was fun to use over Sonic Boom.

-Why does Stick look similar to Marine?

-The music just was just terrible.

I just flat out ignore Sonic Boom as I have no interest the series and I will not be picking up Fire and Ice, not that I expect the game to be any good.

 

[RK128]

Sonic Boom is a horrible mistake that did not need to exist at all.

Note all my thoughts come from my time playing the demos and what I have seen and heard about the game itself. I did not buy the game and have no plans to do so.

-The fact that this was the third and final Wii U Sonic exclusive game was just downright insulting to Sonic fans on the Nintendo system, Sega must have been like "Ah just release it those stupid Sonic fan base will just buy it regardless."

-The 3DS game was not a Sonic game, Sonic is not about Metroidvania style level, nor did I care about switching between characters mid-levels and good lord why does Sonic have a run button? Stop doing that he's Sonic the fucking Hedgehog not Super Mario.

I just flat out ignore Sonic Boom as I have no interest the series and I will not be picking up Fire and Ice, not that I expect the game to be any good.

I completely agree with you on all fronts, but the two points you made that I'm pointing out I want to comment on.

Considering the great relationship Nintendo and SEGA have, it was downright scummy that they released a horrid game as the 'final' Nintendo exclusive for the Wii U. I really wonder if that soured future deals or development with Nintendo....though I doubt it considering the Olympics game this year and Boom getting a sequel 3DS game.

The 3DS game is one I enjoyed my time with and while its far from perfect, I still had fun with it . Sonic can work as a Metroidvanna, as Tails' Adventure on the Game Gear shows the series can work with that style if done well enough. It was just that Boom 3DS was not 'focused' enough, in the sense that you can tell Sanzaru wanted to cover everything Sonic for the first round (2D Speed, 3D Speed, Explorative Platforming) but they needed more experience with the IP before making a strong game.

I'm looking forward to Fire & Ice as I can see that ending up as a great game, considering Sanzaru's past work with Sly 4 proving they make great games .

 

[peaceiscloser]

I actually enjoyed watching a few episodes of the TV show. It's pretty self aware, which gets annoying at times but it's not too bad. I was really surprised by HOW good it was, actually.

 

[RK128]

I actually enjoyed watching a few episodes of the TV show. It's pretty self aware, which gets annoying at times but it's not too bad. I was really surprised by HOW good it was, actually.

One of the best Sonic Cartoons, with only Satam and Adventure of Sonic above it .

 

[hughesta]

the justin bieber joke is a reference to the webcomic 'tails gets trolled'

 

[Shadow Ranger]

I get a bit sad when my younger relatives refer to the first Sonic the Hedgehog games as "Sonic Boom". TV is bad for kids, I say!

But then if the TV show is actually good, then I guess that's something!

 

[Supaidaman]

I personally love the show, for me it's the best Sonic show to date. Which, to be honest, isn't a huge achievement.

 

[Fuu]

I haven't consumed any of the Boom-related media, but I still dig this design. Shame it was scrapped.

 

[WillyFive]

That roulette thing is from Sonic Runners, not Sonic Dash 2.

Sonic Dash 2 was pretty fun for me until they updated it to now have a Leveling system, and they tied character unlocks to your level (so if you leveled up to a certain level, you unlocked a character).

However, I wanted to get Shadow and spent the longest time gathering Red Rings to get him, but then the game updated and it turns out I am now a bigger level than I need to get Shadow; but the game doesn't retroactively give him to me, So despite me supposed to be able to own Shadow already, I can't get to him anymore.

Sucks.

Anyway, Sonic Boom was meant to be a multi-media property and the games are just licensed games farmed out to studios, just like "Tak and the Power of Ju Ju" and "Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius". Although the TV show has it's fans, I think the show is rather ugly, with terrible stiff animation and boring episodes and bland comedy.

However, the Archie comic was probably the best Sonic comic run I've read.

Archie went all out, with fantastic art and really good writing; an actual comic book with comedy in it. Too bad it was cancelled.

 

[Village]

That roulette thing is from Sonic Runners, not Sonic Dash 2.

Sonic Dash 2 was pretty fun for me until they updated it to now have a Leveling system, and they tied character unlocks to your level (so if you leveled up to a certain level, you unlocked a character).

However, I wanted to get Shadow and spent the longest time gathering Red Rings to get him, but then the game updated and it turns out I am now a bigger level than I need to get Shadow; but the game doesn't retroactively give him to me, So despite me supposed to be able to own Shadow already, I can't get to him anymore.

Sucks.

Anyway, Sonic Boom was meant to be a multi-media property and the games are just licensed games farmed out to studios, just like "Tak and the Power of Ju Ju" and "Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius". Although the TV show has it's fans, I think the show is rather ugly, with terrible stiff animation and boring episodes and bland comedy.

However, the Archie comic was probably the best Sonic comic run I've read.

Archie went all out, with fantastic art and really good writing; an actual comic book with comedy in it. Too bad it was cancelled.

I forgot about that i copped shadow before all that.

 

[J@hranimo]

Hmm. It's so hard to have feelings about Sonic Boom.

It's just there to me.

 

[Village]

I actually enjoyed watching a few episodes of the TV show. It's pretty self aware, which gets annoying at times but it's not too bad. I was really surprised by HOW good it was, actually.

Its better than most sonic animation, but it isnt a high bar, and they dont jump too high over either. C-.

 

[Syril]

Those concept designs remind me of when I was at a retrospective panel on the Ratchet and Clank games that the lead artists were hosting. When they were talking about transitioning to the PS3 games, they were showing concept designs of Ratchet that were radical departures from his existing design (not as radical as those Sonic ones, but enough where if you saw them out of context you would go WTF). They were saying that they weren't doing those designs intending to actually change him that radically, but that it was important to sort of go back to the drawing board to get a better sense of how to design him going forward. I get the feeling that the artists at Big Red Button might have been doing something similar, especially if Sonic Boom was originally conceived as a full-on reboot, and Sega saw their concept art and went apeshit. I really wouldn't be surprised, considering Sega's track record of being dicks to development partners that weren't Red Entertainment.

 

[RK128]

That roulette thing is from Sonic Runners, not Sonic Dash 2.

Sonic Dash 2 was pretty fun for me until they updated it to now have a Leveling system, and they tied character unlocks to your level (so if you leveled up to a certain level, you unlocked a character).

However, I wanted to get Shadow and spent the longest time gathering Red Rings to get him, but then the game updated and it turns out I am now a bigger level than I need to get Shadow; but the game doesn't retroactively give him to me, So despite me supposed to be able to own Shadow already, I can't get to him anymore.

Sucks.

Anyway, Sonic Boom was meant to be a multi-media property and the games are just licensed games farmed out to studios, just like "Tak and the Power of Ju Ju" and "Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius". Although the TV show has it's fans, I think the show is rather ugly, with terrible stiff animation and boring episodes and bland comedy.

However, the Archie comic was probably the best Sonic comic run I've read.

Archie went all out, with fantastic art and really good writing; an actual comic book with comedy in it. Too bad it was cancelled.

For the bolded, Village made a point about the gambling-like style that Sonic Runners uses for unlocking content, so that image works for his example.

 

[RK128]

Hmm. It's so hard to have feelings about Sonic Boom.

It's just there to me.

I can understand, as while the Wii U game is horrid.....the series really is just......kinda there :l.

 

[MAtgS]

Though rumor is Ian might be getting his spotlight in the games soon enough.

Don't you dare get my hopes up, I'm not falling for it!

 

[orthodoxy1095]

It may not be a popular view, but I like that concept art a lot.

 

[RK128]

It may not be a popular view, but I like that concept art a lot.

The third concept art image I found for the OP:

I really, really like this design for Sonic. It fits with the Jak & Daxter-ish world and tone that they have going on with Sonic Boom Wii U.

The concept art as a whole is breathtaking and one of the best elements of the Boom games to be honest:

It is really beautiful and got me hyped up for the game when it was announced.

 

[GooeyHeat]

I'm surprised to hear all this praise for Shattered Crystal. It's making me consider picking up Fire and Ice when it comes out, since hopefully it will improve on some of those areas where the original failed.

Not spin jumping sounds jarring as hell, though. I guess the difference in presentation could allow me to compartmentalize it in my mind separately. We'll see.

These retrospective threads are great, by the way!

 

[RK128]

I'm surprised to hear all this praise for Shattered Crystal. It's making me consider picking up Fire and Ice when it comes out, since hopefully it will improve on some of those areas where the original failed.

Not spin jumping sounds jarring as hell, though. I guess the difference in presentation could allow me to compartmentalize it in my mind separately. We'll see.

These retrospective threads are great, by the way!

Glad you are enjoying them ! Sonic is almost over though, with only Generations left and two extra threads I want to make being covered not long after (Freedom Planet and Sonic's Mobile Ventures.....though I will not cover Dash 2; Village did a great enough job covering that game ). A Blue Bomber and a Lombax & his little robot are up next for my future retrospectives though .

Considering about.....two years past since the Wii U Boom games launch, people can look at both with clearer eyes and, they see the 3DS game for what it is; a solid first shot at making a Sonic game but has clear issues.

Fire & Ice will fix the biggest issue (level progression; you will only have to beat the level to unlock the next set of stages, not run through the same stage again and again to collect everything) plus its focusing on the strongest elements (rival races are unique modes) and adding more boss fights (something sorely lacking in Shattered Crystal).

I'm not expecting a masterpiece or anything with Fire & Ice, but I do see the game as something likely really damn good when it finally comes out .

The lack of a spin-jump is really head scratching but with Boom being more exploration focused, I can sorta see why they cut the ability.......through I think its still dumb :l.

The 3DS E-Shop has a demo of Shattered Crystal that has one level for each core gameplay type (Adventure, Rival Race, Worm Tunnel) so give that a shot if you want to see how it plays .

 

[WillyFive]

I thought the 3DS game was strikingly boring. Couldn't even finish the demo, not because it was broken, but because of the intense un-fun-ness of it all.

 

[Spades]

I actually wanted to pick this up on Wii U when the price dropped. But it never did. I guess they didn't make many.

 

[Yoshi]

I'm surprised to hear all this praise for Shattered Crystal.

Praise is probably pushing it, Shattered Crystal is an OK game, it is still considerably worse than all Dimps Sonic games. However, the potential is there to make a good successor game, so I'm planning on buying Fire & Ice.

I also like the concept art by the way. It does not fit Sonic, but it has a nice vibe to it.

 

[Timedog]

That OP blew my mind.

 

[MrBadger]

Man, there is so much of RoL that is outright pointless. Pointless new villain who's deal is making robots and taking over the world, pointless Shadow appearance, pointless redesigns, heck the entire game is pointless since it doesn't tie into the show at all.

It may not be a popular view, but I like that concept art a lot.

I would have liked if they went for one of the more outlandish designs. Besides Knuckles and Eggman, the characters look way too similar to how they normally look to even justify a redesign in my opinion.

Eggman is absolutely terrible, though.

I like the Lyric concept art better than the final design, which looks like a generic boss in a Rare game. The owl design is much better.

 

[Rlan]

For me it's the weirdest thig that the game and the show seem to have the most different tone from each other. The show is weird and goody humor - the game, outside of the dialog, takes itself seriously. Hell, Lyric's not a thing anywhere in the show, or any of the places they go to.

 

[Supaidaman]

For me it's the weirdest thig that the game and the show seem to have the most different tone from each other. The show is weird and goody humor - the game, outside of the dialog, takes itself seriously. Hell, Lyric's not a thing anywhere in the show, or any of the places they go to.

Thank God that Lyric isn't a thing on the show. One thing that I liked about the show is how they played with fan expectations about characters from the games: the multiple Percys all around until she finally debuted, Metal Sonic Vs Hipster Sonic and Eggman fangasming over Shadow as any 10 year old would.

If Lyrics ever appears, then he should be some sort of reject villain that will end up joining the Lightning Bolt Society.

 

[RK128]

Thank God that Lyric isn't a thing on the show. One thing that I liked about the show is how they played with fan expectations about characters from the games: the multiple Percys all around until she finally debuted, Metal Sonic Vs Hipster Sonic and Eggman fangasming over Shadow as any 10 year old would.

If Lyrics ever appears, then he should be some sort of reject villain that will end up joining the Lightning Bolt Society.

The bolded is something I'm almost expecting for Season 2 of Boom XD!

Lyric appears to be a major threat at first, but Sonic and company laugh at him while kicking his but. Then he crawls back to find more help, and becomes a member of the Lightning Bolt Society :').

 

[Village]

Thank God that Lyric isn't a thing on the show. One thing that I liked about the show is how they played with fan expectations about characters from the games: the multiple Percys all around until she finally debuted, Metal Sonic Vs Hipster Sonic and Eggman fangasming over Shadow as any 10 year old would.

If Lyrics ever appears, then he should be some sort of reject villain that will end up joining the Lightning Bolt Society.

Hes going to be serious, every other peice of marketing even the toys, advertise this an action adventure thing. And when the time comes there will be episodes of the show to follow suit.

They didnt even want to do a shadow episode this season because they thought they mess up. There are clearly plans in motion with characters and a couple bad games aint going to stop it.

 

[RK128]

Hes going to be serious, every other peice of marketing even the toys, advertise this an action acture thing. And when the time comes there will be episodes of the show to follow suit.

I do wonder how that is going to work though, considering Boom is a comedy first and foremost.

I guess they could have him be a background foe sending in the robots from the Wii U game, with Sonic and Friends wondering who made them. They ask Eggman at first but he doesn't know either.

Eggman goes out to see who is making the new robots and for the next set of episodes, he works with Lyric to take out Sonic. When Lyric goes too far and almost kills Sonic & Friends, Eggman sends his army out to fight Lyric.

Shadow and Metal Sonic come back into the series and work with Sonic & Friends to take out Lyric at his base. They take him out and he vanishes for the rest of Season 2 until the ending where he returns as a 'surprise!' villain.

Could make for a nice set of 4-7 action packed episodes if the team wants to do that .