So I've seen a lot of people ask why I didn't cover the multiplayer since I listed that I ran out of time. And that's, without a doubt, the case. I have a lot of projects that I need to work on since I was hoping Boom would come early for review. But the other problem is that I literally have no one to play with. Few of my friends are into games, let alone Sonic so I had no way of actually testing that out. However, I did plan to. If I had gotten it early, my plan was to visit SomeCallMeJohnny and play through the entire game in co-op with him. Since I didn't get it early and he's working on his own review, that obviously didn't happen. So that's my reasoning and a small peek at my original plans. Sometimes things just don't work out. ~Derrick
I thought the review was great. You handled it pretty professionally for the amount of unpolished things there really are within the game. I feel the multiplayer wouldn't necessarily save the game in a review, and if the game had framerate issues to begin with... I don't wanna see Multiplayer lol...
An excellent, level headed review of an average game. I see so many dire scores for this game but the truth is that it is painfully average. Certainly not the 2 out of 10 some have given but a 5 or 6 at the most I guess. Some will get enjoyment as I say but the added disappointment of another weak Sonic game means that some scores will reflect that disappointment. A shame as the premise had potential but it ended up like so much of the shovelware based on kids cartoons that was released on Wii hence we should not be surprised.
I love your honesty and open mindedness for the game in your review. I heard the Co-op hurts the game more so probably good you didn't try. But I thought it was a well thought out and thorough review for what time you had.
"Is For Kids" is such a bad excuse, If we give crappy games/cartoons to kids and use the excuse that"is just for kids" se are teaching them to accept crap when they get older. Most gamers were raised like that and look were that took us, accepting buggy games with inferior quality, games full of the so called 30fps for "cinematic experience" and with boring and repetitive gameplay. We must give quality to our kids so that they don't conform and don't get screwed by companies like we get screwed in this generation.
It's not exactly the crisis you're painting it to be, but I think kids are always underestimated when it comes to video games... there's a reason Sonic is still pumping games out today despite a string of mediocre installments and that's because kids back in the 90's recognized the greatness of the early titles. In my experience kids are every bit the judges of video games that adults are... when I think back to those my friends and I enjoyed as kids I find that we managed to pick the ones that have withstood the test of time. Kids know crap when they see it, and really it's the adults who often keep these franchises going due to a loyalty that most kids haven't developed yet.
I agree with ya Joe and Shilo your wrong to just generise video games kids play them all the time and even us adults do too we need to set a standard for the kids in the games that are made and not make cop-out games id rather wait then have such a game and this is coming from a die hard sonic fan
George Barry nah, i know there is nothing wrong with 30 fps, I'm against companies like Ubisoft stating something like that and get gamess that drop up to 18 fps making things look choppy. Yeah I do game on nintendo and pc... so I'm used to some standards of quality, specially on frame rates.
Nice review dude. Glad to hear some honest and well though out points about this game. I enjoyed Rise of Lyric, but I can completely understand why others wouldn't enjoy it. I think that despite the main focus being children, they really should have done a bit better with this, but I don't think this game is terrible. Unpolished? Yes. If they make another game, they should look back on what they did wrong and fix it. Awesome review, Derrick!
William Brown As popular as it is on the internet for asshats to bash Sonic and claim it's a dead series, I think you are dead wrong with that assertion. It's probably going to be the last Sonic Boom related Sonic game, but I think you fail to understand how many devoted fans the Sonic franchise has.
In terms o story the 3ds version is even more confusing since in that one lyric literally comes out of nowhere and the characters don't know who he is, they meet shadow for the first time but he almost seems to know who sonic is and wants to defeat lyric himself. It's a REALLY good thing that Boom is just a spin-off universe and not a reboot. Also the fact that knuckles is an over exaggeration of a dumb character in the series is annoying, I'm totally okay with him being being snarky and thinking he's the main character but his dimwittedness is distracting
it could be possible that it's just episodik so far and that they'll (hopefully) call back to previous episodes/adventures similar to how adventure time seemingly started out as an episodic series with no context until seasons 2-4
to make people want to buy the game if they enjoy the show and vise-versa. there could be a little tie in in the wii u game, sticks doesn't seem to know sonic and the gang, but she has a side mission for them. also i don't know how the game ends, but i guess lyric could appear in the show later episodes, this could be why in pilot episode sticks is missing and then rise of lyric happens, but yeah the tv show was said like the Simpsons, it resets after an episode, but a few things could carry across like the Simpsons, i guess.
the 3DS version involved lyric getting drop-kicked off an airship and an unamusing joke involving sticks basically saying "it didn't matter who delivered the finishing blow, we all did it together" but in a very conveluted manner that i think took her 2 minutes or so to say. and shadow continuing to be an exaggeration of his Lone-Wolf personality. so unless the wii-u version's ending involves him falling in lava or something it's possible he could come back
So "meh" is the equivalent of average? Not too terrible, but not too great either? I can agree with that. I don't outright hate Rise of Lyric to be fair (calling it Sonic 06 2.0 is exaggerating the game way to much), but I do think that both Rise and Shattered should've been a bit more polished. Hell, even if it was finished and released on the 21st, it was destined for doom and destruction because of Sm4sh U and ORAS. Sonic just can't win, can he? Edit: How in hell did my opinion of SB:RoL review turn into a fuss over the similarities and differences of Boom and '06?
kinda there switch is get rid of that way of thinking. if you have a scale like 0/10 it can hard to talk about the games as they should be. how do you compare different types of games to another on the scale? this also let's them add more emotions later. i over all like there way of reviewing games over the scale system.
it's about that i'd say, i've seen play through real sonic fan probably best one cobi is comparing it to sonic 06 sometimes tails channel is too with loading, but it's not that bad at all just different. (there glitches/ sound errors, but most games these days from the western devs are like that unfortunately) i hope they patch the game and fix the errors soon though.
+kenrulei09 Yeah. I've seen Matt's playthrough of Rise of Lyric. He's being real honest about it. He does make some good points, so I'm not complaining. I haven't seen too much of Cobi's playthrough. Judging by your comment, I'm guessing he's not taking it too well. :/ SupergirlKels just started her playthrough of SB: RoL and she liked the game over Shattered Crystal.
OnlyAMan Wait a minute... superman flies through rings sonic collects rings superman wears blue sonic is blue sonic can turn into a ball and roll around superman could do that too since he's fucking superman COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT
To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement, now in all honesty I wasn't really looking forward to this game, I was hoping for it to be a good game though, maybe when it's price drops down to like 20-30 dollars I will buy this, but I'm not paying full price.
SigmaShawn Remember when he mistook multi-colored, perfectly cut chaos emeralds for the shattered shards of the completely green master emerald? Yeah, he was pretty damn stupid in Sonic Adventure.
GameDragonify I'm not saying Knuckles is Einstein or anything, he's been dumb since the beginning. I'm just saying that out of all of the games, he's probably the most intelligent in Sonic Adventure and maybe Secret Rings.
I hate when people use the excuse "It's a spin off" Because, it's still a fucking Sonic game. The game is called Sonic Boom, it features Sonic a blue hedgehog who runs way too fucking fast. That is what Sonic is and should be, not some shitty beat em up platformer.
The whole point of a spin off is to do something different with a character. Saying this is bad simply because it's more than "GOTTA GO FAST" is like saying Mario Kart is bad because it isn't like a normal Mario game. That being said, this game still isn't anything special.
In my opinion this failure is good , because it might inspire sega to improve when sonic 06 was a complete failure we got games like sonic Generations so , I'm happy boom happened because we might get a better game . Plus Boom is just meh , plus the main reason people use it as an excuse because making a spin off is like doing an experiment which is a good thing because with a fuck up like this they can learn from their mistakes and make the next game better
I preordered Lost World because I was suckered in to its promise. When Derrick's review came out it hit the nail in the head to what I thought about the game as well. What I'm saying is I completely trust Sonic Boom's review and will be skipping this game. I just feel kinda bad for the folks at Red Button, they probably went through a LOT of hassle to release this game. Related though: when can we expect Shattered Crystal's review Derrick?
yeah, big red button and sanzaru are very good developers (Sly 4 for example) but they were clearly rushed by Sega to just end this Nintendo exclusivity deal. thats what happens when you rush a game out, you get sonic 06 2.0
***** i think it's more rushed by the tv show. they was to be in the same release area to help each other, i like the show, buy the game thing. the problem is making a game is likely longer than making the tv show. i hope it's patched and fixed in the future. and they take feed back from fan's, this is likely the only one out there that will be honest and not be hating on the game all together.
***** ok well sanzaru at least, but this is the first game they've devloped and was rushed out to keep in line with the tv show so its not all there fault
Sega Could make a game like this Again I Wouldn't Mind But only if they fix it with Better Graphics, Model Designs, Soundtracks, Remove Glitches, Bad Camera Angle and Better Story
It seems as if Sega just wanted to rush through their exclusive deal with Nintendo as Sonic Lost World didn't do very well and I doubt this will either. So they just put an unfinished, uninspired game out there to get back to putting Sonic games on all platforms. i'm not a sonic fan and I was sort of interested in this game as it looks more like a Jak and Daxter/Ratchet and Clank type game gameplay wise but the final results look very bland and unfinished. Like I said I'm not a Sonic fan but I hope the next game is better whatever platform it is on.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New Dark Age of Sonic. The Old Dark Age was characterized by Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic '06, the type of games that make the rounds on "worst games of the year" lists and prompt three-hour rant videos detailing every last fault down to the smallest detail. They're the "so bad, it's good" variety, the type you can invite your buddies over, grab some snacks, hand the controller to someone who's never played it before and have a ton of laughs at the game's expense. The New Dark Age is characterized by Lost World and Rise of Lyric. There is no enjoyment to be had, ironically or otherwise. The entire experience is so unabashedly bland, boring and devoid of anything worth caring about that you have absolutely no drive to go any further. I preferred the Old Dark Age.
If a game people are divided upon and a mediocre spin-off title were all it took for a dark age to happen, there would a lot of "Dark Ages" throughout a lot of franchises.
RandomCommenterful I only say that because a lot of people are saying that Sonic Boom is a sign that the Dark Age of Sonic never ended. If we are currently in a Dark Age, then it's certainly not the same one we were in 8-9 years ago.
Superfield Personally, I don't think the series is in another Dark Age, at least not yet. Keep in mind, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06 were universally agreed to be bad games. Sonic Lost World's reception was divided and this game's resception can be boiled up to one word,"meh." If anything, it would seem that we're entering a "Stagnation Age." An age of divided reception and mediocrity.
RandomCommenterful That's essentially what I said the "New Dark Age" was: boring and devoid of anything worth caring about. Although I will admit that "Dark Age" might not be the best term for it.
Some people are really overreacting to these games, saying the Sonic series is dead or that we're back in the dark age of Sonic or whatever. It really seems like people forgot what happened in 2006 or something. Also, if you were expecting these licensed games for the TV show to have the same polish as the main series then that's your fault. These games are bad, but don't have an effect on the quality of the main series.
I'm honestly surprised Sega is still in business and has not gone bankrupt yet. Where are they getting their money to keep their blue mascot alive who is basically on life support at this point?
This review is a bit too gentle. After watching about an hour of gameplay, I can say that this game has no interesting or fun elements. It's boring and ultimately really, really bad.
ProJared, a respected RU-vidr, despised the game. He was literally talking nonstop about how bad it was. I trust ProJared more than I trust Sonic fans.
J mariosonic As much as I hate to be that guy, you can watch some games and review them by what you just saw. It's possible, I swear on that! You just have to look at the game formula and see how the developers mixed it in with the gameplay genre they chose.
This is the best review I've seen of this game. You didn't succumb to Hate Hype and gave an honest thoughtful respectable review. I've been playing the game and I can say you are essentially spot on with this review. Thank you!
The comparisons to Sonic 06 are completely unwarranted. That game is down right broken, not just unpolished, but not even functional. Derrick puts it best by saying the game is unpolished but it has its enjoyable moments, and i definitely agree with him. I have been playing through the story with a buddy and we've been enjoying the game quite a bit despite the frame rate issues, somewhat average platforming, and occasional cringe worthy dialogue and hand holding tutorial dialogue. This is the perfect instance of "So bad its good." BigRedButton clearly put a lot of effort into trying to make this game really good but were held back (most likely) by the CryEngine (completely off the wall choice for a WiiU game) and probably some budget limitations or time constraints from SEGA. I feel like this game could get a good sequel in the far future running on the Hedgehog Engine. The amount of hate people give this game hell is absolute nonsense and calling it "Sonic 06-2" or "Sonic '14" is completely out of line. People saying "I'll wait til it drops to $20-30 before i get it" are on the right track. This is not at all a $50 game. But it is enjoyable with a friend doing co op and worth around $25. Im not saying this game doesnt deserve some hate as there were clearly a lot of odd choices for the engine and design of the game itself.
Easily one of the most reasonable summaries. People saying this is as bad as '06 need a serious reality check. The problem is people, perhaps just fans, are treating every Sonic game in a black and white fashion; either it's Generations, and therefore fantastic, or it's '06, and therefore bad. and this false dichotomy cheapens genuine criticism.
Not gonna lie, Sonic Generations was a pretty good game. If there were to be a new Sonic game, I would like to have the mechanics and creative level designs as Generations, with both 2D and 3D aspects, with the exception for it being a timeline of the Sonic franchise. Just want a brand new, polished, FAST HD Sonic game for Wii U. Also it has to have more interesting boss battles.
This entire review is more mature than 95% of people who hate on Rise of Lyric. Is it the best 10/10 Sonic game ever? Of course not. But really, people take the hate the game gets too far. Comparing it to '06, one of the most incomplete games ever made? Isn't that too far? Either way, as someone who does enjoy the game, I'm glad to see that someone who doesn't just constantly bash every single thing about the game. I knew it'd receive poor reception, but hell, it's not as bad as people say it is. If you guys thought it was gonna fail, you could've waited for the next Sonic game by Sonic Team. But either way, I still think that this is a completely fair and good review. Glad to see not everyone is flipping their shit about the game.
For a game that emphasizes exploration, there's very little compelling the player to move about in the world. From the playthroughs I've seen, there's a lot of barren, open spaces that offer nothing but rings and platforms that lead to nowhere. It honestly seemed like most of the game world was loaded in for padding. Derrick was being very kind in his assessment. Classy review for a classless game that has even less direction than Sonic '06.
In terms of story 06 is better I guess , but game play Oh god no ! XD 06 is worse in my opinion one time when I fought silver i got flung into space and could not get back down
AS EXPECTED (ever since E3), but nope, MANY people HAD TO WRONG ME and be like "Oh, don't judge it until you try it". Listen, for someone who has been playing Sonic since SEGA GENESIS, I CAN EASILY tell if a Sonic game is good or not from just a GLIMPS of it (and I was RIGHT about EVERYTHING regarding this game). - _ - Total GARBAGE game (again, AS EXPECTED by me), BigRedButton do NOT deserve to make a Sonic game EVER again, but on the bright side, Sanzaru Games did a GREAT JOB with 3DS version, so I'm happy with the 3DS version and would NEVER even consider buying the GARBAGE Wii U version of this game. Again, thanks Sanzaru Games! YOU ROCK! :D
I can enjoy myself playing boom. I can't enjoy a game that dared to put me through Silver's godawful fucking ball puzzle. That puzzle is the definition of bad design and for people to completely overlook that just for the sake of slamming this game just proves that human intelligence has bottomed out completely.
I'm 25 years old and I love the game. It's my second favorite Wii U game behind Bayonetta 2. I'm going at my own pace collecting everything, that's very different than someone forcefully trying to beat a game to make it in time for a review. Yes it's unpolished but the worlds are immersive and fun to explore. Fighting isn't "half of the game", not even close.
I respect you guys, but... Please, never say "It's for kids" unless you plan to follow up with "But that doesn't excuse the lack of quality." That can be taken the wrong way WAY too easily. It could make you sound like a game that's meant for kids gives it a free pass to be half-baked, but it doesn't. I doubt that's what you were going for, but just be careful.
You hit the nail on the head with this game! "It becomes a slow average platformer with the Sonic name slapped on top of it." If this had ben a game staring four mongooses instead of Sonic and friends,then it would not get so much hate because it's not trying to be Sonic!
If you watched the whole review he said he was trying to rate it just as your average platformer and not as a Sonic game and thats what he said it was an average platformer with Sonic slapped on it.
Nintendo: "Hey SEGA, you should make a Sonic game for Wii U." SEGA: "Hey Sonic Team, make a Sonic game for Wii U." Sonic Team: "Hey BigRedButton, make a Sonic game for Wii U." BigRedButton: "WE MAKE GUDD GAEM!! :D :D :D
The thing that rung in my head is that it's basically a standard exploration platformer game with the sonic brand slapped on top of it. Pretty much it. But the thing is, when you associate something with sonic, you do so with speed, which this game has little to none of and that's why people are feeling disappointed with it.
Final thoughts: The game was ass, and for no reason. The game could have been fun but instead they made a shit game, its lazily put together and boring as all hell. The writing sucks ass, the characters are shit for example: Knuckles is a dumb ass when he was never one before, and don't give me that tricked by Eggman bullshit. In SA1 & 2 Knuckles was someone who you could respect and he was tough. He was a force to be reckoned with, here he gets shit on left and right all for the sake of "comic relief" and that's not even funny. Sonic is still and a douche treating his friends like side kicks and taking credit for everything, I don't give a damn about your BS "Character development" Sonic should never have been like this. Before Pontac and Graff took over, the games actual had good writing, don't believe me look at Sonic and the Black Knight/ Secret Rings, Unleashed. Sonic was cool and calm, he cared about his friends and never treated them like side kicks. Tails is whatever I honestly don't care, Amy's voice is still ass and I hate how she's and Sonic are such dicks to Knuckles who is already being shit on through the writing. Shadow has been reduced to what in this game, a complete tool who is literally there just to get in your way, he had next to no relevance at all, and yes I'd rather have emo Shadow than some useless asshole. The side characters are forgettable and have pretty annoying voices, Sticks in particular. The story is bland, ancient evil get awakened and tries to conquer world, nothing that hasn't been done. I'll commend them on having a more serious tone than the past 3 Sonic games, Lost Worlds was trying to be serious but just came off laughable. One of my biggest problems with the writing is the constant talking, all they do as talk, especially during speed sections. Like come on shut up for a second so I can play, and they constantly repeat stuff, why in the world they thought this wasn't annoying is beyond me, and it doesn't help that the voices are annoying as well, especially Amy. The gameplay also sucks, its boring, the combat is OK at best. Unleashed actually had more interesting combat with its combo's and such, whether you like it or not its better than this. Sonic's only real speed in this is during those speed sections, which its not like he has an excuse as to why he can only run fast then and not normally. The least they could do is have a dash button so you can move faster, it'll save you having to put dash pads on the map. Lost Worlds Sonic could have fit pretty well in here. The graphics have been picked on enough already, needless to say this game came out a few years too late if they had these graphics. The glitches are inexcusable for a professionally made game, nothing game breaking like 06 but nothing made by professionals should be this bad. The music is also nothing special, not bad but no where near as memorable as what Sonic has had before, its your basic orchestral adventure music. Overall the game is just bad, not 06 broken but definitely not 06 entertaining, by which I mean I enjoy picking at the games flaws. The combat is worse than Unleashed, that's a fact, you can say you enjoy Booms combat more but fact is that it is by far worse than Unleashed. The writing is no where near the levels of previous Sonic titles (Black Knight and before) The voices are still bad and honestly it was a waste to include Shadow or Metal. This game should not be this a bad, it could have been a fun open world Sonic game but because of BRB's lazy programming and whoever bad writing its complete ass. 4/10 don't let BRB make another game.
Rad Dudesman "...his personality was inspired by future-President Bill Clinton's "get it done" attitude, who Ōhshima felt embodied a modern sensibility of wanting to get things done right away, righting wrongs as they presented themselves instead of letting them linger. According to Yuji Naka, Sonic's color also serves to symbolize peace, trust, and coolness which are the attributes of Sonic's character." His whole concept is based around being cool and calm and wanting to do good. Just because he has speed doesn't mean he has to be impulsive and hyperactive. Pontac and Graff (the games current writers) completely crapped on Sonic's original concept by making him just another speedster. Before he actually felt like someone who could be a good role model, this, this is just some show off.
pokesonic3 You're talking about the Japanese interpretation. Sega of America made Sonic flippant and rebellious. LOOOOONG before Pontac and Graff became regular writers for Sonic games. We've seen what happens when they try to make Sonic a more "serious character" with Sonic 06 and it doesn't work.
ShadowBlazer3000 0 He was only ever like that in the American cartoons, with Drummond he was way more serious than RCS and with Jason he was perfect in Black Knight, Secret Rings and Unleashed. 06 was when Jason was still trying to find the character.
Dude 7 of you paragraphs were complaining about the characters/writing and only 1 was actually about the gameplay with only another brief mention to it in another paragraph. Do you actually expect me trust your rating of 4/10 when it's obvious you care more about story than gameplay when playing a SONIC game. If this was say Heavy Rain or The Last of Us I could understand but when playing Sonic I kinda don't expect much, also knuckles has been considered an idiot for a long time now, you can't blame Sonic Boom for that. I'm not saying that assumption is correct but it's been implied for years now.
There's nothing more to say about the gameplay, it's dull as hell. Combat is boring and Sonic is put into large areas where you have to slowly make your way around. And the auto speed sections are just a boring as the combat. It's nothing that requires multiple paragraphs. I complained about the characters because that was one of the bigger problems to me, whether its the Last of Us or not the game still tried to have a story and had a ton of dialogue so that's what spoke on the most, plus I was talking about multiple characters. Knuckles really only started to be considered dumb when Dan came in, Driere wasn't dumb at all. And even with Dan it was never to this extent, this is just insulting to the character. The 4/10 wasn't a pro score, I just gave it what I thought was fair, it's up to you to decide whether it's good or not. The 4 just because it's playable, just not fun to play.
I at least respect your review for not entirely trashing the game, and I respect you for giving your reasons. I'm sick of people trashing it, without giving any excuse or reason to why they personally didn't like it. This game has it's flaws, but I had fun with a few things in this game, and I liked it. This is one of the better "simple kid games." Have you ever played the game Spongebob: Plankton's Robotic Revenge? Now that is a horrible game, even for kids. There are only 3 worlds in the game, and the gameplay and combat is more limited and repetitive than Sonic Boom, and the game does not rely on world exploration, especially since there's barely a world to begin with. It's just a bunch of floating platforms set over bland and repetitive backgrounds. That was the worst video game I've ever played based on a tv show, and it wasn't even worth the $40 it originally came out on.
Did you seriously just say that it's ok that this game is broken beyond belief because it's for kids? (When i say broken, i mean it's riddled with glitches that will mess up the game easily. And yes, you can activate those bugs BY ACCIDENT while playing) Because that's just insulting children.
(this next comment is more in line with fun glitches idk, just the glitches that don't erase save data or start you at a check point making you fall through a floor or something and kill you infinitely etc.) When I was a kid me and my friends and family LOVED glitchy games. it was part of why I loved Sonic adventure 1. Yeah I'm an adult now and glitches only annoy me because they tend to consume time I don't have. but as a kid or if I had the same free time that a kid have I would still enjoy glitches.
***** Children deserve better! They should grow up knowing what a quality game is and enjoy those, not some bleh platformer full of glitches. If more kids grew up to buy only good games, than the industry would make more of those games.
It's nice to hear someone who's actually a Sonic fan give a well thought out review on this game, and not some trying-to-hard-to-be-funny (like most reviews I see) "It's so bad" review. You actually went into detail and even pointed out the game's good points. As a long time fan of the series, who's considering picking this up, I offer my sincerest "thank you."
They should have waited longer. step 1: Polish the game step 2: Be able to buy upgrades to mix up the gameplay. step 3: Add a run button There, thats what they needed to do to make this game good.
it's a good system, but if the lowest rating is "meh" i think that's a flaw. meh is a mediocre game. meh. this game goes below mediocre in my opinion. it's not fair if a kinda boring but polished game gets the same "meh" sonic boom does.
I find it kind of unfair to hear people criticize Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric for not establishing their characters. People didn't criticize the original Sonic games for not flat out setting up who the characters are, and what they're doing. Some might argue those games had manuals, but a lot of those USA manuals were full of made up stuff, which wasn't part of the original Japanese creators' intentions. They seriously called Amy Rose "Princess Sally Acorn" in the first American manual for Sonic CD...The bottom line is, the original Sonic games didn't establish the characters, neither did the Sonic Adventure franchise, and people didn't complain, yet people complain about Sonic Boom? Most people who would play Sonic Boom are likely fans of the series from the past, so they don't need an explanation for who the characters are. Not every story has to give an origin for how the characters know each other, or why a character is evil. I'll admit, it would have been better if they gave a bit more details on what the heck Shadow is supposed to be in the game, but that's it. The game gave enough evidence to show that the playable characters are friends, and Eggman is the villain, they didn't need to have a narrator, or an hour long life story of how they all met, and why Eggman is evil...
Glad your review was HONEST, and you weren't paid to focus on the positives while ignoring the negatives. Wasn't expecting this game to be good anyway. Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast/ps3/360 was Sonic's highlight.
The most disappointing aspect of this game was the fact that they clearly rushed this out the door. I would say that they needed at least 6 more months to: Polish the game, improve textures, give more life to the overworld, put more depth into the combat system, fix the controls, flesh out the plot better, improve the framerate, and most importantly, TEST THE GAME FOR BUGS!!! If this was really the best that this developer could do for Sega, than clearly they were not the team for this job. What a waste of Nintendo's contract with Sega. Nintendo paid them money to make games for the Wii U, and we got the worst sonic game of all time!
This is the most accurate review of the game I've seen so far. The game itself is not god awful, certainly not anywhere near 06... but oh my god is it just meh. So very, very meh. It literally just feels like an average cartoon shoe tie-in game... which I guess it actually is literally. Just remember guys, it doesn't matter if you love the game, hate it or are indifferent: this is NOT made by Sonic Team. They have been working on a mainstream title since Lost World. So don't let this game skew you into thinking this is some crazy new permanent direction for the game.
Next thing you know their will be an update on the game. Frame rate fixes, big and glitch problem solves,and a run button.And a dlc of what the Hell happen to shadow. I WILL BE RIGHT, I STILL HAVE HOPES FOR THE GAME. Whoa, was mad?
i just want them to take all the copies back and fix most of the things that annoy me. obvious sayings, knuckles dumb guy act, lack of backstory, glitches.
As someone who has only played a few sonic games (all "around" the adventure era) and who's favorite is Sonic Adventure 2 I saw an alternate timeline game as a great possibility for rebooting the franchise, returning to Adventure 2-esque storytelling and clearing away alot of the huge continuity errors, big character inconsistencies, and general lazy storytelling of the last decade or so. Examples include whatever the fuck they tried to do with shadow, and I especially hoped they could re-tell a story him better. Another is of course knuckles whose entire motivation in the main games is long forgotten and now he's just an idiot and a character to make the cliche "oh hey tough guy getting embarrassed somehow" joke despite the fact he really hasn't been that tough in years. Unfortunately sonic boom seems to change the characters yet not establish the norm of the new universe or introduce characters naturally. Maybe one day I'll buy another sonic game, but not this one.
Great review Derrick! You seem like such a cool guy, and you're testament to GameXplain actually giving fair reviews unlike many other sources. As someone who just beat the game myself this weekend, I completely agree with everything you said. As someone open to different interpretations of Sonic (unlike the majority of his fanbase), I found the game fun for the most part (except the damn vehicle sections that are shoehorned in beyond belief), but I wouldn't exactly call it a good game like you said. People should really stop comparing it to Sonic 06 or calling it complete and utter garbage because it's not; it's just flawed and leaves a lot to be desired by people who even at least got some enjoyment out of the title. Let's hope Sonic Team's title for next year is a lot better. (PS What is your favorite Sonic Game? Or rather, if you can't decided eras, out of both classic, dreamcast and modern?)
The game looks okay but it could have been a lot better. I think a game like this would have been better as a Teen Titans or Xiaolin Showdown game. Maybe even a decent Winx Club or Sailor Moon game, but not Sonic. Sonic deserves a much better game. Hopefully the next Sonic game is a more traditional Sonic game and has everything the hardcore Sonic fans want.
Fun fact, Bob Rafei, the concept artist for the Sonic Boom game and show is also the concept artist for Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune games.
I think Sega's best bet is just to make Sonic Adventure 2 HD. I know it was originally released on the dreamcast, then re-released on the Gamecube and the City Escape level already got remastered in Sonic Generations but...it's still in my opinion the best 3D Sonic game, including story, music and gameplay.
I think your review does the game justice. All too often, I only hear about how bad it is and then people get into an argument over it being worse than Sonic '06. It's trying a new direction, which is good, but doesn't do much to make it clear or innovate. I think the character designs add to their personality; Sonic is dressed to look liked a well-meaning rogue, Tails is the brains, Knuckles is the larger-than-life muscular jock, whilst Amy is meant to be prim and proper. I personally wish they could have used more of the Wii U's hardware to add to it; Nintendo have this game exclusively, so they need to throw around what the Wii U can do.
I say the real peak of 3D Sonic games was Sonic Adventure 1 (minus the fishing nonsense) and 2. When I played Sonic Heroes for the first time, I thought this is where Sonic would start going downhill. While Sonic Heroes was good enough to at least play through all the way with all the characters and had many memorable levels and aspects and a pretty good soundtrack matching the game, it just seemed that it was going downhill, but retained the basic feel of a true Sonic game. I looked into some side Sonic games and stumbled across Sonic Shuffle and thought Mario Party right from looking at the box. The game wasn't very good or fun or even really memorable other than why it was bad. When I first saw the art for Sonic Boom, I thought immediately to skip it because the art to a game usually resembles what is to be expected in a game. I had high hopes for Shadow the Hedgehog, but it was a high-paced shooter game and made Shadow look like an indecisive character. The best Sonic game in my opinion was Sonic 2, everything you need in a Sonic package with great gameplay, difficulty, great (and appropriate) music, good graphics (I prefer 8 and 16 bit graphics over anything), and reasonable length with great stage design. I skipped Sonic everything after Shadow the Hedgehog thanks to Sonic 06.
They just had to put Knuckles on steroids and make Dr. Eggman look like he's been hitting the gym... Now there's no reason to call him Dr. Eggman. You minus well call him Dr. Robotnik. They really didn't have to change Knuckle's body. Sega just really fucked up on this game. Considering that there ISNT online multiplayer.
I'm probably still going to pick up this game when I get a Wii U (I haven't played Sonic in a long time), but I do agree that the game could have been a lot more polished considering the people who were working on it. If the game was apparently "rushed", how come this seems to be a common theme? Why not do what Nintendo has been doing for the passed while, and announce a game and release date after a rather large portion has been made already? It'll give them more time to work on a product, instead of just flopping a game out there. Other than that, I don't think it's a terrible game or even *close* to Sonic 06, comparing it to that is the biggest overreaction if I've ever seen one.
Y'know what I want? Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood 2! Please Sega! Chronicles is one of my favorite games of all time, and most definitely my favorite Sonic game!
It seems like what this game is really missing is a sprint button and a level up system for each character to unlock new fighting moves and keep the combat fresh and progressive. I don't know why they don't make sonic able to run really fast in the sandbox style segments he's Sonic why would he suddenly not be able to run fast?
Just a few words of advice to Sega/Sonic Team. If you are going to make a 3D Sonic Console game, make it like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, or Sonic unleashed where all of Sonic's abilities come into use, Speed and platforming is well balanced giving both their perticular screen time, and also having a solid storyline that doesnt have plot holes along the way and is pretty straightfoward when it comes to gameplay. One last thing, make Sonic's friends more useful in the games than just be there for moral support.
Since this series isn't main sonic game canon, I'm not disappointed that is the outcome. Plus I wasn't that hype myself when it was announced and from the past year of videos and game play it wasn't impressive then either. Oh well, I can wait for the next game.
I like how they don't just focus on the bad stuff. sonic boom does have some good features (I guess but I haven't played It) but it's just that the bad stuff out weighs the good stuff
I'm okay with exploration as long as I ultimately know where to go and the backgrounds are distinguishable enough that you know where you are. Sonic Boom's exploration was frustrating because I did not know where I was supposed to go at times.
They really fixed what wasn't broken. Sonic Unleashed, Colors and Generations hell even 06. Throw all those into a blender and you will have something good. Drop all the extra characters Cream, Big, Blaze, Shadow and keep it simple. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Eggman and Metal Sonic. Use the gameplay from all the games I listed above. Sonic can rise from the dead, they just need to be careful. That or just return to 2D and remain small like the original games. I don't care which one they choose, just make Sonic good again.
i don't get the problem with this game i actually thought it was going to be different and awkward at parts, but after i played with a couple of levels i immediately fell in love with it i don't get why people hate it yes it's different from other sonic games but it's actually good they're trying something new so it's not the same thing over and over again, the powers are amazing the platforming is tight with every character the graphics and views are amazing and the music is amazing all tied in with sonic humor and the classic sonic running challenges, again i don't see why people hate it i feel like it's a good game if you want something new and different in the sonic series
Lol no, the graphics are mediocre at best, the music is awful, the game is completely broken with many bugs and glitches, there are constant frame rate dips, the gameplay itself is slow paced and boring which is the complete opposite of what sonic is known for
Shaydew Teh Hegdhug i'll admit the game does have its glitches and even on the running stages the FPS rate slows down i admit that but seriously what game doesn't have glitches? Even the greatest games like Xenoblade Chronicles have their glitches and look how much respect that game has, i say the graphics are good because there is one stage that has the best water graphics i've seen in a video game and thats saying something not to mention the story is good and even though gameplay wise it's not the sonic we all know and love it's still a good game especially if you want something new and different in the sonic series
Like you said, this is a new take on Sonic, I would of waited till 2015 for them to get the bugs out. But another game that people didn't like was Mario Sunshine, it had many if the same problems that Boom has/had but there are people that would love to see a Sunshine 2. So Sonic Boom is 5/10 for me, but I would love to see a Boom 2 with all the problems fixed.
It really irritates me when people say that this game will be the death of Sonic. I hate that fans think they have the power decide when a franchise is dead, but if Sega keeps making Sonic games, than guess what: it's not dead. And another thing: What people are failing to realize is that this is NOT a core Sonic game. It's a SPIN-OFF. Sonic Team had absolutely no involvement in the development of this game at all. It was developed by an incompetent studio that not only had no idea how to make a Sonic game, but no idea how to make a video game. And many people are blantly ignoring the fact that the series has been taking several steps in the right direction lately. The daytime levels of Unleased were great, and as the entirety of Colors and Generations used that same formula, they were great, too. Lost World wasn't quite as enjoyable, but the levels that stuck to traditional platforming instead of experimenting with dub gimmicks were still solid and fun. And I think there's an extremely high chance that the next core Sonic game, which we probably will be getting by the end of the year, will revert back to and hopefully further improve upon the formula of daytime Unleased, Colors and Generations, so it will probably also be great. My point being that a lousy spin-off isn't going to destroy the series as a whole. It's like saying one bad Mario Kart game will kill the entire Mario franchise.
Seeing how SEGA turned Sonic Unleashed into Sonic Colors and Alien: Colonial Marines into Alien: Isolation makes me look forward to the sequel of Sonic Boom game and the next Main Sonic game as well. Failure breeds success, now all SEGA needs to do is follow up on the feed back and we can have a pretty impressive game.
Worst part of the game is the fact that it stole Up Your Arsenal's plot. Ratchet and Clank already covered a maniac wanting to turn all organic life into robots... and UYA is a far better game. But hey, give Sonic Boom credit: at least it has characters who aren't completely wooden stereotypes like the those found in InFamous: Second Son. Dude-bro with beanie? Check. Rebel girl with bad attitude? Check. (She even has a nose ring; proof positive she wants to stick it to the man!) Nerd who plays D&D? Check. (They give him acne and thick glasses to help hammer it home) And none of them have any real personality beyond what their stereotype's label suggests.
As a Sonic fan I would say this review is spot on. Its an OK platformer, but would be better if they took Sonic out and put a knight in armor with a sword into the same fighting sections.
The backstory to the game is there. Obviously, Sega thought Sonic fans would basically know that Sonic is always trying to foil Dr.Eggman's plans to make sure evil doesn't take over. So,since Sonic Boom is now surrounding Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, they decided that those character's will follow Sonic's purpose for defeating Eggman. It's actually common sense. I agree that the game isn't that great but referring it to Sonic 06 is just unnecessary. The game does seem rushed and unfinished/polished. This could probably be because Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Wii U will most likely take up all the space for game releases and people will focus on that and not on a new Sonic game.
And guess what. There is probably going to be a sequel to this game. At the end of the game Dr. Robotnik finds Lyric's hacking device that controls machines and puts it on his wrist then presses it. The scene then shifts to a battered Metal Sonic reactivating on Robotnik's command meaning Robotnik is now in total control of all technology he comes across. Sonic Boom 2: Rise of Eggman.
My biggest issue with the game really was the characters. I get that they're supposed to be new versions and differences are to be expected. However, it felt to me like they all came off as... stereotypical. Sonic is the "don't think just do" that always gets into trouble, Knuckles is the idiot jock that barely has 2 brain cells to rub together, Tails is the stereotypical nerd that uses big words whenever possible but rarely appropriate, and Amy... well, Amy is the only one that doesn't seem all that different.
The main thing to me was that they took away something that made Sonic stand out from all the other platformers, that being his speed. By revoking that, you have turned Sonic into the most basic platformers due to the fact of his speed dropped to a mere 3-5mph and not even that high. Speed is a basic necessity for Sonic and if it's has no speed, it might as be called Jogger the Hedgehog
To me, this is like the new Ninja Turtles movie. I didn't want to hate it because it's not the original TMNT and because the turtles looked weird, but it all ended up going down-hill regardless... Same goes for here, I was so adamant in defending this game initially, but holy fuck, this game is liquid ballsacks!
I came here expecting a review and I got it I came here from Screwattack hearing the game suck HARD, but after this calm and very well done review I can take a sigh of relaxation and know, that I was right about this game not ending very well, but the fact it is aimed for kids makes me alittle less depressed here's hoping sonic will find a good game somewhere, I just hope SEGA can pull itself together before they finally give up on the blue blur
Finally someone who doesn't think this is the worst, most disgusting game on the entire planet. When I bought it, I went home and played it and was pretty interested. I didn't think it was a terrible game. It's pretty okay to me. But that's just my opinion. It's better than a lot of people are giving credit for.
Hi GameXplain. Thanks for the insight of Rise of Lyric. The game I bought was Shattered Crystal for 3DS. I didn't buy Rise of Lyric, but I saw the Let's Plays of the game. From what I see it was kinda bland, boring, and unpolished. I didn't know if BRB needed more time to complete the game, but I doubt it since this was in the making for 3 years. All and all this game wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I think Sonic Boom ( future video games) needs to take a different direction. It's okay to have exploration, but it needs to fast paced or it'll be boring. Secondly, the combat system needs to be upgraded every now and again. Maybe you can purchase other/special moves by using rings or mechanical parts of robots. That way the combat won't be tedious and you get a different experience through each character. Another thing, is to make the characters more useful, because in Rise of Lyric and even in Shattered Crystal, I mostly use Sonic. The others were good too, but I think they are more than just exploring different pathways or something. (Wow. this is a long post)
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Dear me, when is Sega going to learn, and just make a classic sonic game. -No voices - Flowing level design - A lot of content - Side scrolling view It would be a home run. I don't understand how a company can go this long and repeat the same mistakes over and over. The fan made games have been better for over ten years, why don't they start hiring.
