Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

[CallieMacN]

Considering the amount of praise Cindy's new performance is getting I think Sega would be nuts to keep her Minnie Mouse voice in the modern series. The voice directors in this game really deserve some major credit. They really have done an amazing job, and it really shows. Here's hoping they can work on the modern series as well.

[Willsy]

Maybe Cindy will decide to use Boom Amy's voice? I think I remember Roger saying in an interview they were allowed some of their own input in the voices.

[Blue Blood]

*video*

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it provides clear audio of the conversations between Sonic and Amy in their level.

 

Love that dialogue! Really, it's great. Shame that one one half of the audio is there. We're missing a lot of the sound effects, but at least all the music and dialogue is in tow.

 

The chase music is really brilliant too, but the rest is very generic (I'm starting to hate that overused word, but it's accurate in this case) for the genre. It could be from absolutely any game at all. Bleh

[Willsy]

I also forgot to mention that I love the joke about Knuckles landing on Sonic's face. It's not new or original, but the way Sonic just tell Knuckles to get off him is pretty great. The teams behind Boom are really going all out in the character department, and I absolutely love that. I hope Pontac and Graff are taking some notes.

[Gabz Girl]

I've gushed plenty of times over the dialogue in this and Cindy and Travis' new take on Amy and Knuckles', but seriously, they are wonderful! I want to hear these voices in the new SEGA!Sonic game and I hope it does carry over in those games. The character interaction in this is just great! Really can't wait to see other characters in this besides Sonic and co and hear their new and unique takes on SEGA!Sonic characters!

Music and gameplay just seems okay (I'm not going to use that fucking word that's been said a million times over in this topic!), and dat audio...surely the audio will be fixed in the retail release? Otherwise it's going to be very annoying hearing the loud voices over soft music.

Forgot to add that the gameplay footage we've seen is a huge step up from the B roll footage. The B roll made the game look mediocre, but this actually makes it look above average, with dialogue n' stuff being the big stand out achievement.

[SlickEvan]

Boy does that footage you showed blow the b roll footage out of the water. Its a heck of a lot better.

Edit: at showing how you can play the game.

[PickleBrows]

 

 

Very small detail, but Sonic actually does his iconic finger wag at 8:59. Love the little touches they've put in this.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm still on the fence, but wow, the B-Roll footage just seemed to focus on all the worst parts of the game. SEGA, what were you thinking?

 

Same here, these videos make the game out to be far better than the official stuff from Sega did, just, why did they let that get out?

[Cyrus]

And one more video, this time giving us a look at the controls, menu and GamePad. It also gives us our first look at Tails' gameplay. Very informative.

 

The player sounds like he's having a 3D blast with the game, that gives me even more hope for it.

[Blue Blood]

10 minutes of footage! Unfortunately there's no audio at all.

[Milo]

Don't know if this video was posted yet. It shows the alternate Sonic and Amy routes to what we saw in previous videos.

I'm still on the fence, but wow, the B-Roll footage just seemed to focus on all the worst parts of the game. SEGA, what were you thinking?

 

I'm actually surprised at how much better the level design is in this video, decent amount of paths and the level design itself is at least open enough to for some exploration of the immediate surrounding area to be had.

 

Though I'm still not (entirely) sold on the game, I have to agree with Blue Blood and Hoggy that Sega's official gameplay videos made the game look worse than it actually is.

[Kuzu]

Same here, these videos make the game out to be far better than the official stuff from Sega did, just, why did they let that get out?

 

Clearly Sega are trying to sabotage this game before it even takes off; there can be only one Sonic.

[Blue Blood]

Amazon France is listing a November 28th release which is likely for Europe since it's a Friday. 

[JezMM]

Like many others I'm starting to warm to the game a bit more.  The combat NICE KILL SONIC dialogue is way NICE KILL SONIC too repetitive THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SH- i mean NICE KILL SONIC though.  Three times in one level... how many times is she gonna say that over the course of the game?  Hope that's an example of limited resources for the demo/unfinishedness etc.

 

 

Agreed with Blue Blood that the chase music was great but the rest is just completely unimaginative dross.  It's not bad music but that is not the kind of music that has made every Sonic game review from the past 10 years utter the phrase "one thing Sonic has always impressed on is a great soundtrack".

 

 

And... yeah too much fighting for my taste but welp, that's the genre.

[Blue Blood]

The videos are just rolling in. Now have some footage of Eggman being awesome! I love when he pulls his moustache at 01:17. His dialogue is just as good as everyone else's, but you'll have to listen ver closely cause the audio isn't very clear.

 

And we all missed some new info in the video from NintendoWorld Report, namely that the robot that acts as a guide is called Q-N-C (Quincey?).

[Wittymations]

I like how he dusts himself off after the first fall.

You know, this game would probably benefit if it were to add a "In-Game dialogue" button. Probably have three settings:
- Full In-Game dialogue (With all the spamming)

- Important In-Game dialogue (For stuff that kinda SHOULD be pointed out to help the player)
- Off

 

Seriously, people are going to get frustrated hearing repeating nonsense all the time. And, you know, them commenting on EVERYTHING is kinda annoying.

 

I like a little bit of chatter in the games, but really... after a while, it just gets redundant.

[LovieHats]

i never thought i hear eggman say the word "awesome"

 

also, did i hear sticks in the video? or is it just me

[Jason Berry]

Yeah, the B-roll left sort of a bad taste in my mouth in areas. SEGA aren't particularly good with their marketing though so...

...and that's another issue. They will NEED to market the fuck out of this, and the show. The toys will be a handled by Tomy obviously, but SEGA can't let Boom go unnoticed. At least, not the show.

 

I don't think marketing is a problem at E3. They have a huge banner as you come in and those giant Sonic Boom bags are all over the show floor. They are one of the most popular swag at the show this week. I'm trying to get some for Hogfather and Sonic Revolution but I dunno if I can.

[Cyrus]

His angry animations are delicious. The mustache tugging, trying to get the Egg Mobile back into place, this is how to make the villain comedic, but at the same time how that he ain't screwing around.

[Willsy]

Slimgamer has some negative impressions on Boom.

http://www.slimgamer.com/18820/sonic-boom-is-easily-the-worst-game-of-e3/

It’s my own fault for being excited for a new Sonic game. After two full days playing more videogames than I can count and seeing even more guided demos and videos, one game in particular stood out to me far more than the rest – but for all the wrong reasons. That game, of course, is Sonic Boom and if this is seriously the best Sega can do with Sonic then they may as well not even bother.

For starters, I’m not sure why they bothered using the CryEngine when the game, and I say this without exaggeration, looks like a high-resolution PS2 game. The textures themselves were low-res and blurry, and animations were stiff, and water was simply a single texture stretched across a plane with no animation. Everything lacked detail and the levels displayed no real sense of design or thoughtfulness and instead just looked like objects were placed randomly along a flat plane and they called it a day.

Things got even worse once I started playing it. Sonic Boom isn’t a platformer, it’s much closer to a brawler that uses only one button. Pressing the Y button causes Sonic (or God help you, Knuckles) to jump to the nearest enemy and hit them, and repeatedly pressing the button allows you to perform a combo that will kill most opponents. You can also use Sonic’s electric whip (Sonic has an electric whip now) to grab enemies and throw them or tear away their shields, but throwing didn’t actually seem to do any damage besides to the boss, and ripping the shields away is only good on enemies that, you know, have shields. Jumping and moving was even worse. Running is very fidgety to the point where moving in a straight line is hard, and the camera was pulled in so close it was hard to see what was around you. Sonic also has a spindash (that was only used to solve simple puzzles) but the only way to have in move anywhere is to hold down the X button. Simply pressing the button causes him to spin up and then immediately stand back up. Jumping was a bit better since Sonic would get plenty of air and pressing it again would allow him to double jump for a slight boost, but thanks to the controls and the camera it was very difficult to judge distances with any sort of accuracy.

The Gamepad screen is used as a mirror of the television screen with the addition of a picture of Sonic’s head that acts as a button. Pressing this button cloaks the game in a blue hue and allows you to see secrets such as a trail of footprints leading to a cache of treasure. The big problem with this is that you are rendered completely immobile and you’ll have to constantly switch the mode on and off if the footprints lead around corners and you can longer see them. Finding treasure caches or breaking obstacles will give you rings which in this game are used as life. Getting hit causes a couple rings to shoot out of Sonic, as does falling into the water or an open pit. The water is a particularly interesting case because as soon as you touch it you are immediately teleported back to land and lose some rings in a process so quick it left me a little confused as to what actually happened. Finally, there’s Sonic’s electric which can be used to solve puzzles by attaching it to blocks and pulling, or by using it to swing from glowing grapple points. Oh, and while all this is happening the characters are throwing out quips with so much ‘tude it would make the 90′s blush in embarrassment.

All of this was the good level.

The next level I played could barely be called a game. In this stage, you play as sonic and are joined by three of his friends as you race at a highspeed through loops and winding paths in a way very reminiscent of the other 3D Sonic games. Unfortunately, the poor controls get in the way and ensure that you can barely control Sonic at all, but that honestly doesn’t matter too much at this point. After a few obstacles in the beginning you hit so many boost pads and the the path becomes so clutter free that you can just set down the controller and watch the game play itself as the blurry scenery whizzes by in a confusing mess.

In the interest of full disclosure I have to mention that the demo I played actually featured 4 different playable stages, but after the disaster that was the first two stages (actually the first and last) I just couldn’t bring myself to play any more.

Sonic Boom is Easily The Worst Game Of E3 photo

Don’t buy into what Sega has shown you, this is what the game actually looks like.

I also got to play the 3DS version of the game which, while still bad, is at least better than the console version. This version is less of a brawler and more of an exploration based platformer. The controls feel much better in this version (possibly due to it being a 2.5D game rather than full 3D) and just running around the stages is pretty fun. Of course, I say running but I really mean “gently strolling around the levels”. There were very few areas large enough to actually run in (which is accomplished not by momentum, but by using a run button) but at least it actually had some more platforming than it’s console brethren. One level actually did let me take advantage of Sonic’s signature speed but was unfortunately inspired by the endless runner games that are so prevalent in the mobile space. You run into the screen while dodging obstacles and collecting rings, but after the first few segments it quickly lost it’s sheen and bored me.

Graphically, the 3Ds version looks like an up-ported DS game. The textures or pixelated and the environments are fairly unimpressive with very little going on at any one time. The 3Ds may not be as powerful as the other platforms on the market but it can certainly do better than this.

Sonic Boom is Easily The Worst Game Of E3 photo

this is from the DS version of the game. Wait a second, this is a 3DS game? That can’t be right…

I know that in previews we’re supposed to be super positive and talk about how a game is still in development and all the rough patches will be ironed out, but Sonic Boom is nothing but one giant rough patch. I almost can’t believe that Sega decided to show the game in this state, but since it’s due out in only a few months they didn’t really have a choice. I don’t have an optimistic outlook for this game and frankly, neither should you. Getting Sonic Boom into a state even remotely worth playing is going to require a complete overhaul and there’s just no time left to do that. You can tell that this game was designed as an afterthought and targeted to the children that will watch the upcoming TV series and media blitz, but they (and we) deserve better.

I have to say, saying it was the worst game of E3 is a massive exaggeration, no matter how flawed Boom is. There were definitely worse games there.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Everything about this game is looking great. I want to see some of the other levels though, because the two we've got the most footage from seem like the less interesting ones, just in terms of visual design. They're all kinda dark and bleak. Which I can deal with, but we can see those green forests and beaches with...strange rock formations in them in the trailers themselves, so I want to get some footage of those areas.

 

As for that "impressions" article, it sounds like they just looked at some of the footage and made a few things up about the game. My guess is that it's becoming one of those expect/accept scenarios where someone will not stand for anything in any Sonic game being in any way decent, etc. And considering their article about Generations was called "The Sonic Cycle Starts All Over Again" I'm pretty sure I'm right.

[nintega137]

Slimgamer has some negative impressions on Boom.

http://www.slimgamer.com/18820/sonic-boom-is-easily-the-worst-game-of-e3/

I have to say, saying it was the worst game of E3 is a massive exaggeration, no matter how flawed Boom is. There were definitely worse games there.

Like what? I admit that I wasn't paying close attention and thus I don't know every e3 game at all. I know there is better for sure but what's worse?

[Willsy]

Like what? I admit that I wasn't paying close attention and thus I don't know every e3 game at all. I know there is better for sure but what's worse?

Various shovelware games, cash in iOS games, etc. Only ones I can remember from the top of my head are Disney Planes 2 and Just Dance 2014. Granted, Boom might end up not being much better than them, but it could really go either way. Though I'm hoping really hard that it'll turn out to be good.

[Your Vest Friend]

Everything about this game is looking great. I want to see some of the other levels though, because the two we've got the most footage from seem like the less interesting ones, just in terms of visual design. They're all kinda dark and bleak. Which I can deal with, but we can see those green forests and beaches with...strange rock formations in them in the trailers themselves, so I want to get some footage of those areas.

 

As for that "impressions" article, it sounds like they just looked at some of the footage and made a few things up about the game. My guess is that it's becoming one of those expect/accept scenarios where someone will not stand for anything in any Sonic game being in any way decent, etc. And considering their article about Generations was called "The Sonic Cycle Starts All Over Again" I'm pretty sure I'm right.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the impressions for Generations and Lost World were overall more positive than this across all reviewing sites. So far, Boom is more mixed.

[Willsy]

Yeah the mixed reviews so far aren't sending a good message across to me. I'll keep my pre order for the time being but if I hear a lot more negativity about it I might cancel and settle for Shattered Crystal.