Shattered Crystal had some of their worst writing to date, but I can let it slide because it's Boom and not the main series. Same for this game. But if they lead up the next SEGA Sonic game, I'll be pissed. Runners, an F2P mobile game, shouldn't have the best plot and characterisation the series has to offer, but it's still better than anything these two have spewed out.
Come to think of it now that's really fucking sad that an F2P mobile Sonic game has a better story than either of those 2 titles. Really says a lot as to how bad they are.
Well, I am exaggerating a bit. Runners' plot is mostly "let's defeat Eggman in this area" and some thinly veiled tutorials. But it provides a hand wave explanation for one of Lost World's plot holes (some Wisps stayed at the end of Colours cause they liked it so much) and is more eventful than any of the recent games, making use of Tails and Knuckles in the story while keeping their personalities in tact.
Gameplay still looks like the binary segmentation of slow platforming / fast running sections of the first game, except with the latter segments on a more frequent basis and with the token platform blocks based around the fire/ice gameplay gimmick. I'm probably nitpicking on this second point, but even given the consideration that its a demo / "the game is for kids", the level objects are also rather unsubtle on the context of their use (Press "A" here to use enerbeam to swing from poles! Blocks with a hammer means only Amy can go through here!). I feel it's as bad as the bottomless pit signs and rolling combo tutorial pictures from Generations / Sonic 4 Episode II.
I don't think that the bottomless pit signs were such a bad thing in all cases. The same cannot be said for this though. Not only does the fire-ice mechanic seem totally arbitrary, basic and unfun, but plastering those symbols and prompts over everything is far too much hand-holding outside of any explicit tutorial. I wonder if anyone at Sanzaru or SEGA has considered and option to toggle them on/off, like Tails' hints in Colours. That would completely rectify the problem. The gameplay otherwise does look like it's got a much nicer flow to it that Shattered Crystal as far as the level design goes. The way the characters control with that binary "fast or slow" movement, floaty jump and those completely context-specific abilities kills any hope though. It just doesn't look like it's going to be fun at all. I don't quite get why it doesn't play like a more traditional Sonic game, because doing that I'm sure they could please all crowds while still focusing on the main Boom demographic. Music's good though.
Nice to have the confirmation, but people need to learn not to bother the individual developers like that. I'm surprised Iizuka even responded.
I'm not going to lie, this actually looks way better than the first two games. The mechanic looks interesting enough, and simple enough for the teenyboppers that are going to be playing this game anyway. Boom still sucks as a franchise idea though, sorry, SEGA. Can't complain much if it's just going to be a subfranchise for handhelds now, however. I kind of think that's where this is going. SEGA are just smart enough to know that this isn't going to make them the sweet, sweet, Skylanders cash they thought it was, but I think that their hubris prevents them from actually shitcanning the idea altogether, so making it play a more minor role would be its best place in the gaming industry. Plus you can't see the horrible designs as well with that low as hell resolution 3DS screen. Seriously, Nintendo, the lowest quality $50 smartphones at Wal-Mart have nicer screens, and probably match the 3DS' specs 1:1. Get with the fuggin times.
Funnily enough, my LG phone was $30, and its specs either match the 3DS, or does better. Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM7 CPUs, (Certainly not the ARM9/ARM7 combo the DS had.) 512MBs of RAM, a larger screen resolution, and emulates N64/GBA/GBC/SNES/Genesis/NES games REALLY well. I could have only dreamed of owning a tiny, pocketable device that plays 90% of my favorite games when I had an SP as a teen. While there are far faster, better phones at higher price ranges, that's still amazing for such a cheap phone, and the build quality's not bad either. C'mon Nintendo, what's your excuse for no SNES VC on the go now? http://orig10.deviantart.net/9f74/f/2015/197/b/e/sonic_boom_fire_and_ice_____by_megablur-d91i29m.png Also, if anyone needs a good laugh for all the negativity around Boom, Miiverse posts about it are breaking my sides.
Yes, more VC releases indeed would be nice, I can only dream when Goemon's Great Adventure is put on there. Seeing the trailer for Fire and Ice, I'm indifferent to it. I'm hoping its better, and I'll take their word for it but I'm just not interested in the brand at this point. Can only hope it gets better from here on out, and also that miiverse post is beautiful. Gotta love the silly posts that goes on miiverse, gets me everytime
I am glad I am not the only one who thinks the game looks good. As for your second paragraph that I didn't include in this quote, I would have to say that I disagree some. The show is quite good to me, though I know the show isn't for everyone in terms of enjoying it, so I guess I can understand where you are coming from.
Well it certainly looks better than I was expecting. It's sitting right in that zone where I can't tell exactly how good it will be since I can't play it, but it isn't obviously awesome. It does look like they're canning 'variable slope jumps' as a mechanic permanently. A shame I guess but I can't blame them for trying more conventional mechanics.
...anyone else surprised at how relatively minimal promotion we've heard from this game since its reveal? I mean, not one bit of new footage or screenshots since the initial blowout back in June. The game also wasn't showcased at this year's Gamescom, and from the looks of things won't be at this year's TGS either. Even given that Sega are historically notorious for invisible advertising with their games, the games that have Sonic on the cover are usually made an exception. One starts to get the feeling that the initial reveal wasn't actually supposed to happen for the new few months...or if something has happened in the game's development... The tip of this iceberg being the Twitter handle of Hardees/Carl's Jr. restaurant chains submitting a tweet that they would have Boom: Fire and Ice-themed kids meal toys starting in October....only for them to delete the tweet, presumably because an embargo was in place....yet the company still has the Boom: F&I promotion on the official page of their kids meal-designated website. :v:
My guess is that they don't want to bother advertising it much to people at those events or online, as they'd mostly shit on it anyway. I think that Ruby's Twitter shenanigans do a better job of making the brand look good than showing this game would. :v:
The past two Boom games were shit and this doesn't look like any sort of improvement. The TV show and merch are all the promotion it needs, and all that SEGA should be giving it.
I wouldn't go as far as saying that there's no improvement at all. The developers and Ruby have said in interviews that the levels are shorter now (hopefully making them less tedious) and you don't need to collect a certain amount of things to continue. There's also the addition of bosses. And overall it sounds like the developers listened to criticism from reviews at least and did try to improve it.
