Sonic Boom (Games) Megathread

Both games sound like they could end up being very fun games, but I'm really worried about the time limit in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Why are they adding time limits to Sonic games with a big emphasis on exploration? It was a bad decision with Lost World and it sounds like a horrible decision for a metroidvania influenced Sonic games. I understand some people like time limit and I like it in some games (The final world in Bomberman DS 2 pulled it off better than any other game I've played), but a metroidvania influenced sonic game? How is that a good idea? Let me enjoy my slower paced Sonic game at any pace I feel like. Regardless, I'm surprisingly more interested in the 3DS game as of right now. Here's hoping both games turn out great.

 

So like I would totally be behind a lot of the changes here if everything felt like it was cohesive together. But guess what its not. At least the character models got a lot better. :v:

Speed sections look entirely out of control fast that you expect from Unleashed, only now having to accommodate four characters on an even more linear path. You're forced forward with a few splits here and there while hitting what I assume are blue spring things that don't look anything like springs. It feels like a much faster Lost World 3DS 2D stage, which were barron and somehow worse than the Wii U versions horrible 2D stages.

As for the other elephant in the room, the combat design looks like its making the mistakes of the werehog. Boring clunky fighting mixed in with the platforming, and a sense of gameflow is nowhere to be seen. I'm all for giving Sonic a more combative moveset similar to his abilities in other mediums, namely the comics, it just looks like you jog around and dial a combo robots with a few neat, but sluggish moves. It would be ok for the enemies to take more than one attack, but it just looks like you wail on them with one combo similar to heroes. The problem is that you're stuck in this slow, jogging exploration state where you fight and platform until the game tells you you can go fast. Like how the spindash only works on certain stage gimmicks. The combat isn't intermingled with the fast sections or exploration. It's THIS IS THE FIGHT SECTION and THIS IS THE FAST SECTION rather than strewn in a mix that can transition from one thing to another and back. You can't fly in, beat up a robot really quickly and continue at your pace. You're locked in combat mode until you get past the section. On top of that I didn't see anything that broke linearity. Entirely disappointing.

The enerbeam mechanic looks ok, especially in use with taking down the Eggman's Robo suit, but I can't help but feel its going to add an unnecessary layer to the game that will get old fast. Throw enemies and remove shields. Also it looks replace grinding. Felt like Metroid Prime there with the shield removal and sky rails. At least holding an enemy could be interesting. As for character diversity, they each have some attacks, Sonic looks the "fastest" which means diddly shit in the combat sections, Buffles looks boring and sluggish. Tails can sorta fly around, and Amy looked the best with her platforming looking like it has a bit of umph to it. Her run cycle is like Sonic and the Secret rings, where they just speed up the jogging animation to the point of looking comical and cheap though.

And the 3DS version...sure was something. At least you keep aerial momentum when you jump, you know, when you can move fast. Otherwise it looks linear as hell.

It looks to be a decent game but fails to really push their good ideas and mechanics into a cohesive package. As its own thing it looks ok. I think they could have done more with it, which is pretty much Sonic in a nutshell these days.

 

It didn't have much in the way of different paths from the little gameplay we saw. I guess it isn't fair to entirely judge, but it reminded me more of Lake Fepard's Sonic CA experiment more than I would have liked though.

 

Not impressed.

The textures look nice, but I'd hope so with the CryEngine.

Doesn't look horrible, but doesn't look very fun either, and certainly has nothing uniquely sonic to it. I will wait and see, but right now I'm not planning to buy it... which is bad for both the Wii U and for Sonic.

Was Generations really that hard of a formula to follow? Seriously?

 

Also, a small nitpick.

>1 hits!

It's much easier to just show a hit counter when you get to two hits, or at least something like if (hitCounter = 1) printToElement("%d %s!", hitCounter, "hit");

Come on now.

 

"Rings! Om nom nom"

My ears bled

 

Keep in mind that part of the reason Big Red Button is doing this game is to free up Sonic Team to work on something else. This will likely not affect the development schedule of the next main-series Sonic game at all.

Of course, I'd be willing to bet the next one is Lost World 2, but that's a discussion for another day.

 

I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. As un-Sonic-y as it is it still looks more fun than Shadow, Heroes, and the Storybook games so that's... something.

Thank god they fixed those models.

 

Strife, I thought you were busy finishing Freedom Planet up; I didn't realize you'd snuck into Sega and made Serpentine the major villain of an actual Sonic game :v:

 

The Unleashed, Colors, and Generations formula is flawed in my opinion. Reviewers seemed to love Colors and Generations, but in reality most people I met either love it or hate it. It's a 50/50 thing and I just don't think it's a style that can exactly live past the "PS360" generation or it'll get old. Those games lack of exploration was entirely due to the fanbase hating it when they tried the Adventure formula again; Sonic 06. A flawed game that gave Sonic Team the impression that the Adventure formula was what fans hated about it. Thus we were treated with linear levels that were roughly 70% 2D but passes itself on as a 3D platformer for some odd reason. The 3D sections in those games really weren't 3D level design wise. They really just were 2D mode with an altered camera. I don't blame them, Sonic is a very odd series to work with. The idea worked fine in the Genesis but in 3D you'd have to change Sonic from being Sonic, thus people complaining. You can sit and think all you want but there isn't an idea that will please everyone. The Sonic fanbase has a million ideas as to what people think a Sonic game should be, and they're all different.

Seriously though, they have to listen and speed Sonic up in the action stages, or at least add a run button. Like you said, there should be a seamless integration between the two, not "this is fast" and "this is platforming". Judging from the people that got the pre-E3 Boom demo, those are genuine complaints.

 

If they improve the fighting, make cpu followers do something, and, I dunno, generally speed Sonic up, I might actually play this.

 

3DS game looks alright. Going to avoid the Wii U version, though (which is a hard thing to say as a Wii U developer trying to help push the platform)

Also,

 

After reviewing the gameplay, I think I like how they're using Sonic's spindash for combat.

But he's still entirely too slow while trotting around. The camera looks like Secret Rings levels of garbage and that's before moving at retard speeds.

 

Me, for example: I liked Unleashed (sans Werehog and medal hunt padding), I absolutely loved Colors, but I didn't like Generations.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention this earlier: did you guys notice how much the camera stutters? It is just as if it was constantly in "earthquake state". The effect was greatly augmented during the speed sections.

In fact, it surprisingly isn't. Now that you mentioned this, I must say that they already have working prototypes. I've seen it: it is not Lost Hope 2 and neither it follows the Generations formula. MSFT devs are quite often in contact with them in order to aid them in the process of porting/implementing subsystems with Xbox One-exclusive implementations—subsystems which are platform dependant—and this is mainly because the Durango's Japanese documentation sucks.

But I'm afraid this is as much as I'm allowed to mention at this given time.

 

The gameplay seems so mechanical. It's a problem past Sonic games have had (Heroes and Colors and Lost World really stick out), but it really seems prevalent here. This is speed mode. This is combat mode. This is regular movement mode.

I would really like a more organic play style that the levels are built around. All the abilities inhabit the same play style and level design leaves it open to decide what tool is most appropriate to where you want to go. The Adventure games and Generations both did this to an extent, but neither system was refined enough to consider either a true success.

That said, the core combat and regular movement modes look solid, at least. Not Sonic, too generic, but still solid. It will at least be a playable game if nothing else. I like the idea of characters goofing off and playing off of each other in their dialogue, though. Sounds like it might be fun. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Generations, but the speed mode levels just look so barren an uninspired. That's by far the worst-looking element to me so far.

I don't know. Lost World was one of the first Sonic games that has garnered almost no emotional response from me. Sonic Boom instills slightly more of one, but not all that much. Nothing that sparks a must-play response in me.

 

Sonic Boom certainly is not what I've expected. I am not hyped for this game which is really saying something as I wasn't before even seeing the gameplay today. Maybe after Sonic Lost World I lost a bit of a faith, but hell I still might buy the game to kill some boredom though.