Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal can now join the small list of games I've actually completed. I haven't got 100% yet, only 95%. I still need to get the Ring and Time targets for the final boss. And get enough daily tokens from Knux to unlock all the toy trophies. But I think I'm in a good position to review it now.
Shattered Crystal feels like a mix of Tails Adventure, Sonic CD, and Sonic Heros. From Tails Adventure you have the exploration element of the levels. From Sonic CD you have the fact that each level is split into two layers, and there are fixed points to travel to the other layer. And from Sonic Heroes you have the controlling and swapping of different character. Uh... and the whole 'Teamwork is Awesome' thing.
Gameplay is mostly your standard 2D Sonic game, with every character able to do the running/jumping/homing attack thing, plus their own special abilities. On top of that you have the exploration element. It's not necessary to complete a level, but in order to collect all the Crystal Fragments and Blueprints it is. Most of the time it is clear which path to follow for the quickest level completion, and which one leads into the exploration aspect. Some of the levels are fairly linear, with exploration only occurring between the points where you swap between the level layers. Others are more free, swapping between the two layers and able to revisit any point in the map.
And overall, this works well. The gameplay is solid and most Sonic players will very quickly adapt to the new elements, which work very well for the most part.
For each map there are the aforementioned collectibles, plus a target time and ring count. With the life system gone, any player can batter through a level and get all the unlockables, whereas rings and time takes more skill. And the designers knew this, so simply finishing the level and acquiring the collectibles unlocks the medals needed to progress in the game, whereas beating the target times/rings gives tokens to acquire more toy trophies.
There are also the Worm Tunnel stages, which most Sonic players will recognises. Run forward and avoid the obstacles. Unlike some versions of these levels, these ones were fun and not frustrating at all. Though I would say the second last one was harder than the last.
Of course, it's not all good. The major complaint I have is the game is two short. There are only 8 levels, and I played through it in one and a half easily saturdays. Given my lack of gaming skill, I'd say most players will finish in under a day. On a similar note, it's probibly too easy. I was going to complain about the roof mounted enemies not being targeted by homing attacks, but as I learned each characters special ability can take care of them (and Knux can destroy the two hit enemies in one punch!) it became less of an annoyance.
Another odd complaint was about the energy arc, which can be used to destroy shields on enemies. However, enemies will attack right after the shield is removed, which can be near impossible to dodge with some ranged robots. However, one of the upgrades from blueprints means that such enemies are automatically destroyed if their shields are gone, which almost removes that complaint!
But on the subject of shooting enemies, this is a game you might what an XL for. I had a hard time seeing those projectiles sometimes (especially with the tar bot in dark levels) despite the larger screen.
And finally, this could just be me, but I found the controls for Stick's boomerang to be too fiddly. And, oddly, when you hold down the button to manually control, in the few seconds it takes for Sticks to throw, she is still moved by the circle pad, which makes it tricky to start the boomerang off in the right direction.
But these are really minor niggles in a good game. The music is good, and some tracks really do sound Sonic-y. Story wise... well, it's mostly an excuse plot, a la Generations. Amy is kidnapped, and the group tracks her down following clues for the whole game. After Lost World had fully animated cutscenes, it's a shame to see them back to in-game character models with text boxes. It would have been nice if they had gone with the comic strips for all but the first/last cutscene. And on the subject of the comic, while it explains what Shadow is doing, Eggman's purpose in the plot, a tiny cameo, doesn't really explain what he's doing or why Metal Sonic shows up.
Oh, and I don't think there is anyway in hell that Rise of Lyric and Shatter Crystals' plots can work together.
But, despite the niggels, Shatter Cyrytal is well worth getting and playing. Oh, and I didn't spot a single glitch.
TL:DR: Shattered Crystal is a very good, SOLID but short Sonic game with a lot of fun additions.
English