Sonic Boom (The game)

[Danny Felixe 330]

If one expects a game to go badly, one is more likely to find flaws. Mario games are consistant whereas you don't always know what you're getting from Sonic games. Tie that in with people not liking change and you get a lot of hate

[Device 6]

I admit the game probably could have used a bit more testing, but this game is nowhere close to the bugs found in '06. I mean, even both Adventures were more buggy lol

Nintendo is just very good at polishing their games before release. They also have no problem delaying games for the sake of fixing this stuff. "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad," said by Miyamoto himself!

Edited 13 Nov 2014 by Device

[Skye Prower 386]

If only they could have delayed the show for a few months. Then we'd have a near perfect game!

[BlurryDawgo 26]

If only they could have delayed the show for a few months. Then we'd have a near perfect game!

I don't know...

[HyperMetal50 17]

Well, guess that answers Boom's flaws. A real shame too, this could've really shined as some Ratchet and Clank with Sonic characters in it. However, I think some people have been hating this game more than it deserves.

[Danny Felixe 330]

...

Well that doesn't sound good at all

And by the looks of things, there will be blames about Sonic Boom was going to be bad anyway even though it's much harder to make a game with not enough staffing

[Lena Stan Account 60]

Well It doesn't matter. It just makes it harder which is funner. I mean you just get revived. It's way too easy to be called a sonic game.

As long as I can see a scene with MS punching and beating Sonic up I'm okay with this game. Punchy Punchy!

[Skye Prower 386]

Okay, I'm about a quarter of the way through Rise of Lyric now, so I thought I'd put down some detailed 'first impressions. I haven't played any more Shattered Crystal yet, but the first impression from it are And I'm gonna try and avoid spoilers.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. THIS IS NOT A SONIC GAME. Yeah, it's got the Sonic characters in it, but the gameplay is not your typical Sonic game. That's what Shattered Crystal is for. In a similar way to how Chronicles really isn't a Sonic game.

The gameplay can be split into three basic sections. Running, Combat, and exploration. Though the latter two tend to cross over.

Running is the weakest, essentially Sonic Dash with better controls. However, I am hopeful it might improve. After all, the Silver Boss fight in Generations is basically the same thing. And the sections are short, so they don;t overstay their welcome. Also, there has been a section when you run on water, which felt much more organic.

The Combat is basic, but fun. However, this is the section where I have my only real criticism of the game. The dodge and jump buttons don't override your attacks. Which means you can be halfway through a combo animation and unable to dodge. I thought this was a flaw fighting games had grown out of.

The exploration is the meat of the game, mostly platforming segments to explore and nooks and crannies to look in for collectibles. And is usually rewarding. However, it can be slow paced. Which feels odd for Sonic, but works for the other three characters. There are occasionally puzzles to work through, but so far they've just been 'get to this area to use your character's special ability/electro-whip thing, or following light up panels on a floor. The latter of which is too easy to start off with as landing on the wrong tile isn't a fail. But then they add the lasers, and it becomes much more fun.

Character wise, Tails and Amy are much more like their Sonic Boom Comic counterparts. I was gonna say Knux seemed dumber in the show, but then I watched this weeks episodes so, yeah, he's on par! Shadow on the other hand... well... He comes across as a late addition, his fight is slotted into the game randomly, and his reasons for fighting Sonic feel like placeholder dialog. Hopefully he'll show up later so more can be explained, cause he and Sonic clearly have a history.

Like the Shadow example, there are hints that show this game... in unpolished. Another indication is the NPC's sometimes lacking Dialog. For example, one character will give you your main mission, but when you walk into his interaction zone, he doesn't even have the 'have you gone to so-and-so yet?' style line most NPC's in other games would have.

Having said that, and despite the fact Shattered Crystal is the superior game, Rise of Lyric is much more fun to me. Maybe because I can play Tails for a significant portion of the game! And as for glitches... so far, only one. Tails' flight sound occasionally playing after he lands. That's it. I suspect this might be one of those games that has glitches, but only if you go hunting them down. Certainly, those who are saying this is worse than 06? Are they playing a different game or something?

[HomestarRunner 0]

BURNBOT.

FLAMETHROWER.

GRENADES.

[Skye Prower 386]

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.

[Danny Felixe 330]

Hey guys. Not sure if you're aware of this or not but a patch has been introduced for the Rise of Lyric game to fix some of the glitches and puts in some improvements to the game with the game

 

This include:

• Fixing he infinite Knuckles jump
• Adding in level barriers to stop people escaping the world
• Improved frame rate for the speed sections
• Making the loops less "choppy"
• Minor lighting improvements
• Improved shadows

 

Not only that, but there is a new addition to the game. Some yellow navigation arrows pointing you were to go. These can be turned off with the anaologue stick if the person doesn't want these but it still sounds useful. The only real issue is that the yellow arrows can still mislead you so you miss items vital to continue to your locations so you may get stuck

 

So yeah... you guys might want to consider getting this you have the game in the EU (sorry America. Not yet for you guys). The size is about 1GB

 

Oh and please note these are not official notes from SEGA. Those might be released later

 

Source

[Skye Prower 386]

...

 

Odd, I had that marker arrow already....

[Danny Felixe 330]

...

 

Odd, I had that marker arrow already....

Well then it's new improved marker arrows! :P

 

Or marker arrows which cause new problems. No idea. It was just said

[Skye Prower 386]

Or it proves the theory I had before, that somehow I got a magically patched version of the game!

[Lena Stan Account 60]

lol lucky you Skye! Too bad there's no Wii U around here. <.<

[Device 6]

See? I knew they would patch it! Now if I can only find time to actually finish this game...that and that the patch comes to US lol