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Sonic Boom |OT| Sonic 2014

Even the story was lackluster. Which is weird for a game that according to this concept art was once called "Sonic: Origins".

Village%2BConcept%2Bfor%2BSonic%2BBoom%2Bby%2BArmand%2BSerrano.jpg


It didn't attempt to explain the origins of any character despite the giant hedgehog statues holding rings.

SonicBoom%2BConcept%2Bby%2BArmand%2BSerrano_blog.jpg


sonic-boom-9-1.jpg
 
Since the show is doing well enough and the 3DS game seems to be doing alright, too, I guess the best thing we can hope for is a better sequel. I really wanted to like this game, and was greatly looking forward to it since its announcement and planning on buying it day one. Will still get it after a price drop somewhere down the line, but... man. The overwhelming negativity stings hard.
 
Played for a good four hours last night. Honestly, the game is the very definition of a 6/10. Kind of boring and pretty unpolished. Suprisingly I haven't run into any game-breaking glitches yet. I've even tried to replicate a handful I've seen online with no success. So far the biggest offender is the atrosious framerate. I'm usually very forgiving with a game's fps, and feel 30fps is totally acceptable. But SB is a technical mess in this regard. I feel like in some alternate dimension where a 60fps build exists, it would have been way more well recieved. That said, I feel like 2/10 scores are a little extreme. I'm enjoying the music too, it's atmospheric and relaxing.
 
Even the story was lackluster. Which is weird for a game that according to this concept art was once called "Sonic: Origins".

*stuff*

This could also mean that it originally wasn't meant to be part of a separate spin-off franchise.
 
Some concept art for the game which is...uhh
http://nintendoeverything.com/sonic...ncept-art-sonic-designs-lyric-as-an-owl-more/
Here are some of the noteworthy tidbits shown in the art:
– Eggman was a Hillbilly type character
– Lyric was to be an owl
– Sonic in trousers
– Sonic Boom was codenamed Project Apollo
– Chao were planned (called Chaos), looked like baby dragons
This was supposed to be Eggman
BRB's Chao garden
Lyric as an Owl (which is weird since Owls eat snakes IIRC). The robots were supposed to be Owl-inspired too instead of the generic mess we got:
 
Some concept art for the game which is... uhh

Oh god. Oh god. There's no way they weren't intentionally trying to fuck up this whole thing from the beginning. The game's already bad enough now, just imagine if Sonic Team hadn't stepped in and said no to this shit. Thin, hillbilly Eggman? Hideous beast-Chao? Sonic with fucking pants?

The only character design I wish they'd kept was Owl Lyric, he actually looks like he would have been pretty badass. Perhaps they thought the concept of a robotic owl would be a little too close to Clockwerk from Sly Cooper though.
 
The eggman design looks really young so I wonder if it was supposed to be part of the game's time travel subplot and not necessarily for his standard design
 
From some of this concept art the game looks like it was conceived as something a lot more interesting than what we got. I can understand Sega squashing it though, they needed to protect their IP from being changed beyond recognition. Too bad they ended up with a game south of mediocre anyway.
 
sonic-boom-old-concept.jpg


This is legit cool though.


Outside of robes and costumes I'm against characters having clothes because it then draws attention to the fact that they are naked. Like, Amy has a dress or whatever and that is fine as we never see Amy out of one in any design. Sonic is naked, you give him clothes in one design or as a child self or whatever and then suddenly "grown" sonic is naked. It just gets weird.
 
Since the show is doing well enough and the 3DS game seems to be doing alright, too, I guess the best thing we can hope for is a better sequel. I really wanted to like this game, and was greatly looking forward to it since its announcement and planning on buying it day one. Will still get it after a price drop somewhere down the line, but... man. The overwhelming negativity stings hard.

The 3DS version's getting pretty negative reviews so far too though. At least from critics.
 
I actually liked Chip. I mean, for the kind of voice he had, I think the VA did a pretty good job with him. >.>

(Was Chip even voiced by a 4Kids VA?)

I like Chip as well. Actually, I think Unleashed did have a rather good storyline. It wasn't The Last of Us, but I found Sonic and Chip's bromance to be pretty believable. Plus I liked all those mini-movies about them having adventures in the world.

Anyway, the concept art...

B2mkPp7IEAATVqz.jpg


I'll probably be the only person to say I like this. I kind of wish they went this route with Boom. I never saw much point in the redesigns, since they all look more or less the same, but wrapped up in tape and with a few extra accessories, except Knuckles who looks much worse and Amy who looks much better. If you're going to redesign the cast, why not go all the way? Just to make it absolutely clear that it's an alternate universe. The sameyness of the designs really comes through when they put in Shadow and Metal and they look exactly the same as normal.
 
What I find interesting, why commission an outside studio if you want them to make samey shit? It's almost as if BRB said, "Fuck it. This is what they want, let's give them garbage." Dying to hear the whole story but I doubt we ever will.

Edit:

MrBadger, exactly.
 
Even the story was lackluster. Which is weird for a game that according to this concept art was once called "Sonic: Origins".

Village%2BConcept%2Bfor%2BSonic%2BBoom%2Bby%2BArmand%2BSerrano.jpg
Something really doesn't sit right with me about this shit.... "Don't make it look "African Tribal" make it look "Tribal"......... but with "Medieval elements".
All I'm hearing is whitewashing. Maybe they wanted vikings or some shit. But then again, they seem located in a warm area.
Some concept art for the game which is...uhh
http://nintendoeverything.com/sonic...ncept-art-sonic-designs-lyric-as-an-owl-more/


This was supposed to be Eggman
BRB's Chao garden

Lyric as an Owl (which is weird since Owls eat snakes IIRC). The robots were supposed to be Owl-inspired too instead of the generic mess we got:
Oh God.
I think this redesign is actually pretty alright:
sonic-boom-sonic-art-1.jpg

Would play generic 3d platformer starring this dude
Oh GOD.
gn1Gx1C.jpg

What is that?
oh-god-oh-man-o.gif
oh-god-oh-man-o.gif

[feeling some type of way]
 
All that concept art is amazing, they wanted to make this really bold, interesting, and exciting. I wish we could have gotten that in the final result.
 
Updated OT with all current meteoritic reviews. Is this game that bad? Does it really fumble that dramatically around the half-way point?

Damn, I need some more time to actually play it!
 
As someone who just got through that area, that's a bit of a lie with a bad timed screenshot. It still looks a fair bit like that trailer, but without as smooth a framerate.

cVj5in5.jpg
.

Here's a screen I took during that area. Different location.

That... does not look bad at all and is very close to the reveal.
 
It's truly amazing how ready BRB was to completely abandon the visual history of the Sonic series.

i get the feeling it's kinda like they were encouraged to do crazy stuff and put their own twist on it and then some guy from marketing popped in and went like 'whoa what the hell this is a franchise dude'
 
I watched the 3rd and 4th episodes of Sonic Boom. I will say, episode 3 was pretty good. I liked it. Episode 4...not so much. It was just kind of meh like episode 1 and 2. I still don't like Sonic too much, but now I hate Sticks even more. Also, this show needs to work on lip syncing.
 
i get the feeling it's kinda like they were encouraged to do crazy stuff and put their own twist on it and then some guy from marketing popped in and went like 'whoa what the hell this is a franchise dude'

It's a 20 year difference to be sure, but looking at how this game was built, and then going back and reading up on how Sega of Japan shitcanned any sonic the hedgehog series that wasn't completely in line with SOJ's design docs is pretty amazing.

Sega is a completely different animal from what they were in the past.
 
Almost looks Disneyish. I like it.
That's why it looks bad.
sonic-boom-old-concept.jpg


This is legit cool though.


Outside of robes and costumes I'm against characters having clothes because it then draws attention to the fact that they are naked. Like, Amy has a dress or whatever and that is fine as we never see Amy out of one in any design. Sonic is naked, you give him clothes in one design or as a child self or whatever and then suddenly "grown" sonic is naked. It just gets weird.
Oh god and we don't need a Dark Mysterious Sonic.
Sad times.
 
I heard they were just known as "Fonic" before they started working on this game.
I'm thinking they came in late into development and they tied to port the game to Wii U, seeing as they have cry engine experience.
As someone who just got through that area, that's a bit of a lie with a bad timed screenshot. It still looks a fair bit like that trailer, but without as smooth a framerate.

cVj5in5.jpg
.

Here's a screen I took during that area. Different location.
It's one of the better looking locations, but the problem is that swinging on the enerbeam never looks that good
 
Well i finished the game tonight and the ending sets up for a sequel if sega ever makes one. Thankfully i never ran into any of the glitches people found which probably made my experience alot better than others that played it int he end i actually enjoyed the game. Yea its not the greatest game and its not gonna do well at all and i wont recommend it to anyone but i still had fun with it.
 
Finished it last night as well, i like that they ended the game the same way Reggie ended e3 2012.
The game feels like an above average licensed platformer in it's alpha stage. It feels unfinished, but not a frustrating mess like Sonic 06. I think the gameplay and the game's design is pretty decent and I'm sure kids would really enjoy it if they liked the cartoon. I didn't run into any frustratingly bad glitches, most of them made me chuckle (unlike knuckles).
There are two overworlds which feel incredibly unnecessary. The main island has a completely deserted village (which also feels unfinished) that has like 2 NPCs. If they focused on filling that overworld more and axing the first one then I think it could've benefited greatly from that.
I was disappointed when Knuckles turned out to be the lamest in terms of abilities, but i was ecstatic to find out he can super hop.
The last two stages were pretty neat. Didn't see any major performance issues, they were more challenging, and they looked better (maybe because they were mostly floating platforms instead of a large world).
There are some really awful design choices with how they handle the ring cap (you need to buy the 3DS version to unlock it) and how you do side quest to unlock 1 of 12 ability boosting power ups, but you can only equip one per character making doing these side quest kind of pointless.
The combat could also be a lot better. Maybe being able to use special attack in combination with normal attacks and better dodge moves....also why can't I sprint? Just allow me to move a bit faster by holding a button, that shouldn't be hard to do
It's not the worst game, it's more fun than a lot of games I played this year. ..i wouldn't recommend it to most, but there's fun to be had. Could've been much better especially with how bad it looks 90%of the time and the awful performance, but I don't think it's Sonic 06 bad.
It reminds me a bit of the Lego games with a free roaming camera, just with bad presentation and horribly unpolished. I guess Lego City Undercover comes close to that, but that game is considerably better and it's written better as well.
 
It's one of the better looking locations, but the problem is that swinging on the enerbeam never looks that good

8TErZx1.jpg


The guy who made the meme took the screenshot after the buildings fell. If you want to make the game look bad on purpose, it's not that hard, but that particular meme is a bit bullshit.
 
So...I finally worked up my courage, and purchased Sonic off the ESHOP.

Make that Sonic Lost World. For months, I've been wanting to try it out...that Yoshi Story DLC especially...but couldn't bring myself to do it with the mixed-reception. But honestly, seeing Sonic Boom, I thought, well, it could be worse. About to play it right now...kind of nervous, haha. Hope I enjoy it a decent amount.

So, yeah, like I thought, Sonic Team's plan for Sonic Boom was to make their own games look more attractive, and for me, it worked.
 
So...I finally worked up my courage, and purchased Sonic off the ESHOP.

Make that Sonic Lost World. For months, I've been wanting to try it out...that Yoshi Story DLC especially...but couldn't bring myself to do it with the mixed-reception. But honestly, seeing Sonic Boom, I thought, well, it could be worse. About to play it right now...kind of nervous, haha. Hope I enjoy it a decent amount.

So, yeah, like I thought, Sonic Team's plan for Sonic Boom was to make their own games look more attractive, and for me, it worked.
The patch/DLC helps LW a lot. It looks and runs great, but there's something about the way Sonic jumps that feels awful
 
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