It really feels like no one has paid much attention to Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal.
The focus was always on Rise of Lyric in the lead-up to their dual release.
That’s understandable since a majority of gamers are more inclined to play the console
version of games that come out on both the Wii U and 3DS.
But ever since I was able to play Shattered Crystal, I had a gut feeling that it was the
one to keep an eye on.
The 3DS version of Sonic Boom is supposed to take place between Rise of Lyric and the
new TV show.
But I have no idea how that works as the game begins with Lyric free yet Sonic has no clue
who the villain is.
At any rate, Lyric kidnaps Amy after he discovers that she’s able to read the Ancient’s
language.
With her, he hopes to find the location of a crystal that will grant unimaginable power.
Sonic begins to gather all of his friends as they set out across several islands in
order to stop Lyric and save Amy.
Shattered Crystal has an even simpler plot than Rise of Lyric with the story being told
through the occasional cutscene and many smaller exchanges.
Those exchanges are mainly there to move the plot from point to point and tell jokes, but
they’re hardly offensive.
However, you cannot skip these scenes or even fast-forward through them at all.
So if you no interest in the plot and just want to get on with the game, you’re out
luck.
But I never really minded it.
In many ways, the tone of the game felt a lot closer to the one in the television show.
Maybe it’s just the presence of the new character, Sticks, but the game carried an
irreverent tone the whole way through.
That includes the ending sequence which is incredibly amusing.
And there’s even a little bit of backstory since the game comes with an exclusive comic
done by the Sonic team at Archie comics that fleshes out what comes before Amy’s kidnapping.
On the whole, it’s simple yet it worked for me.
The gameplay is where the Shattered Crystal stands out though.
There are three types of stages that can be played with the main focus being the Adventure
stages.
In these, you switch between Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks.
While they all have their own unique movesets, they also share the ability to dash, double
jump, homing attack enemies and objects, and use the Enerbeam to cross gaps or get rid
of enemy shields.
It does feel odd to have all of the characters use the homing attack at first, but it actually
helps with switching between them.
As the game progressed, I felt like all of their unique abilities were natural extensions
of Sonic’s basic moves.
And those abilities are necessary in order to explore everything in an Adventure stage.
Sonic can air dash through blocks, Tails can use gusts of wind to glide, Knuckles can dig
through specific patches of dirt, and Sticks can use her boomerang to hit far-off switches.
When Shattered Crystal begins, the early Adventure stages feel like a Metroidvania-styled game.
You don’t have access to everyone yet so not everything can be explored encouraging
players to come back.
However, after the first hour of gameplay, I had access to everyone.
With every Adventure stage after that point, I could easily collect everything in one go
if I desired.
It was honestly strange to see the Metroidvania gameplay dropped so quickly, but it also made
gathering the collectible blueprint pieces and crystal shards that much simpler.
The other two stage types can only be played as Sonic and have a much greater focus on
speed.
Tunnel stages work a lot like special stages from classic Sonic games.
In these, Sonic is constantly running forward and can shift between different lanes that
form a circle.
However, he cannot jump.
The only thing he can do is move left or right, dash to go even faster, or use the Enerbeam
to fly along zip-lines at certain times.
It’s simple, but the difficulty of each of these stages does ramp up, especially if
you attempt to beat the time attack and collect every ring.
Later levels also include more hazards which can make beating these stages all the more
tricky since there are no checkpoints.
If you die, you start again from the beginning.
Fortunately, these levels are short so I never got frustrated.
Finally, there are the racing stages.
In these, you are in a race against another character and must beat them to the finish
line.
Obstacles are constantly in the way, and you lack the ability to interact with your rival
so it’s more about you versus the stage than anything else.
I really enjoyed the few times these stages appeared.
The focus on speed and platforming was pure fun.
It’s just a shame there weren’t more.
But that’s the best thing I can say about Shattered Crystals gameplay.
It feels like a Sonic game with a greater emphasis on exploration.
Characters can all move fast, but Sonic is clearly the fastest.
The game isn’t without its faults though.
The biggest is that it actually requires exploration.
Levels are often locked away until enough emblems are earned.
Most can be collected by simply completing a level, no matter the type.
But these alone are not enough.
Instead, you have to find all of the blueprints and all of the crystal shards in the Adventure
stages to earn two more emblems.
This means that if a player would prefer to just speed through levels as quick as they
can without collecting everything, they can’t.
A total of thirty-three emblems can be collected before the final level.
Thirty are required to access it.
That is way too much.
I understand why this was done though.
The game is quite short.
Collecting every emblem and beating the game only took five hours.
Thankfully, this padding isn’t too bad since the blueprint upgrades you collect are incredibly
useful; some show where more blueprint pieces and crystal shards are while others allow
you to destroy an enemy when yanking off their shield or even the ability to dash through
enemies, immediately destroying them.
By the end, you can revisit the Adventure Stages and just speed through them with ease.
While I wouldn’t call Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal the best looking 3DS game, its graphics
are quite pleasing.
The stage variety is about what you’d expect with a beach level, a volcano level, a factory
level, and a sky level.
It’s nothing mind-blowing, but the basic gameplay is so fun and the level design compliments
it well enough that I enjoyed it.
The music is also pretty good.
There’s nothing especially memorable, but the music did make it feel like I was at the
beach or in a forest.
Sonic Boom on the 3DS is very close to what I was hoping it would be.
It’s a Sonic game that allows players to explore as well as experience a decent amount
of speed.
The game does suffer from being very short and forcing the players to busy themselves
with padding just to beat the game, but that didn’t mar the experience much for me.
I liked Shattered Crystal, and I encourage anyone who enjoyed the demo to give the full
game a shot.
You might be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks for watching and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Sonic and
other things gaming.