When Sonic Boom was first announced, it was met with immediate skepticism.
Every character was redesigned and the gameplay that fans were so familiar with looked radically
different.
For my own part, I was willing to accept the new designs mainly because they seemed to
emphasize aspects of each ones personality.
But I couldn’t get a feel for the gameplay, not even when I was able to try the demo at
E3.
Having now played and beaten Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, I have a much better grasp of it
all.
I’m just not sure this is the direction Sonic should be taken.
Rise of Lyric is meant to serve as a prequel to the new Sonic Boom television series.
And after watching the premiere of that show, I’m not convinced it does a good job.
These are new interpretations of these characters, meant to bring in new fans.
So why is nothing explained at all?
The story begins with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy chasing after Dr. Eggman.
He has revived ancient robots and uses both them and Metal Sonic to overwhelm the team.
While taking refuge in a sealed tomb, Sonic accidentally awakens Lyric, a giant snake
obsessed with getting rid of all organic life and replacing it with technology.
It’s an effective enough plot if you’re already familiar with the characters and setting,
but the game does nothing to introduce to them.
The group reacts to many of the places they visit as if they’ve never seen it before
some of time while others it’s like they’ve lived here for years.
And that’s not even mentioning Shadow and Metal Sonic who get no backstory whatsoever.
Shadow just appears and declares Sonic too weak to handle things so it’s obvious that
they know each other from before, but how in this new universe.
The story can be fun in parts, but it left me confused so often that I couldn’t get
fully into it.
But Sonic has never been one for great plots.
Modern Sonic is all about the one-liners and gameplay.
Nail those and most gamers will be happy with the results.
The problem with Sonic Boom is that it really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game.
You have full control over the main four that you can swap between at any point save moments
where they split off into pairs of two.
Each has a particular strength that helps them through platforming challenges.
Sonic can spin dash up ramps and use his homing attack to cross pits, Tails can use gusts
of wind to fly to higher platforms or simply glide, Knuckles can climb specific walls,
and Amy can run along rails.
Simply looking at what each of them can do, it’d be easy to think that a pretty good
Sonic game could be made.
But it’s bogged down with some very questionable design choices.
The biggest being that almost half of the gameplay is centered around fighting enemies.
That’s fine in and of itself since each character also has their own method of fighting.
Sonic hits enemies quickly, Tails can throw bombs, Knuckles gets in close for heavy damage,
and Amy can easily hit groups of enemies.
The problem is that there are only so many moves you can perform with each character.
It doesn’t change as you progress.
So the tactics I used at the beginning of the game were just as viable at the end.
The game does try to mix things up with the new Enerbeam.
This laser lasso allows you to swing from ziplines, solve puzzles, and grab enemies.
It’s well integrated into the game, but it never outright impressed me.
Its best use was always grabbing enemies and throwing them off platforms to destroy them
quickly.
This is a Sonic game though so a certain amount of speed is expected.
There just isn’t much of it.
Normally, Sonic and his friends do a light jog through the environments meaning that
some of the bigger areas can take a while to traverse.
Since there’s no run button, I took to using Sonic’s limited spin dash to try to go a
little faster.
The only time the characters actually do move fast is during specific running sections.
And unfortunately, I just couldn’t get invested.
Over the years, I’ve heard many complaints that Sonic is just boost to win.
Keep moving forward and the game will sort itself out.
I’ve never really believed that statement, but it could truly apply to these sections.
Sonic is constantly running forward on track during these though it is possible at points
to slow him down or speed him up.
All the player has to do is avoid obstacles by taking one of three lanes or jumping over
them if the entire track is blocked.
Very little other input is necessary from the player.
There are alternate paths that can be taken thanks to bounce pads or zip-lines, but they
don’t do much to enhance the fun.
There aren’t even any enemies to be found in these sections.
The only thing I would do is dodge when I had and try to grab any collectibles on the
way.
So it doesn’t really feel like a Sonic game.
And that’s ok.
This is a new take on the franchise so change is to be expected.
How does it play as just an average platformer?
Well, that’s the problem.
It’s an average platformer.
It doesn’t do anything especially remarkable and just feels like the game is going through
the motions.
There’s no spark of inspiration here like I feel when I play Sly Cooper or Ratchet & Clank
or Jak & Daxter.
And that last one is what Sonic Boom feels the most like.
It’s all about exploring this world, talking to NPCs for side-quests, and doing some extremely
simple platforming.
Sonic Boom is also not a very good looking game.
The character models, especially for the NPCs, can look really rough.
And the lip syncing doesn’t always match.
Some of the level designs can be a little creative, but on the whole, there’s nothing
new here.
It just comes across as unpolished.
Likewise, the music is downright anemic.
Most of the tracks attempt to be sweeping scores that help show the size of the world,
but a lot of time, the music doesn’t match what’s happening on-screen.
There’s a complete disconnect between them in many cases.
I can barely recall any song except for the main title theme.
And that’s nearly a sin when it comes to Sonic games.
The huge bright spot of Rise of Lyric though is the characters.
The NPCs don’t leave an impact at all but Sonic, his friends, and Eggman get some truly
great one-liners in.
The jokes come flying pretty rapidly and many are based around what’s actually going on
in the level so they never become repetitious or old.
Not all of them are winners of course, but I got a laugh out of them more often than
not.
The only annoying dialog happens with the lines that are meant to guide the player.
But the real problem with Sonic Boom is that it’s just not polished.
Glitches, frame-rate issues, and pop-in abound.
The controls are sluggish and events don’t always trigger at the right time.
It can certainly have even worse problems if someone goes out of their way to break
the game.
It wouldn’t be that hard.
But I made sure not to.
Because, at the end of the day, this is a game made for kids.
It’s not difficult at all and the average player can beat in around ten hours.
There are multiplayer options both cooperatively during the story mode and competitively in
mini-games.
However, I was not able to try either of those in time for review so they have not been taken
into account.
I have a difficult time recommending Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric to long-time fans of the
series.
I’ve enjoyed Sonic for a long time and he doesn’t need to be all about speed.
Exploration does have its place in these games.
But Rise of Lyric tilts it too far in that direction, and it became a slow, average platformer
with the Sonic name slapped on top it.
I don’t hate the game.
It just left me feeling overwhelmingly meh.
Some fans could find enjoyment in aspects of the game, but there’s nothing remarkable
to recommend here.
Thanks for watching and be sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Sonic and other
things gaming.