Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

[Agent Gibbs]

I tried the 3DS demo last night.....one level and i was bored after the first 30 seconds, clunky controls, slow characters and zoomed in far too much

[Cube]

Are you actually suggesting that you enjoyed Lost World better than Mario Galaxy?

 

As decent as Lost World is, that's a pretty bold claim.

 

Yes.

 

I'm not saying that it's a better game (it's obviously not), but I did enjoy Lost World more.

[Glen-i]

Fair enough, as long as that's clear.

[f00had]

The pointer controls in Mario Galaxy really do my head in, I can't play the game because of those lol. I'm too lazy to point at the TV to shoot stuff. As for Sonic Lost World it's a fun game but lacks any sense of speed or momentum, here's hoping they go back to the Unleashed/Generations engine for their next title.

 

I was really hoping perhaps Sonic Boom could be good but it's just terrible, no wonder these guys are ex-Naughty Dog developers. I'm not a fan of the character designs, especially for the new characters the boomerang girl and the snake villain and the gameplay vids I've seen have just been terrible. Painfully slow adventuring sections that make the werewolf from Unleashed look like God of War interspersed with speed sections that are outdone by Sonic Dash, a free mobile game.

 

I hope Sonic Team announces a proper Sonic game soon.

[Cube]

I was really hoping perhaps Sonic Boom could be good but it's just terrible, no wonder these guys are ex-Naughty Dog developers.

 

I'm pretty sure the only ex-Naughty Dog developer was an artist.

[flameboy]

Sonic Boom may be a disappointing new low for the franchise

 

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/12/7211819/sonic-boom-disappointing-overview-video

 

At this point I feel like I'll perpetually be replaying the original mega drive trilogy (classing Sonic 3+ Knuckles as one) for a great sonic experience.

 

Also....It's already been speed runned in less than an hour....

 

http://www.twitch.tv/parax0/c/5484942

 

I'd be interested to see how well this sales given it's links to a new cartoon etc...

Edited November 13, 2014 by flameboy

[Happenstance]

[Cube]

There are very few things worse than Sonic 2006.

 

That comic is one of those things.

[Emerald Emblem]

Guess I'll loot this game out of the bargain bin if I pick it up at all. From the sounds of it, it gives Sonic 06 a run for it's money as worst Sonic game ever made. Another case of rushing a game out to meet the holiday deadline before the game can be finished and polished.

[Aneres11]

I really don't understand what they're doing with Sonic.

 

They looked to finally be getting their act together with Colours (even though I didn't like that, but have often been shot down for saying that by some who loved it ) and Generations which I personally thought was a bit of a highlight. The day stages of Unleashed still, imo, remain the best Sonic gameplay since the Mega Drive games. And Generations took that a bit further and mixed it with great 2d stages to deliver a very solid game.

 

And now this. I mean what the actual fuck. Who gave this the ok? The only worrying thing, is the possibility of this ending up being a decent seller at christmas which would be so frustrating for those of us who actually want a decent sonic game and not one that's just churned out for the dollar.

[Ronnie]

The day stages of Unleashed were great yeah but the trouble is making a 5-10 hour game out of just that would be a hell of a lot of work I'd imagine.

[Dcubed]

Well this explains a lot...

 

http://www.tssznews.com/2014/11/15/reports-suggest-brb-exodus-ahead-of-sonic-boom-launch/

 

Apparently, a large chunk of staff left Big Red Button during the game's development (seemingly voluntary, a lot weren't happy with how the project was being handled and how it was progressing).

 

A shame really. As sad as the whole thing looked and turned out to be, that's the nature of licenced games I guess. I'm sure the staff went in with the best intentions, but licenced games just don't get the budget and care they need to be good because they are ancillary products, designed to sell a wider brand.

 

Good licenced games are incredibly rare and I don't really blame the staff involved really

[Hero-of-Time]

Well this explains a lot...

 

http://www.tssznews.com/2014/11/15/reports-suggest-brb-exodus-ahead-of-sonic-boom-launch/

 

Apparently, a large chunk of staff left Big Red Button during the game's development (seemingly voluntary, a lot weren't happy with how the project was being handled and how it was progressing).

 

A shame really. As sad as the whole thing looked and turned out to be, that's the nature of licenced games I guess. I'm sure the staff went in with the best intentions, but licenced games just don't get the budget and care they need to be good because they are ancillary products, designed to sell a wider brand.

 

Good licenced games are incredibly rare and I don't really blame the staff involved really

 

Bring back the NES/SNES era! Licensed games were generally quite good back then, especially Capcoms Disney output. Those were the days.

[Dcubed]

Bring back the NES/SNES era! Licensed games were generally quite good back then, especially Capcoms Disney output. Those were the days.

 

Yeah, it's a shame. Different times, different development requirements though. Back then, you could make a great retail scope game on a shoestring budget with just a handful of staff.

 

Nowadays? Not a chance. The game is just too ambitious for the kind of licenced game budget/timeframe it had.

 

Platinum's Legend of Korra game turned out alright though. Tiny budget, but they smartly focused on trimming all of the fat they could and just worked on making a solid core combat system within the limited budget/dev time they had.

 

SEGA were asking for too much here, but they were probably under their own constraints too (desperate to get out of making big budget console titles for the most part, stuck in an exclusivity contract etc). Just a bad situation all round, with a lot of good intentions and misguided desire along the way.

[Wii]

The Wii U finally has another third party exclusive and it's certainly that, a Turd. One of the last third party games and it's a disgraceful sign off.

 

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2014/11/14/sonic-boom-the-rise-of-lyric-review 43%

 

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/sonic-boom-rise-of-lyric-review/1900-6415956/ 20%

 

Thanks for nothing SEGA. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[Zechs Merquise]

The Wii U finally has another third party exclusive and it's certainly that, a Turd.

 

This sentence makes no sense. Are you attempting to imply third party exclusives are 'turds'. Also, as it is a 3D Sonic game, it is hardly a shock that it isn't very good.

[Wii]

This sentence makes no sense. Are you attempting to imply third party exclusives are 'turds'. Also, as it is a 3D Sonic game, it is hardly a shock that it isn't very good.

 

Obviously not. Just this one. The more exclusives the better but thy need to be quality.

[Wii]

Sonic Gloom: How Invention Killed A Hedgehog (The Jimquisition)

 

[Dcubed]

Sonic Gloom: How Invention Killed A Hedgehog (The Jimquisition)

 

 

Once again, Jim is right on point here... for the most part...

 

He says that they haven't ever stopped to build upon what they have made before... But that's exactly what they did with the modern Sonic sections of Generations - they're basically new Sonic Unleashed daytime levels with a few new tricks thrown in for good measure (though the Classic Sonic parts do sort of fit in with what he's saying), while Sonic Colours is clearly based off of Sonic Unleashed's gameplay, but does go a bit crazy in adding new stuff on top of that. So again, Jim is sort of right, but not completely here... They have had a base that they've worked on top of since Unleashed, but they've constantly kept throwing new shit left and right alongside it to see what sticks.

 

That being said, he's absolutely right when he says that they should just stop and build off of Lost World. There's a great foundation that they've already laid down here! It's by far, the best set of core gameplay mechanics that they've ever had in a Sonic game since the original MD trilogy! They just need to sit down, refine them and fix the obvious flaws (simplify the controls a bit, probably do away with the Wisp powers and oh god please fix the player guidance/signposting issues with SLW! That's the game's number 1 problem; the core gameplay is really fun and there's a great set of mechanics used throughout, but they're just taught incredibly badly to the player - to the point where they just don't know how they even work!) and they'd have something really special on their hands!

Edited November 25, 2014 by Dcubed

[Wii]

A couple of other things they could do is stop prostituting the franchise out to external developers and stop rushing the games out to meet certain deadlines. I think Sonic Boom was doomed from the get go but other games could have been better if they'd more time in development. Dimps were involved in the day time levels of Unleashed, widely regarded as the best aspect of that game. They were then hired to do all of Sonic Colours. Again, a very good game though Jim doesn't like it. What happened after that? And there should be some input from Sonic Team. There was none in Sonic Boom as far as I know. With so much chopping and changing they'll never have a base for a AAA Sonic game. The comparison with Nintendo was very apt.

[Cube]

I don't think that's the issue. Nintendo does the same thing with Mario games.

[f00had]

A couple of other things they could do is stop prostituting the franchise out to external developers and stop rushing the games out to meet certain deadlines. I think Sonic Boom was doomed from the get go but other games could have been better if they'd more time in development. Dimps were involved in the day time levels of Unleashed, widely regarded as the best aspect of that game. They were then hired to do all of Sonic Colours. Again, a very good game though Jim doesn't like it. What happened after that? And there should be some input from Sonic Team. There was none in Sonic Boom as far as I know. With so much chopping and changing they'll never have a base for a AAA Sonic game. The comparison with Nintendo was very apt.

 

Actually Dimps just did the Wii/PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed which are pretty naff compared to the 360/PS3 versions. I think the real problem here is not giving teams enough time to make the games, Sonic Team themselves now try to spend 2 years making a game but then expect other people to rush out a game in 1 year.

[Zechs Merquise]

The problems with the Sonic games when they transitioned into 3D boil down largely to the controls and the camera.

 

Sonic was always about moving at speed and making quick and accurate movements. However every 3D Sonic game I've played has horribly floaty controls which just don't seem tight or responsive enough.

 

Coupled with a camera which is at best decent and at worst schizophrenic, and you have a real combination of game ruining problems.

 

Even in the better 3D Sonic games like Colours, the camera can just spin into a new position or take a new angle and throw you off completely.

 

Then the core issues seem to be neglected every game in favour of crap such as:

 

- New characters who are always crap

- New gameplay gimmicks - which are always out of place and/or crap and you wonder why they are working on a gimmick when they haven't got the core gameplay sorted

- New story gimmicks - Sonic and the Black Knight, what the hell? A Werehog??? Lyric?? That has to be the worst name for a villain.

 

But it's not like Sonic is the only SEGA franchise that has gone to shit since they've stopped producing hardware.

[Wii]

This game has received a 1030MB update. It's now running at version 1.1.0 and it's only available in Europe so far. No word yet on what it does but an update that size must be bringing some major changes you'd imagine.

 

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=972299

[Wii]

Rise of Lyric Unofficial Patch Notes

 

Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric has been patched in the EU, it’s over 1GB in size and contains a number of fixes. The patch is not live in the US and neither Sega or Big Red Button have released patch notes. Well that’s not going to stop us from trying to figure out what the patch does.

 

Based on reports from many sites around the world, here are a list of reported changes caused by the new patch. So if you haven’t yet installed the patch, you can decide now if you want to update or not, why do I say that? Well the patch changes one of the most notorious aspects of the game which some may not like.

 

So without further ado, here are a list of all the changes noticed so far.

 

Size: 1GB (1080MB)

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Knuckles Infinite Jump fixed

 

Some level barriers added to prevent the player from escaping the map. The most notorious example…

 

 

This is reported to no longer work, an invisible barrier prevents the player from escaping.

 

Additions:

 

Navigation arrows “Small yellow arrows added which show you where to go” (They were in the original, but they now have some issues).

 

Improvements:

 

Improved Framerate during speed sections

 

Loops are ‘less choppy’

 

Minor lighting improvements

 

Improved shadows.

 

Problems with the Patch:

 

The Navigation arrows can’t be turned off(?) Correction, they can be turned off using the analogue sticks.

 

The navigation arrows tell you where to go, but you can still miss vital items which you need for when you get to the location. So you can follow the arrows and still become stuck not knowing what to do.

 

That’s all the notes for now, if Sega release some official ones or if new changes are discovered we’ll let you know.

 

http://www.sonicstadium.org/2015/01/rise-of-lyric-unofficial-patch-notes/