Knuckles – Sonic Boom

Take Knuckles, Sonic’s nemesis and beloved cool guy of gaming. What if Sega made him into an over-buff (but skinny-legged) muscle brain? For as annoying as Sonic’s rework was in Sonic Boom, Knuckles was way more baffling. Even worse is that his character is little more than a “dumb jock,” with oddly intellectual viewpoints in the animated series because it’s randomly funny or something.

Sonic Boom was one of the worst games of last year, and one of the worst games in the Sonic franchises. In a year and a franchise full of terrible games, both of those manage to stand out as impressive feats indeed. Sega revealed later that the game had underperformed at retail too, leading to many to hope that that would be the end of that sorry saga.

It isn’t! Amazingly enough, today we got the announcement for a new Sonic Boom game! Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice has been announced as a follow up, although this one will be releasing exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. The title will continue off of the Cartoon Network series, which Sega notes is successful, and will continue the multiple misguided attempts to shoehorn new elements into the Sonic franchise.

“To create an entirely new experience, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice will infuse fire and ice elements throughout gameplay, enabling new abilities to play out in special character moves and interactions with environments,” Sega said. “The new title also delivers gameplay that enables players to run through the game at top speed, or take their time with deeper exploration and puzzle play.

“New to the title is the introduction of Bot Racing, a supplemental game tied to the single player story with multiplayer gameplay. The new Bot Racing feature is an extension of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice that is purely about racing and speed, where a user will unlock character themed Bots to challenge friends on fast courses or tracks.”

Guys. Stop. Sonic Boom was a bust, give it up. At least try to make a new Sonic game that doesn’t stink of Boom’s failure. Hell, I’d take another Lost World at this point than another Sonic Boom.

Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice releases exclusively on Nintendo 3DS this Fall.

In a year of absolutely broken games, the Wii U stood out like a beacon of shining light on a stormy night, an oasis of games that functioned as advertised in a desert full of ones that… did not.

But that said, the Wii U, too, got its own entrant in the ‘absolutely freaking broken’ category of video games, when Sonic Boom, Sega’s newest attempt at driving their once iconic mascot into the ground, released. Not only was the game riddled with bad game design decisions, it was also full of all manner of glitches and bugs that impeded game progress, and were, honestly, just funny to watch, offering more entertainment value than the game itself ever did.

If you were expecting any of it to actually be fixed… well, actually, you’re in luck, since it appears that at the very least, European owners of the Wii U version of the game were treated to a 1GB patch for the title that… well, okay, Sega failed to tell us exactly what it does, so no one knows, though speculation suggests that the Knuckles infinite jump might have been fixed, and invisible barriers have been put up to prevent extra glitches. In addition to all of that, it appears that there’s also an improved framerate, a better navigation system, and lighting and shadow improvements.

So… I mean, that doesn’t make the game any better or anything, but technically speaking, I guess it does make it more playable.

Sonic Boom, the game I often abuse merely for existing, is the latest let down of good old Sonic The Hedgehog and like most of its recent counter parts (most, not all) it’s really quite dreadful. The frame rate tanks, visually it’s sub-sub par and now there’s a glitch that let’s you skip most of the game.

What makes this glitch awesome is that it’s frighteningly simple and is applicable to any part of the game, oh it’s so good. Jumping and immediately pausing seems to reset the jump, meaning that when you unpause the game you can jump again. Repeat for profit. Normally there’s some kind of barrier or invisible wall, but not here. This allows you to hop clean over the games main obstacles.

This made my day. Gotta go fast everybody. Gotta go fast.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

I thought we were done with this already! Yet it returns to haunt you and I. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has received a TV commercial that is part CG, part live action and all horrible. The premise is this, though fair warning it’s all in the lead up to a joke.

A young girl has unfortunately found out that her cat has got stuck in a tree, obviously rather upset about the problem she totters around feeling useless one would assume. Don’t ask me how, but Sonic and his companions are there, because who needs rationale nowadays.

They proceed to attempt to get the cat out of the tree by way of their unique skills which boil down to inventor, muscles and what I’m going to call stupidity. As you would expect neither are particularly useful and the whole ordeal ends with knuckles uprooting the tree and Sonic dashing to catch the cat before saying, “We’re better at this in our world.”

Now aren’t you glad you wasted 30 seconds of your life?

Sonic Boom is a monstrosity, a sad, sad statement on the modern state of the Sonic franchise. That it is being pitched as one of the tentpole titles for the Wii U (and for Sega) this holiday season, complete with its own brand new TV series and everything, is even sadder.

Each new trailer has made me sadder, once I have gotten over all the cringes that it has induced. This new one, however, I guess, looks tolerable. It’s for both the versions of Sonic Boom, the 3DS one (titled Shattered Crystal) and the Wii U one (Rise of Lyric). It looks… well, if you watch it on mute, and maybe reconcile yourself to the character designs, I guess you could bring yourself to not throw up in revulsion. Maybe, if you looked at it as a fan project made in tribute to Sonic…

Yeah, I don’t know, guys. Just watch it and get it over with.

The new Sonic Boom Trailer has been revealed and its made of nothing but nightmares and horror. This is, for me at least, the final nail in the lid of that oddly shaped hedgehog coffin.

So what are we seeing? This is the tie-in television series for the new spin-off Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, creatively named Sonic Boom. See what they did there? Don’t get me wrong, this is a kids show and this only really exists to sell toys and promote the games.

As a result, you have a random collection of jokes, more than a few which miss their mark. What counts as humour in this? Speaking fast and having the characters close their eyes half way and make some vaguely satirical remark.

Regardless, it will be out on November 8th. What do you think of the above trailer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Today, Sega have announced that they plan to launch Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, which is a frighteningly awful title, for the Nintendo Wii U on November 11th alongside the Nintendo 3DS counterpart, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. That titles not too bad, still fairly generic though.

These two new Sonic the hedgehog adventures are a part if the “Sonic Boom Initiative”, which is PR speak for, these two games are tie in titles that somewhat align with the new Sonic the hedgehog branch-off series that includes television shows, video games and of course, officially licensed merchandise.

For those of you that are still interested in this latest incarnation of the Blue Blur (which looks nothing short of ridiculous now) the two “rich realms of the franchises Wii U and 3DS titles” will come together and be making their way to your screen some time this fall when the new CG animated series debuts on good old Cartoon Network.

I’m not actually sold on Sonic Boom- I was more sold on it at the beginning, and with each new piece of media, I’ve been less and less sold on it- but I guess it’s a thing, and we’re going ahead with it full force, so all aboard?

Anyway, here’s a new trailer that Sega released for it. This one is specifically for the Nintendo 3DS version. Generally speaking about this game, I would advise for you to look past the obnoxious voice acting (which I hate) and the divisive designs for the characters (which I am indifferent on), and just to try and see the game design itself, try to see whether this looks like the kind of platformer you’d be willing to spend some time with.

Sonic Boom will be coming exclusively to Nintendo later this year, with a version each for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. It is the third Nintendo exclusive Sonic game as part of the partnership that Sega and Nintendo announced last year. It will be launching with a new range of Sonic media, which includes and all new TV show.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news.

Sonic Boom is coming out later this year exclusively on Nintendo, along side a new anime designed to reboot the Sonic cross media strategy. The new game is a complete overhaul of the classic character, and, well, your mileage may vary on the game based on all that we have seen of it so far. Personally, I think that it looks like pure tripe- the platforming is banal, and Sonic’s voice acting makes me want to puncture my eardrums, but maybe that’s just me.

You, you can check out the trailer for yourself, and tell us what you think. You may even like it, it takes all kinds, after all. If you do, please, let us know that you did, so I can ensure I never listen to anything that you have to say about games.

Sonic Boom launches in Europe on November 21. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.