Sonic Boom

[miru]

How about the constant annoying dialogue (and monologues) that occurs throughout gameplay? That they can't even get the timing right on? Some of the lines are clearly too long for the situation that triggers them, making it so the voices can't keep up with the game. Inappropriate banter, such as "yay, more rings!" when the game maxes out rings at 100 and you already have 100. Miscued hint lines, such as "I bet I can break this wall", after you've already broken one of them. Your character chiming in each individual time when you have to do an identical task multiple times (hitting the switches that divert the beams that open the door). That's on top of such hints being unnecessary to begin with and overly hand-holding.

Aside from that, the level design is blasé at best from what I've seen, and the character design remains awful of course. The music made zero impression on me, and that's generally been a strong suit of the Sonic series. You switch between characters, but the differentiation between them doesn't seem very important; Sonic Heroes did that better, and that's not really a favorite of mine.



Of course Sonic sells to adults. Sonic 4, Sonic Generations, and various rereleases such as Sonic Classic Collection and Sonic CD are aimed more at an older audience. Sonic Boom is explicitly aimed more at a younger audience. Colors and Lost World are in between, aimed at both adults and children.

Platformers are almost never dark and gritty, violent, sexually suggestive, adults-only affairs. But adults still play them. Mario too. And Sly Cooper, Ratchet & Clank, DK Country... even Kirby. The genre has certainly declined from its peak in terms of commercial importance, but its audience isn't overwhelmingly kids. Except for licensed tie-ins. And on that note, perhaps we should be thinking of Sonic Boom more as a game based on a cartoon, and not so much as a Sonic game.

Lost World was clearly aimed at kids. Just look at some of the nonsensical levels and mediocre writing.

[j_factor]

So much about the speech... that's not gameplay, what matters the most in a game is the actual game!

Unless they're optional, the voices are as much a part of the game as anything else.

Yeah, I think it'd be fair to say that this game is more kid-focused than most Sonic games. It sure seems to be that. However, children are absolutely always Sonic's target market.

I don't think children care about the history of games from the early 90s. Sonic the Hedgehog 4, with that title (20 years after Sonic 3), and the game being an attempt at a more modern version of the classic gameplay, featuring Sonic only, and re-releasing Sonic CD as a sort of prologue -- all of that was clearly not targeting children. The whole concept of Sonic Generations, revisiting settings from past Sonic games and featuring both "classic" and "modern" Sonic -- that was made to appeal to people who have been playing Sonic for years, it doesn't translate as well for kids.

Lost World was clearly aimed at kids. Just look at some of the nonsensical levels and mediocre writing.

I haven't played Lost World, so I could be wrong on that one. I didn't get that impression from what little I've seen of it.

[SperglordLava]

Lost World was clearly aimed at kids. Just look at some of the nonsensical levels and mediocre writing.

Also, just because a game is aimed at kids doesn't give it an excuse to be bad. "Oh all kids are retards, right? So they must not care whether or not the game sucks." I'm pretty sure Sonic should be for all age groups anyway, not just kids. The only Sonic games that were "just for kids" were educational games like Sonic's Schoolhouse or that Sonic X Leapfrog game. Just because the only people who happen to like the terrible new games aside from 23 year-old manchildren with asperger's syndrome are stupid 9 year-old's, doesn't mean the entire game series is only for kids. The majority of the people who enjoy sub-par titles like Sonic Colours, Sonic Genergaytions, Sonic Lost Cause, and Sonic Buum happen to be young kids because yeah, they can't tell that the games suck, and probably haven't even touched the original line of Sonic games.

[Kogen]

Sonic is only still popular because Sega is successful at getting children interested in Sonic, after all! If the series had few new young fans coming in, it wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is.

So like every other video game series.

Sonic is a video game, everyone.

[Kogen]

I haven't played Lost World, so I could be wrong on that one. I didn't get that impression from what little I've seen of it.

The Nintendo games are aimed at '8 - 11' years olds if I recall right. I think some like the story book ones were aimed at 6 year olds. Specifically SEGA tells Sonic Team to 'copy Mario Galaxy' because of the Olympic games, they want to leach in on the Mario fanbase.

[miru]

Also, just because a game is aimed at kids doesn't give it an excuse to be bad. "Oh all kids are retards, right? So they must not care whether or not the game sucks." I'm pretty sure Sonic should be for all age groups anyway, not just kids. The only Sonic games that were "just for kids" were educational games like Sonic's Schoolhouse or that Sonic X Leapfrog game. Just because the only people who happen to like the terrible new games aside from 23 year-old manchildren with asperger's syndrome are stupid 9 year-old's, doesn't mean the entire game series is only for kids. The majority of the people who enjoy sub-par titles like Sonic Colours, Sonic Genergaytions, Sonic Lost Cause, and Sonic Buum happen to be young kids because yeah, they can't tell that the games suck, and probably haven't even touched the original line of Sonic games.

Yeah, Mr. Enter is totally right about that. You can't pander to kids, or the results are only misery. Even earlier, Walt Disney himself said "You're dead if you aim only at kids. Adults are just kids grown up, anyway." At least Gens had one redeeming factor in the modability of the game... Lost Balls and onwards have nought.

[KnightWarrior]

My nephew played the Demo on the 3DS, He said Sonic is slow in the game

[Phexar]

Another dev made a post on Neogaf with their thoughts on it, saying the departures seemed normal enough for a project and that CryEngine doesn't really work for third-person platformers:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...9&postcount=17

There was a fair amount of staff turmoil on this project, but I don’t think moreso than the usual project.

The single decision that put this game on this path was going with CryEngine. It’s just not ready for a third person platformer, so they were fighting against the engine the entire time.

And the game went Gold in July, which is why people started leaving around then. Many of them layoffs.

[SperglordLava]

My nephew played the Demo on the 3DS, He said Sonic is slow in the game

Autistic people only want Sonic to go fast. That's why modern fans hate games like 3D Blast. "Where's the boost button?" "Where's the homing attack?"

[j_factor]

The game went gold in July?

[miru]

For all the bad Boom was, it could have been much worse:

Attachment 9703

Attachment 9704

So much worse.

[SperglordLava]

For all the bad Boom was, it could have been much worse:

Attachment 9703

Attachment 9704

So much worse.

"Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

[Thunderblaze16]

"Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

BALLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[GriskaGyoran]

*pops cigarette in mouth and stares off into the distance*

I saw it. Cartoon Network's advertisement for Sonic Boom. It is something I don't want to exist. And Jaleel White doesn't even do the voice of Sonic.

[Kogen]

Autistic people only want Sonic to go fast. That's why modern fans hate games like 3D Blast. "Where's the boost button?" "Where's the homing attack?"

3D Blast created the homing attack.

"Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

Those are Sonic 06 assets doing what they do best.

BALLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Ban the file attachment button.