Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

[Enesephus]

There have been quite a few negative/mixed impressions already. This one just makes me even more concerned.

I really don't see why it should. He hadn't said anything new about the game that should make you any more concerned than you already are.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

I usually disagree with other people's opinions on Sonic games (and games in general), so I'll probably still like the game.

 

I mean, even if it ends up being the next Sonic 06, I really enjoyed 06, so it wouldn't be a problem. I highly doubt the game will be as bad (to most) as Sonic 06, however.

[anna]

I think a lot of people are just kind of biased about Sonic nowadays. It warped their criticism, and where they do have valid points at times, they're just being way too hard on some things...

[Enesephus]

I honestly don't see where all the Sonic 06 comparisons are coming from. Sonic 06 was a glitchy mess with too many characters, an overly complicated plot that made no sense, a truckload of melodrama, awful voice acting, creepy character models and slippery-as-ice controls. I seriously don't see Boom turning out nearly as bad as 06 did. At all.

[Celestia]

I really don't see why it should. He hadn't said anything new about the game that should make you any more concerned than you already are.

It's the number of people who are voicing the (similar) criticisms that's causing concern, though. Personally, I'd rather just try the game myself once it's out (or perhaps a demo...?). If I'm really concerned, I just rent it for a few days. No big deal, really.

[Dizcrybe]

Bit quick to be off-set by one impression like that.

 

Look, as much I want to believe Boom will succeed, I can't let myself be disappointed like that again. At this point, I have no reason to believe this won't be a repeat of Lost World, with the people who like it (me included) being in a vast minority and always being reminded that they are in a vast minority every time the bloody game comes up in conversation.

 

Yeah... see how bitter I am? I just can't do that to myself again. Not again.

 

EDIT: And this isn't even one impression. Multiple people who have played it said that they didn't like the game.

[danio13]

Something that I came across. Hopefully it's just opinion

 

http://mynintendonews.com/2014/06/22/vgs-says-sonic-boom-is-the-worst-sonic-game-theyve-ever-played/

[Junko]

Something that I came across. Hopefully it's just opinion

 

http://mynintendonews.com/2014/06/22/vgs-says-sonic-boom-is-the-worst-sonic-game-theyve-ever-played/

 

...*cough*

 

MORE IMPRESSIONS

 

and they're um

 

troubling

 

to say the least

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=842078

 

 

Uh...

 

SO YEAH

 

Um...

 

:C

 

Ninja'd by about 14 hours, dude.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

My issues with a number of these is that they tend to go comparing it to a normal sonic game, but also sounds like the issue Skyward Sword had, which is no one is taking the time to adjust and learn the new controls after jumping in and expecting a jump and spindash button, and then say they suck rather than taking the time to see how they actually work

 

my other issue is that they take the early demo as a final product, rather than a small peak at what the full optimized and polished build will be, and taking early levels that are supposed to be on the easier side for the complexity of a whole game

 

I personally am waiting for the full reviews on the final build of the game, and even then I'm keeping an eye out for personal bias or a refusal to learn controls. Fact is as long as a game has solid mechanics that work, and a decent story I'm good, I have an incredible tolerance for a decent adventure game, and currently this looks like the only one the wii-u is getting for a while, and I'm a tad tired of straight platformers

 

so again, its a wait and see from me

[Junko]

On the subject of the demo not being the full game, the NeoGAF review did have this:
 

When I completed my demo I asked one of the reps at BigRedButton if these levels were final and to my horror he acknowledged it with a firm yes.

I corrected his shitty grammar tho.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

On the subject of the demo not being the full game, the NeoGAF review did have this:

 

I corrected his shitty grammar tho.

Ya I saw that too, but that means the over all level design, but not frame-rate, controls, collision physics or hitboxes, those continue to get tweaked till the final version as do the over all mechanics 

 

and its all been stated that these are only parts of the full levels, not the entire level themselves, partially due to plot, and that indicates that some of this may work better in over all context

[Wraith]

You guys also have to keep in mind that this public demo EXISTS to gauge interest in the final game. Most people aren't going to want to "wait and see how it turns out" if the demo is crap and so many other games at E3 are more polished.

[Kuzu]

Also, I kind of get the feeling people are underselling the criticism thrown at this game. The game just might in fact be bad, and if people compared it to the likes of 06, maybe that's something you should consider instead of just blowing it off with "He's just biased against Sonic obviously". Just because you want the game to do good, doesn't it is going to do such.

[Blue Blood]

Also, I kind of get the feeling people are underselling the criticism thrown at this game. The game just might in fact be bad, and if people compared it to the likes of 06, maybe that's something you should consider instead of just blowing it off with "He's just biased against Sonic obviously". Just because you want the game to do good, doesn't it is going to do such.

 

I'm feeling pretty bleh about RoL right now, but it should be obvious that the game is pretty much objectively not as bad as '06. It may well turn out to be a very poor game, but saying it's as bad as '06 is woefully embarrassing hyperbole.

[Kuzu]

I'm feeling pretty bleh about RoL right now, but it should be obvious that the game is pretty much objectively not as bad as '06. It may well turn out to be a very poor game, but saying it's as bad as '06 is woefully embarrassing hyperbole.

 

Objectively obviously it's nowhere near as bad, but subjectively is a different manner which is where I think most of these impressions are coming from. If playing a certain game reminds you of one of the most infamous games in existence, what does that say about this game. 

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

However, Sonic 06 is bad because its nearly unplayable, its plot stinks, the mechanics and collisions are messed up, and a number of major technical issues. Most of what we have seen and heard about ROL makes it at the most mediocre due to being unpolished, and being a relatively basic brawler, however it is playable, you aren't falling through the floor or getting one hit kills

 

Don't read me wrong, I can totally see this coming out as a mediocre platformer, but it looks like the story is going to be well implemented which will make it good in that regards, even if like Secret Rings and Black Knight the mechanics are a tad flawed, at least in this one we won't be breaking our wrists

 

and ya comparing to 06 is extreme hyperbole, its more likely he went in with a high set of standards in comparison, because he was setting the standards by normal 3D sonic games, not this game which is supposed to be something different, and also he said he considered Sonic Spinball the worst, which means he probably looks down on things that change the formula

 

Again, I'm not expecting this to be the pinnacle of sonic games, I'm just looking for a decent length experience I can play with my cousin and my friends, that has a decent story at the least

[Blue Blood]

Objectively obviously it's nowhere near as bad, but subjectively is a different manner which is where I think most of these impressions are coming from. If playing a certain game reminds you of one of the most infamous games in existence, what does that say about this game. 

 

To me it says "I sure want to hate this game because it's not very good and therefore I'm going to make it sound worse than it is by exaggerating to hell and back".

 

Comparing it to the Werehog is perfectly justified, as RoL and the Werehog stages have a lot in common, while everything else strikes me as him either going in with a negative mindset or not understanding the game. For example, nobody else has mentioned problems with Enerbeam or attacks registering, and none of the numerous videos we've seen from E3 indicate anything of the sort either. That preview screams of the guy just going off on one. I'm normally one to get annoyed by people claiming bias against Sonic and what have you because frankly 9 times out of 10 any criticism is perfectly warranted. This though is quite the exception.  I'll put much more weight on the plenty of other negative previews for the game.

 

EDIT: Better clarified things.

[Mauro Fonseca]

People are in some cases banking too much on "BUT IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE SONIC ANYWAYS" to the point where they're accepting flaws that they shouldn't, Sonic or not; Or just a simple kneejerk at seeing something you somewhat like being criticized.

[Wraith]

I'm honestly annoyed that people take every negative impression as "Oh they don't get that it's not supposed to be a regular Sonic game." Like, most of the time this isn't even mentioned. If it was a fun game in it's own right the impressions wouldn't be negative to begin with. Nobody shits on a good Mario spinoff for not being like the main Mario games.

[Kuzu]

And really, if all of these impressions said the game was good but then turned out that it wasn't, we'd all accuse those previewers of "lying" and start shifting the blame to them. If this game ends up being mediocre, which it most likely will be, it at least gives the developers room to improve on a sequel and address these criticisms.

[TearForFear]

 

Sonic Boom needs a lot of work. When I completed my demo I asked one of the reps at BigRedDot if these levels were final and to my horror he acknowledged it with a firm yes.

 

He found the controls utterly bad and broken... but instead of asking if the controls were final, he asked about the levels.

 

You know, controls and levels are not the same thing.

[Narukami07]

Uh...

 

SO YEAH

 

Um...

 

:C

 

Ugh. We're seriously shifting back to the dark times again?? First SLW now this?! 

 

Might as well fucking call them the StH/06 2.0 at this rate (even if i don't despise LW that much). This is unfathomable after coming off of Colors & Generations.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

He found the controls utterly bad and broken... but instead of asking if the controls were final, he asked about the levels.

 

You know, controls and levels are not the same thing.

You know that's an extremely good point, all the issues he points out are related to gameplay mechanics that need refining, but mentions little about the level design itself outside of pacing, and all the pacing issues are connected to gameplay mechanics, here is what I mean 

 

The timing and precision when attacking enemies felt very clunky and some of my attacks barely registered. This also applied to many of the segments that involved jumping. Then came the lasso. Oh, god. Every time your character needs to pull something they would use this energy lasso, which in concept sounds interesting but ends up feeling dull in practice. It’s basically a web shot mechanic we see in Spiderman games except it’s highly broken and requires a lot of effort to get something simple accomplished. For example, when trying to move the box I had trouble trying to get the lasso to register properly and even when it did it required me to keep pressing down on the A button and move in a certain direction. The one before me (who was playing Sonic Boom at the Nintendo booth) gave up entirely because the lasso didn’t work half the time. I only did it because I wanted to see what was at the end of the demo. Turns out it was a mini-boss which can only be defeated using the lasso by throwing enemies at it. The only problem with was the throwing distance felt off. At times the enemies I threw landed close to where they were supposed to causing more frustration.

Those are all gameplay complaints NOT level constraints, and a lot of that just takes more time and refinement, but then he only asks about level design, which again outside of pacing he doesn't mention at all, when all his troubles are with gameplay

evidence 2:

 

This leads to my next biggest problem with my Sonic Boom impression, the pacing. This game is slow. Like, Werehog stages slow, maybe even slower considering the lasso takes forever to get something done. I understand that this is an adventure take on the Sonic universe and I honestly don’t mind that at all. But between the long fights, and moving objects around, it just felt kinda boring. There were diversions that broke up the action. For instance I used the Wii U’s gamepad screen to scan the level for items and then dig them out using Knuckles.

The pacing is all related to combat and enerbeam segments, not the level itself, I mean he mentions almost nothing about the actual platforming segments, and it also sounds like he only played the mine level, or at the very least never mentions the other 3 demo levels

 

Now I admit the gameplay mechanics are the most important part of the game, but it is still in pre-alpha, and all of those issues are related to variables or hit boxes, all of which can be fixed by release

 

This sounds a lot like nit-picking to me, again I agree this game could quite easily turn out mediocre, but then again it could still be a solid experience, but this guy seems a little biased to me

[sonfan1984]

Might as well fucking call them the StH/06 2.0 at this rate (even if i don't despise LW that much). 

 

I know that SLW might be mediocre or dissappointing to people but is it really that bad or offensive to call it the next StH? 

 

Sometimes I think people are looking for a Sonic game to hate more and to call it worse then StH/Sonic2006. Everytime there's a Sonic game somebody hate they always say that it's worse then those two..

[Narukami07]

I know that SLW might be mediocre or dissappointing to people but is it really that bad or offensive to call it the next StH? 

 

....I just don't know. Most likely not.

 

Its just frustrating seeing where Sega direction has been heading recently after creating two of the (subjectively) best 3D Sonic games in a long time.