Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice

[goku262002]

And confirmed, people are still harassing poor Iizuka.

Yeah I thought the mods warned us not to harass developers or producers again. Blue Parodox wtf man?

[shdowhunt60]

I don't think it's Blue himself, just his sources.

[Tara]

I'm late, but I finally got around to seeing the new gameplay.

 

Looks exactly the same as Shattered Crystal.

 

Granted, I do see that they have done some work to make the game fit more into the atmosphere of a Sonic game, but that really wasn't even a problem with the first game.  I like the music that was on during the demo.  Not sure if it's just music played over the PA or if it's part of the actual game, though.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

No. I'm sorry, but no. Potac and Graff aren't good in the fucking slightest in my opinion. Their jokes are absolutely awful, their stories are cluttered with plotholes, including Lost World, and the characters are almost always grossly out of character. In Lost World and Shattered Crystal especially, Tails acts like a arrogant little brat who's so full of himself that it's frankly annoying, and despite the fact Sonic & Eggman are clearly hating the fact they have to work together, Tails somehow thinks Sonic trusts Eggman more than his best friend?

 

That's not even mentioning the fact that Tails never gets any comeuppance for his attitude throughout the game. He acts like a little shit throughout the entire thing, and yet by the endgame, they treat it as Sonic is in the wrong and Tails is in the right. I've been a Tails fan ever since I got into the series and I fucking despise him in Lost World for how terribly written he is.

 

Then there Knuckles in Shattered Crystal, with utter crap like ''AMY THINKS I'M A PIECE OF MEAT WHICH IS AWESOME!!!!!''. Their jokes are absolutely dreadful, between such shit as ''That was cool, Pun. Totally. Intended.'', and ''Baldy McNosehair''. Because that totally doesn't sound like something a 5 year old would come up with. Oh no. 

 

Anyway. About the gameplay. Meh, looks boring, and almost virtually identical to Shattered Crystal, only with ice and fire blocks now.

[LindseyWalker]

No. I'm sorry, but no. Potac and Graff aren't good in the fucking slightest in my opinion. Their jokes are absolutely awful, their stories are cluttered with plotholes, including Lost World, and the characters are almost always grossly out of character. In Lost World and Shattered Crystal especially, Tails acts like a arrogant little brat who's so full of himself that it's frankly annoying, and despite the fact Sonic & Eggman are clearly hating the fact they have to work together, Tails somehow thinks Sonic trusts Eggman more than his best friend?

 

That's not even mentioning the fact that Tails never gets any comeuppance for his attitude throughout the game. He acts like a little shit throughout the entire thing, and yet by the endgame, they treat it as Sonic is in the wrong and Tails is in the right. I've been a Tails fan ever since I got into the series and I fucking despise him in Lost World for how terribly written he is.

 

Then there Knuckles in Shattered Crystal, with utter crap like ''AMY THINKS I'M A PIECE OF MEAT WHICH IS AWESOME!!!!!''. Their jokes are absolutely dreadful, between such shit as ''That was cool, Pun. Totally. Intended.'', and ''Baldy McNosehair''. Because that totally doesn't sound like something a 5 year old would come up with. Oh no. 

 

Anyway. About the gameplay. Meh, looks boring, and almost virtually identical to Shattered Crystal, only with ice and fire blocks now.

 

Their jokes can be a bit childish, especially in Colors, but they do have some brilliant moments. Nearly all fans agree that the Eggman PA Announcements were really funny in Colors as well as Zor's lines in Lost World. Their most cringey moments were in Colors and a lot of that can be attributed to them being new to the franchise, as well as the franchise trying to make a genuine shift in tone and doing so in a bit of a heavy-handed way. Besides, nothing in their writing is as cringe-inducing as Chip from Unleashed, the 'edge' factor in Shadow the Hedgehog or the 'friendship is magic' lines from Sonic Heroes. Hell, it's even way better than the appalling writing of Sonic Adventure. No one actually converses in that game, they just talk at each other:

 

 

From 1:10 is the best example (the Pool Scene). They literally aren't conversing, no characterisation is happening, they are just talking at each other. It's forgivable because the game is so old, but there's no point pretending that the current writers aren't a hell of a lot better than anything that's come before them as writers. 

 

Also it's ironic that the one characterisation that is actually implied in that scene is that Tails is arrogant in his intellect, 'my plane will run circles around yours', despite you claiming the writers have no clue what they are doing. Still, even if Tails was acting out of character compared to the earlier games, maybe you have to accept that this franchise is not the same as it was when Sonic Adventure launched nearly 20 years ago (with the Megadrive series backing)? Tails has been redefined as a character, along with virtually every Sonic character in the series, it's really not that unusual. 

 

The whole Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal writing is to keep consistency with the show, you might not like it, but it's their job to make sure their writing accurately reflects the show. If you don't like the writing in Sonic Boom that's more of a Director complaint than a Writer one.

 

Writing has never been a strong point in the Franchise, I don't particularly think it's a very pressing issue either.

[SSF1991]

I remember how much people praised the writing in Colors back in 2010/2011. Some even saying it was the best in years.

 

Then again I also remember how much people loved Unleashed despite the Werehog and loved both Adventure games...

[shdowhunt60]

Their jokes are absolutely awful, their stories are cluttered with plotholes

[Diogenes]

They didn't "go nowhere". They were just short sequences. The first was to inform/remind players about Tails' skill with machines, since they're an important part of the story, the second was the payoff for them, having Tails get himself out of a jam and help chase off the Zeti by using those skills.

There are definitely other ways they could've gone with the cyborg Tails thing, and surely some of them could've been more interesting, but it still served a purpose.

[shdowhunt60]

They didn't "go nowhere". They were just short sequences. The first was to inform/remind players about Tails' skill with machines, since they're an important part of the story, the second was the payoff for them, having Tails get himself out of a jam and help chase off the Zeti by using those skills.

There are definitely other ways they could've gone with the cyborg Tails thing, and surely some of them could've been more interesting, but it still served a purpose.

[SSF1991]

I'm more so surprised that the Tornado part was supposed to be a sub-plot. And that we absolutely had to see it get fixed despite this happening before (*coughSonic2cough*).

[shdowhunt60]

I'm more so surprised that the Tornado part was supposed to be a sub-plot. And that we absolutely had to see it get fixed despite this happening before (*coughSonic2cough*).

It is a subplot though. And it's a pretty clear example of how disjointed Lost World's narrative is. Why don't they use the Tornado afterwords? If it was so important to show us it getting fixed, why not do something with it?

To me, there's two logical ways this scene could've played out. Option 1 is that Tails fixes the plane, and he and Sonic continue their adventure in the plane. But this would contradict the rest of the game, as the rest of it have Sonic and Tails on foot.

Option 2, is that the Tails can't fix the Tornado. This flows well with the rest of the game and story, but at the risk of making Tails seem inept... Which would honestly actually play better into the whole "Sonic and Tails don't trust each other" story, by giving it an initial catalyst.

But we don't get either, and instead the writers try to have their cake and eat it by having super genius Tails fix the plane and do nothing with it.

[Diogenes]

Kind of hard to save small animals on the ground while you're in a plane.

Seriously how is this even something to get worked up over.

[SSF1991]

Agreed. Compared to other aspects of Lost World's story this is nothing.

[Rad Dudesman]

The only major 2 major problems I had with Lost World's plot were:

 

1. Tails suddenly being mad at Sonic for teaming up with Eggman against a greater threat when he's been fine with it before.

2. The D6 don't get enough screentime or interaction with each other to really leave much of an impression. A few had something that could be built upon, like Zavok's genuine respect for his master, and Zomom's self-esteem issues that stem from his mother calling from a failure, but they simply don't get enough screentime or dialogue, aside from their in-level taunts that you can barely hear.

 

If they had cut out the pointless "Tails gets mad at Sonic for trusting Eggman" subplot that goes nowhere, and fleshed out the D6 a bit more by giving them more interactions with each other, it'd be better.

[Diogenes]

If they had cut out the pointless "Tails gets mad at Sonic for trusting Eggman" subplot that goes nowhere,

That's...that's practically the whole point of the game...

[shdowhunt60]

Agreed. Compared to other aspects of Lost World's story this is nothing.

Because it does tie into one problem that Lost World has, and that's events don't logically follow up on each other. Like, Tails' accusation that Sonic trusted Eggman more than him, would've been less jarring if it was following up on an event that would give him some credibility to his claim. Like, House of Cards, for all of it's shittiness, had legitimate reasons for Tails to get angry, because Sonic was, quite frankly, being a collosal dick towards him.

[SSF1991]

Tails' plane is not really a good example, though.

[shdowhunt60]

Tails' plane is not really a good example, though.

 

How isn't it? It's a pretty cut and clear example of a plot thread not going anywhere.

[Stritix]

At least Amy is playable this time. That's something I guess.

[Alienrun]

Tails suddenly being mad at Sonic for teaming up with Eggman against a greater threat when he's been fine with it before.

 

"fine with it before"? This is the first time Sonic teams up with Eggman! (Tornado 1 comes before Tornado 2)

[SSF1991]

Sonic Adventure 2? They team up there. Then again so does Knuckles and Rouge.

[Forte-Metallix]

Heroes, Shadow, Advance 3, Riders, the list goes on and on.

 

 

Just because Tails used the Tornado 1 in Lost World doesn't mean it took place before Adventure.

[Celestia]

How isn't it? It's a pretty cut and clear example of a plot thread not going anywhere.

[Alienrun]

Heroes, Shadow, Advance 3, Riders, the list goes on and on.

 

 

Just because Tails used the Tornado 1 in Lost World doesn't mean it took place before Adventure.

[Tara]

I'm more interested to know why people are trying to argue continuity from the Adventure era for something released in 2013.  Generations notwithstanding, the characters really aren't the same characters as they were from 1999 to 2003, and the games are developed by a different team now to boot.  I've always considered every Sonic to have a standalone, self-contained story, despite previous attempts at establishing a continuity of sorts.  The most fruitful discussions on Sonic canon have always been hypothetical if anything.