Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

47 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Yeah, Shattered Crystal did this too.  You take damage of course, but it's actually kind of a sensible design decision.  I mean due to the nature of Sonic's health system we've all done the thing where you hop along a long hazardous area repeatedly getting hit and recollecting a single ring until you're safe.  It's not difficult to do at all so you may as well skip over it and give the player the satisfaction of trying again properly instead of abandoning the intended platforming action after their first failure and hobbling their way along to the end (possibly just to discover that the platforming they failed is the only way to reach the other side due to a high ledge etc).

B-but I feel strangely cool when I do that ;-; It's like "aw yeah I'm Sonic nothing can stop me I'll just walk over the lava (or whatever)"! You can't take this crucial gameplay element out!

...Anyway, I don't own a 3DS so I've never played Shattered Crystal and it's highly unlikely I'll be playing this, but at any rate, the gameplay looks OK in general but I agree that there's something about the physics that feels a little floaty and off. The fire and ice mechanic actually has potential, but I'm a little disappointed that the ice blocks are specifically labeled with fire and ice symbols to tell you what to do, similar to what Sonic Heroes did with the different formations, which is NOT a good thing IMO. At least there might still be a bit of interest/challenge to it, I noticed that during the boss the guy made the mistake of freezing the ice blocks before he should have, so I guess it's not always completely self-explanatory.

[Tails spin]

The boss battle confused me at first when sonic and amy where switching I didnt see amy on the screen until a little bit later in the fight.

Was I mistaken or was it originally planned that only sonic would fight the bosses. The level itself is not bad to me. Ususally in SC I tried to avoid the dash pad so i had some control in the auto speed section.

I still think I will enjoy the game

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think the Sonic-only thing was a rumor from the start, but I never really payed attention to it anyway.

[FriendBot]

 

@Jason the Jackass had a short interview with your ol' buddy Aaron, suffice to say nothing really new has been said that we haven't already know at this point. Alo this was recorded before the SEGA Central livestream, if it wasn't obvious.

[Tails spin]

I'm kind of sad that out of nine playable levels we only saw one and a boss battle. Granted I dont want to be spoiled on all of them. But it would have been nice to see one more like a tunnel level or the tails mini game

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Still, assuming "demo" still means "a small taste of the game compared to the full product", having nine levels of this length be only a fraction of the full game means we're actually getting a pretty fuckin' meaty Sonic game here.

[FriendBot]

We got some more first impressions for Fire & Ice and yet again, it's fairly positive!

http://www.gambitmag.com/2016/06/sonic-boom-fire-ice-e3-impressions/

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/06/16/e3-2016-sonic-boom-fire-and-ice-looks-to-return-series-to-speedy-roots

I've gotta say things might actually go pretty well for the Boom games from the looks of things.

But this surprised me from IGN's article.

Quote

But Sanzaru isn’t losing sight of the fanbase built up by the new games or the cartoon. Players will unlock concept art from the show, and the cartoon’s writers contributed to the game as well, ensuring the DNA of the series isn’t lost in translation.

So Freiberger and the writers for the show helped out Pontaff with the story this time from what it looks like.

[Salamander]

These impressions and the Sonic Stadium write-up on the homepage are actually making the game sound quite good.  My main quibble so far is the report that instant character-switching on the D-pad now brings up a menu you have to toggle through rather than each direction being tied to a character.  The thing is, while there are five characters, the fact that you play as one of them means there will always be only four others to choose from; you'd have thought they could've sorted something out there, like Sonic is the default and when you switch to someone else Sonic takes their D-pad position, or something.

[FriendBot]

And speaking of TSS's write-up on the game, Burnbot is apparently one of the robots you can use for the races. 

Also there's a stream with an interview with Webber and Austin Keys (that one guy Mike clapped for during the SXSW panel because no one knew the guy, Mike's such a good guy) talking about Fire & Ice.

https://www.twitch.tv/shacknews/v/72798045

Ok, there was some footage of the the Worm Tunnel like stages in that interview and holy crap, THAT WAS FAST! Wait, nevermind. That gameplay was just sped up.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Two previews of the game.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2016/06/e3-2016-sonic-boom-fire-ice-preview-alexs-take/

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2016/06/e3-2016sonic-boom-fire-and-ice-preview-jasons-take/

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Wow, and both are positive. Maybe this is the start (or, continuation?) of something good for the series

[Jason Berry]

21 minutes ago, Shaddy the guy said:

Wow, and both are positive. Maybe this is the start (or, continuation?) of something good for the series

Even IGN and GameInformer were positive.

[The Man On The Inside]

Very pleasing - shocking, even - to see the IGN coverage of the game be fair to it. I could see how a writer would want to have fun with the material. There were so many opportunities to make jokes/to make fun, but the guy did his job - provided information on the upcoming product. Any references to Rise of Lyric/Shattered Crystal or the series as a whole were kept to a minimum, or just referred to as "its predecessor". 

The opening paragraph, for once, wasn't a spiel on the fall of an icon or some bullsh*t. No "after years of misfires....." or anything like that. No references to kissing humans, no lamentation about 3D, no pushing any narratives about how even the good games are bad - just a preview of a videogame, describing the experience of playing it - and apparently it was a promising one. The game seems to have earned the writer's respect. I almost can't believe it.

Not that i'm ungrateful or anything, but i'm baffled as to why this preview is so fair. He's actually taking it seriously. He could have jumped at the opportunity - I know some people who would have. Maybe i'm just jaded, but from my past experience of reading game journo websites, this preview should be a pessimistic snarky rant that the writer thinks is comedic gold followed by a jab at sonic fans, but it isn't. Well done SEGA, well done Sanzaru, and also, well done IGN writer Jonathon Dornbrush.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

IGN please put this guy in charge of the rest of your previews

 

it's like he actually cares about the people reading them

[SonicWind]

This is a good sign-- a very good sign. Things could be looking up for the Boom branch's future (at least, in gaming).

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Well yeah, the TV show will probably continue doing well

I do miss the comics though, weren't we supposed to get a new one of those in the super digests?

[FriendBot]

13 minutes ago, Shaddy the guy said:

Well yeah, the TV show will probably continue doing well

I do miss the comics though, weren't we supposed to get a new one of those in the super digests?

Possibly, maybe after they post all the issues already made in its run. Then we'll probably get some new Boom stories in the Digests.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I guess that makes sense. Still is gonna be a wait though, and that isn't fun.

[FriendBot]

It will be a pretty long wait, so far we're up to the first part of the go-karting arc so the only the second part and the final issues are last things that are going to be added to the Digests. So it could be possible that after the next two Digests come out (since they only put out 1 Boom story in each excpet for 16 but that had a more Boom focus so it's an exception) then we might see. Although a new Super Sonic Digest comes every quarter so yeah, it's gonna be a waiting game but atleats we won't have to wait AS long as the announcement for the next main series game. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Well I guess it'll actually be a lot shorter if they don't put World's Unite in there

[Betz]

I'll admit, Fire and Ice looked pretty pathetic last year and seemed like it would become a huge failure, but looking at the gameplay on YouTube, (dare I say it) I'm excited for the game. Kinda hope the adapt it in the show too. I wouldn't mind watching it. Also, where are these fire and ice powers coming from? Do they "just have them" or something?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Probably some magic or technology that wares off/is destroyed by the end of the game. Not expecting anything huge in the story department here

[FriendBot]

11 minutes ago, Terriful said:

I'll admit, Fire and Ice looked pretty pathetic last year and seemed like it would become a huge failure, but looking at the gameplay on YouTube, (dare I say it) I'm excited for the game. Kinda hope the adapt it in the show too. I wouldn't mind watching it. Also, where are these fire and ice powers coming from? Do they "just have them" or something?

Well the plot synopsis seems to give hints that Ragnium (the stuff Eggman is mining for to make robots that are faster than Sonic) apparently causes some sort radioactive reaction and make islands have obstacles based on Ice and Fire, I'm guessing since Sonic and the crew are collecting the Ragnium to prevent Eggman's scheme, the radioactivity causes them to manipulate Fire & Ice at will.

Well I guess it'll actually be a lot shorter if they don't put World's Unite in there

Nah, they ain't putting Worlds Unite in the Digests so rest easy.

[Agie]

If what I'm hearing is true...well, I might buy it used. Might.

But as things stand? Still not really excited.

[Mania Pipe]

After the IGN and Gameinformer, along with the TSS previews, it's made me a bit interested into seeing the whole game now. With the improvements it's made so far in its demo, I want to see this game follow through on all of that.