Sonic Boom -Kimo's Totally Non-Biased Opinion-

http://kotaku.com/meet-the-new-sonic-and-his-next-game-1517561472

Right. Now where to start...

-Clears throat-

Well, it seems that SEGA insists on dragging Sonic's dead carcass even further. Part of me is glad that we're still getting new Sonic, while the other part is more like "uuh, should they be doing that?"

So apparently, SEGA has given up on Sonic Team (and good riddance, because as soon as they start getting their crap together, they keep milking and milking without innovating, hoping that they'll somehow succeed), and instead, we have Big Red Button, the company which is composed of ex-Naughty Dog employees (you guys like Naughty Dog, right?). BRB will be doing the Wii U game while Sanzaru will be doing the 3DS version (splitting developers like that often doesn't work, so I'm a little iffy about the 3DS version). Now if you're a little worried over how you've probably never heard of these companies before, don't fear; you are not alone.

So first thing's first, let's comment on the new character design, hm?

For the most part, the changes aren't too drastic. At least they haven't tried to make them feel too drastic. Sonic still looks like Sonic, Tails still looks like Tails, Knuckles still looks like..errrr, we'll get back to that later. From what I've noticed, most of these characters have bandages wrapped around their arms and legs. Now, I don't know what makes them seem cool, that flew right above my head, but for the most part, it's something you can easily ignore as it doesn't completely obscure the characters too much.

To be frank, I am not upset by these redesigns, but I am still not excited. There's not much change to make an interesting turn, nor is there enough change to drive me to stand up and rant. For the time being, I am willing to accept these new designs. They very much look close to what we've had since the twenty-first century started.

And now, for each of the characters individually.


Sonic: Not much has changed, as you can see here. Just more bandages and a.. brown scarf? Is this a slight homage to Nathan Drake from Uncharted? Well, regardless, it doesn't bother me too much, although it can be an eyesore since I'm used to seeing Sonic without scarves and hats and such. For the initial design, he now has blue arms instead of his hairless skinned arms, his legs are a little longer, and both his spine and hair look different. Again, not much to warrant a need to shout out.

Tails: From what I can tell, Tails has changed the least. He's always worn goggles at various points, and often wielded a wrench. Just a few more bandages around the legs, a belt with a strap, and scientist-like gloves instead of the standard Sonic universe gloves. Tails is my favorite character in the Sonic series, so it's a good thing they didn't screw him up.

Amy: I have mixed feelings about Amy. Major changes have taken place here. While I am not against with the new design (it's not the casual red skirt, but it'll do), I worry over what they may do with her. As you can see, we're getting a more tomboyish Amy Rose in Sonic Boom, which is okay I guess, given the theme of the rest of the cast design. Her Piko Piko Hammer (assuming that's what they'll stick it with) has wider ends and is colored pink. Amy's dress has morphed into a red shirt with yellow buttons, placed over some tight pink shorts. Amy also wears pink leggings and armbands. Oh, and her arms are hairless, that didn't change. Odd how they changed that for Sonic, but not for Amy. So why am I on the fence? Well, Amy's old design often gave off the theme of "young love", the kind of silly love which you found in little girls, and frankly, this is what sold her character to me. This is what made her interesting. With Amy's new design, the vibe that I'm getting is that they're trying for a more teenage and sassier Amy. Worst case scenario, Amy could end up being the next Rouge, and here is where I worry. While I am okay with Rouge, I do not want them to ruin Amy for me, because she does carry a huge part of the Sonic series on her shoulders. I want my love-stricken naive Amy, not a sassy female protagonist; we have plenty of that elsewhere. Only time will tell by how they pull this off.

Knuckles: Sweet Mother Mary, what the flop have you guys been feeding him? Knuckles looks like he's ready to go toe-to-toe with the fricking Hulk. And I know you guys wanted to wrap your character in bandages, but why does Knuckles have too much of that? It's as if he used to be a mummy and suddenly decided to step into the light. Well, aside from that too, Knuckles hasn't changed. Same face, same shoes, same dent tail, same everything. Now I'm going to try and get used to Knuckles looking like this, because honestly, he looks freaking weird now. Oh, and an anon on Kotaku pointed out that Tails is now as tall as Knuckles' crotch. Given the position of the Sonic fandom as one of the worst fandoms out there, this does not bode well.

Eggman: Now if you want a small glimpse of Eggman, there's the TV series trailer linked below (I'll discuss this later, so hang tight). Now it's hard to tell with a direct image, but from what I can tell, Eggman has a more bloated and more human-like look. This differs from his rather rolly-polly design in the previous Sonic generation. Hard to tell if that's muscle or large mounds of fat, but okay. His face hasn't changed from that of his Sonic X counterpart, so I guess we've got that going for us. Can't seem to point out the rest of the differences.

Now that we're done with the characters, what about the gameplay? Well, if you go to watch the video below.


From what I see, it seems like we're getting the classic robot city on island setting, similar to that of the original Sonic games. In all honesty, I am excited about the new setting. We've seen several areas of the island, several robot lairs, and midair action, so for now, it all looks pretty swell.

Now they said teamwork is essential in the upcoming Sonic game. What does it mean? Are they going with local co-op? Online co-op? Seems like the most direct thought which you could resort to. Now when I think about it, this is probably a first for the Sonic game franchise (at least for one that works, the Sonic 06 co-op was broken as hell), and that's mighty interesting. Online co-op would work fine, but what about local? How many players will you manage to fit in? If you're going for four, expect the main player to play with the Wii U Pad and the rest to play with a splitscreen TV, but what if the characters move too far apart? I don't think the Wii U can handle that (although I hope it can), yet I still don't want another one of those brawler clones which we get quite often where everyone is confined to the limit of the screen. From what I've seen so far in terms of gameplay in the trailer, this is hopefully not the case. Two player local co-op seems as the most reasonable, but if you can stretch it, even if it'll have a little bit of frame rate drop (although that might hurt the game), then go for it.

Now for gameplay for all individual characters, they've stuck to the roots. Sonic has super speed, Knuckles has jungle parkour and brawling, Tails has flying and gadgets, and Amy has her hammer. All this bodes well for what we'll be getting for the game, and just by looking at things shown in the trailer, we might end up getting a very well-designed Sonic the Hedgehog video-game after all.

AND IF THEY EVEN DARE OF REPLACING THE ROCK MUSIC WHICH IS THE ONLY THING THE SONIC GAMES HAVE HAD GOING SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME WITH DUBSTEP SO HELP ME I'LL...

-Cough-

And now, for the TV series.


Now I understand that some of you aren't interested in the new Sonic TV show, yet I can't help but raise an eyebrow out of pure curiosity. So far, the animation quality isn't spectacular. Not the spectacular we're used to from SEGA's CG cutscenes in older games, or I just forgot all about that, or there's really not much to do here to warrant the need for particle effects or smoke or blue or, I don't know, the usual. Now voice-acting, it seems solid so far. We haven't seen Amy speak yet (Knuckles had a single line in the game trailer), so we'll have to wait for that.

The writing portrayed in the few minutes of the trailer is witty. It's not your bland cartoon humor. That, or it sticks to the same old humor which I am used to. Anyhow, the writing approach here is fun, and I like that. Also, the characters in the trailer have retained their personas to a large extent, and that's great too.

One thing I am curious about is the plot. Will this be like your average joe where it's basically single events every once in a while? If so, that would be good. Will it be more plot-centered? Again, that's also fine, but given how that is often handled in most American media, I'd rather go for the first option.

Overall, this seems like a brand new adventure for Sonic. A second life, you could call it. SEGA has definitely piqued my interest. The new character designs are not too shabby, the gameplay appeals to me, and the TV series seems fun. All in all, I'm excited.
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Well, not too excited, because the game is coming out for the Wii U and the 3DS only. OTL

wth is up with knuckles

Go home, Knuckles. You're drunk.
"Knuckles hit puberty." -Fish

poor Knuckles has to many haters

The old Sonic is dead and it has been for a long time. Let us put our nostalgia boners away and let them rest. Sega has done a smart move in basically doing a new style a Sonic and letting a new team take over. Since Big Red Button is basically old Naughty Dog I'll assume the gameplay will be a mixture of Sonic and perhaps Spyro and I'll also assume the game will have good gameplay. The 3DS version could go either way to me.

While many on the internet will say that Sega should let Sonic die and that Sonic hasn't been good since the old days I'll have to disagree on that. While Sonic hasn't been doing great to the eyes of the older generation, the ones who played the original Sonic games, Sonic still does great as a series overall because of it's appeal to young kids. While we can all agree that Sonic has fucked up before, Sonic '06 being the prime example, lately I'd say Sonic games being good or not are up to debate. Sonic Generations was alright and a lot of people said Sonic Colors was a pretty good game. We also seem to forget many other game franchises have fucked up before. Mario and Zelda both have their shares of really bad fuck ups and until Final Fantasy 15 was announced a lot of people were ready to give up on the Final Fantasy series. I feel Sonic only gets as much negative feedback as it gets because it's not the Sonic we grew up on. But this new version of Sonic might help get them out of the hole they've got themselves into.

So time to go into the details of Sonic Boom, mainly the new character designs! I guess I'll start on the bandages like Kimo did. On Knuckles I like them I honestly do. Amy has no bandages just like Tails has no bandages well except I think he has some on his shoes(?) but I don't mind that. The only one it doesn't suit is Sonic himself. It makes no sense why that's on him and it's not like it goes with the rest of his look which is only a brown scarf.

Sonic: Everyone seems to be giving him the Nathan Drake comparison but I don't see how adding the brown scarf really puts them together but whatever. I've gone over the bandages already, take them off, if you really wanted to add something to his arms and legs just make his shoes and gloves a bit longer. Sonic also is more blue because of his arms being blue now and is taller than before. It seems every updated version of Sonic is taller than the last. Well end up having some freaky looking Sonic if we continue this trend.

Tails: I really like Tails's look and I think this is how he should look from now on. Tails is an engineer and inventor not to mention a pilot. Giving him goggles a wrench and small pouches for other things as a default look just adds to his personality and how he is as a character. Nothing much else to talk about with him.

Amy: Like Tails I also like Amy's new look. I was never a big fan of her look before with the skirt. Now she has a shirt and some uh...long socks...leggings I suppose. I like it either way. Kimo said something about how Amy's personality might have been changed to be a more sassier and whatnot and it caught my interest so I guess I'll take about that. The vibe I'm getting from not only Amy but from all the members shown so far is that they are a bit older than the previous Sonic versions being taller, bigger, different designs here and there and whatnot. With that in mind and the fact that she'll a big part of the story along with the other three I'm sure, Amy will behave a little differently than she used to. She won't be another Rouge I'm positive on that but she won't be little old Amy but hey there is also a good chance she acts the same and just fights more than she used to.

Knuckles: I like his new look as well. I think he should be the only one with bandages though because that is his only other defining piece of clothing besides his spike gloves. What he lacks in new clothing he makes up in a new body. Knuckles went to jail and got super buff in his upper body and worked nothing on his legs. Give the poor dude bigger legs man he is gonna break them with his massive upper body. And some other piece of clothing, an armband would be nice.

I guess I'll end this with some extra thoughts and the TV show. I like the new looks overall besides the bandages on Sonic and I think the gameplay will be good. My main problem is that it's Wii U and 3DS which sucks. The TV show graphically looks like any other 3D kids shows just with Sonic. Didn't feel like talking about Eggman since he looks the same just skinnier. Meh, that's all I can think of talking about now. Add Jet somewhere in here and we're set.

Leokane wrote:

Sonic: Everyone seems to be giving him the Nathan Drake comparison but I don't see how adding the brown scarf really puts them together but whatever.

It's because of how Nathan Drake starts wearing his scarf around Uncharted 3 I think. The comparison was done by a few people, and then others began picking it up. It was mostly because of Big Red Button's relation to Naughty Dog.

I really think we're not SEGA's target audience anymore guys. They're really aiming for the kids these days. If you're enough of a die-hard, I suppose you fall under their target, but I think its rather obvious that an 8 year old is their ideal consumer. I can at least say that my little sister loves Sonic because of the games and the (awful in a mature perspective) anime. When I told her that there's a new show, she and her friends were really excited. I was actually surprised that kids actually love Sonic, heck I thought the franchise was dead compared to the bigger things these days. Apparently not.

That's my two cents for this.