Is SONIC BOOM the Worst Thing to Happen to the Blue Blur?

By on Friday, February 7th, 2014

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Keep staring at Sonic’s new design and watch yourself get creeped out

Many call 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog game the worst thing to happen to the franchise. Some say Shadow the Hedgehog was the final nail in the coffin. Some say The Secret Rings ruined everything. (The sequel despite its great theme song couldn’t save it either.) And then a lot would say Werehog would be the worst gimmick in the series. (Now that I can’t disagree with.) Now while a couple of those things may be true, the absolute worst thing may just be the Sonic Boom initiative.

Now it’s not too fair to judge since the show hasn’t aired yet, but we can talk about a few things since it’s following the latest trend in SEGA’s endeavor to “ensure that the Sonic brand continues to evolve and appeal to new generations of Sonic fans…”

For a long time Sonic was the second greatest video game franchise, second only to Mario. Despite SEGA’s poorly sold consoles, the character has survived and prospered on Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft consoles alike. There were/are three phases to the game series. First we have the original Genesis games. You didn’t play them for the story, you played them for the fun gameplay and colorful scenery. The ‘story’ was told in the booklet and ending, much like the original Mario games. Then the second phase is when the games transitioned into the 3D world. It also began to start incorporating actual writing, cutscenes, voice acting, and themes. This started in Adventure. This is what the Sonic series was for a number of years. It had stories and continuity. The games grew as the players grew.

All of that got thrown out the window in 2010 with the release of Sonic Colors.

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Colors was the start of Sega’s ‘reboot’ of the series. This ‘reboot’ slowly got rid of characters such as Shadow and Silver and tried to be like the simple days of Sonic going after Eggman. Good or bad thing? Well, first you you have to ask why did they feel the need to go back to basics. It’s because that after Heroes, the games started to get bad reviews after bad reviews. Why? Not because of the stories, but rather the gameplay.

If it’s one thing Colors and Generations did right, it was the gameplay. It was fast and fun. The gameplay in Heroes and Shadow for example lack greatly in comparison. Surprisingly the gameplay in Sonic Lost World is noticeably less fun and the levels more annoying than enjoyable. Comparing that to Unleashed, I think you’d be surprised to hear just how many people would say they prefer the latter.

Sonic 06’s story (aside from the odd human/hedgehog romance) didn’t get bad reviews cause of its story. Back then, the stories featured a bit of complexity. Characters had great motivations behind the things they did and even emotional backstories. Shadow’s only friend Maria died, and in 06 the game actually had the guts to kill off Sonic himself! These type of things were normal in the games. Because of that, it appealed to not only a younger crowd, but also older gamers who like the characters and loved seeing them progress. Because if the stories and characters don’t progress, what’s the point of building a rich universe? Starting with Colors, that thought process went away.

Back in the Adventure days, you had music with heart such as ‘Live and Learn,’ ‘Open Your Heart,’ ‘What I’m Made of,’ ‘Endless Possibilities,’ ‘Knight of the Wind,’ and many more. With Lost World, it seems SEGA is content on not utilizing such music anymore.

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I’m sorry but Sonic just looks silly

SONIC BOOM when it was first announced I was really excited for. The last show, SONIC X, was ten years ago. While not terrible, it lacked greatly in a lot of areas. (Why the heck did they feel the need to add that Chris character? He actually stole some key scenes from other characters in the actual games!) But my hopes sank when it was announced that “the companies will initially produce 52 11-minute episodes of the comedy that targets kids age 6-11.” Like current animation trends, there’s an emphasis on comedy and slapstick humor over story based things. (Just compare Teen Titans GO! to Young Justice.) Instead of being a story based new adaption, we’re getting this. This type of show is nothing new, it seems much like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground. Those shows were made in the era of the original games. This cartoon is sadly mimicking the current trend of the games.

Lame jokes, weird new design, and it looks like Eggman will be played for laughs more than ever. Sonic had been passed all of that starting with Adventure, but SEGA went backwards with Colors. The best example is probably the recent Pac-Man reboot, which I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone that thinks it’s an improvement. The next Sonic game on the way is based on the upcoming cartoon.

It doesn’t look bad, but those designs…

Sonic Boom is probably not the worst thing to happen to the series, it just looks to be another nail in the coffin to a once great series.

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Ah, the memories of such greatness

Daniel is a huge Sonic fan and has been so since playing Adventure 2 Battle. You can follow him on Twitter: @Destroyer_199

S#!T Talking Central

  • SuperPartyPony44

    Gonna have to disagree. This may be the first solid push for the franchise since the Sonic Adventure days! Amy’s design is a vast improvement over her old ones and while yes Knuckles is abit silly looking I’m sure fans will adapt soon enough. This is taking a nail out of the coffin. I for one can’t wait to see the new toon & game!

  • Andre

    Man, this sounds so much like an oldfanboy rant. The games got better, but suddenly there’s complains about character? Games like Sonic should go for gameplay above all else, including story. If you want character development look elsewhere.

    • Gunny

      Um, excuse me, but ALL games should focus on gameplay more, hence the reason they’re called “games”… However, since we are in a time when stories can be well told through video games, why shouldn’t the developers focus on the story and characters as well? Balance in story, aesthetics, and gameplay should all be considered and equally focused on in a way to ensure that the story doesn’t weigh down the gameplay, the visuals take away from the story, or the gameplay take away from the visuals.
      And… what’s wrong with a Sonic game having character development and story? That’s like saying a hero’s epic tale shouldn’t have thought and emotion as well as action…

    • MJ

      No, see, stories are FOR character development. It’s not a good story WITHOUT character development. And for a kid, at least a kid like me, you play a game because it’s fun and also because you love the characters and you want to know and learn and love more about them. How can you do any of that without a decent story, as was displayed in Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2? Things may have got out of hand with Sonic the Hedgehog ’06 or with Sonic Riders and Sonic Unleashed, but at least there was SOME story to those. These days it’s boring to play when every storyline just seems the same; Sonic goes after Eggman and Eggman gets beat and was there ever any doubt NO because he’s no longer a really threatening villain.

  • svchaoski

    oh the memories

  • Alexar

    They look silly? Creepy? Dude, you do remember the definitions for those words, right? Because last time I checked, “creepy” was for anything designed by Tim Burton or a heavy metal album sleeve artist… And “silly” for the guilty pleasure that is My Little Pony…
    Now, “odd” or “irregular” or “atypical” for Sonic would have been more appropriate and accurate. Though, I am pretty sure this may be a one-time thing. But then again, this may be a whole new direction for the Sonic franchise, where it is more of a free-roam level explorer, kind of like in Unleashed (which I liked, just greatly disliked the Wii version because of the Wii-mote’s sensitivity issues), but without the whole monster transformation thing.
    I for one, cannot wait for Boom to come out, and I hope it is a good game. As for the cartoon, won’t know until it comes out.
    And seriously, about the designs… Even though this is the only bit we know for sure of Sonic Boom, can’t you wait for something of more… substance, like gameplay and story, before making these minor complaints? I mean, what do we actually about Sonic Boom? The character designs and the voices, and the concept. That’s it. No story, no plot, no gameplay. Now, I’ll throw out this rusty and useless piece of junk of an idea: alternate universe…
    Besides… Generations was a sell-out to shut up the fanbase for a bit and Lost World was experiment of having Sonic do Mario for a day… They weren’t trying to be masterpieces…

  • Michael Moore

    I’m worried that Knuckles doesn’t have a neck

  • MJ

    I completely agree with you. A lot of fans like the only-classic days, where it was all gameplay and no stories. But for me, growing up with Sonic Heroes and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, I played the games because 1) The gameplay was fun, and 2) the characters were awesome. I used to play pretend with my siblings where each of us could be one of the Sonic characters. The cutscenes were the motivation to continue with the levels; sure, this level is hard, but if i give up, how will I know what happens with Shadow?? And then they brought in Sonic Colors and there’s no cool music, only two of my favorite characters, and Eggman just seems like…well, no real threat. It’s very sad, and I wish there was a magic wand I could wave to bring the franchise back to the good ol’ days, or at least the quality therein.

  • O Rly

    Yes, it is, Sonic Boom is the DmC version of Sonic.

    I hope this garbage flops hard so Sega can stop this bullshit and make another Sonic game like Colors and Generations.

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