Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric Reviews
This lack of direction is an especially ironic failing for a character who was once defined by his single-minded forward momentum. The time is clearly long overdue for Sonic to take a well-earned rest, get his breath back and only return once Sega has worked out where he's supposed to be going. It pains me to say it, but Sonic Boom needs to be the last noise we hear from the blue hedgehog for a very long time.
Generic and unpolished, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric falls well below our already-low expectations.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is too slow-paced, too easy, and too childish for teen or adult Sonic fans, and its control and design issues make it difficult to recommend even for its target audience.
When it's not being a buggy, unpolished mess, the moment-to-moment action and exploration bounces between tedious and boring
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is another plummet in the sad decline of the Sonic franchise.
It's admirable that Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric tries so many new things, but every path it follows is a dead end. While the environments look decent and collectibles help give the short story some legs, the lack of difficulty, variation, and personality ruins any chance it had of making Sonic relevant again.
Big Red Button spoke enthusiastically about the development process throughout the promotion of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, which makes us think that the disappointing final product is a victim of being rushed out the door to accommodate the cartoon's release. As a result, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is recommended only for those starved for a new adventure platformer and patient enough to sit through the poor technical performance.
Hopefully the next Sonic title can be as great as Sonic Colors or Sonic Generations, or even as decent as Sonic Lost Worlds, but coming from former Naughty Dog members, this was definitely a letdown.
Possibly the worst Sonic the Hedgehog game ever made, which considering some of his previous lows is one of the harshest insults in gaming.
When I first saw the announcement for Sonic Boom, barring the weird Knuckles redesign, I was excited by the prospect of change. The Sonic series hasn't taken many risks in recent years, particularly when it comes to the 3D aspect of the franchise, and Big Red Button had a lot riding on its inaugural effort. Unfortunately, the game could have used a few more months in the hopper and taken many more risks. Better luck next time.
Overall, even if the engine ran smoothly and the bugs were squashed, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric wouldn't be that great of a game. As-is, it's an unfinished mess, astounding only in how rapidly you can count its flaws.
It's all for nothing. It's all so very pointless. Sonic Boom exists because we're all going to die one day, and we don't matter.
Sonic Boom is a bad game. There is no other way to say it. I won't get excited for another return of the hedgehog…OK that is probably a lie, but either way, don't buy this game. Pick up the infinitely more enjoyable Lost World, or one of the other fantastic Wii U exclusives this holiday season. Just stay far, far away from this toxic hedgehog.
Just when you thought there was nothing else that could be done to ruin the Sonic franchise, all it took was a Big Red Button.
In a year that the Wii U gifted us with Mario Kart 8 and Bayonetta 2, games that displayed what the system could do graphically, Rise of Lyric's graphics are simply unacceptable in 2014.
It's baffling how Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric draws inspiration from such good sources but fails at delivering almost everything it promises. Burdened by technical problems, a lackluster plot, confusing exploration mechanics and empty settings, Rise of Lyric needed a complete overhaul before being released.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Maybe a better name would be Sonic The Spine Mammal.
The budding scientist in all of us might confuse the title of the newest Sonic game with the booming sound associated with the shock waves. Much like when Sonic blasts out of his famous Spin Boost, a sonic boom is created by an object traveling faster than the speed of sound. Unfortunately, the only thing booming has been the resounding and collective "MEH" that was heard as Sonic fans both young and old checked out this game.
I refuse to believe that Big Red Button looked at this and said it was done. In all likelihood their efforts were kneecapped by time and money constraints. Shame on Sega for publishing this broken, obviously incomplete mess. The glimpses of a good game that occasionally break through only serve to make this failure sting more.