Overall 6.7 Graphics 2 Sound 3.5 Addictive 2 Story 2.5 Depth 6 Difficulty 1.5
1.8
Zlinqx suffers a mental breakdown Zlinqx
So yes I'm going to go ahead and do something I said I'd never do. You see this game has kind of become like an inner demon of mine that I've wanted to review but purposely haven't because I haven't actually completed the game since I don't own a Wii U. I've only played the game for a 3 hour session once.
But it still plagues me and considering I've watched a whole playthrough as well as having played enough of it to get a feel of the controls and such, I think I have a good enough understanding of the game to review it regardless (and it's the TdV so teehee lol). Besides the game itself seems largely unfinished so I find it kind of fitting in a funny way.
To clarify this is more of a bonus review than anything, that I'm doing mostly out of fun so I won't really be making this as part of my staff reviews, but instead mostly because of the TdV and also because I really want to rip this game apart, which means this will be different than my regular style of reviewing and catering a bit more to fans of the franchise (though people completely new will also understand just how awful this game is, I guarantee it) I mean I swear I will kill this ga-
Ahem, I mean lets just get to it then yah?
Unreal lack of polish, and friggin mummy Sonic.So graphically this game looked decent when looking at the announcment trailer, but how did the game turn out when it was actually released?
Oh boy... It's a roller coaster in terms of quality in the graphical department and for the most part it's pretty bad, I mean at many points the game looks like it belongs on the PS2 rather than the Wii U. Heck there's even some textures in the game that look like they belong on the friggin N64, I mean, I know this game was rushed but really, in 2014 a game with textures that look they belong on the N64, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? I mean the world itself, in particular the hub worlds, looks like they could've had some (tiny) bit of potential, environments being fairly varied in how they look. Even so they're very barren and lack detail.
But that's not all, it gets worse. Lets talk about another notable change this time around... The character designs. Basically the main cast has been mostly redesigned. Now I will give a little bit of credit where it is due, since they redoing the actual size of the characters especially Knuckles is something I kind of liked, I think it's good that they're trying to differentiate the characters aesthetically more since they do look a bit similar, But the "sports tape" basically all of them except Tails are wearing LOOKS FLAT OUT STUPID. OH HEY GANG WE'RE 1/4TH ON OUR WAY TO BECOMING MUMMIES WOOHOO!
Ugh...
Awful textures and stupid mummy bandages aside the problems just keep coming...
Pfft? Frames? What are they even good for, and who's ever heard of play testing?Now, something that will become apparent as you progress is just the awful framerate issues. During many sections of the game especially speed sections the framerate drops a lot, to the point where it becomes almost unplayable. And even so you're not even going very fast compared to most Sonic games which makes it even more jaw dropping. This is the most powerful console a Sonic game has launched on to date, YOU'D THINK THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO GET THIS RIGHT LIKE THEY HAVE IN PREVIOUS GAMES, BUT NOPE, HERPTY DERPTY FLERP NO PLAY TESTING HERE. WE'RE JUST GONNA LET YOU SUCK ON IT TEEHEE!
*tries to cool down*
And there's also camera issues galore, often randomly getting stuck during gameplay or being too close to your character which makes getting around the giant hub world alone extremely annoying.
Framerate issues are present during cutscenes too, characters randomly teleporting to another location on screen for a few frames OR EVEN SOMETIMES JUST OUTRIGHT SKIPPING FRAMES happens, a lot. Really the awfulness of the graphics as a whole drives me to the conclusion that this it's largely because they rushed to game to get it out in time for the holidays. Something you'd think the developers would've learned to not do from previous Sonic games *COUGH 06 COUGH* even if it was Big Red Button that developed this and not Sonic Team.
Oh and that means there's bugs, plenty of them in fact, it's like a glitch hunting fest. Like the infamous Knuckles infinite jump glitch which means you can pause the game while jumping with Knuckles to jump more or less infinitely high which can be used to skip most of the game and of course there's many other smaller random bugs that can and probably will makes your game experience even more miserable than it already is.
In conclusion graphics wise this game is a complete and utter mess. Sonic Heroes looks better than this game AND IT WASN'T EVEN RELEASED DURING THE SAME CONSOLE GENERATION WTF.
Screwing up the one thing that's been consistently good in Sonic gamesOh yeah and you're probably thinking right now, well the music is probably good right? You know? The one thing they've basically gotten right in almost every Sonic game even 06 (I mean Solaris Phase 2, is just eargasm) but NOPE!
There's often times barely any music playing and when it actually does play, it's mostly mediocre AND THE SOUND EDITORS, SHOULD'VE BEEN FIRED OUTRIGHT LIKE THE REST OF THE PEOPLE BEHIND THIS GAME. A lot of tracks seem completely and utterly out of place like they weren't even intended for the level they were on, It's like they just made a bunch of random tracks without even knowing anything about the game and were like "HEY JUST PUT THIS SOMEWHERE IN THE GAME, WHERE? IDK JUST DO IT, IT'LL BE GR8 M8 TRUST ME *FART*"
Also the voice actors sound completely out of character sometime, just... Thought I'd mention that as well. If you weren't convinced enough that the sound and everything else sucks already.
*sigh* I don't even think I need to conclude this...
Herpty Derpty flerp nonsensical story, oh no must escape bad guy, BUT THEN OTHER BAD GUY? DERP!So it starts off with our heroes... *cough* Amy, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails going after Eggman in a weirdly fittingly placed running track in the middle of a forest because Idk he dun goof'd again. Then suddenly, after a bunch of crappy one liners and making sure to drill it into people's heads that Knuckles has an IQ that makes you question how he can even breath (cuz he can't tell left and right apart HAHA SO FUNNY *eye twitches*) it turns out he planned an ambush attack and Metal Sonic shows up after them and they end up at a door by some ancient tomb where they're cornered by Metal Sonic and Eggmans minions, which then after literally like a minute they decide to escape into (becuz Sonic can open it with his hand). And Metal Sonic walks extremely slowly for some reason because plot convenience! And he's like "gosh darn it! (inside his head)" *punches wall* Then well inside, the gang find some weird Snake like creature called Lyric which has been imprisoned in the tomb for some amount of time because IDK, reasons. And then the gang acts like idiots and release him and get attacked but still manage to get away and like get some weird enerbeam weapon that Tails magically makes work like a energy lasso thingy because he knows everything about everything before anyone does even though they released Lyric... And like. Idk they go back in time to imprison Lyric again because now he's the main threat.
Totally makes sense.
GANG: BOUNCE PAD!ME: HUEHUEHUEHUEHEUHEUEHEUHEUEHEEUHEUEThe story of this game as you may have already noticed from my summary is full of plot holes and often makes no sense whatsoever. The only interesting thing is that there's two villains in the game, Lyric and Eggman unfortunately Lyric is a very uninteresting and boring character which pretty much makes that not matter anyway.
The annoying part doesn't stop there, what is really annoying about the game, is the one liners... Both in cutscenes and just during general gameplay, the characters keep saying things to really drill it into your head the one and only personality trait they have.
U c Knuckles is a moron (is funny cuz he's stupid teehee) Tails is super smart and can therefore use AMAZING INVENTION SKILLZ FOR PLOT CONVENIENCE :D, then there's Sonic who's so damn edgy, oh And you know then there's Amy who's... The token female character and that pretty much sums up their personalities. Seriously they really are so one dimensional and the one liners ESPECIALLY IN THE CASE OF KNUCKLES are extremely annoying, watching how much effort they've gone through to carry across the point that Knuckles is a moron is almost kind of sad. He's supposed to be naive and gullible not a complete all around moron... And sometimes they just exclaim Bounce pad when you jump on a Bumper and expect you to laugh at it, I suppose. That's not even at the same level as them just dangling some keys in front of you.
I will give credit where it's due there's a few actually funny jokes buried AMONG THE HUNDREDS OF AWFUL ONES where they try to be edgy and fail, which when you've played the game for an extended time and start to accept how awful it is seems like the most amazing thing ever... But all around the story really is completely awful, and these very rare exceptions don't really help elevate it from being utter crap in any way.
The only actually even slightly redeeming thing about the story (maybe even the game as a whole) is Sticks the new character introduced in the game, though you don't actually get to play as her, I did like her quirky personality. And thanks TO NOT HAVING ANY OF THAT STUPID SPORTS TAPE actually looks pretty cool aesthetically as well. Good job big red button, you did a thing that didn't actually suck, who would've thought you had it in you.
How to fail at game design 101Of course the awfulness continues, as if the other factors doesn't make it horrible enough, the gameplay is horrible as well who would've thought. Well basically the game is divided into three parts there's your combat/platforming sections, your speed sections and the hub worlds.
Starting with the hub worlds they are huge and completely pointless, aesthetically it looks like there could've been some potential hadn't the textures looked flat out awful. I mean really why do every Sonic game insist on having hub worlds? They don't really add anything game besides making it feel bigger than it is, especially here where they're huge, I MEAN YOU CAN'T EVEN RUN IN THE HUB WORLDS, IS JOGGING AROUND IN A HUB WORLD FOR 10 MINUTES EXTREMELY SLOWLY TO DO A FETCH QUEST FOR SOME GUY YOU DON'T EVEN CARE ABOUT WHILE YOUR CAMERA GET STUCK AND BEING AMONG CRAPPY TEXTURES FUN TO YOU, HUH? IS IT?
I didn't think so.
And then we have the platforming sections. Basically every character has their own gameplay "ability" as Knuckles can climb and hang from walls, Amy can swing from places using her hammer and so on. Every platforming section usually has you controlling two characters which means you can often choose between one of the unique abilities they possess, the problem is that the platforming is so overly simplified that it doesn't really change things much because it's so easy you never actually have to really think about it. If you somehow actually die there's basically no punishment either. I'm serious this is probably the easiest Sonic game I've ever played and probably one of the easiest games I've ever played just flat out. It's so devoid of challenge it's a chore to play. I'd rather be grinding in an RPG since at least then I can spend that time playing a game I actually care about! Speaking of which...
There's combat. Yeah remember how I said that Unleashed combat was meh. Well compared to this Unleashed looks like friggin Fire Emblem in terms of depth. All you do is more or less mash the same button and that more or less kills everything. I think there was like one actually imaginative boss in the entire game and that was it. All the regular enemies consists of pure button mashing and they don't even vary much aesthetically. You know what's funny, there's actually people out there who considers this game fun, I MEAN THE GAME HAS 6.6 RATING IN THE VGR HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?... *Starts sobbing* why Sega... Why did you allow this... And there's a dodge roll... Which you'll never use and isn't even implemented well.
Ahem... And then there's the speed sections which I already mentioned. Basically the frame rate drops horribly during almost every speed section like I mentioned previously. And even in the case when it doesn't, they're nothing more than simple linear temple run style level (except Temple Run is actually fun and I kind of regret not playing it instead of this).
Some other crappy things about this game:
1. There's also an upgrade system in this game which is completely pointless.
2. Gathering 100 rings no longer gives you an extra life and instead works purely as a life bar, rings in general are useless but there's more than ever to collect.
3. The controls are utter crap too not that it matters much because the gameplay is so boring on it's own that whether the controls were implemented well wouldn't have changed how boring it is either if anything I'd rather have even crappier controls BECAUSE MAYBE THEN THERE WOULD BE SOME DAMN CHALLENGE TO IT THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT A COMPLETE SNOREFEST.
4. You know the enerbeam thingy well that also sucks, you can throw around enemies and swing around in some places with it... But it's completely under utilised, and like previously mentioned how it was introduced made no sense. Woo.
5. The good thing is if you enjoy doing completely pointless fetch quests while encountering bugs, and playing through gameplay completely devoid of challenge, this game has got you covered!
Why am I doing this to myselfAn unfinished utter piece of crapThe one good thing about this game is Sticks. One character, That is literally it. Everything else about this game sucks I'm not even joking. It could've been better maybe if they were given more time to finish the game because a lot of things wrong with this game like the graphics and sound could've been made passable. But even then the gameplay sucks. Even for being an obviously rushed game I'd expect more from this, since it makes Sonic 06 look good. At least that game could work as a guilty pleasure and it had awesome music and an often nonsensical but entertaining story.
So in conclusion: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME EVER, DO NOT SUPPORT THIS GAME IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM, SAVE YOURSELF THE PAIN.
THIS GAME IS LIKE ALMOST THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL IN THE WORLD... ALMOST.
Sonic is dead.
Making this review was mental torture but neccesary mental torture, now I must calm down before I explode because my brain cannot brain anymore.
Thank.
Graphics 2 Sound 2 Addictive 2 Story 3 Depth 5 Difficulty 2
Review Rating: 4.7/5
Submitted: 07-06-15
Updated: 07-08-15
Review Replies: 17
2.8
My 1st review of 2015 gamerforlifefor..
I've finally decided to make my first review of 2015! I've decided to review what many consider to be the worst game of 2014 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric! Before I start the review I'd like to say few things. Back in 2013, it was announced that Sega would be making 3 Nintendo exclusive Sonic games. The 1st one was Sonic Lost World, the 2nd was Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, and the 3rd and final games were Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for 3ds and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U. I never played Mario & Sonic Sochi but I did play Sonic Lost World. It's a good game while Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U is the biggest trainwreck in the series since Sonic 06... Seeing how much hype was being made by Sega for Sonic Boom with a TV series being made for it as well as 2 games I found it sad to see how bad this game is. I'm now going to explain why it's so awful with this review.
Graphics: 2/10 Before the game even came out, there was plenty of controversy surrounding the character designs for Sonic and friends, especially Knuckles pretty much looks like he's been on steroids, and he's much taller and bigger in this game and his arms and legs have tape on them which makes him look like a mummy . Sonic also has the tape problem but the main issue I have with his design is his brown scarf. It doesn't go well on him.To me blue and brown don't go well together at all.The only character who's design I like is Tails. He's got a pair of goggles and a belt which suit him well. I had no problems with Dr. Eggman and Amy's designs either.
Another huge problem I have is the awful camera. If you're near a wall the camera will get stuck, no joke the camera can't go through walls. Horrible camera angles can really ruin video games, so can framerate issues. Well guess what? Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has major framerate problems especially when you're in speed sections the framerate takes a major hit and it's really annoying. One other issue I have is the glitches. While they're nowhere near as bad as Sonic 06 they're still bad enough to be considered unacceptable to any and all games. The funniest of these glitches is called the inifinite jump and it can only be performed by Knuckles. You do this by jumping, then use his dive attack. Just as he's getting ready to dive pause the game, then resume and repeat the process and eventually you'll be able to break the game. If you know what you're doing then you can skip major portion of the game.There's other glitches as well but the thing I don't get is how Sega missed those glitches. You'd think they learned their lesson after the Sonic 06 debacle but obviously they didn't. All I know is that the glitches are a huge problem. Because of this and the awful character designs, the framerate issues and the camera problems I give the graphics a 2. If it weren't for Tails having a great design I would've given it a 1. You got lucky Sonic Boom.
Sound: 5/10 The Sonic series has some of the greatest soundtracks in the history of video games. Sonic Boom's soundtrack however is not memorable and there isn't much variety in the music. Most of the music in the game sounds very similar and while it doesn't sound bad, it's pretty bland and because of that I have to give the sound a 5 very mediocre.
Addictiveness: 2/10 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has no replay value whatsoever.One reason for this is because the game has a boring combat system. Each character has limited attacks. Sonic has his signature spin dash and homing attack, Knuckles punches and can use a diving attack, Amy swings her hammer and can use a spinning attack as well, and Tails uses bombs, and an invention called a buddy bot. Also each character can use a new item known as the enerbeam which is not only useful in combat (mainly for throwing enemies off a cliff which is sadly much funner than dealing with the tedious combat), but it's also needed to complete certain puzzles and to get to new locations. I like the enerbeam but it's not enough to make up for the bland combat. Another thing I don't like is the boss battles. None of them are entertaining and they're very easy. For these reasons I give the addictiveness a 2.Story: 2/10 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has a bad story I'm not going to spoil the plot out of respect for those of you who will buy this game anyway despite all the negative reviews for it such as mine, your welcome! However I will say that the Shadow the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic didn't have big enough roles especially Shadow... Shadow's biggest moment in the game is a pointless boss fight that happens out of nowhere. My favorite character in the series is Shadow so when I heard he was gonna be in the game I was so excited but then once I saw how little he was used I thought to myself "Why was Shadow even in this game if he's only going to be in it for like 5 minutes?" The story isn't as bad as Sonic 06 so I won't give the story a 1 instead I'll give it a 2.Depth: 7/10 This is the only category Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric truly shines. One reason for this is because the game has lots of places to explore. There are also lots of collectables and hidden areas to find. Unfortunately there are other video game franchises that do those things much better such as the Legend of Zelda. But since there is plenty of stuff to do in this game I'm giving the Depth a 7.Difficulty: 1/10 Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is by far the easiest Sonic Game I've ever played. One reason for this is because you have infinite lives. That's right there's no game overs in this game! I don't get why the creators would do something like that in a Sonic game. I know that this game was targeted for little kids but there's plenty of other games that don't give you infinite lives such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Kirby games and younger audiences still love them (as well as some adults such as myself). Another reason this game is so easy is because the levels themselves aren't hard at all and the boss battles are pathetic. Sonic Boom is the easiest game of 2014 and for that reason I give the difficulty a 1. Overall Score: 2.8/10 While Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric isn't quite as bad as Sonic 06, it's still terrible. It has terrible character designs, a terrible camera, framerate issues, laughably bad glitches, a bland combat system, an awful story, bad boss fights, and it's super easy. The only plus this game gets is that it's got a good amount of depth. Overall though this game is the biggest trainwreck in the Sonic series since Sonic 06 and it's the worst Wii U game of 2014. The overall Score for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is a 2.8.
Graphics 2 Sound 5 Addictive 2 Story 2 Depth 7 Difficulty 1
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-20-15
Updated: 09-26-15
Review Replies: 2
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