this game like the 3ds one has a lot of the same obstacles and puzzles that repeat for 8 hours until you finish the game. so why is this one worse, the crashes. i had this shit crash on me like 8 times and i lost around 4 hours worth of progress which pissed me off. that alongside the game sucking means i cannot recommend this even to people interested. it is just a waste of time and the devs clearly were not allowed to experiment with this game or were given the time to make the game stable. thank god we didnt get more of these

oh, wow!

okay to be as fair as possible, sonic boom actually has a lot of interesting ideas. why they even felt the need to do the things they did, i have no idea. the sonic franchise was a very...turbulent thing, yes, but i don't understand what constant shake-ups can do to fix that! giving the characters redesigns, completely changing the world they're in, that's all fine and good, but it amounts to nothing if you don't have any substance at all behind those actions. it also probably didn't help that the game was fucking terrible

Sonic Boom is far from the worst game I've ever played. Nowhere close. The reaction to this game seems very strange to me. Most people think Sonic games suck anyway, so I don't know why this one got such insane hate hype. That isn't to say I think this game is good or worth anyone's time. Far from it. This is possibly the most boring game I've ever played, but I wouldn't necessarily say that makes it awful. Just keeps it from being good. The platforming is so mind-numbingly bland and safe and boring. There's combat, which is almost always a no-no in my book. The combat is purely a "Mash The Attack Button and Win" simulator that for some reason has a DMC style rating system. The music is the most generic video game music I've ever heard, which is insane considering that music is the one thing most people actually come together on with regards to Sonic. The characters are all extremely annoying and constantly saying things at each other, rarely responding to what someone else said. They love to shout "Bounce Pad!" or "Boost Ring!" 80% of the time you use one of these very common platforming aids. The story is bland and lifeless. If this game wasn't intended to re-style the entire Sonic franchise and spawn a TV show, I would've bet big bucks that it was some platformer that SEGA saw and said "eh put Sonic on there, it'll sell more copies that way."

While it's a tragedy that this ended up being the final game that I completed in 2022, it feels strangely apt to end on such a sour note. I don't mean to sound like a pessimist, but I'll admit I haven't been in the right headspace for quite a few years now. 2022 was no different, and while I continue to grow as a person and learn to appreciate the little things in life, I'm still dealing with personal traumas and my subpar mental health as I go. But, how exactly is this relevant to Sonic Boom?

Well, every year I think to myself, "This will be my year. Great things await." But nope, every year is the same as the last. Certain ambitions and expectations that are ultimately shattered by disappointment. And that's what Sonic Boom is, really, and with a title like that, it seems highly appropriate. Rather than it being the smashing success that the team probably hoped it would be, it was an explosive failure that somehow managed to make Sonic 06 look competent. In a way, it also parallels the tiny bit of shattered hope I had of 2022 being good.

The funny thing is that I don't really have any major complaints. But it's such an incredibly bland experience that it feels insulting to even play. When I set out to finish every Sonic game, I never expected the series to reach such banal levels of insipid game design, despite knowing full well of this game's infamy. This was a game I could tell was going to be horrible within the first 10 seconds of actual gameplay.

Imagine this: You are running on rails through some uninspired floating roadway as is typical of these games, but suddenly the framerate drops to 15 through some loop or some other janky transition, all while Sonic says any of these phrases and more:

"Built for speed!"
"This is what speed looks like!"
"Can't slow Sonic down!"

As I reference a Nintendo Life article, former Sega of America producer Stephen Frost gave a few reasons for the game's failure, "one of which is that based on focus tests, people were "sick and tired" of Sonic going too fast and wanted to slow him down."

My guy, what the fuck are you talking about? Even if this was accurate, that doesn't also mean literally dropping the framerate. That's the power of CryEngine on Wii U, I guess. And no, I never expected this game to be anything more than somewhat mediocre, but truly, this is much worse than I could have imagined. At least the other bad Sonic games I've played were short enough and didn't subject you to 6 grueling hours of some piss poor excuse for entertainment.

So yeah, 2022 was not at all the year I hoped it would be, but there's always next year. To end on a more positive note, I have to admit that it was not all doom and gloom. There were actually a lot of great moments that happened this year, mostly involving time spent with family. As a coaster enthusiast, I was also able to get a lot of new credits. It's those small and joyful moments that make it worth pushing through life's harships. But anyway, here I am, with only a few minutes to go 'til the start of 2023, fireworks going off outside my window, finishing up this write-up. I am once again hoping 2023 will be my year, but even if it isn't, I can still look forward to the little things I'll certainly continue to enjoy out of life, and I can also find some solace in knowing that I won't ever have to touch this game ever again.

Sonic Made Me Want To Go Boom With This Entry...

Honestly upon booting this game up and playing for the what first 30 minutes to an hour I thought the game was overhated but thats before i spent the extra 6 hours and 30 minutes to finish it then realized what makes this game bad for a quick TL:DR.
Repetitive combat and puzzles,Terrible Dialogue,Mediocre platforming and overall just a miserable experience that overstays its welcome with a nothing narrative/story.

Controls:
Honestly the best aspect of this entry as they dont suck sonic and co. feel pretty good to move but are rather slow and the combat is extremely simple with no depth but outside of combat the platforming feels okay to control but doesn't provide much in the way of challenge.

Gameplay:
The game boils down to Mach Speed Section > Tile Puzzles > Pull Lever With Laser,Combat Section > Character Specific Puzzle > Repeat in any order and towards the end of its runtime becomes mind grating because the puzzles are super easy and the combat is super simple and surface level and the rest isn't much better its fun for the first hour or so but becomes more and more of a chore as you repeat them the 100th time not made better by the games dialogue.

"Level" Design:
It's bad the game either plays itself or is super simple with no real thought needed and the combat is just spongey enemies with only 3 basic combos to choose from per character when combined with the mediocre platforming and mind numbing puzzles it just really sucks and the boss fights last ages and are either extremely annoying or pathetically easy the difficulty curve while nearly non existent is super inconsistent when it does exist and it makes for a super ungratifying game progression.

Replayablity:
Outside of fetch quests? nothing like maybe extreme mode if the game was just that fun for you otherwise... don't even bother its not worth your time.

Soundtrack:
Super generic with nothing too standout if someone held me at gun point and asked me to hum a song from this game or name a track from the OST... am getting shot there is literally nothing memerable about it,it's not terrible but its nothing stand out either basically sums up the experience in this game in general just soulless and boring.

Voice Acting:
If you set aside the dialogue and script for the game? it's okay amy especially had a pretty good performance and its what you'd expect from a meta era sonic entry.But the dialogue... OH MY GOD WHY DOES IT SUCK SO BAD characters have to exclaim even the most simple things to the player that is somewhat corny and charming at first but becomes hell after the 5th time it happens that will be about a minute into the game because characters DON'T SHUT UP and for an example you will be in this very poisoness jungle area and sonic and knuckles will not stop blabbering on about how dangerous the vines are for the full hourish that your in the area and it gets so so so annoying.Easily the reason why I have this game at this rating its just that bad.

Story:
Bad its just bad like I seriously dont remember anything outside of ancients,crystals,lyrik thats it,Basically nothing major ever happens in the narrative and the game ends on a cliffhanger that never gets resolved as its the only boom game that is kinda unfortunate as with better game design there is actually an okay concept here with more varied combat and good puzzles with decent dialogue this could've been great.Honestly there isn't much to say as there is barely a story here to begin with watch the games trailers and you will get the full story from just that.

Characters:
Well honestly there not terrible here I mean heck tails and amy are useful again but sadly the dialogue makes any good traits they have here just meaningless and there designs are actually good in my opinion outside of knuckles not even eggman was really all that charming here its just so empty and soulless.

Overall: Well I kinda did a TL:DR at the beginning but honestly its just a game not worth playing that will have you questioning your sanity and wanting to constantly sidetrack after the first of the 6-9 (hehe) you will be playing this game and honestly should just be forgotten about as it has nothing to offer outside of its world and character designs.The TV show is apparently solid though.

Trivia:
This game was originally going to look and play better but BigRedButton wasn't told it was going to be a Wii U Title until mid-development.