Analysis: How to Make Sonic Boom Good

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So I was given three choices by my good friend, Lyndon Bijahnson, for my next post on this blog. A review of Dinosaur Adventure...

St. Anger...

Or Sonic Boom. So naturally, I went with the least shitty option. I do have thoughts about Dinosaur Adventure I'm holding in limbo for now, because there's a lot to talk about with that particular film. I'm straight-up not doing St. Anger, however; there's nothing to talk about there.

I'm not doing a review of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. What's the point? What is there to honestly say about it that hasn't been said before? It's barely been out for a year and already people are taking every possible opportunity to shit on it. I've heard all sorts of criticism ranging from "painfully average", "a dead end", to "obnoxiously annoying" and, my personal favorite, "one of the worst experiences of my life, and I've had four brain surgeries". Reviewing Sonic Boom, at this point, is absolutely fruitless. Talking shit about Sonic Boom is as easy as taking a piss - it requires no effort (hopefully) and everyone does it. Instead, I'm going to focus on the aspects that would have made this game excellent, or at least worthy of consideration. This will be covering on issues of tone and theme, rather than issues of gameplay.

1.) The Music

If there's one thing Sonic Boom reminded me of despite needing no actual reminder, is the fact that Jun Senoue and his team of musicians at Wave Master were very musically gifted. If there's one thing people remember fondly about Sonic, it's the great music, chock full of bright rock and roll, techno, jazz, hip-hop, songs that screamed "excitement" and "action". Sonic Boom's OST has tossed synths, guitars, and bass guitars aside for orchestral arrangements.

Which is utterly pointless. The whole point of Sonic the Hedgehog was to stand apart from the other gaming series and mascots of his time; the rock-fueled soundtrack helped define, even add to, that likable, distinctive personality. Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, and CD contain four of the best soundtracks in 90's rock (a good decade for rock music); the Adventure series have music that is, to my mind, even better. The decision to give Sonic Boom a soundtrack completely unlike that is a counter-intuitive one. Rather than demand your attention, the OST fades into the background. It's noise.

Examples of good music:

Star Light Zone - http://tinyurl.com/p9xwo3v
Pleasure Castle - http://tinyurl.com/ncqj3ak
Mission Street - http://tinyurl.com/nja73c7

2.) Explore the New World

Sonic Boom's primitive overworld is very barren, uninteresting, devoid of life. It is primarily desert-based and forest-based, with very rocky terrain, thick canopies, minimal oceans and lakes. It seems to be a very technology-deprived world; rather than grand cities and space colonies and what not, there are small villages, huts, lots of unoccupied territory. The only people with any particular technology are Eggman - who constructs robots, WMDs, the works - and Lyric himself. It's like an extreme case of Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog - the only people with any sort of technology are the villains, and it's the heroes who have to use the environment and their strength to their advantage to save the day.

Sonic Heroes

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom has a world completely unlike its 3D predecessors, so the need for world-building and exploration is even more important now. The Sonic Adventure series and Sonic Heroes all had very interesting settings and places. We only got to see very brief glances of the type of world those games had - huge, sprawling cities and military bases mixed alongside lush forests and sea palaces - but those brief glances were sharply etched to give the universe personality, pathos, and a sense of style. In Sonic Boom, I didn't feel entertained or immersed in the world and setting, and based on the conversation about the game, not even the fanbase would give it the time of day. The designers have a great opportunity to expound upon the primal atmosphere of Sonic Boom, even design it so that it could be a throwback to the older games.

3.) Keep the 90's Vibe

Sonic was at his absolute prime in the 90's and early 2000's, and his games were absolutely full of 90's futurism, culture, and idealism. This is especially true in the music, character design, architecture, color scheme. Sonic himself was based on a lot of late-80's, early 90's figures like Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson. Even when the series advanced into the mid 2000's, there were still games like Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog that held onto the kind of world-building and vibe of 90's video gaming.

Games with similar styles, auras, influences:

Nights Into Dreams (SEGA Saturn)

Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64)

Half-Life (PC, Playstation 2, Dreamcast)

Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast, Xbox)

4.) A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

There's so much fucking dialogue.

This has, admittedly, been a problem with the series ever since Shadow the Hedgehog; it's around this point the games took a dialogue-heavy turn. Sonic 06 has the characters talk whenever they reach a new destination and it is aggravating. There are times when you don't need the characters to talk about their situation or what's going on all the damn time; sometimes, relying on visual cues is far better.

There are games, films, what not, that fly in the face of that rule, of course. However, in Sonic Boom is chock full of Captain Obvious-esque dialogue and the script is atrocious. Sonic Adventure 2 did a great job of placing dialogue in places where it was absolutely necessary, and nowhere else. Most of the conversations the characters have with one another aren't exactly relevant and really just underscore things that are already blatantly obvious to the audience.

"It's like these roads were built for me!" Yeah, no shit.
"We can bounce on these bounce pads!" Ugh.

If the dialogue was trimmed down, made more interesting and what not, this could not only allow for a more enjoyable experience and better voice acting, but it would enhance the art, animation, storyline, script, music and soundscape.

5.) Flesh Out The Characters

I rather like the new designs of the characters. They highlight what the characters are known for - the speedster Sonic gets longer legs, the powerhouse Knuckles gets a buff body - and they help define their personalities as well. However, it's never very clear as to why characters do what they do. Throughout the game, I asked a lot of questions.

How did Sonic and Tails meet?
What's Eggman's motivation?
Where did Lyric get all of his cool gadgets? Why?
Where are all the civilians? What do they think about the events of the story?
Will Metal Sonic be like how he is in the games?

Many, many more, especially in regards with Shadow (why is he here? What's his deal with Sonic? How did they meet? Does he have the same backstory as he does in the previous games or is he different? What's with his "Friendship vs. Isolation" philosophy?) and some of the logistics of the universe. I know it's a fucking kids' game, but it's a very one-note, unclear, poorly-written kids' game. The only reason I know who the characters are and what they mean to one another is because I'm a fan of the series; had I not played Sonic beforehand, Sonic Boom would be incredibly confusing.

6.) In Conclusion

Sonic Boom's biggest flaw is missed opportunities, and that's a flaw I absolutely hate. Hopefully whomever is developing the next Sonic Boom game realized where the first one went wrong and tries to address the multiple issues. Until then, though... stick with Sonic Colors or something.