Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric


 * For other subjects named "Sonic Boom", see Sonic Boom (disambiguation).

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, known in Japan as Sonic Toon: Ancient Treasure (ソニックトゥーン 太古の秘宝) is a video game for the Wii U published by Sega and developed by Big Red Button Entertainment. It is one of the two video game prequels for the Sonic Boom television series, the other being Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, and as well the third and final video game in the Nintendo-Sega partnership, the previous two being Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Development
On May 17, 2013, Sega announced a worldwide agreement with Nintendo for the next three games in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series to be developed exclusively for Nintendo devices. This included Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. On February 6, 2014, Sega announced Sonic Boom as the official title for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. The game was in development before the Nintendo-Sega partnership, but Sonic Boom was added to the Nintendo exclusive contract. The game ties in with Sega's Sonic Boom franchise, which includes a television series and other merchandise, and is the third release in Sega's exclusivity agreement with Nintendo. The franchise is designed for Western audiences and serves as a prequel to the television series. Sega announced the game to feature Sonic's traditional speed alongside a new exploratory game mechanic called "Enerbeam". Sega of America's marketing director Marchello Churchill explained that the new franchise was not designed to "replace modern Sonic". The Western developer's CEO explained that Sonic Boom 's Sonic is "very different ... both in tone and art direction". Producer Stephen Frost claims this game is the ultimate evolution of the franchise's main conflict: nature versus technology.

Los Angeles based game studio Big Red Button developed the game under supervision by Sonic Team and long-time Sonic game designer Takashi Iizuka. The game was built on CryEngine and is centered on "combat and exploration". Sega outsourced the game to Western developers in order to increase the game's appeal in Western markets, culminating in a separate westernized Sonic franchise. The video game concept came after the television series plan. Big Red Button was chosen due to the studio's adventure game portfolio and leader, Bob Rafei of the Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted, and Jak and Daxter series. The game remains a separate continuity to the main series, and was originally not intended to be released in Japan. However, it was later revealed that the games would be released in Japan, under the name Sonic Toon (ソニックトゥーン).

British composer Richard Jacques composed the music.

Plot
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, and Knuckles the Echidna as they battle against the evil Dr. Eggman. On what seemed as a regular day of foiling Dr. Eggman's plans, the group find themselves arriving on an island where they encounter an ancient tomb sealed deep within the island. There, Sonic makes a little mistake and releases a powerful snake-like villain from a race called the Ancients, named Lyric the Last Ancient, who plans to power his army of war mongering robots with the Chaos Crystals to destroy everything organic and create a world of twisted metal and robots. To stop Lyric's evil plan, the group must put aside their differences and find the Chaos Crystals before Lyric. The stakes have never been higher, and the only chance to overcome Lyric is to band together and work as a team.

Gameplay
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is an action-adventure game with a stronger emphasis on exploration and combat compared to previous Sonic the Hedgehog installments. The game features four playable characters, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy. The game will support local co-operative multiplayer and is typically housed around two player co-op mode, with additional modes for up to four players locally. However, if a player is playing alone, they are allowed to switch to any character at any time (similar to the various Lego video games), while the computer will take control of the other characters. The game does not support online multiplayer but instead features local multiplayer.

Each character has their own unique abilities and gameplay mechanics to explore the areas and environment. Sonic can use his speed, reach secret areas with the Spin Dash and use the Homing Attack, Knuckles can burrow underground for a while and climb along marked wall sections, Tails can fly and use various gadgets and Amy can use her hammer to swing on poles. The gameplay also features new mechanics such as the "Enerbeam", a tethering device used by all four characters. This device can be used to perform various actions such as hanging from speeding rails, removing enemy shields, moving switches and platforms, lasso enemies and throw them in any direction and they also play a big role in boss fights as well. The gameplay often focuses cooperation between characters, such working together using Enerbeams to use Switches, move platforms or push minecarts, with the player's switching control between multiple characters and using their abilities to progress.

The game features four different levels to play on with three main gameplay styles: a boss fight, a speed level and two adventure-style levels. The adventure style levels features slower and more methodical game pace than other Sonic the Hedgehog titles. The different characters' abilities also allow the players to take multiple paths through the adventure levels; Sonic can cross gaps using the Homing Attack while Amy can climb and swing between pink platforms in a classic side-scrolling section. The levels also feature different collectibles, some of which can only be collected by certain characters with their different abilities. The speed levels serve as gateways from the hub world to the adventure levels themselves where the player has to race at high speed through platform-filled sections. During these levels, the player can use the Enerbeam to zipline from side to side and as well use the different characters and their special abilities.

During gameplay, the characters can offer different tips to the player through conversation between the characters. Also, if the player has trouble getting through the levels, the computer will help the player out more with the other characters. Also getting attacked by an enemy will only cause the player to lose a portion of their Rings.

Weapons
In addition to the traditional "beat-em-up" style of combat in the game, the player can utilize several different weapons to their advantage, similar to Shadow the Hedgehog. These weapons include:
 * Battle Trumpet: A trumpet that acts like a handgun. It fires colorful musical notes at enemies to damage them.
 * Cyclone Blaster: A handgun that creates a powerful tornado to scatter enemies, damaging them at the same time.
 * Explosion Switch: A red button on the ground. When pressed, it creates a powerful explosion to destroy enemies. It is one of the strongest weapons in the game.
 * Feather Blade: A sword that is shaped like a feather. In addition to damaging enemies by contact, it creates a small gust of wind, making it useful at a distance.
 * Hand Gun: A gun that, when fired, produces a white glove to smack enemies in the nearby vicinity, strongly damaging them.
 * Water Balloon: A balloon that, because of its aqueous content, can short-circuit the robot enemies in the game.

Updates
Patches for Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric has been released to fix several glitches in the game. It is over 1GB in size and contains a number of fixes and upgrades to the system, including:
 * Prevention of Knuckles "infinite jump".
 * Some level barriers added to prevent the player from escaping the map.
 * Improved framerate during speed sections
 * Loops are "less choppy"
 * Minor lighting improvements
 * Improved shadows

Playable characters

 * Team Sonic:
 * Amy Rose
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Sonic the Hedgehog

Bosses

 * Crab Excavator
 * Driller Worm
 * Eggman Mech
 * Lyric the Last Ancient
 * Metal Sonic
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Tunnel-Bot

Areas

 * Lyric's Tomb
 * Abandoned Research Facility
 * Lyric's Weapon Facility
 * The Pit
 * Slowpoke Isle
 * Ocean Purification Plant
 * Creeper Gorge
 * Sky Citadel
 * Sky Citadel
 * Lyric's Lair

Hub worlds

 * Cliff's Excavation Site
 * Bygone Island
 * Crater Lake

Sub levels

 * River Rush
 * Undersea Bolt

Reception
Unlike previous games, Sega declined sending advance review copies of either Rise of Lyric or Shattered Crystal to journalists. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has been critically panned by critics, being the lowest-rated game of the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Gameplay wise, critics have generally criticized the repetitive level design, combat system, sluggish controls and the constant audio/visual bugs. Similarly, the framerate was criticized, with Destructoid stating that "the [game] feels like it caps out at 30 frames per second with occasional stuttering and choppiness". The multiplayer/co-op mode of the gameplay though has received some praise but was noted by GameInformer that "the already rough framerate [in multiplayer/co-op] has become laughably low".

Another notable aspect of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric that was criticized was the constant banter in the game by the characters and always used "[repetitive] one-liners". IGN also noted that the script of the game also "embrace[d] drab clichés rehashed from seemingly every show aimed at kids".

Combined with Shattered Crystal, Sega confirmed that the games sold a total of 490,000 copies as of February 2015, placing them as the lowest-selling major Sonic launches in the history of the franchise. In March 31, they overall sold just 620,000 copies

Trivia

 * The codename for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was "Project Apollo".
 * The working title for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was Sonic: Origins.
 * Along with the 3DS version, this game was once called Sonic Synergy.
 * The game lets players choose which character he or she likes, the rest of the characters will be controlled by the AI meaning in battles they will support you whenever a boss is attacking you.
 * Chris Senn, lead level implementer for BigRedButton Entertainment, was co-lead designer and art director for the cancelled Sonic X-treme.
 * This is the first 3D Sonic platform game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to feature Amy as a full-playable character.
 * Coincidentally, it is also the first 3D Sonic platform game since Sonic Adventure not to feature Amy as a side character and with her own unique gameplay style.
 * The background music in the debut trailer is the song Bangarang, performed by Skrillex.
 * The game has similarities to Sonic Heroes with focusing on teamwork and combat.
 * This is the second Sonic game to feature a beat 'em up style gameplay in conjunction with speed and exploration rather than just the momentum-based platforming gameplay the Sonic series is known for. The first being Sonic the Werehog's gameplay from Sonic Unleashed.
 * This is one of the few Sonic the Hedgehog video games to not feature the Chaos Emeralds.
 * In an interview with Bob Rafei, he stated that the Enerbeam tether idea came from Knuckles' Chaotix.
 * A glitch could be exploited to give Knuckles infinite jumps in midair, allowing speedrunners to skip much of the game and finish it in less than an hour.
 * Howewer, it was fixed in January 2015 patch.
 * Alan Denton, show writer of the Sonic Boom television series tweeted a joke about this glitch being canon in Sonic Boom using a fan made funny video consisting of an edited clip from "Dude, Where's My Eggman?".
 * Voice clips of Amy interacting with Perci during gameplay could mean that Perci was going to be a playable character, but was scrapped as a playable character for unknown reasons.
 * In addition, there was a Tornado level during development, but was also scrapped for unknown reasons. Voice clips were also used.
 * After performing a dodge roll as Sonic, he will do his signature pose from the original game, to taunt the enemy.
 * A glitch is possible for Tails to get stuck in part of a airplane on one of the stages.
 * Unused voice clips found within the game suggests that at one point, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was meant to have a more darker or mature tone due to the discovery of dialogue and use of profanity (e.g. Knuckles says "pissed" and Sonic almost exclaiming "shit" before quickly replacing it with "shoot").
 * There was going to be another level named Lyric's Armada, but it was scrapped from the game.

Videos
Trailer = Hub World = E3 2014 Gameplay = E3 2014 Trailer = Gamescom 2014 Trailer = Sonic Boom 2014 Event Trailer= Japanese Trailer= Sonic Boom 2014 Demo 1= Sonic Boom 2014 Demo 2= TV commercial= Nintendo Direct 2014= Sonic's gameplay= Release Trailer= French Commercial=