Here Comes the (Sonic) Boom

Despite the initial flurry of pessimism lunged against it, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U actually had a lot of promise.

The new designs were an extremely mixed bag (especially the mind-bogglingly jacked Knuckles), and could have been more mixed if not for the Sonic Team’s intervention. Nevertheless, I wished the best to the team behind it, who I figured were capable of assembling a quality product. Developer Big Red Button Entertainment mostly consists of ex-Naughty Dog staff, many of which lent a hand in working on the Jak games on PS2 (presumably not the cancelled reboot). While they were lacking key members from that team, all a talented group needs is a guiding voice to unify them for the best results.

However, warning signs began appearing in the game’s showings, which mainly occurred in the early part of the year for good reason. To say Sonic Boom looked rough around the edges would be one of the biggest understatements in recent history. It lacked polish to such a degree that at least another year of development would be required to make its presentation serviceable, yet this was coming in the fall. That’s never a good sign, unless the videos and demonstrations Sega provided were deliberately misleading, something no company with sense would do. Yes, even Sega.

Those demonstrations were not only accurate, but the game is actually worse than what they depicted. There had to be a reason why it silently disappeared in recent Nintendo Direct installments. Sonic Boom for Wii U is, by all reports, a horribly broken game shipped in an obviously unfinished state, evinced by game-breaking bugs and glitches too easy to encounter.  It was always bound to be the subject of ridicule for anyone who dislikes Sonic to an unhealthy degree, but no one expected it to compete with the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog reboot for the buggiest (and potentially worst) game in the franchise. It’s almost always an ominous sign when publishers give review codes to very few outlets.

So what happened? I’ve seen a number of people blame it on Big Red Button lacking talent, but is that really the case? No one will be willing to discuss the real story for a good while, but that won’t stop anyone from inferring what happened — me included.

It’s likely that Sega wanted this game on shelves by the time the CG animated series started on Cartoon Network, regardless of the product’s state. They’ll also want to move that merchandise they’ve stuffed in stores for the holiday season, and could potentially lure in some poor, unfortunate parents with a purchase of the game. Big Red could have crunched hard to get this game done in time, but to no avail.

Well, that’s assuming they were there to crunch at all. Reports say the game was in development for around three years and cost $20 million to make, more than enough time and money for a competent developer to create a platformer. Other reports said some employees at Big Red fled the company well before the game’s release, hinting at serious trouble behind the scenes. It’s possible they didn’t have anything else lined up after Sonic Boom’s completion, and hopefully this won’t lead to their closure.

Keep in mind this doesn’t apply to Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for 3DS. This version is developed by Sanzaru Games, previously responsible for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, and is apparently a better game. You should note that “better” in this case doesn’t mean “good,” and that’s not due to its awkwardness.

Nintendo didn’t receive the best deal around after signing an exclusive deal for three Sonic games with Sega. Sonic: Lost World turned out OK at best on both systems, and sold similarly worldwide. Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for Wii U fared even worse in terms of sales and reception. Now we have Sonic Boom, whose Wii U version is the worst of them all. Sonic games may have sold best on Nintendo platforms previously, and they probably still do on their handhelds, but Nintendo won’t be making another deal like this in the future.

Meanwhile, the Sonic Team might be in the midst of developing a new multiplatform title, if rumors can be believed. It should fare better than Sonic Boom, but we’ll see if the team has taken everything they’ve learned from the previous titles to create the best experience they can. This franchise needs it.