The GHZ Forum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TwJmYz3eQ

Even the notoriously uncritical YouTube audience is tired of the franchise.

So Richard Jacques again? The trailer music seems livelier this time around, at any rate.

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/whats-n ... nd-friends

Anyways, more linear this go, eliminating the only noteworthy aspect of the predecessor.

So it's pretty much a licensed game of the show this time around? To be fair, that's probably the step I'd take if I were in charge of this quasi-franchise, just let Sanzaru do what they please with what's left of it.

I'm guessing Sega must have signed Sanzaru on to two games (especially as the Rouge VA had "Sonic II" listed as a 2012 title). As such I'm not expecting it to be an improvement over the original, as it's quite likely that a large part of the design process was completed before the original shipped.

Haha, Nintendo disabled ratings on the video. (At the time of my post, the majority was negative by a small margin.)

It looks pretty much like Shattered Crystal with one additional layer of complexity. And more bosses!

Also, isn't this a pretty quick turnaround? I guess it is about as much time as Dimps got to develop their Sonic games...

I don't think the dev time for the first 3DS Boom was much longer than a year, either, to be honest.

It had all the hallmarks of a quick licensed tie-in by a skilled team -- competent, repetitive, boring, short. And it also was way more accurate to the setting and tone of the TV show, which makes me think the show was much further along when the game dev started.

big_smile wrote:I'm guessing Sega must have signed Sanzaru on to two games (especially as the Rouge VA had "Sonic II" listed as a 2012 title). As such I'm not expecting it to be an improvement over the original, as it's quite likely that a large part of the design process was completed before the original shipped.

I think it has to be something like that. There may be someone at SoA who thinks it's worth it to take a second shot at this given the time and money invested in the rebranding, but with the way SoJ came down on them afterward I don't think they would've let them do it unless there was something already contracted or already almost done (and even then, they did dump Xtreme back in the day). I'm surprised they're allowing the TV show to continue. It may be successful but if there's not going to be any more Boom games then it's only confusing the brand and further fragmenting the fanbase.

It's probably important to remember that, budget-wise, the TV show is a much, much bigger investment then any of these dumb games are. It's the cornerstone of this project, and it's at least moderately successful I guess? As long as it's on the air, we'll probably keep getting tie-in games for the same reason we keep getting Adventure Time games, especially on the handhelds. To young kids, Sonic is a character from a TV show, and toys and games spun out of that will seem interesting even if older fans have learned to back off.

I'm sure the original Boom 3DS was sufficiently modestly-budgeted to be profitable, and a game like Fire and Ice -- built entirely in a reused engine by a small team in under a year, is going to need to sell even less. So there's not much reason not to do it.