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GoNintendo Review - Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice

by rawmeatcowboy
29 September 2016
GN Version 5.0

SEGA is on a mission with Sonic fans. In a rather refreshing approach, SEGA came out and said that Sonic wasn't getting the attention he deserves when it comes to quality. They recognize that recent years have been rather lackluster, and they're out to turn things around. Obviously that kind of move is going to take time, but it's good to know that SEGA has recognized a problem and is out to correct it.

Many consider Sonic Mania to be the first title that shows SEGA's new plans for Sonic. It'll be the first game that really gives us a look at how SEGA plans to bring the blue blur back to his former popularity, all while bringing in some fans that may have lapsed. With that said, it's not entirely fair to say Sonic Mania is the first title to really try and right some wrongs. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice went through a rather lengthy delay in order to make for a better experience. That delay was also followed by SEGA's admission of Sonic's quality taking a dip. When you put both together, you can see that Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice got a lot more love from SEGA than originally planned.

So how does the new title in the Sonic Boom franchise measure up? It's certainly not the best Sonic game in the franchise's long history, but it is without a doubt a step in the right direction.

Sonic Boom isn't exactly a brand that instills faith in Sonic fans. While the cartoon series is more than serviceable, it's the Wii U game that really did some damage. Some have labeled Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric as the worst entry in the franchise, and without trying to sound like a jerk, that's a very loaded statement. That said, Sonic Boom on Wii U really was quite a disaster in a number of terms. From gameplay to graphics and everything else inbetween, the title just didn't seem to connect with anyone. I guess that's a good thing for Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice. While having the Boom name hurts its chances, at least Fire and Ice has a very low bar to hurdle.

It's clear that in least some ways, the dev team behind Fire and Ice knew that they had to revisit ideas of classic Sonic in order to create something new that would resonate with fans. I'd say that's extremely present in the game's level designs. Not since the DS outings have I played a Sonic game that really made me feel like I was playing classic Sonic. Levels are absolutely huge, sometimes taking quite awhile to plow through. There are branching paths all over the place, and levels offer a lot to scale both horizontally and vertically. There's a lot to take in with every single level, and it's that large canvas and multiple paths that gave me a good-old Sonic feeling.

Expanding upon the idea of huge levels a bit comes collectibles. Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice has a ton of goodies to collect in every level. There are all sorts of icons and items to pick up, and there are multiple of each, which let you unlock other content if you manage to grab enough. These goodies are hidden in all different corners of the map and include paths that you might not even see when going through a first playthrough. You have to keep an eye out for these side-paths, which is made a bit easier by switching to your 2D map on the touch screen. At least that way you can see that there are some out-of-the-way collectibles waiting for you to discover how to get to them.

Now getting those items is going to require use of all sorts of characters. Fire and Ice is definitely not a Sonic-only affair, as you'll be utilizing multiple Sonic universe characters as you play. You'll come to unlock them as the story progresses, and each one has a unique ability to two. The good news is, you can change between characters on the fly as you play. You actually have to do this to progress through certain spots in levels. For example, Amy has her trust mallet that she can use to temporarily bat away rock formations that block your path. Tails has a gun that he can fire off at enemies and shoot out-of-reach obstacles. Sonic has a dash move that'll let him smash through certain blocks, and so on.

On top of all those different abilities is the ever-important Fire and Ice mechanic. Explained through a bit of simplistic/silly story, Sonic and Amy are wearing watches that get jazzed up by accident, and these freak occurrence gives them the ability to harness both fire and ice powers. When Tails catches wind of this, he manages to use his tech skills to upgrade everyone's watches to have the same abilities. Now anyone you play as can use the fire and ice abilities. That's all well and good, but what exactly do they do?

Much like some of the character-specific content, your fire and ice powers absolutely must be used in order to progress through the game. You'll happen upon blocks of ice that you can only pass by turning on your fire power. This lets you melt the blocks and fly right through them. The same goes for water blocks. Sometimes you have to cross over a bridge of water blocks by turning on your ice power. This solidifies the water and gives you a makeshift ice bridge.

You'll be using these powers constantly in every single level. It's not that the powers are super sophisticated in how you use them, it's the way that the levels line up mechanics that makes it interesting. As you get further into the game, the levels will have strings of rather quick sections where you need to switch back and forth between fire and ice. If you mess up on a section, you're sometimes sent back to the beginning of that section to try again. You'll feel yourself getting into a groove of switching back and forth between the two, which really leaves you feeling accomplished after you pull off a rather challenging section. Your abilities with fire/ice switching are even more tested in challenge-specific rooms, which can really make you think quick on your feet.

As I said, you'll never be doing all kinds of crazy things with your fire and ice abilities, but you'll be using them all the time. It's the way that level designs string them together and the environments that you use them in that makes things interesting. You're sure to get a bit frustrated early on when you're trying to run through a section and you switch to the wrong phase, but that's just how things go. The game wants you to learn the main mechanic like the back of your hand so you can plow ahead more confidently in the tougher sections later on.

This gameplay curve is also tested in boss battles, which span both screens. Sonic will be taking on massive enemies that will require your fire, ice and character switching abilities to take them down. These boss battles are really varied and multi-tiered, which makes them nice ways to break up the regular gameplay. The further you get into the game, the more you'll be asked of when fighting bosses. There's a lot of dodging attacks and avoiding damage just to get to a point where you can hit the enemy. It requires a lot of patience and a keen eye for patterns, but I suspect most Sonic fans will be up for that challenge.

There's definitely some great fun to be had in Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, but the entire package isn't without its flaws. I know that some people will complain about Sonic's speed, which does seem to be quite slow. This has to do with the heavy focus on platforming and exploration in the levels. You'll have to hold down a button to make Sonic run, but more often I found myself just avoiding running to hunt down hidden goodies and take on platforming sections with more precise actions. I can understand if this lack of speed makes people upset, but oddly enough, I really wasn't bothered by it. The gameplay itself was interesting enough for me to have fun, so I could forgive the lack of focus on top speed.

That's not to say the game is completely devoid of any fast sections. Almost every level has some sort of auto-run section that Sonic blasts through, complete with loops, corkscrews and more. There are also stages that are nothing but races that put you up against an enemy. These races include laps where you have to run through, around and over obstacles, and first place is the only option. I can appreciate the desire to break up the core of the gameplay, but these race levels didn't really do all that much for me. They were just kind of there. I just completely races and worked to get back to the main focus of the game.

I also found myself rather unimpressed by the visuals. I'd venture to say that Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice isn't a very pretty game at all. I like that Sonic has returned to the side-scrolling perspective, but this visual presentation leaves a lot to be desired. The whole thing looked bland, muddy and uninspired to me. Some cut-scene in-engine graphics look nice, but by and large, the visual department left me very unimpressed.

I can say the exact same thing for audio. I have such a love of Sonic's soundtracks over the years. There have been so many games filled with absolutely fantastic music. I know SEGA and other devs involved have the ability to create some insanely good tunes, but Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice doesn't have any of those. The entire soundtrack was forgettable. I can't even think of one tune to hum along to right now. I can personally take bad visuals and not be impacted by them, but the lack of a great soundtrack really stings me.

Audio-visual complaints aside, I was quite pleased with Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice. Again, it's not the best Sonic game out there, but it's definitely one that provides a good amount of fun. I would love to see a sequel to this game that spices up gameplay a bit more, completely overhauls the visuals/audio and then gives a bit more speed. With that said, Fire and Ice is a very solid refresh for the Boom brand. This is probably the game the series should have started off with and built on from here. Let's hope that's exactly what SEGA does.