#Sonic boom red button games series

Having an ally to bash in Lyric's robots army helps trim down the time spent in the lackluster combat sequences. You can swap between the characters at will, unless you're working through a section specifically designed for a duo. One player uses the GamePad screen and the other wields a Wii Remote and Nunchuck while watching the TV. The game is a little more fun with a co-op buddy. Tying these sequences together are brief, banal sequences where Sonic and pals are bounced around the environment like pinballs, leaving the player with little to do.

The series' infamous, linear speedy sections return, complete with touchy controls that make dodging the fast oncoming obstacles frustrating. Enemies might pop out of the ground faster than anyone would be able to react, and other times the best solution is soldiering through a minefield of hazards while hemorrhaging rings. Jumping between platforms and avoiding various hazards actually feels slightly improved over recent entries, but that's offset by shoddy level design. When you're not exploring and punching things, you'll spend time completing platforming-heavy challenges and running real fast. Similarly, Amy's triple jump makes her best for general exploration, especially considering Sonic is as slow as the rest of the cast (Strange move, Big Red Button). Switching between characters in combat is a cool concept initially, but once you realize Knuckles is the strongest, you have no incentive to mix it up. Similarly, Knuckles is now a beefy brawler that can climb walls and ceilings, Amy packs a big mallet and triple jump, and Tails can hover and blast enemies with rockets. Sonic can spin dash towards enemies, which is also useful for accessing areas specific to him. This map doesn't perform basic map functions - like showing which direction you're facing - and sometimes fast-travel is inexplicably broken. One or two players can swap between all four characters when exploring the larger hub areas, complete with a useless map that you don't even receive until the second act. When it does work, tethering enemies and tossing them over ledges makes many encounters trivial. The game often automatically locks onto the wrong target, opening you up for an attack. Snagging your desired target is an inconsistent ordeal. Sonic and pals also have energy beams which are used to traverse the environment and lasso enemies.

Dodging is also a mixed bag sometimes you're granted a generous invulnerability window and other times just being too near an enemy will send your rings flying. Some enemies can also easily chain multiple attacks on characters, sending your rings flying (which disappear too quickly to recover a meaningful amount).

Landing punches is heavily dependent on the auto-magnetism that guides characters towards their targets. In addition to Sonic and his crew's new 'tudes, they also have a new misplaced tendency for melee brawling. Eggman even spouts out groan-inducing, poorly aged meme references, like 'Nailed it!' or 'That. Big Red Button insists on forcing the gang's annoying, quirky new attitudes onto players, with tons of repeated one-liners like 'That's got a nice ring to it' and 'Stop, drop, and roll!' These guys won't shut up about how much they love rings. The story is a vapid parade of tropes, with jittery cutscenes and eye-rolling humor. Sonic and the gang collect a bunch of crystals to once again save the day while battling legions of generic robots. Eggman is still a thorn in their side, though he's sidelined when a new nemesis, the cyborg snake Lyric, comes to power. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy all look vaguely different than their previous incarnations and are sparsely wrapped in white tape, like the laziest mummy costumes you could imagine. Even worse, it layers on a new level of sloppy combat for Sonic and his friends.Īs part of Sonic's Cartoon Network debut, he and his whole crew have been redesigned.

#Sonic boom red button games series

Big Red Button's Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric game ties-in with the new Cartoon Network show, but this new entry still suffers from problems that have plagued the series for years. No matter how fast he sprints, Sonic just can't seem to outrun the curse that follows him from game to game.