Monday, June 09, 2014

The Somewhat Improved Update & E3 Speculation

Updates are going well.
Everything has been reasonably on-time, and a reasonable amount of stuff added each time as well. Today's update was better, mostly because people sent things in. Another old mail (2007 old...I think it was the first casualty of "stuff overload" period that started occurring at that time.) The mail count has been lowered again, I think this is the 4th week in a row that it has gone down by 1 or 2 things each time. So good news all around for the site & anyone who sent things in.

What about E3?
As you know, today, Monday the 9th is the start of E3. Will there be Sonic news? All signs (literally! there's a banner!) point to 'yes', but the answer is "Boom". Likely gameplay or some of the cut-scenes from the game will be shown, because those always look best first. The voice actors doing the game voices are also supposed to be the ones doing the show too, so it'll be an indicator for the show.

Will anything else NOT Boom show up at E3?
Hopefully some sort of non-boom surprise appears.

Setting up Boom:
E3 is a big deal, so this is 'their' chance to really try to set up Boom & create/start off whatever hypetrain they're trying for with the new bandages-mummy-festival look they've got going. If I had to guess at it, showing good graphics and the humor they've been loving to boast about this whole time has the best chance to win anyone over. The whole 'teamwork' thing they've been leaning on won't break "The Sonic Cycle" , especially for jaded fans who somehow hate all Sonic games, because Heroes had it, and this new game will get called "Heroes Knockoff" until it proves itself otherwise.

The first easily found Boom media from E3:

1 Video, about 5 minutes
No real cut scenes, just game play. Since the Gear site doesn't really cover games (elsewhere does it better) the E3 Boom footage won't appear there. (It's easy to find though, just look at Youtube) However, I've seen it, and it looks like a game. Does it look like a SONIC game? Not right now. It's a game that has Sonic IN it, but most of the scenes didn't seem typical Sonic-gamelike. This may or may not indicate anything because whoever made that video chose whatever they wanted.

**(But 5 minutes and you can't judge much of anything in such a low time)**

Slow platforming like Mario
Loads of grabbing with magic glowing string
Everything taking a lot of beating on to get it to die when it isn't a boss

Stuff that's bothered people before but is somehow still there:
Constant chatter
GET A LOAD OF GET A GET A LOAD OF THIS GET A LOAD OF THIS GET A GET
Remember that from Sonic Adventure?
The talking/quips must be there to make the game like the show. But they're so constant it comes across as the game "Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machine-o's Butt!" (no, it's a real game, look it up & then go listen to the possum for an hour. You'll have 'fun'. Because atypical animals and blatant Sonic ripoffs are 100% way to get everyone's money in the 90s) This is the first thing people complain about with Boom.

Knuckles punching stuff is great.
I'm in the camp of "The werehog should not have existed, if you wanted strong/punching you should have used Knuckles". Don't send him on a boring scavenger hunt, bring out the fists! Rad Red is totally cool & underplayed, the werehog was just weird*  .

Using glowing string to hook enemies & punching multiple times is heavily featured ("oh and here is the guy who can block your string" of course, makes an appearance) if they use it right it could be fun.

Sonic Labyrinth was a spinoff too, and while it had JUST Sonic, he was slow because he was on a search for his shoes through a maze. 3D Blast was hardly fast, either. Spinoffs can and do have un-Sonic-like elements. What about those pinball games? Sonic Spinball first and foremost? It's pinball gameplay, not Sonic gameplay.

The above paragraph justifies nothing...it's just proof that Sonic game-makers make really random stuff sometimes & Boom may go in there. The difference is that unlike other spinoff games such as spinball, secret rings, labyrinth, Tails Adventure, STF and etc, Boom is getting a huuuuge push of marketing, a TV show, tons of merchandise, ads & more. They're clearly pushing for it to become more than 'just a spinoff'.

However, the question really is "HOW FUN is it?"

*opinion