![]() ![]() Battle sections are monotonous, ungraceful button-bashing affairs that awkwardly incorporate a grappling hook-like beam weapon that can fling opponents around into generic obstacles. Sega likely had high hopes of recapturing the magic, in essence, of those respected properties, but Rise of Lyric fails to come within sniping distance of Naughty Dog’s past successes. Hence, it’s up to Sonic and gang to acquire said special gemstones before their cyborg-snake adversary does.ĭeveloper Big Red Button is a relative unknown outfit in the industry, but its head honcho is none other than Bob Rafei (previously of Naughty Dog), who contributed to the Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted franchises. Of course, in typical Sonic fashion, accomplishing this goal requires the use of several Chaos Crystals. ![]() Once sealed inside, the lead foursome accidentally awakens the titular villain, an oversized serpent equipped with bulky robotic armor, dead set on destroying all organic life and replacing it with cold steel and spiritless automatons. Sonic’s latest adventure opens with his crew skirmishing with Eggman when, suddenly, Metal Sonic materializes, chasing them into some garden-variety ancient temple in the middle of a forest. Rise of Lyric’s half-baked storyline is a very good indicator of the game’s lackluster quality. More concerning, however, is that the undercooked Rise of Lyric does away with just about everything that makes a great Sonic game (a bona-fide rarity these days), favoring tedious, uninspired combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving over exhilarating bursts of speed coupled with well-designed platforming passages. Even Sonic’s longtime nemesis, Doctor Eggman, who’s apparently been hitting the weights during leisure hours, has shed his signature oval-shaped body, looking very much like a mustachioed Gru from Despicable Me. These are questions without discernible answers. Why does each character have their various appendages wrapped up, Scooby-Doo! mummy-style, with athletic tape? What the hell happened to Knuckles’s hands and torso? Why is Sonic sporting such a gaudy red scarf? Before even getting into Rise of Lyric’s gameplay, the obvious aesthetic alterations to Sonic and his band of boisterous woodland cohorts-Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose-are downright offensive. What began with the mediocre late-2013 double dose of Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games concludes with what is perhaps the worst of the lot. Any small adjustment went a very long way, so we had to be very careful.Along with its 3DS counterpart, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric represents the final phase in a three-part exclusivity arrangement between Sega and Nintendo in regard to Sonic the Hedgehog-branded titles. "But it helped us understand the rules of clothing in this universe. Over the course of that meeting, when we were coming up with new ideas, we had a very sincere-just two adults talking-conversation about why a character should or should not wear pants, and that was a very surreal moment in my life and my career," Rafei continued. "I felt sorry for the guy because sometimes he couldn't actually look at the screen-it was too traumatic seeing all the crazy stuff we wanted to do. As Rafei recalled, "Early on, when we had our first review of all the crazy things we wanted to try, Iizuka-san came down to Los Angeles and looked through all the different concepts." ![]() Without their input, the character would have been a lot more alien and different from what Sonic is known for." Discomfort may be putting things mildly, particularly in the case of Takashi Iizuka, the current head of Sega's Sonic Team in Japan. They were great guardrails for us to understand when we were deviating too far from the character. "We experimented with different colors and surface features on the characters, such as fur or scales, and quickly Sonic Team came back with their discomfort of that. ![]()
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