Another Sonic game. I know.
Another chance for Sega to get this franchise back on track. Another opportunity for fans to come out of the woodwork in defense and complaint of design choices, character looks and gameplay mechanics. Another potential storm of hype that could, and we hope not, lead to letdown.
Sonic Boom was announced for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Both games are separate, though they take place in the same universe, and they both feature unique western developers.
That’s right, western devs doing a mainline Sonic effort. BioWare had a crack at the franchise with Sonic Chronicles back on the DS. That was an RPG. Sonic Boom is a true, blue 3D Sonic title.
The awesome bit? Sega picked two extremely promising studios for this new Sonic effort.
The Nintendo 3DS version of the game will be held by Sanzaru. Sanzaru, who you may or may not have heard of, has some time with mascot style characters in 3D adventures. Specifically, they handled the Sly Cooper trilogy update for the PlayStation 3 and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time for both the PS3 and PS Vita.
They’ve shown they have a penchant for modernizing almost ancient game mechanics for 3D mascot titles, and I think they’re a great match for the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Boom.
As for the Wii U flavor? That’s being done by Big Red Button, a company with no development track record to speak of.
Why is this good news? A quick look at Big Red Button’s small team will reveal that the company was co-founded by Bob Rafei. Rafei’s the current CEO, and he’s got a history with some mascot games you might be familiar with.
Here’s his rundown, by way of the Big Red Button site.
- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007), SCEA
- Daxter (2006), SCEA
- Jak X: Combat Racing (2005), SCEA
- Jak 3 (2004), SCEA
- Jak II (2003), SCEA
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001), SCEE
- Crash Team Racing (1999), SCEA
- Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998), SCEE
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (1997), SCEA
- Crash Bandicoot (1996), SCEA
Looks good to me.
I won’t lie. I fall into the category of regularly hyped and letdown Sonic fans. I did wind up liking Lost World, though. Not as much as I hoped I would, but it was fun.
Sonic Boom? The character designs were enough to kind of turn me off initially, but now that I’ve actually considered the teams behind them? Yep, hyped again.
We’ll see how this plays out, but Sega has my attention based on the studios helming each effort.
