Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric[b] is a 2014 action-adventure platform video game developed by Big Red Button and published by Sega for the Wii U.[4] Along with Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS, it is a spin-off of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series and is a part of the Sonic Boom franchise, which also consists of an animated television series (whose games serve as a prequel), a comic series by Archie Comics, and a toyline by Tomy.[5][6] The storyline follows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, who must stop Lyric the Last Ancient from acquiring the Chaos Crystals by powering up a robot army and wiping out all organic life, after Sonic accidentally awakens Lyric from a thousand year rest, while escaping Doctor Eggman.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Big Red Button[a]
Lisa Kapitsas
Stephen Frost
Brian McInerny
Christian Senn
Adam Yeager
John Melchior
Christian Cantamessa
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric began development under the tentative title Sonic Origins in 2011, initially intending to be a Jak and Daxter-style game (later retitled Sonic Synergy) and would have focused around four-player concept; intended for release on PC and other consoles, it moved development to the under powered Wii U as part of a three-game exclusivity deal Sega had signed with Nintendo. Since the game's engine (CryEngine) was not intended to run on the Wii U, many of the gameplay concepts were hastily removed or simplified, while the story was rewritten due to Sega gaining full control over the television series. Richard Jacques, who was the lead composer for Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R, returned to write the soundtrack.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric released in North America, Europe and Australia in November 2014, and the following month in Japan as Sonic Toon. Sega did not provide reviewers with advance copies; it received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics for its controls, camera system, combat, story, gameplay, dialogue, and numerous bugs and technical issues. Some described it as both one of the worst games of 2014, and one of the worst Sonic games ever made. The game was also a commercial failure, with the combined sales of Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal totaling 620,000 copies by March 31, 2015, making them among the worst-selling games in the franchise.[7] Following the failure of Rise of Lyric, Big Red Button had nearly considered shutting down.[8]
Plot[edit]
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy pursue Doctor Eggman until they encounter an ancient tomb with carvings of Sonic and Tails on the entrance. Sonic is stopped twice by Amy from opening the door, but when Metal Sonic ambushes the group, Sonic opens the door and the group escape. Inside, they encounter an imprisoned, but powerful snake villain named Lyric the Last Ancient.[12][18] Lyric recognises Sonic from events transpiring one thousand years ago and captures the group,[19] but Tails deactivates their restraints and turns them into beams named Enerbeams for the group to use.
After meeting Cliff, the group discovers that Lyric planned to power an army of war robots with the Chaos Crystals to create a world of twisted metal and robots,[12] but was imprisoned by The Ancients when they discovered the plan; the group then set out to retrieve the Chaos Crystals before Lyric.[13] At an abandoned research facility, they meet MAIA, a robot who rebelled against Lyric, who assists them by creating a portal, allowing Sonic and Tails to go one thousand years back in time to retrieve a map showing the location of the Chaos Crystals. Sonic and Tails are then attacked by Shadow, but defeat him, enter the portal, successfully retrieve the map from inside Lyric's weapon facility and trap him inside for future imprisonment by The Ancients.
Lyric reluctantly forms an alliance with Eggman, but after no success, Lyric turns on Eggman by programming Metal against him. The group defeat Metal and Eggman and retrieve the final Chaos Crystal, but Sonic is then surrounded by Lyric and his robots. Lyric demands the Crystals; Sonic refuses to give them up, but Tails, Knuckles and Amy agree to do so. Sonic is then attacked by Lyric's robots and buried under rubble, but recovers and the group set out to Lyric's lair to stop him. During the battle, Lyric reprogrammes the Enerbeams to ensnare the group, but before he can take advantage of the situation, Eggman ambushes Lyric and frees them. Sonic then ties up Lyric with assistance from his friends and removes Lyric's technopathy device to incapacitate him; Knuckles discards it. The group celebrate, but Eggman recovers the device and uses it to revive Metal.
Release and marketing[edit]
After footage was shown off at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2013,[34] Sega officially announced Sonic Boom on February 6, 2014.[20] The franchise was designed for Western audiences[21] and serves as a prequel to the television series. Sega of America's marketing director Marchello Churchill explained that the new franchise was not designed to "replace modern Sonic".[20] The Western developer's CEO explained that Sonic Boom's Sonic is "very different ... both in tone and art direction",[20] and that it is a separate continuity to the main series. Customers who had pre-ordered the game through Amazon.com in the U.S. or UK would receive special lighting suits for the playable characters,[35][36] with UK players additionally receiving a T-shirt if it was pre-ordered on Nintendo's online store.[37]
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric released in North America on November 11, 2014,[38] and in Europe on November 21.[39] Although not initially intended to be released in Japan,[40] it was later revealed that it would release on December 18, 2014, as Sonic Toon: Ancient Treasure.[3][41] On the first day of the U.S. release, a glitch was discovered that allowed players to jump to infinite heights by pausing the game during Knuckles' jump, which could be used to bypass most of the game. Speedrunners managed to beat the game in under an hour using the glitch;[42][43] one of the writers of the television series referenced an edited episode clip mocking the bug.[44] In January 2015, a one gigabyte patch was released to fix a few problems with the game, including the "Knuckles Jump" glitch.[45][46]
Reception[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
Pre-release demos featured at E3 2014 received mostly negative reception from journalists. Destructoid nominated Rise of Lyric for "Best Platformer" and "Best Nintendo Exclusive" for their "Best of E3" awards.[47] In contrast, GameCentral wrote, "the very worst game in the line-up was Sega's Sonic Boom, which was so unspeakably awful we couldn't even force ourselves to play through the whole demo".[48]
Shortly after the end of development in July 2014,[49] many employees began leaving the company due to the poor work experience, leading to concerns about its quality.[50]