Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is too slow-paced, too easy, and too childish for teen or adult Sonic fans, and its control and design issues make it difficult to recommend even for its target audience.

The game could have used a few more months in the hopper and taken many more risks.

It’s admirable that Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric tries so many new things, but every path it follows is a dead end.

Sonic Boom is a broken game that still manages to let some of its potential shines through all the mess. But still, it's a broken game. Avoid it.

Its exploration is so-so, its brawling is tedious, its characters are annoying, and the only stages where it feels like a Sonic game are the ones most likely to suffer technical problems.

Simply put, Sonic Boom is one of the worst Sonic games in recent memory: the concept is bland, the design is awful and the execution is incredibly poor.

Sonic is dead, killed by Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. The game is a disaster from the point of view of the gameplay and from a technical standpoint, and in this production there is very little to save.

If you like Sonic, don't even try it. It might work as a platformer for kids, particularly if they're also watching the TV show. Still, we can see there are some good ideas behind it, but the execution isn't the right one.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is a worrying misstep for Sega. While we applaud the idea of refreshing the characters for newer audiences, Rise of Lyric feels like a mishmash of ideas that never got to fully develop.

I was initially excited when Sega first announced that Big Red Button would be developing Sonic Boom. I thought Sega handing the iconic license over to a new developer might shake Sonic loose of the slump he's endured via a string of rough Sonic Team titles. Unfortunately for fans and the Hedgehog himself, Sonic Boom is a blemished bore.

The undercooked Rise of Lyric does away with just about everything that makes a great Sonic game, favoring tedious, uninspired combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving over exhilarating bursts of speed coupled with well-designed platforming passages.

Holy hedgehog, what have they done to you? Sonic hit another low. The fights are monotonous, the puzzles don’t deserve the name. Add to that framerate issues, an unreliable camera and other technical faults. Did I forget something? Yes. This isn’t entertaining. Not at all.

It’s an unfinished mess, astounding only in how rapidly you can count its flaws.

Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric is a real disappointment for Sonic fans. There is basically nothing positive to say about this game. Sonic deserves much better.

Sonic deserves better days and also his fans, which are in need of a game that can return to the good old days.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is a ridiculous game that consists of bad camera work, sloppy controls and a stupefying script. Fortunately, it is possible to suffer through the campaign with a friend, but the fact remains, this game is an insult to all the senses.

Possibly the worst blotch on Sonic's record. [Feb 2015, p.73]

Just stay far, far away from this toxic hedgehog.

It's baffling how Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric draws inspiration from such good sources but fails at delivering almost everything it promises. Burdened by technical problems, a lackluster plot, confusing exploration mechanics and empty settings, Rise of Lyric needed a complete overhaul before being released.

I might even consider it the worst Sonic game I have ever played.

It pains me to say it, but Sonic Boom needs to be the last noise we hear from the blue hedgehog for a very long time.

One thing I’m sure of is that Sega ought to be embarrassed for pouring so much hype, so much marketing money, into this project, only to have a sad, miserable little dog’s dinner of a product to show for it. I guess it doesn’t matter, though. It’s an idiotic baby’s game for children, and it exists to sell toys. It also thinks you’re all dumb, and it wears its contempt for you on its sleeve. A sleeve covered in bandages.

Somewhere along the line Sega lost sight of what makes the series work. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric has a laundry list of problems, and not just problems inherent to the modern Sonic franchise, but failings of basic design.

Oh, that's terribly bad. From the beginning to the very end, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is such a shameful adaptation that we can only wonder how someone agreed to sell it. Oh Sonic, poor boy, they let you down, didn't they?

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is the mark of the vulgar and should not be touched.

Possibly the worst Sonic the Hedgehog game ever made, which considering some of his previous lows is one of the harshest insults in gaming.