Sega Admits Sonic Boom Did NOT Work, Future of the Series In Question
Sonic the Hedgehog has a very curious history. He shot out like a rocket and wowed gamers with his high speed and attitude, which was meant to be an antithesis to Mario. And it worked. Gamers loved his titles. Then…slowly…his games started getting worse. Now, even though he’s got a great comics line, and even a good TV show (according to fans), his games just can’t seem to get good again.
The latest attempt to “fix” the Sonic franchise was via Sonic Boom: The Rise of Lyric on the Wii U and 3DS. Sadly, this was game was panned by both critics and gamers. Numerous bugs made the game a joke at best. And other gameplays aspects made gamers furious at what was happening to the favorite blue speedster.
Ironically, Sega themselves admit they did wrong with Sonic Boom. In a recent podcast, Sega Producer Stephen Frost spelled out what went wrong with the game.
“The biggest mistake in Boom was trying to cram too much into the game,” he explained on SEGA Nerdcast. “Not only were we trying to make just a really good Sonic game, we were trying to add more to it. We overextended our grasp in some ways. We’re trying to add in a bungee mechanic, and we’re adding combat, and we’re adding puzzles, vehicles, hopefully a more compelling story and a bunch of different environments. And it’s just a lot, you know? If there’s any lesson for me, it’s that being too ambitious can be bad.”
This failure has apparently made Sega gun shy about future Sonic games. Though Frost does have certain ideas as to how the franchise could continue…
“Solo Sonic games, I don’t know how long that can last – there isn’t enough variety to sustain it. The future of Sonic games needs to be co-op,” he explained. “It worked really well in Sonic Boom, community and online play, that sustains it. In general, you need to do multiplayer and add online multiplayer aspects. That will sustain and keep the franchise alive.”
What do you think? Can Sonic survive this? Let us know!