Calling yourself a die-hard Sonic the Hedgehog fan means playing all of its games, including the BOOM saga. This was my mission as a Sonic fan and a lover of the platform genre and for this reason I would like to make a small premise: the Sonic Boom saga is very different from the high-speed one we are used to: “But Marva… SO SONIC DOESN'T RUN ?? OMGOMGOMGOMG! " I don't mean this, let's say that he runs a little to remind us that he is not Mario, and the review below will help you understand better what I mean.
A great TV episode
This is how I want to define the plot of this chapter, given that it is a story without art or part: Eggman discovers a mineral called "Magnite" with which he can finally get rid of Sonic and his friends once and for all; with a change of scene we find Sonic and Amy struggling with strange climatic vortices that, after an explosion, go to channel the power of the Fire and Ice, power that thanks to the brilliant mind of Tails will also be given to the other members, namely Knuckles and Sticks. We come to discover the existence of a robot, D-Sastro Bot, created specifically to collect the magnite through powers of magnetism (sorry for the bad pun but its task is just that); the robot, however, fails to attract anything but metal and making himself seen useless is kicked away by Eggman and sent to check the energy faults. This is the initial plot: the story does not depart at all and has no classic twists that we have been accustomed to in the titles of the blue hedgehog; but in a platform certainly not much is expected, so let's analyze the gameplay.
Melt and Freeze
The gameplay of Sonic Boom Fire and Ice as well as being in 2D view it is characterized precisely by these powers of fire and ice and also by the abilities of the characters themselves, but let's go in order: our heroes will find themselves discovering Eggman's plans wandering in different areas of the archipelago where they live; in fact we will start from the Kodiak Ice Barrier, passing through the coastal Island (island where our five characters stay overnight), the Ancient Marshes, the Isle of Thunder, the Gothic Gardens, the Bloody Bay and the Magna Rock Island. Because of the canals built by D-Sastro to bring magnite to all the islands, they now have climate problems from giant ice blocks or pools of water and this is where our new powers come into play: in fact, by pressing the L or R button we can switch from one mode to another between the power of ice and fire, allowing us to freeze large patches of water and pass over them, or cross large blocks of ice melting them thanks to the power of fire. Very interesting powers if they weren't for this mode: in addition to these large liquid or solid pools, we will find the use of ice only to freeze water jets, thus allowing us to slide on them or thanks to the power of fire we can light fuses to explode dynamite; all very nice except that the water jets are as exclusive to a world as the barrels of explosives themselves. Naturally, to help us in being able to have a wider game choice are the five protagonists who will be characterized by personal skills: Sonic will be able to use his dash after having rolled up to reach the next adventure in less time and will be able to jump higher thanks to a mini dash that, used sideways or below, will allow him to destroy stone blocks; little Amy will have at her disposal her PikoPiko hammer that will allow her to interact with columns by making them lower for a short time; Tails will be able to use his two tails to fall slower than the others and will be able to use his ray gun to eliminate particular obstacles; the mighty Knuckles will be able to use his strength to dig into the ground and reach areas through the subsoil; finally the crazy Sticks will be able to use her boomerang to reach inaccessible buttons and of course destroy the evil robots of Eggman; here too, however, I seriously think that the distribution of obstacles analogous to the peculiar abilities of the characters are incorrect or poorly designed since we will find to use some characters entirely in one level and then almost never again in the story.
Feel like a Crash Bandicoot
During the levels of Sonic Boom Fire and Ice we will find ourselves collecting not only our beloved Rings but also 4 other collectibles: Amy's hammers, which will be used to modify the appearance of his PikoPiko hammer, the trinkets of Sticks, which will serve to unlock special robots that we can use in the Isle of Thunder thanks to the race mode: here we will find Tails' laboratory and bring him some Magnite crystals, third collectible element in the levels, we will be able to unlock robots to compete in mini games against our friends. Remaining in the discourse of minigames, one of these is positioned in each platform level as a secret level: here we will have a time limit and we will have to make the most of all the powers at our disposal to recover a Fragment of a Figurine, the last of the four collectibles that we will be able to give to Knuckles in exchange for extra images in the video / audio / image gallery accessible from Sonic's house. In short, a large number of collectibles that, as you can see from the title of this paragraph, reminded me a lot of Crash Bandicoot, also due to the presence of 3 special levels: in two of these levels we will play a Tails robot who will have to reach the end of the level inside a submarine or aboard a hovercraft; or we can play Sonic in a frontal level where we will have to avoid obstacles to reach the end and receive our well-deserved prize which in many cases will be represented by a fragment of a sticker.
A different platform but ...
Many of you at this point may be wondering: "But Marva, if this game isn't that bad why is everyone talking bad about it?" Unfortunately dear readers the Sonic Boom saga presents a serious problem: Sonic doesn't run, or at least pretends to! What do you mean? First of all, the only racing scenes in the 2D levels are given by the accelerators that we will find in the floor; the same dash that all the characters present takes them from a walk to a slight jog, making us completely lose the sense of speed typical of the series. Speaking of Sonic, the latter also finds it difficult to run; in fact, even if he has a personal sprint, due to the way the levels have been built, it will allow him to sprint for a few seconds or so. Think that not even in the classic racing sections such as skating on the railings it will be possible to accelerate or in the front racing levels, if we use the dash, we will not be able to move to the right or left; in conclusion, they have very nicely featured several details of the game but have left aside the element that has distinguished Sonic for several years: speed. To top it off, the graphics department does not shine particularly, passing from 3D scenes such as those of the cartoon to in-game scenes comparable to graphics between Nintendo 64 and GameCube; as far as the sound sector is concerned, we also find here a certain calm in the music, certainly strange given the very “lively” tracks that usually best characterize the high-speed phases of the old chapters. As a last note I would also like to point out that the game is devoid of lives, so you won't even want to commit to playing Sonic Boom Fire and Ice thanks (or to blame?) For this lack.
