Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice from Sanzaru Games is a game developed exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS and it’s based on the Sonic animated series by the same name. It’s a game that brings in the personality of the animated cartoon, while also capturing some of the beautiful elements that the original series from the Genesis days focused on — creative levels, unique boss battles and speeeeeeed! While it isn’t completely perfect, the game certainly shows signs of life to a series that apparently only Nintendo’s handheld 3D beauty can capture.
Anyway, let’s get to talking.
The gameplay design for Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice can be compared to Ubisoft’s Rayman Origins. The central goal of Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice is to collect as many rings as you can, while going off the beaten path to explore a bit more than expected. Much like Rayman Origins, the foreground and background in Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice are actively seeking each other during gameplay. This means that when you’re playing any given level you can quickly bounce to and from the background and foreground. Unlike Rayman Origins, the need to jump to the background is secondary to finishing the level, which means it’s not necessary. What you’ll find in the background is hidden gems, more coins and unique level designs, as well as reason to go back and replay a level. What this adds to a typically fast arcade style platformer is an element of exploration, which is something usually found in games like Sonic Adventure. The added foreground/background dimension also caters well to the 3D element on Nintendo’s handheld system.
Outside of this unique exploratory option, the game mainly rests its laurels on what made Sonic popular, which is speed racing through a board to get to the ending quickly. It has been a while since I’ve played a Sonic game that made me feel just a tinge of excitement that the original game left me with back in the 90s. The 3D sonic adventures have never felt the same way, especially the 2006 release, which made me want to break controllers. Anyway, Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice does a great job of representing what made the original Sonic series great and sprinkles in some additional elements to make it just slightly different enough to break up the monotony that most gamers would feel towards it.
Speaking of different, the boss battles do a good job of using the full real estate of the 3DS to show off some creativity. You’ll see this in the first boss battle, where a small robot takes control of a gigantic totem beast, which promptly beats down the snow tundra it resides on into the bottom screen of the 3DS, thus revealing a two-screened sized boss battle that poor Sonic and crew have to go up against. It’s unique and it’s a change from just beating poor Dr. Eggman up in a patterned gameplay style. I was enormously impressed with Sanzaru Games and their creative take on some baddies and their relation to the Nintendo 3DS. It certainly showed a lot of heart for the series.
Back to levels, the game is built on a Super Mario World mentality, where the levels are broken into multiple paths on individually designed islands. Each level has the usual Sonic design included (platformer), which you’ll see the most of in the game. Some paths lead to unique experiences that sometimes turn the game into things like a shooter. For example, there is a level where you jump in a hovercraft and race up an icy river avoiding giant pieces of ice, while collecting time watches to keep the race going (old school arcade racing rules – think San Francisco Rush without blocky graphics, 3D open space and scantily clad women). You are also armed with torpedoes and a booster to help put together a River Raid (Activision) type of experience. In short, there are levels that give you something else other than continuous mammals racing to the right.
Again, Sanzaru Games should be commended for trying to do something stylish and unique, as well as expansive, to the Sonic series. They’ve done a lot more with a animated cartoon license than previous attempts from other developers. Having said that, not all is completely well with the game.
The biggest issue that I ran into with Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice is the button scheme layout. The Y button controls the speed of Sonic and crew, while the B button controls the jumping and smashing portion of the characters. The A button is used during special times, such as when you need to swing on an electronic rope across a series of spikes. The X button is used to give characters a boost up/down/special moves. The R button is used to switch between fire and ice elements. There are moments in the game where 3-4 buttons are needed nearly at the same time to accomplish feats. For an adult, or someone posing as one (like myself), this can get frustratingly complicated. For my son, who adores Sonic, this got to the point where he put the game away and went to play Roblox (he is eight). There were times where I would feel the button crunch just like him. For example, when playing Tails early in the game, I was forced to float down over spikes, use X to blow up block with a laser, while moving the thumbstick to push Tails into a safe area. It doesn’t seem like a tricky thing to do, but it was a struggle. During frazzled times in the game, I also ended up smashing the wrong button, such as the time where I wanted to catch a rope with A, but had to kill an enemy with a double-tap of B first, while going fast with the Y button. There’s a lot to think about when it comes to controls and sometimes it simply gets in the way of the gameplay, which is never a good thing.
On a positive note, the fire and ice elements of the game are well crafted into the design. As I mentioned above, by pressing the R button, you can switch between them. The elements either melt ice or create ice, depending on what you’re running into on any given level. Sometimes they’re a part of the speed drill, where you have to pay attention to places you go to make sure you don’t fall through melted ice or accidentally melt ice. It’s a neat dynamic to the gameplay and one that certainly doesn’t get in the way.
Anyway, the controls are certainly manageable, but they can be a struggle at times.
On the presentation side of things, the game is pretty, but also plays it safe visually. It doesn’t stray too far from the original Sonic design and does its best to stay completely clear of an open 3D world adventure. Like mentioned above, the game has a Rayman Origins feel to it, though not as visually detailed as Rayman. The levels are pretty deep, while the environments are cookie-cutter platform designed. The characters do show off their personalities pretty well, but don’t go beyond what is graphically asked of them. It looks and sounds like a traditional Sonic game should sound like. If you’re expecting that, then you won’t be disappointed. The 3D visuals are done well, though there is some major fluttering during the top-down shooter levels. Regardless, the game is visually appealing.
The music? It’s nothing special, but it doesn’t get in the way. That’s a good balance.
So, is this game worth it? I think so. Sega and Sanzaru Games could have cashed in on Sonic Boom’s fanbase and made a quick, subpar game. They didn’t. They actually produced a good title. So, yeah, it’s definitely worth a look.
Anyway, onto the summary!
