I've been waiting for this game to come out ever since I saw the teaser of the game came out last February, its basically a mix between sonic rush (for the ds) and sonic rivals ( for the psp). The game play is addicting, the characters are great, the task of finding crystals and blue prints is fun and overall a great experience. Sanzaru Games did any amazing job, but know that this is mainly targeted towards kids and new sonic fans, but even if your an old sonic fan like me I would still recommend giving this game a try!

Sega released 2 Sonic Boom titles developed by 2 completely separate teams - this is the one to get. Great classic platforming and Sonic speed, fun minigames; finally I can show my kids the kinds of cool games I played when I was growing up! Recommended for all fans of the franchise, it really looks great on 3DS.

Welcome to the new branch of every gamer's favorite spiky blue dude, Sonic Boom!

Q: What is "Sonic Boom"?

A: "Sonic Boom" is a brand new secondary branch of the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise. A whole new alternative universe to the Sonic Team games, with the beloved SEGA favorites: Sonic (The Team Leader), Tails (The Brains of the team), Knuckles (The team's muscle), and Amy Rose (The team's backbone)! And Sticks (the loveably nuts new member)!

A new world, with new possibilities: now with a brand new cartoon, a comic book, and two prequel tie-in games, "Rise Of Lyric", and "Shattered Crystal", created by Big Red Button and Sanzaru Games respectively.

This review covers the 3DS handheld title, "Shattered Crystal".

Story Synopsis:
"Shattered Crystal" starts with Lyric "The Last Ancient" kidnapping Amy Rose, desiring her knowledge of the powerful crystal of the Ancients!
Sonic then embarks on a journey to regroup with his team, acquire the crystal shards, rescue Amy from Lyric's clutches-- and ultimately put an end to Lyric's plans to conquer the world.

Pros: Story is humorous, much like the cartoon, and doesn't take itself too seriously. The humor has improved in comparison to the likes of Sonic Colors. The story is simple enough to follow, and characters are given decent display of their unique personalities with animated models in cut scenes and through character interaction via dialogue.

Cons: The story is fairly short, the humor can get a bit cliché to some, and cutscenes are not able to be skipped to those who may desire such an option.
None of this may harshly affect the ability to enjoy the overall game for some, however.

Gameplay features:

The gameplay, unlike the traditional main franchise games by SONIC TEAM, is primarily geared towards exploration, and action-based platforming.
Using the unique abilities of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks, players are strongly encouraged to explore the many stages to hunt down crystal shards, rings, and the blueprint pieces (which are collected to unlock new character upgrades).

Each character's special abilities are used to explores stage maps:
-Sonic can air dash to smash through blue blocks, reach higher areas, and smash through enemies with the air dash and Spin dash attack

-Tails can hover across air currents and cover short distances, throw bombs, and use the Sea Fox in submarine "mini games" to obtain hidden blueprints

-Knuckles can punch, and burrow under special pathways to reach new areas

-Sticks can throw her boomerang to hit enemies and switches to open new paths

- All characters can use the homing attack, boost/sprint, double jump, and use the new "Enerbeam technology" to swing across areas, and disable enemy shields

To progress through the game, players are required to obtain "Sonic Medals", which are earned by completing specific objectives (such as collecting all crystals or blueprints in a stage, and by simply completing a stage).
Unlockable models are acquired by earning special tokens by completing special times and by completing a stage with a specific number of rings. These tokens can be spent at Q-N-Q's Toy Shop.
Stages come in three variations:
*Exploration stages: stages where players explore the map for collectables
*Worm Tunnels: stages that play on-the-rails akin to "Sonic Dash", with side-stepping, enerbeam-swinging, and boosting to proceed through the obstacle course
*Rival Races: fast-paced stages where players will race against a rival character, in a style similar to "Sonic Rivals"

Pros: character abilities, and level design provide an interesting semi-quick paced platforming experience.

Cons: exploration can get a bit tiring in long periods, especially considering that the player is required to visit levels a decent number of times to fully complete objectives, and proceed through, and complete the game.

Music: The soundtrack, composed by Richard Jacques (Sonic 3D Blast Saturn, Jet Set Radio, Sonic R, Sonic Generations, and Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed), contains a unique flavor of atmospheric, rocking, and orchestral music.

Pros: Each track sounds quite nice, and strongly fits within their respective environments

Cons: for some, the soundtrack may not be very memorable

Final Verdict:

"Shattered Crystal" is okay game with a nice new Sonic universe to explore that isn't plagued with the messy state of its older brother "Rise Of Lyric". It has likable characters and an interesting set of challenges. The game is unfortunately very short, and can be a bit tiring during long periods of play, and has some unfortunately small flaws in its concept-- but is ultimately an fun game for those that find enjoyment in level exploration and old-school platforming.
However, upon completion, the game leaves a lot to be desired in terms of content and replay value, leaving the player likely wanting more.

While this is still a Sonic game trying a different gameplay style, I think this one works. It starts off slow, due to the huge levels that take up to 15 minutes, but once you know where you're going, you can expect rubbing through the stages in 5 minutes or less. This game also focuses more on platforming than just running through the stage, and there a good amount of collectables on each level. Unlike Lost World, a game that I dispise greatly, the controls works very well. Double jumping and homing attacks are still napped on the same button, but it's not really a problem here. The graphics also look good on the platform, except for the giant metal worm which look like something out off a DS game. People who think Sonic game should be nothing but speed might find it hard to like this game, but for those who don't mind good platforming and an option to explore the levels, this game will prove to be a great choice.

After enjoying Sonic Lost World a lot more than everyone else did (Seriously, that game is awesome and doesn't deserve the BS it gets!), I was expecting this to be a pleasant surprise as well. And, okay, I had a bit of fun with it at first, but after a few levels, I found myself kind of agreeing with the general public. Yeah, this game's appeal doesn't last very long, and a lot of this comes from not just the gameplay but even the story loses it some points.

When I saw the new designs for the characters, I was pumped. This looked like it was going to take a route similar to that of Jak and Daxter, slightly dark and gritty but also adding a bit of humor to lighten the mood. The backgrounds certainly gave that impression. But unfortunately, that's not what we got.

The first problem is that the story starts off interesting and then it just becomes 'Hey, let's see how many bad jokes we can fit into each scene'. Whatever plot it did have was completely undermined by the constant use of horrible one-liners and the same jokes repeating themselves over and over again. Knuckles saying a bunch of dumb things is painful enough, but having Sonic and Tails repeatedly point out everything wrong with his statements just made it annoying. Sticks I find enjoyable during the animated cutscenes, but during the reading portions, it's literally just her labeling everything as evil. It gets old really fast and isn't funny. (Though okay, her speech at the end of the game did have me in stitches) Lyric could have been okay, but he was seriously downplayed. (That and the final battle with him was insultingly easy)

Well, that's enough about the story. Gameplay is the most important thing and, well, the running stages were a lot of fun, but the majority of the game is kind of dull. I don't mind having to puzzle solve, but you have to take things really slow if you want to get so much as an ending to this game. Wanna know why you can't run without pressing the right button? Because if you don't move slowly, you're gonna miss a bunch of stuff. And even as far as just labyrinth exploration goes, again, it starts off interesting, but after a while, it just gets monotonous. It's fun experimenting with everyone's abilities for a while, but it gets repetitious and annoying fast, especially since each character only serves one primary purpose to getting all the way through each level.

The boss fights are a mixed bag for me. On one hand, this feels like true Sonic. You're racing against one of Sonic's rivals and moving really fast, but here's the thing: that doesn't qualify as an actual fight, and nor do the running stages with the robotic worms. Unless those worms are actually trying to kill me, I don't count that as an actual boss fight. Still, those are the most fun parts of the game. And while the Lyric battle is an actual battle, again, it's easy. If you actually get hit in this fight, don't worry. Chances are you'll never get hit by him again as his pattern is hella predictable.

Thankfully, the controls do actually work, so it is playable. I've heard the Wii U version has a bunch of glitches. Haven't played it myself, but if that's true, then I can safely say this is the better deal, but there's so much better you can go with. The one upside, though, is that I got three times as much store credit as I usually do when I sold it, but I'm sure if I waited longer, that wouldn't be the case. On the whole, Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal was a let-down. Contrary to popular belief, I think Sonic games have been on a role these last few years (With everyone's complaints easily applying to the Sonic Adventure franchise! Logic, you guys are doing it wrong!), but this was a major disappointment.

To end this, I'm gonna say this: I'm okay with Sonic games doing things differently. I hate how people trashed Sonic and the Black Knight for doing something different as it was still a very fun game. I was all for an alternate universe sort of thing. I just didn't find the game fun/engaging. Though I do find the cartoon strangely enjoyable. It's like Adventures of Sonic with more structure and better action.