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SEGA’s Sonic Boom 2014: Lost in New York


SEGA’s Sonic Boom event took place this past Saturday in New York, and I was able to attend, representing both Sonic Retro and SEGAbits. The whole night was a lot of fun, and it was great to meet so many people responsible for one of my favorite SEGA franchises. Stephen Frost did an excellent job hosting the show. All the guests were friendly and willing to go above and beyond for fans, most notably Ted Poley and Mike Pollock who were able to stick around and sign additional autographs outside their sessions. If you’re interested in reading how the night unfolded, make sure to check out my impressions over at SEGAbits.
What made this year’s Sonic Boom unique from previous years was the focus on SEGA West’s Sonic Boom franchise. Outside of the live music, which featured tracks from Sonic Adventure through to Sonic Lost World, and Iizuka being present, the night was mostly about Sonic Boom. All the bases were covered, with Archie Sonic artist Tracy Yardley manning a busy table featuring a convention exclusive Sonic Boom poster for sale, and guests from TOMY, Sanzaru Games Inc., BigRedButton Entertainment, and the full voice cast doing interviews and signing autographs. Fans expecting a peek at what Sonic Team are up to were out of luck, but for those who wanted to learn more about SEGA’s new branch in the Sonic franchise, the night did not disappoint. I can easily say that I am far more excited for the 3DS version and the cartoon show now, though the Wii U version and the comic book are still a gray area. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric looks far better in person, however I’m not sure how well the game will be paced, and the camera in the speed sections needs work. The comic book is sure to have great art, but I’m not sure how the stories will play out. Still, following the event I am more sold on Sonic Boom now than I was before.
Being the only Sonic Retro writer in attendance this year, I’ll admit to feeling a bit like a lone wolf for the first half of the night. Thankfully, I came across several Sonic and SEGA fan site and YouTube channel owners which included SEGA Driven‘s SonicYoda, The Sonic Stadium‘s T-Bird, Tails’ Channel’s Matt, SomeCallMeJohnny, and the Find The Computer Room team. It was great to meet these guys in person, and I was glad to find such a large pocket of people at Sonic Boom who liked seeing Shadow getting kicked in the face, thought mid-20s hipster Chris Thorndyke is the greatest idea for a cosplay, and believed Big the Cat deserved his own game (okay, maybe I’m the only one who believes that last one).
After the break, check out a gallery of photos from the night, and there’s also those additional impressions I mentioned *cough cough*.

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2 Comments

  • Reply

    I’m still rather annoyed that they keep using the same damn e3 build every time they show this thing off. Do they think we haven’t seen it yet? Cause we have. We AAAALLLL have. I support RoL but it still annoys me that we’ve been shown two areas that while not perfect graphically, are design-wise just not nearly as interesting as what we’d been shown off before e3. I understand not wanting to ruin the surprise, but with the game’s downright schizophrenic reception between the initial reveal, e3, and gamescom, I feel some spoilers would be necessary.
    Oh well, at least both the new trailers were fantastic.

    • Reply

      Actually, it is a different demo than the E3 demo. The Sonic & Amy level goes on longer than in the E3 build.

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