As far as video game franchises go, the Sonic Boom series isn’t exactly the most successful example out there. Both the Wii U game Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and its 3DS companion Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystals were commercial and critical failures upon their release in 2014. With a combined total of 620,000 copies sold between both titles as of May 11, 2015, the two games are the worst selling games in the history of the larger Sonic the Hedgehog franchise they were spawned from.
Their TV show companion however, simply titled Sonic Boom, is preforming exceptionally well despite the games both failing horribly. So well in fact that it has spawned both a toyline and archie-published comic. Apparently the good performance of the TV Series was enough to convince Sega to keep trying with new entries into the video game area of the franchise.
Titled Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, the game will be coming exclusively to 3DS. Sanzuru Games, developer of Shattered Crystals, will be taking the helm again on this one. As the title suggests, the gameplay will be centered around fire and ice-based mechanics. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the Shattered Crystals-exclusive Sticks will be returning from previous 3DS entry alongside Amy, who was previously exclusive to Rise of Lyric on Wii U. In addition to the Fire and Ice‘s single player campaign, the game will also feature a new multiplayer component called “Bot Racing” focused on, you guessed it, high speed racing.
Of course, the real question people are asking is whether Fire and Ice will be any good. It’s doubtful the game will fall into the infamous “Sonic Cycle” after the huge letdown delivered by its predeccesors, but these sorts of low expectations could also give the game an advantage. It definitely seems to skew a lot closer to the TV show than either of the last games, which could at least give it comparatively better sales, if nothing else. The game will be coming out sometime “later this year”, so we won’t know for sure until then.
