Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom (tentative title) is an upcoming title for the Wii U, XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, planned to be released on March 5th, 2013 internationally and developed by the Sonic Team. It is the first 3D Sonic to focus completely on action-adventure and collecting items, much like Banjo-Tooie and Donkey Kong 64. Four characters can be used: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy Rose. The plot occurs on Angel Island, with Sonic racing to save his friends and stop the island from plummeting to the ground. It was originally planned to be released for the Wii as Sonic Reno, but was changed when the Wii U was announced. The 3DS version is slightly different then other versions.

Gameplay
Sonic Boom has a similar gameplay to 3D platformer games on the Nintendo 64, such as Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. The player controls one of the four avaliable characters, and must venture into open and vast worlds similar to those found in Super Mario 64. Only Sonic the Hedgehog is available from the start, and the other characters are unlocked as part of the storyline. Unlocking all the characters is mandatory for completing the game, as the bosses can only be defeated by a certain character. Each Kong has a unique set of abilities that are learned when the player purchases potions from Big the Cat at his lab. The player can select between available characters by entering the various Switch Gates located around the worlds.

The gameplay is heavily based upon item collection, and each stage features several items for each character to collect. It is not mandatory to collect every single item, but it is required if the player is aiming for 101% completion. The most important items are the Chaos Shards, obtainable by accomplishing certain tasks, but there are various other types of collectibles for each character to find, such as Medalions, Coins, Rings, etc. Each world features a certain amount of items that can only be collected by a certain characters, often making use of their unique abilities.

Angel Island acts as the hub world of the game, from which the player can access other areas. The first world of the game, Green Hill, can only be accessed when Sonic talks to a Knuckle Ghost near the enterance. When the Kongs collect a new Chaos Emerald from the boss of a world, the characters use the power to open a new world. The amount of Chaos Shards required to enter a boss inceases in each world. Found at the end of each world is a boss that can only be accessed when the characters bring a large enough pool of Chaos Shards.

Each boss can only be fought by a certain character, whose face appears in the Warp Ring before the battle. If another character tries to head through the ring, it closes immediately. The boss battles are constructed around the designated character's abilities. By defeating the bosses, the characters merge a Chaos Emerald that is used to open new locations. Along with main bosses, 2 mini-bosses appear in each world, 3 of which are mecha versions of the characters that must be beaten to free the characters.

In each world are Medalions which can be collected: each character with 4, meaning a total of 16 in each, along with 2 for each character in the overworld. These can be utilized to increase stats of the character. All 30 of the medalions are required to max a character, since 10 medalions are required to max each of the 3 stats. Maxing stats not only help the character but give discounts of rings lost when hit, used in moves and traded to buy things from Big the Cat. Thus, maxing a stat should be a priority.

Rouge the Bat has a hut in each stage. By giving her 15 red star rings, she will unlock minigame gates outside her hut, where Sonic and co can play minigames to win a Chaos Shard. For 20 red star rings, she will activate an E-Series robot to open a new path, usally allowing access to a Special Warp. In Special Stages found when going through Special Warps, the character's must progress through a Sonic 2-like minigame, collecting rings. If 150 rings are collected (which is harder as time goes on, due to bombs that deduct 10 rings), a medalion is awarded.

Chaos Emeralds
Sonic is relaxing in the fields when Dr. Robotnik appears in his Eggmobile, kidnapping him. When Sonic awakes, the Eggmobile is shaking and suddenly jolts upward, throwing Sonic into the air and onto the ground. A ghost that appeareance similiar to Knuckles appears and tells Sonic what happened: a few days ago, Robotnik kidnapped Tails and Amy, turning them into Super Badniks, who then did the same to Knuckles. He also tried to do the same to Sonic, but it malfunctioned and created a seperate "Metal Sonic". Robotnik then destroyed the Master Emerald, breaking apart the island. Soon, Angel Island will fall into the sea.

Sonic agrees to help and climbs a beanstalk up to the isle. When he arrives, he goes through a training course and battles the returning Robotnik, who then retreats. Sonic enters a transporter next to a hill and arrives in Green Hill Zone, but realizes his Power Sneakers are gone. Continuing on, he finds another Knuckles Ghost who reveals that the zone used to be home to the Knucles Tribe, and gives Sonic new Power Sneakers. He then enters a Speed Rush tunnel to test them out.

After finding enough shards of the Chaos Emerald, he finds a large Goal Ring and enters, finding a Metal Sonic. After battling him, the shards turn into a whole Chaos Emerald, which unblock the enterance to the next world. After traveling through all the worlds, he manages to free Tails, Knuckles and Amy, who all have been trapped in Badniks. They help him construct the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. Back at Angel Island, Sonic and friends use the power to create a new Master Emerald from the old chunks.

Death Egg
With the power, they also head to the top of Egg City (the enterance to Plasmatropolis), where a transporter is. They enter and find the construction site of the Death Egg Ultrament, which is almost finished. They sneak in and try to find the control room, taking down muiltiple gaurds in the process. However, by the time they are in the Engine Room. Dr. Robotnik has commanded the launch of the machine despite incompleteness. The heroes are almost fried but escape, although Amy has to stay behind to hold the switch

In the next layer they find the Fuel Containment area. Many gaurds appear and they defeat them, although only Knuckles can do the finishing blow. When they find the exit a robot grabs Knuckles leg, so Sonic and Tails must continue on. They then find the Weapon Center, where all the missiles are kept. After defeating many gaurds and deactivating the launchers, a Badnik throws a bomb off in hopes of stopping them. Tails manages to catch it before it hits the ground, leaving only Sonic.

Sonic finally manages to find the Control Center, where Robotnik lies. After destroying his top-notch badnik gaurds, Sonic attempts to defeat him but he jumps off. Thinking him dead, Sonic begins to type on his computer system when Robotnik rises in the Giant Mech. Luckily, Sonic shut down all robots, opened all doors and discharged all the bombs, so his friends are there to fight with him. After a long fight, the Mecha begins to go crazy and rams into the computer system, starting a giant decontamination on accident.

Sonic and friends turn into their Super forms once again and fly off into space, back towards Earth. As they fly, Robotnik barely makes it off as the Death Egg implodes apon itself.

Mega Emerald
If the player so chooses, they can start a sub-quest for the Super Emeralds at Angel Village/Flying Marble Gardens Zone by talking to a ghost Knuckles with the real Knuckles after the game has been completed. All the Boss Rings will take you to a harder version of the boss (the 'Hyper' version) for the price of 75 Rings, and defeating it will give you a Super Emerald. If you get them all and return to the Hidden Palace Zone in Angel Island, you can use the Mega Emerald to turn into Hyper Characters at Hyper Gates.

Characters
Unlike the past adventure title in the series, wiki:Sonic Adventure, the game only features 4 different playable characters, each with their own abilities.

Sonic the Hedgehog

 * Ability: Speed
 * Main Attack: Spin Dash
 * Special I: Speed Rush (unusable until Green Hill Zone)
 * Special II: Target Attack

Tails the Fox

 * Ability: Flying
 * Debut: Big Garden Isles
 * Main Attack: Tail Smash
 * Special I: Flying
 * Special II: Super Jump

Knuckles the Echnida

 * Ability: Strength
 * Debut: Crystal Caverns
 * Main Attack: Fist Punch
 * Special I: Gliding
 * Special II: Knuckle Climb (upside-down climbing learnt in Green Hill Zone)

Amy Rose

 * Ability: Skills
 * Debut: Plasmatropolis
 * Main Attack: Piko Piko Hammer
 * Special I: Piko Smash
 * Special II: Cream Call

Cream the Rabbit
Although not not a playable character, Cream commonly contacts Amy at different times through Amy's telewatch, especially during her special move. Cream explains different tactics and items, such as how to use the grappling hook and where to find a shard of the Chaos Emeralds.

Rouge the Bat
Rouge appears many times in the game, appearing once in each level. For 15 Red Star Rings (20 in the overworld), Rouge will unlock the minigames appearing outside her huts. For 20 Red Star Rings (except at Angel Island), Rouge will press a button and activate a previously deactivated E-Series robot, who will then effect the level in some way.

Big the Cat
Big the Cat appears like Rouge in many levels. His main objective is to teach the characters new moves (their secondary moves, to be exact). Each move costs 50 Rings to purchase, although a discount is given if the player is using a character with two maxed-out stats.

Metal Sonic
This Sonic clone appears many times, usally in Speed Rush stages. He tries to antoganize Sonic. Luckily, he is easily defeated. and always drops a Chaos Emerald behind when that happens. He is finally defeated at the last regular boss battle, although he still appears in uncompleted Speed Rush courses. However, in the Mega Emerald sidequest, he sometimes uses a shard of Robotniks Duplicate to turn into HyperMetal Sonic, who attempts to stop Knuckles and co.

Power-Ups and Abilities
Big's Warehouse is a location that Big the Cat resides in, and it appears in every area of the game. Big has seemingly taken up science as a hobby, and in his lab, the player can buy different potions in exchange of Rings to learn new techniques and abilities needed to progress throughout the game. There are two kinds of potions that are available for the characters and each type of potion gives them a different ability.

Worlds

 * Area 1: Angel Island Zone
 * Description:
 * ​Mini-Boss:
 * Boss:
 * Character Unlocked:
 * Potions:
 * Area 2: Green Hill Zone
 * Description:
 * ​Mini-Boss:
 * Boss:
 * Character Unlocked:
 * Potions:
 * Area 3: Angel Village/Flying Marble Garden Zone
 * Description:
 * ​Mini-Boss:
 * Boss:
 * Character Unlocked:
 * Potions:
 * Area 4: Rocky Mountain Zone
 * Description:
 * ​Mini-Boss:
 * Boss:
 * Character Unlocked: Amy Rose
 * Area 5: Forestry Factory Zone
 * Description: Just like old times, it seems that Robotnik has industrialized the forest. Save the woodland-workers and stop the badnik-badness!
 * ​Mini-Boss:
 * Boss:
 * Area 6: Artic Zone
 * Description: Brrgh! Robotnik freezed this block of ice a long time ago. But where are the Chaos Shards? The only way to melt the ice is to bring it to the fire at camp, but the outside is just the tip of the iceberg...
 * ​Mini-Boss: Big Icedus
 * Boss: Ice Mobile
 * Area 7: Crystal Caverns Zone
 * Description: Uh-oh! Eggman is searching for something with all theese drills. Is there something hidden among the crystals?
 * ​Mini-Boss: Tunnel Bot
 * Boss: Drill Mobile
 * Area 8: Dark Eggcity Zone
 * Description: Looks like Robotnik couldn't help but make his own city. In the depths of the dark streets lie treasure, but Robotnik will not stop until you are defeated... or the Eggmobile is.
 * ​Mini-Boss: Big Shaker
 * Boss: Super Metal Sonic
 * Area 9: Death Egg Zone
 * Description: This is where Robotnik has put all his eggs... man. Get on board before it takes off! But watch out, for many EggRobos and other Badniks lie waiting for you here.
 * ​Mini-Boss: Metal Sonic Fake, EggRobo, Hypnotized Shadow
 * Boss: Egg Mecha
 * Area ?: Hidden Palace
 * ​Description: Deep in the ruins the Angel Island/Flying Marble Gardens Zone is this underground palace, home to the famous 'Master Emerald'. But what more lies here? Maybe we can learn from the Knuckle Ghosts...

Development
Shortly after Sonic Generations was released, the Sonic Team decided to make a game similiar to Epic Mickey, showing some of Sonic's old elements. Early in development it was refered to as Sonic Revo, with only Sonic, Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armidillo as playable characters. Concept art appeared showing Sonic riding on Ray and a giant colleseum with a Shadow Wizard in the middle. Later on, the basis changed to have gameplay reminesint of the old games, but in 3D and with some action-adventure twists put in.

On January 2nd, 2013, Sonic Team announced the game, along with Sonic Revolution, a game featuring many of the elements that were left out. In an interview with IGN on February 4th, the head of development Brock Dilley stated this:


 * "It's been a pleasure working on this, since the series has been a big part of my childhood. There were some features we couldn't fit in, but we hope to in Sonic Revolution,"

3DS Version
The 3DS version has many changes, apparently because it is not as strong as other consoles:
 * There are only 2 skill tracks; the other 10 are just required for 100% completion
 * Angel Village Zone is changed to Flying Marble Garden Zone, the temple now is just a boss fight and not a cheat-code room, and the Knuckles Ghost who starts the Master Emerald quest is not there.
 * Boss rings reappear when you re-enter the world before you complete the game, meaning you can get Hyper mode before completing the game.
 * Big the Cat's hut no longer has it's own island, instead being near the enterance to DarkEgg City.
 * Amy get's more time on her Piko Piko Rocket, but the exhaust does not hurt enemies.
 * DarkEgg City is smaller, and has less open doors.

Trivia

 * The Artice Zone is the only Zone with one word in it.