As we reported a couple of days ago, a number of game-breaking bugs have been discovered in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U. The plot thickens today with the discovery of an exploit which allows Knuckles to jump infinitely when the game is paused between hops, as shown below in this video by YouTube user AurumDude:
Because the glitch allows players to skip huge sections of the map, it's already opened the way for speedrunners to try their hand at completing the game in record time. Amazingly, there's already a run under an hour — and the player responsible for it even admits to an extensive number of mistakes and areas where improvements could be made.
We wouldn't be surprised to see Sega issuing a patch for the game soon, as these sort of problems so soon after release are likely to mar its image. Then again, some say there's no such thing as bad publicity — and it's likely only the beginning stages for glitch hunters in the YouTube community.
What do you think about this exploit? Will you be trying it out with your copy, or are you adamant about playing the game as intended?
[source neogaf.com]
Comments (91)
Where are the reviews at for this game??
@SockoMario Sega has declined to provide review copies.
I thought games were capable of having working pause features since the fourth generation. Sometimes earlier, too. Lots of times even.
It saddens me that Sonic is now the kind of game that Sega isn't proud of anymore by not distributing review copies
Really Sega? Get it together.
@HylianJowi: Probably because they don't want the game to get reviewed it it's current state
This must be the week of broken games. First Assassin's Creed Unity and now this. I didn't know it was April 1st.
Either SEGA rushed this game out the door, or Red Button hadn't heard of this thing called beta testing. Either way, this game could of used half a year extra development time. There is literally no reason this game to run the way it does when it's only being coded on one platform... unless this game was intended to be a multiplat originally, then SEGA decided they wanted out of their contract with Nintendo and made the last minute decision to make it a Wii U only game.
@Pink_Floyd: Half-Life 3 confirmed!
I had a good feeling this was going to be a speed running game, I guess this will end up being the best use for the game.
Planning on picking up the 3DS when its available on my neck of the woods as from what I could tell from early lets plays, THAT version looks to be the most polished and refined. As for the Wii U, I would rather wait till it goes down on price and then pick it up for a laugh
now SEGA just make a sonic game with no glitches and bring more game gear games and master system games to the 3ds virtual console and make some saturn 3d classics and sone sega gba 3d classics
The moment I first saw Buffckles, I knew he was going to do wonders for this game.
People were saying.....? One glitch is nothing huh? Ok.
-smashing head on desk-
Sega! All I wanted was a 3d adventure Sonic that actually works well! Was that so hard to ask!
Looks like Sega maybe didn't learn much from Sonic '06...This just seems like it was rushed out the door big time.
Can anyone defend this game? Nope only the diehard fans saying "every game has glitches when it's launched."Yeah they do but not the type of glitches that let you skip through the whole game.God developers like this should just stop releasing games that are not even polished talking to you Ubisoft!
Oh, boy. Won't Sega ever learn?
As I said before in my past post, heh this could've needed 2 more months of polishing. Now you gonna have to do some heavy patching BigRedButton.
Classic SEGA.
Was anyone actually expecting anything else?
Nintendo: Sega what is this...
Sega: are new sonic game!
Nintendo: hehe..hahaha..HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA cough so is Aliens: Colonial Marines
Sega: ......
I guess Big Red Button just wantd to prove they coud lmake a game as glictchy as Sonic 06.
I wasn't going to let my kid watch any playthrus of this before he got it from Santa but I think we'll skip it and just let scykoh have his fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GD0KW00hAg
But... who pauses the game mid-jump, unpauses it, taps jump again then pauses it again in such quick succession unless they're TRYING to glitch the game? There's no way that was an accidental find.
Well heres hoping the 3ds version isn't as bad!
I'm still going to wait and play for myself.Honestly,games like Portal and even Mario 64 have glitches that allow you to clear through the game much faster.This is really nothing new.If you want an example,look at this speedrun I found that lasted only minutes thanks to glitches.
[youtube:3YXWfNnAIvY]
It's usually not good news when a game launch is pushed ahead, especially when it is tv/movie related. Now Sonic has his own crappy tv game!
Sega... XD
I dunno, what's the big deal? As long as it doesn't corrupt your save file or really ruin your run, it's tolerable. So far, the game at least seems pretty fun, and glitches aren't happening during regular play.
@Drobotic I was gonna point at the Mario 64 glitches nobody complains about. Some Ocarina of Time glitches also allow you to skip major parts, or screw up your run.
I watched a live stream of Projared playing the Wii U version of the game. It was absolutely dreadful sadly. Muddy Game Cube textures, terrible voice acting that hardly sinks up, glitches, pretty bad dialogue, easy gameplay and puzzles, and the broken silver power from Sonic 06 slightly inhanced and built into every character. It's an up and down ride for the Sonic series, but this is sad.
@Kaze_Memaryu Exactly.If the game corrupts my system or game file,I'm not going to buy it.Mediocre textures and dropped frames are tolerable to me.I'm not looking for "teh best graphics in deh wurld".I just want to play a new Sonic game that happens to try to do something different.Now if the graphics make me want me to gouge my eyes out,that's different.But so far,it just looks like something I have to see for myself and play.Besides,a lot of people are extremely mixed on whether or not certain Sonic are good or not anyway(ex:I found Sonic and the Black Knight fun,while others said it was horrible).
@Drobotic Exactly, I'm exactly the same. It's really getting to me how everyone's finding the smallest things to bash about this game. Glitches happen, almost all the ones I've seen so far have been forced anyway. Bad textures don't matter as long as they're not REALLY awful, which they aren't. Dropped framerates, who cares? Not me, as long as it's not as bad as Assassins Creed: Unity.
Still not as bad as Assassin's Creed Unity. Sad how a licensed kid show game is less awful than an "official" AAA game.
Til there's a patch, Sonic Boom is the next Sonic 06.
The problem is that this is so easy to execute. Atleast the infinite flutter jump in SMG2 was hard to get constantly.
@kamifox1 Why would anyone go to Miiverse? For any reason?
They keep making this trash every year, and yet people keep buying it...
@BenAV
Not at all, my good man.
@BlackSpy What's this got to do with Xbox or PlayStation? Either way 3D Sonic games have been rubbish since the Dreamcast with the exception of Generations. 99% of future Sonic games will be awful regardless of platform.
@kamifox1 #25 I think it'd be pretty easy to get by accident. You'd just need to pause the game after starting the attack and then notice that the attack is canceled when you unpause. It's a pretty small window of time, but I could see it happening by chance, particularly in co-op mode.
I knew this would be next to impossible to nail after finding out what the Wii U version had planned. Looked cool on paper, but after playing many Sonic games, I can wholeheartedly say that I knew this game would not be able to live up to expectations.
@Nintendo_Ninja Hey, don't insult the almighty GC!
In all seriousness though; most AAA Gamecube games look better than Boom does. Metroid Prime 1-2, Super Mario Sunshine, and Star Fox Adventures quickly come to mind.
Heck, even some of the Sonic games released multi-platform like Heroes and Riders look more graphically-appealing than Boom's fairly uninspired art direction.
Hedgehog Hyperbole stikes again! Still buying this down the road.
People, listen to the Sonic fans; Mario 64 had glitches, therefore this is acceptable.
Ooh, a rushed game?! faints... Seriously? It doesn't look bad at all, and glitches are gonna get patched, so I don't see the big problem here.
This is getting ridicoulus...
I'm not worried by the glitches themselves, I mean, if I had to judge The Wind Waker HD from A+Start video (linked even here on NL not long ago) I would end to say it's a glitchy mess noone should play, but we all know that's not the truth XD
That said... I think glitches presence is normal in games as much as I don't feel to defend this specific game; unfortuantely the whole production value of Sonic Boom for Wii U seems pretty low...
Glitches apart, the art-style of the levels it's terrible from that little I saw, all so generic and monochromatic; even Sonic '06 despite it's game-breaking and fun-ruining glitches at least had some decent presentation.
At this point the only thing that could save Sonic Boom is it being very fun to play, that alone could make this game one of the best Sonic ones in recent years, despite the flaws, BUT between the apparently low production value and Sega decision to not provide review copies I hardly see any reason for hope this game hide any good -.-;
What?? A Sonic game that's quite rushed, unpolished and lacking? What else is new?
Luckily I found an exploit that allows me to skip the entire game.
@MagicEmperor I don't think there has been any Sonic game rushed to the point of it being broken since 06. Sure, the quality of some titles may be arguable, but they weren't broken.
So it's a really bad game and no review copies are being provided?
Also, does anyone know when Smash U reviews are going up?
I was expecting this game to suck, but I didnt expect for it to be a broken cluster ****. Also have you guys seen the ridiculous FPS the game runs at? Its ALL OVER the place.
Hardly a big deal really, other glitches maybe but this one isn't game breaking or going to spoil the game unless you want it to is it.
Seems to me like people are purposely trying to pick holes in the game so far
It's a damn shame because this is actually a really good game underneath all the bugs. Hopefully Sega issues a patch.
Ocarina of Time can be cleared in twenty minutes, but speedrunning exploits in that game (and many others) aren't so stupidly easy. Most glitches and unpolished details aren't as blatant as those in Boom seem to be.
@BakaKnight said it perfectly. I've watched 3/4 of the game and it doesn't look like it gets much better. If anything, I think it looks worse later on, because the later enemies sponge up dozens of hits and the puzzles/platforming hardly improve.
Wow, that sounds like some "16-year-old learning to program through videogames" level glitch. Did they ever care enough to play test this?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/sonic-boom-rise-of-lyric-wii-u-review-sonic-seems-needy-and-eggman-isnt-even-ovoid--it-all-feels-rushed-9855722.html. Found this review of the game, not a source I'd usually use for games but it seems to confirm what most of us surely already knew.
I don't like to install mandatory patches to play singleplayer. That just means it was rushed and not giving proper care before release and I really don't feel like buying the game anymore.
@ZeroZX_Dev yeah that's what I think. This could be sonic 06 all over again. Not touching this with a 10 foot barge poll.
Sure didn't it come out months ago that Sega are working on a new sonic for ps4 x1 and WiiU for the past while? remember reading that on here at some point.
Anyway, Sega know this is a pile of glitchy puke, hence, no review copies for anyone. Just bring back the sonic advance and generations formula, they were perfect. Stop trying to change sonic when you get it right Sega.
Sonic's dead.
I'm not surprised by the amount of crapitude that Sonic Boom is showing off. Games made to tie into new tv shows or movies tend to have horrible track records, but when they give the responsibility over to a novice development study its just a recipe for disaster. If they wanted to make Sonic Boom a huge splash, why not give the license to a credible developer who can operate under a tight timetable? Things were looking brighter for the Sonic universe with decent-good releases Colors/Generations/LWorld, but now they have another universally terrible offering.
I never use exploits, so it doesn't concern me.
The fps, on other hand, does even more so.
I would have bought it for the co op, but it seems, that it was an after thought, that they came up with on half way during the development. The co op with own screen for each player is such a big forte of the hardware, that it is such a big bummer, when it is done half heartedly, that I am skipping this all together.
If they started with the idea of co op(with private screens), they could have designed levels, that work without coughing blood. Now it looks as if they down graded the graphics and it still judders.
@BLPs
It has to go through quality control by either SEGA, Nintendo or both and apparently they didn't do a very good job.
Obviously, it's not the first Sonic game with major bugs. But as a exclusive for Nintendo this does not do the WiiU much good that the biggest exposure this game gets is because of the glitches and bugs.
Woot! Now, every Sonic is Sonic '06! In all seriousness, this is not as surprising as it should be.
I love that a sonic game which oddly isn't supposed to be a very fast game can be done in under an hour.
They set their release date, and now they have to deal with it.
To go with that old Miyamoto line about delayed games, a glitched game is glitched forever. Especially on Nintendo platforms where the update data is separate so can just be deleted (what you lose is incremental updates, for example there is no way to get a version 2.0 MK8 anymore). Even for the download.
Sonic games are inherently buggy, even Generations. I wonder how much of that is the internal SEGA QA process. Maybe they forgot to send copies to the QA and were like "they've not said anything, must be no glitches"
Oh..dear.
Sonic, let's hope you get back to normal soon.
Speed runners rejoice. Usually it takes years to find zips like this LOL
I figured the speed run would be under two hours, but it's even faster than I imagined. If you have the game, hopefully you'll just never patch it ever. Hope this is on video.
Well...despite what I've said before, I really can't defend garbage like this in a modern day game.
Sega need to get this patched pronto, or it's a massive embarrassment for them. Why has this game seemingly not been developed properly? That's what I want to know.
Hey, @BLP what aspect of game design are you into? Just curious
Once you've developed a game or two (even a tiny one) it sure does give you a different perspective.
This is probably the result of a hard-set release date and a hard-set budget. Nobody can win that scenario in software development. This is why you don't hear about release dates from companies that care about their reputation for quality and customer satisfaction — the long game — more than making a revenue target — the short game. BigRedButton may be the developer but their mistake may have been overpromising and giving SEGA too much control.
The evidence is piling up that this game might be a disaster but the verdict is still out, IMO. A couple glitches doesn't make the game a bad game. My kids like Sonic but I haven't been able to give them a great Sonic game yet.
@BLPs someone is feeling overly superior today..
@aaronsullivan what about Generations? That was a fun game. (Console version)
This game looks awful shame I rally liked Sonic: Lost World
The 3DS demo of the game was fun. I would assume the Wii U version to be fun too...
Again, not falling for Sega's money-making trap that is Sonic Boom.
The guy that made that first video should never, ever narrate a video again. Unless he gets a lot better at it. Right now, he's just... omg. I threw up a little.
@luke88 That Independent link you posted leads to a 404 error page. They must've been ordered to remove the review!
"Yep,this game is doomed.It can't be patched or ANYTHING."
This is not a big deal. #1, it can be patched and #2, it can be easily ignored... speedrunners will use it to run the game to beat it faster. Do you guys bash OoT for having glitches? Didn't think so. OoT was cleared in 18 minutes. It's not a big deal.
@SphericalCrusher Can the terrible animations, the terrible A.I be patched?.Can the graphics be patched?Can the game breaking bugs be patched? No for the first three and yes for the last one, but that will take time and time is not what this game has.After the patch that clears these glitches no one will care, cause in everyone's eyes this game is garbage and nothing will change that deal with it. And don't compare Ocarina of time with this that game is amazing this is not, and yes i played the game.I know how bad it is "This is not a big deal?"Yeah not for you though,cause maybe you didn't waste hard earned money to buy this thinking this was worth it.Hard earned money down the drain yeah friendo that's not a big deal.
I'm probably still going to buy this game. I have to give it a fair chance, given the credentials of Big Red Button. I LOVED ALL Jack and Daxter games and the first Crash Bandicoot games. They have many recorded glitches and bugs yet those did not negatively affect my experience. So I think calling it garbage is a little premature at this point, but everyone loves to hate whether its actually good or not. Though, i was sincerely ticked off by Aliens: Colonial Marines. Lets not poor salt. Stay posi!
@midnafanboy Yes, game breaking bugs can be patched... but you are in no position to speak for "everyone" You can't say everyone thinks this game is crap. that is just your opinion. I have played it, and so have a lot of my friends and we enjoy it. I was comparing OoT to this due to game-breaking bugs... because a lot of great games have them.
@Diddy_kong
You must be fun at parties.
@SphericalCrusher Still the terrible frame rate when you do anything in the game is unacceptable, especially when you play with another person is the worst.And pathetic if the game had these issues then they should'ave delayed it and improve it not wait after the game is released.Cause this game feels rushed and unfinished.It's sad for sonic and it's fans.At least the show is good i would recommend that than this.
@midnafanboy Good opinion, great name. I respect that. The show is great and I am waiting for my copy of Sonic Boom issue 1 to come in. I also saw where SEGA didn't have a big hand in developing, just publishing. I'm still going to buy it when I get the money. That and Harvest Moon Lost Valley I need. Because these+what I have + Pokemon ORAS/SmashWiiU/Persona Q will have me set till next year at least.
@SphericalCrusher Thank for that and when you do buy this game i hope the glitches and frame rate problems are solved.Cause Sega can't be just sitting there not doing anything about the problem.
Sega really needs to invest in the Sonic universe. Sonic games have never appealed to me but if they have some unique and fun characters. I know it goes against the typical Sonic gameplay, but I imagine a Sonic RPG along the lines of Mario Seven Stars. No beat em up, no ADHD speeds. Just good, fun gameplay in the Sonic universe.
@HylianJowi Easy to figure out that crappy game is blocked from getting reviews early.
Both the Wii U and 3DS versions look really horrible, the 3DS demo was the worst Sonic game I have played and I've unfortunately played all of them so far.
@FragHavok they did that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Chronicles:_The_Dark_Brotherhood
@Marioman64 Looks like I know what I'll be playing in the future ! Thanks for the info!
@OdnetninAges
Right, apparently not liking bad games means I'm no fun at parties. Glad I care what you think, kid.
@Diddy_kong
What are you talking about? I was just letting you know that I think you'd be a good person to hang out with at a party. We could play Smash Bros. or Mario Kart.
Of course, we'd have to agree to disagree on Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.
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