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Terrorists have seized some military bases around the world in a quest for world domination. You as a tough pilot have to fly your supersonic jet on a mission to safe the planet and to receive everlasting gratitude from all its inhabitants. That being the prelude of Sonic Boom, gives the impression that Sega has really taken massive amounts of time to put in very much depth into the plot of this game, which unfortunately caused the time left to construct the game to be too short to make it very good.
The original coin-up Sonic Boom was rather a disappointment, so why Activision remade Sonic Boom for the home computer three years later is a complete mystery to me. I expect they thought they could improve the coin-up (which wasn’t that big of a challenge) and make it a good game. And so here we have Sonic Boom for the Amiga! A six-level vertical shoot ‘em up in which you have to fly a bit in your jet, shoot hordes of enemy planes, tanks, canons, satellites and boats which do not really change much throughout the game. Sometimes when you kill an entire jet-formation during the game you’ll get a power up which after grabbing it, causes a mini-jet to fly along side you, thus increasing your firepower. More power ups will get you more mini-jets. At the end of each level there’s a big bad larger-than-average nasty, which has to be taught a lesson (a vertical-shooter can’t exist without them I guess). Killing them will make you advance to the next level.
Graphically Sonic Boom is very bland. The backgrounds are pretty colourful, but they lack detail and the bright colours make you sometimes miss bullets, which are fired at you, causing you to be hit without you noticing it. But this may also be because I need glasses. The enemies in Sonic Boom do not only use bullets, as a weapon against you, also the music in this game is a major weapon with which the enemy tries to harm you. After a few minutes of play you are grasping for the TURN OFF switch of your stereo, causing you to get killed by enemy fire due to your temporary inattention. Very effective, I must say, but fortunately there’s an option to turn off the music at the beginning of the game, letting you be one step ahead of your enemies. The levels in Sonic Boom are either short or minute. In one or two levels you just have to kill three or four hordes of enemy planes, to reach an end-of-level-baddy!
The gameplay is not that bad; the scrolling is rather smooth if a bit slow, the controls are responsive and the collision-detection is adequate. It’s just that I’ve played this game from beginning to end and I just couldn’t find one single feature, which was a bit special or just a tad more original than the average. Boredom will set in rather quickly after you start playing this game and you wonder why you are wasting your time with this, while you could also play something like SWIV!
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Backgrounds are colourful, yet uninspiring and sometimes just lacking detail and being dull. Sprites are of a pretty mediocre quality, nothing special.
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Turn off your speakers and enjoy the silence! That’s the way Sonic Boom is the most enjoyable to play. If you really want to turn on the sound, then at least TURN OFF THE MUSIC!
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Technically not that bad, but lacking even a single special feature to make it worthwhile to play. Some levels are also too short and easy.
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| Just like it’s coin-up predecessor, the Amiga version of Sonic Boom is incredibly uninspiring. You might even fall asleep before reaching the end, making this game an excellent substitute for sleeping pills, thus saving you a bit of money since downloading it is free! |
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Get Amiga Forever with pre-installed Workbench, games, applications, and much more.
It also contains the original Amiga ROM-files, 100% legally!
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