Game Reviews

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom - Faster than the speed of love?

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Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom - Faster than the speed of love?

Feature creep has basically ruined the Sonic series. It started with Sonic Adventure, with its fishing mini-games, huge cast of characters, and a focus on story and lore that no one really wanted.

But the Sonic stages in that game were still amazing. And they were amazing because they were mechanically simple, because they gave you a sense of speed and control.

And that's sort of similar to what you get in the Sonic Dash series. The simplicity of the touch controls means you can concentrate on collecting rings, smashing bad guys, and completing challenges.

Dash it all

And Sonic Dash 2 continues that theme. Sure, it's an endless runner, and yes it uses the art style from that awful Sonic game where they all had bandages wrapped around their arms and legs for some reason, but it's still a surprising amount of fun.

You swipe to change lanes, jump, and spin. There are rings to collect, and blue orbs that power up a dash move that makes you invincible.

Different characters have different powers. Sonic becomes a ring magnet when he's dashing, Knuckles can do a powerful ground bash to kill nearby enemies, and Amy has a hammer.

There are challenges to complete that earn you extra rings, multiplier points, and sprites. You can attach up to three sprites each run and they give you different boosts and buffs.

If it all sounds a little generic, that's because it is. But it's done really well. There's no energy system on your standard runs, so you can play until your fingers are sore and crippled if you'd like.

You need tickets to run in time-sensitive events for more rewards, but there's more than enough to do in the main game that you won't mind too much.

Thrasher

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom is by no means a perfect Sonic game. If you pine for the glory days of the 16-bit era then prepare to have your heart broken all over again.

But this is a solid and highly entertaining endless runner, one that doesn't do as much disservice to the licence as other abominations we've seen recently, and it manages to just about capture the thrill of some of the blue speedster's best 3D adventures.

Is it perfect? Obviously not, but if you're into endless runners you'll have a jolly old time spinning and smashing through it.

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom - Faster than the speed of love?

It might not be the most original game in the world, but Sonic Dash 2 is well-enough put together that you'll enjoy any time you spend with it
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.