A Sonic of Ice and Fire: New Sonic 3DS Game, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice Announced

Sega has announced a new Sonic game for the 3DS. Developed by Sanzaru Games, the minds behind Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (“not as bad as its Wii U counterpart“) and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, it will be called Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice. The trailer cautiously addresses fan concerns about speed by promising multiple approaches to levels as well as Bot racing, which sounds on the surface like an analogue to the popular Chao Garden feature of yore.

Let’s just…. let’s get this out of our systems before we go on.

In the game of going fast, you win or you lose rings

Skepticism about Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice has crowded out optimists and the “don’t like, don’t buy” crowd on Twitter, due mostly to the universally panned Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U. Notable Sonic fan Christine Weston Chandler was quick to take to social media to censure the title as well, though for slightly different reasons.

To coincide with this, Sega has also announced an upcoming app, called Sonic Central, for Android and iOS devices. Most of the functions promised for the app are what one would expect from a website, but a feature named Sonic Pix promises to work with your smartphone’s camera so that you have the option to include Sonic and pals in your photos.

As far as release dates go, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice will be aiming for the holidays this year. Hopefully Sanzaru Games will have enough time to ship a completed and polished game on this schedule.