Sonic Boom uses CryEngine to achieve 'lush, tropical, beachy' look

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Sonic Boom is yet another reboot of Sega's classic mascot. Developed by Big Red Button, the upcoming Nintendo exclusive features redesigned characters and a tie-in cartoon. It's being created specifically for the western market.

Oddly, the game is using CryEngine instead of Sonic Team's Hedgehog Engine, used in games like Sonic: Lost World. Sega producer Stephen Frost explained that Crytek's engine was a better fit because "you associate CryEngine with lush, tropical, beachy things. These are also things with which Sonic is associated, so they work together."

While CryEngine may be a good fit in terms of those features, developer Big Red Button still needed to alter the engine a bit. BRB CEO and visual director Bob Rafei told Official Nintendo Magazine (via Siliconera) that the engine can't normally do split-screen gaming. The engine had to be modified in order to support the Wii U GamePad. "We worked in close contact with [CryEngine creator] Crytek in Germany," he said, "and the team there is pretty excited about that as well. In the end, it was simply the right choice for the project."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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