Sonic Boom Review: Episode 1

The series begins with the first episode, "The Sidekick". Being an introductory episode to the series, it will obviously have little to do with anyone outside the "mainest" of main characters. And I'm sure you can tell who gets the spotlight simply by the title alone...

It's a Tails episode, everybody.

Gee, is it showdown o'clock already? How time flies...

So we begin with one of the earliest trailer scenes, Sonic chasing after and facing off against Eggman in the middle of some desolate wasteland. The banter between the two is actually rather spot-on, and captures their personalities pretty well. Sonic retains his usual sarcastic personality while Eggman still has his short fuse and easily-annoyed demeanor. The scene proceeds all the way to a quarry, where we see Eggman do what he always does: bring out a robot to fight. In this case, we have Burn Bot.

To be honest, the new smaller spines on Sonic look pretty good.

Burn Bot itself is a pretty well-designed starting opponent for Sonic... If horribly outmatched. Eggman even thought ahead and outfitted it with wheels instead of legs, making it far more capable of tackling Sonic's speed. Though as Sonic mentions, the name is misleading as it doesn't have any form of fire-based attack despite the name "Burn Bot". Sonic opts to keep some distance from his automaton adversary, leading to the introduction of the episode's real star.

Ten bucks says you'll never actually see him WEAR the goggles on his eyes.
Cartoon characters rarely seem to do so.

Enter Miles "Tails" Prower, the sidekick of Sonic The Hedgehog and the smartest fox the show has to offer. He is the gadget character and resident genius, now decked out with goggles and a plane that HASN'T been broken by either Eggman or Tails' own experimentation. Yet. Tails isn't much of a fighter, but he makes for one helluva support. Flying in with his classic Tornado, what could the fox who single-handedly converted it into a walking death machine of blood and carnage back in the Sonic Adventure 2 game possibly do? Some machine guns? A missile launcher? The flamethrower that he obviously stole from Burn Bot prior to the battle?! A CHAO?!


Actually, none of the above... Tails has some new gadgets to try out, including his handy dandy belt buckle that can do the one thing we all wanted to see the little boy wonder try out.

...Okay, I admit, it is kind of hard to ignore how Tails' fur looks a little bit like stone right now.

When he triggers this belt, he gains a surge of power that circulates directly to his gloves. His raw emotion and desire to protect his friends then becomes an external force he can use to fight against the evil Eggman empire...

This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! TAKE THIS!
MY LOVE! MY ANGER! AND ALL OF MY SORROW!

And so, Tails creates...

Hey Tails, this is a pretty handy gadget to have! Now never use it again for the rest of the series, especially when you need it.

...a rope. Huh.

Come on, Eggman! I can see a turret on there! How do you install a gun
but forget to give it actual firing capability?

Well whatever that was about, it works out as Sonic swings around and gives Burn Bot a big boot to the face. It seems down for the count, but some respectable coaching from Eggman gets it back on its wheels and ready for round two. Unfortunately it is smart enough to know that this will be much easier in single combat than a two-on-one, so he decides to eliminate the easier target first... By shooting a pincer out with a cord, literally snipping one of Tails' wings, and retracting it back to normal. Why did you not do this to Sonic earlier, Burn Bot?

"Bail, Tails! Bail!" - Sonic

Tornado takes some nasty damage from Burn Bot, spiraling to the ground and supposedly to Tails' death. Sonic utters a tongue twister of an idea for Tails to escape, but as luck (and convenient writing) would have it, Tails is unable to do so. Why is the supergenius who is capable of flight even without mechanical support unable to escape?

That awkward moment when you remember you have an IQ of 300...

Because his ejection switch broke off, causing him to give a flat expression to the audience prior to his impending doom. Well done, genius. Clever like a fox. Or at least a clever like a fox that probably won't live to see puberty.

You just know Photoshop pros are gonna have a ball with this shot...

Witnessing the crash, Sonic wastes no time in taking care of Burn Bot, burying it in rubble and leaving Eggman to flee with the defeated machine. Eggman does this with a pun and a declaration of finishing things next time, of course. Tails managed to go a whole three minutes before crashing Tornado this time, by the way. Sonic checks Tails to ensure he survived, then carries him off with the promise that he'll never let anything like this happen to his little buddy again.

Remember Tails, strips of cloth heal all wounds. ALL wounds.

And so, Tails awakens in his home to Sonic checking on him. Tails claims he is ready to get back to action, but Sonic says he has a better idea, declaring Tails has earned an early retirement! He can play golf, play with the grandkids (he actually says that) and anything else he wants to do! ...Basically, he's fired. Tails takes it better than I expected, in fact he barely reacts to it at all. I guess he is just used to this kind of episode. With Tails benched, Sonic is off to find a new sidekick to replace him literally minutes later.

Out with the old, in with the new! ...Wait.

You may find that this series tends to react nonchalantly to events most others would find stressful in some way. Expect it to happen a lot, because it will. Consider just this episode alone; Tails not seeming to care about being benched by Sonic, Sonic going around posting fliers to replace his childhood friend mere moments later without caring about how this would make Tails, who grew up looking up to Sonic as a hero, feel not just as a person, but as a hero... And rarely will this behavior actually have repercussions. Oh, the joys of minimal continuity...

Yes Eggman, it is called a "script". I know it has been a few years, but you are
in a television show now. You gotta follow the script if you want your paycheck.

We go over to Eggman's lair, where he reads off the flier. He reacts with disbelief at first, much like most of the viewing audience at this point. Taking a moment to mention Eggman's appearance, the guy is huge. Not fat in any way, this brainiac is apparently in absolutely great shape. It makes one wonder if he heard about getting a cartoon after so many years, getting excited and working out to look his best for the show... Only to overdo it and give Brock Lesnar a run for his money. Anyway, he is discussing his plans with his two favorite henchmen--

Orbot on the left, Cubot on the right... Two of Eggman's most memorable badniks.

Orbot and Cubot? Seriously?! These two are a riot! They're from the Dark Era of Sonic games believe it or not, and are two of the funniest and most memorable badniks ever to personally assist Eggman in his nefarious schemes! They were also the only badniks to survive a full comic book reboot along with Sonic and Eggman himself. They aren't particularly threatening, but they are always fun to have around. What is a shame though is that Cubot's voice is dopey, but otherwise fine. I guess they couldn't get the right voice talent to bring over Cubot's everchanging dialect from the comics, opting instead to use the video game approach... But still, it is great to have them around.

Have to say, it's pretty bad when the pathetic beaver gets more screen time than
Amy Rose. No really, that sad little shit actually does. Seriously!

Back over to Sonic, we see he is interviewing various people for the role of sidekick. Amy Rose and Knuckles The Echidna appear in this episode, and sadly Amy is rather hit or miss. She seems pretty funny early on, but she ends up singing and juggling moments later. Knuckles on the other hand is given a fairly okay first appearance, though his idiocy will be running full bore very soon. Out of options, Sonic eventually recruits a hooded individual after hearing him out, but this goes south when the person is revealed. Try not to be too surprised about his identity, though.

If you ever wonder if Cartoon Network has an ego problem, just remember...
They proudly placed their logo over the face of THE Miles "Tails" Prower.

Turns out it is Tails, who wants the sidekick job. He even points out that Sonic's flier is asking for any qualified candidates, and that he has prior job experience. But Sonic doesn't want to hire him... Then enter Eggman, who in a bizarre turn, wants to be hired and even uses the same reasoning as Tails to do so. When Sonic points out the whole arch nemesis issue, Eggman waves it off by mentioning how Sonic's gang could use another scientist. Not wanting to hire either of the two candidates, Sonic decides to test them against a random pitiful beaver, somehow thinking this would be a good idea.

Hey Tails, guess what time it is?

A test of skill takes place, with the beaver obviously getting eliminated quite quickly when matched against the two genius inventors. It is down to the wire, and only one can come out on top. However, Eggman came prepared for this. He reveals his plan to get close to Sonic to destroy him, and brings out an old friend to finish off Tails once and for all.

Why, its showdown o'clock, boyo!

Tails once again finds himself face-to-face with Burn Bot, but with a staggering IQ of 300, Tails obviously has developed a new method of taking on this adversary. He won't go down the same way twice!

...Right?

If this were an island we'd be starting up Sonic Adventure 1 all over again.

So after Tails gets taken down in the exact same way as before, Sonic goes in for the rescue. Using his speed to his advantage, he pulls Tails to safety and apologizes for his behavior earlier. But I have to admit, Sonic's reaction to Tails poking understandable holes in his idea basically sums up the entirety of SEGA in my eyes.

"The plan had holes!" - Sonic about his idea, and also SEGA in regards to every game in the Dark Era.

This is exactly how I will define SEGA from now on.

Why yes Sonic, even ice can be set on fire.

Despite Sonic's efforts, Eggman points out that he finally installed firepower on Burn Bot. Literally. Using blasts of flame, Burn Bot somehow makes a perfect circle around the two mobian heroes, neither making any effort to dodge, which dumps them both in the cold water. For anyone who knows about Sonic, you know this is a bad scenario. For those who don't, here is the breakdown of why this is actually a bad situation: Sonic can swim with the grace, skill and finesse of a concrete brick.

Ugh, Mondays. Am I right?

With great effort and plenty of dramatic timing, Tails saves Sonic and the two quite easily stomp Burn Bot by knocking him through the ice and into the water with a single strike... So much potential, wasted on terrible placement. Eggman, defeated, makes a retreat as Tails carries Sonic back to town.

It is weird how you can actually count every thread in that glove...

As a quick pointer, Eggman as a villain works quite differently than before. Not quite harmless, but not quite dangerous either. He clearly has domination on his mind, but it isn't as worldly as he likes to think. The guy is sometimes quite petty and seems to focus exclusively on Sonic despite having no real reason to with the Sonic Boom setup. Sonic and Eggman, if anything, seem like bitter neighbors who hate one another, but can't really live without each other. If that sounds weird, trust me, I'll explain why this is in upcoming reviews.

Okay, now his body looks like it is made out of wood! What is the deal with Tails' anatomy?!

With the day saved, Sonic and Tails wrap up the episode. Tails rejoins Sonic as a sidekick, choosing not to mention the fact that Sonic's sidekick interview idea ended up costing Tails the Tornado, meaning he'll have to rebuild it from scratch. Again. Amy remains terribly annoyed about not getting the sidekick position, standing outside the office demanding a callback, only to supposedly become Knuckles' sidekick. And so our first episode ends... How did it work out?

Aside from Sticks getting zero screen time, the episode wasn't particularly bad. It did what it was meant to, which is establish the core conflict of the franchise. It is Sonic versus Eggman, classic as it gets, only it is somewhat more... Cozy than before. It tries to be charming and optimistic, with a lot of focus on comedy. While the episode itself was well-paced, it still had plenty of unnecessary elements bogging it down.

The beaver was a pointless addition to the episode, only serving to pad out the issue with the sidekick interview. Instead of bringing in Knuckles, Amy, or Sticks to the scene, we got a purposely annoying one-shot character that had very little payoff.

The inclusion of Orbot and Cubot makes me happy, and I can't wait to see what comes of them. Although Eggman doesn't seem to be as diabolically sinister as he used to... I have my own theory on how he functions in this universe, and as mentioned earlier, I'll get into him later.

In conclusion, this is an okay start to Sonic Boom. Not the best as many hoped, but not the worst as I feared it would be. Sonic and Tails are spot-on, Eggman is amusing, and we'll be seeing more from the other heroes soon.

Next time, we'll see what it is like if Sonic and Eggman were to be roommates as well as the magical powers of the kazoo in Episode 2: "Can An Evil Genius Crash On Your Couch For A Few Days?"