Lyric the Last Ancient: the snake of Sonic Boom

A giant snake in cybernetic armor and the last survivor of the Ancients' race, Lyric the Last Ancient is the main antagonist of the two Sonic Boom video games released in 2014, in a continuity officially separate from Sonic's main canon.

Who is Lyric the Last Ancient?

A giant rattlesnake encased in cybernetic armor, Lyric the Last Ancient is the main antagonist of the two Sonic Boom video games released in November 2014: Rise of Lyric on Wii U and Shattered Crystal on Nintendo 3DS. Created to launch the Sonic Boom universe on the video game side, he is presented as the last survivor of the Ancients' race — a people he himself betrayed.

His means of action rest entirely on technology: a technopathy exercised through a removable device that lets him control machines, a mind-control system used on Shadow, and an army of colossal robots — often called “Sentinels” by fans — powered by the energy of the Chaos Crystals. He also commands an airship in Shattered Crystal.

Unlike historic figures of the main canon such as Knuckles, Lyric exists only in the Sonic Boom continuity, a spin-off officially separate from the main series. In the original version, he is voiced by Patrick Seitz, credited as “Lyric the Last Ancient” in the Rise of Lyric credits.

🌙 Lyric, a giant rattlesnake, stays sealed inside his cybernetic armor. When evening comes at your place, what you slip into needs no plating: our Sonic pajamas swap the metal for soft fabric.

The Ancients and the betrayal of his own kind

Lyric's past makes him a rare case in the gallery of villains of the Sonic universe: a traitor to his own people. According to Rise of Lyric, the Ancients imprisoned him when they discovered his plan: to use the Chaos Crystals to power an army of robots and wipe out organic life in order to replace it with machines. It is in an ancient tomb that Sonic and his friends find him, far later.

Shattered Crystal offers its own version of events in a digital comic bundled with the game: millennia ago, the serpentine cyborg Lyric tried to conquer the world thanks to a crystal of great power; the Ancients then destroyed the crystal and placed the traitor in stasis.

Official sources do not specify how these two accounts fit together: each game stages its own awakening and its own defeat, with no established chronological link between the two plots. As for the extended backstory that circulates among fans — experiments on the Crystals that supposedly made him ill and forced him to wear survival armor —, it rests on no confirmed editorial source.

Rise of Lyric (Wii U): awakening after a thousand years

Developed by Big Red Button with help from IllFonic and Crytek, and published by Sega, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was released on Wii U on November 11, 2014 in North America, November 21 in Europe, November 29 in Australia and December 18 in Japan, under the title “Sonic Toon: Ancient Treasure”. The game holds a place apart in the chronology of Sonic games, since it opens an entirely new continuity.

The plot starts when Sonic accidentally wakes Lyric from his thousand-year sleep. The snake immediately relaunches his original plan around the Chaos Crystals. Thanks to time travel, Sonic and Tails go back a thousand years to recover a map of the Crystals — events that Lyric remembers, which explains why he recognizes the hedgehog.

⏰ Lyric slept for a thousand years before Sonic accidentally woke him; on your nightstand, our Sonic alarm clocks play that same role every morning, without ever relaunching a plan around the Chaos Crystals.

The end of the game gives Eggman a key role: first a temporary ally of Lyric, the doctor turns against him and frees the heroes. They then neutralize the snake and strip him of his technopathy device — an artifact that Eggman recovers in the post-credits scene to revive Metal Sonic. Rise of Lyric does not show its antagonist's death: he is defeated and disarmed, nothing more.

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Shattered Crystal (3DS): mind control and final fall

Released the same day as its Wii U twin, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal was developed by Sanzaru Games for the Nintendo 3DS and published by Sega, with the same regional release dates and a distinct Japanese title, “Sonic Toon: Island Adventure”.

This time, Lyric has escaped and is looking for the lost fragments of a power crystal meant to grant him ultimate power. To achieve his ends, he enslaves Shadow with his mind-control technology and kidnaps Amy, who had just discovered the crystal's location.

The denouement plays out aboard his airship: Shadow steps in, and Lyric is sent into a fall through a trapdoor in the floor opened by Sonic. The screen does not show his fate after the fall, and no return of the character has followed.

🧩 In Shattered Crystal, Lyric chases the lost fragments of a power crystal and ends his run through a trapdoor in the floor of his airship. On the coffee table, our Sonic jigsaw puzzles let you put the pieces together yourself, with no floor giving way beneath your feet.

Neither TV series nor main canon: a villain apart

Sonic Boom is a continuity officially separate from the main series, designed for Western audiences. The two 2014 games serve as prequels to the television series of the same name — a universe of which the badger Sticks is one of the figures. Lyric, for his part, remains a character exclusive to the games.

He does not in fact appear at any point in the animated series Sonic Boom, broadcast from November 8, 2014 on Cartoon Network and running for two seasons and 104 episodes: the cartoon's antagonist is Dr. Eggman, voiced in English by Mike Pollock.

The character's scope stops there: no appearance in the main canon of the games, nor in the films, nor in Sonic Prime, and no confirmed presence in comics beyond the promotional digital story bundled with Shattered Crystal.

A paradoxical legacy, backed by the numbers

The Lyric paradox lies in the reception of his games: 32/100 on Metacritic for Rise of Lyric and 47/100 for Shattered Crystal, for 620,000 copies sold combined as of March 31, 2015 — among the weakest sales in the saga's ludography.

Unlike the cancelled games that dot the history of the franchise, both Boom installments did see the light of day — but their critical and commercial failure makes them episodes regularly cited among the worst received in the series.

Lyric thus remains a villain with a singular fate: an original antagonist, tailor-made to launch a universe, confined to two games and never tied to Sonic's main canon.

Recap

Frequently asked questions

• Who is Lyric in Sonic Boom?
  The main villain of the two Sonic Boom games of 2014: a giant snake in cybernetic armor, the last survivor of the Ancients' race, who wants to replace organic life with an army of robots powered by the Chaos Crystals.
• Which games does he appear in?
  Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U) and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS), released on November 11, 2014 in North America and November 21, 2014 in Europe.
• Does Lyric appear in the Sonic Boom TV series?
  No. The games are prequels to the animated series, but Lyric remains a character from the games: in the TV series, the antagonist is Dr. Eggman.
• Is Lyric canon in the main Sonic universe?
  No. He exists only in the Sonic Boom continuity, a spin-off officially separate from the main canon of the Sonic games.
• How is Lyric defeated?
  In Rise of Lyric, the heroes neutralize him and strip him of his technopathy device. In Shattered Crystal, he is sent plunging from his airship through a trapdoor opened by Sonic, after Shadow steps in; his death is not shown on screen.