[Sonic Lost World] discussion topic

[Ben]

haha by the way, not saying that Lost World is the "worst Sonic game ever made," or anything. Certainly it isn't without some fun. But generally speaking, bad habits that the series had gotten past seem to be back in full force here.

An emphasis on sudden death pits and trial-and-error gameplay do not in my opinion make for a game that's always very fun. More recent Sonic games seem to have reduced this but Lost World is essentially one giant death pit.

Though Unleashed, Colors, and Generations tried to give you more control of the high-speed sections, Lost World goes back to automated speed sections, taking control away from you during the most exciting parts of levels.

Multiple paths are greatly reduced, leading to a far more linear experience.

Bland, bland levels. We're on a mysterious new planet...and we get Green Hill, Forest, Dessert, and Snow levels. Yawn. Level-wise I don't think there's anything here as inspired as Colors.

The Deadly Six have fun character designs but no personality outside the most cliché of clichés. I thought they'd make for fun villains but they really don't do much of anything.  The dialogue all sounds like it came out of a live action Nickelodeon show from the 90s. (And I actually really liked the dialogue in Sonic Colors.)

Making lives "collectable only" was a bad idea. There's no point in collecting rings, and if you find yourself doing poorly in a level, lives-wise, there's little you can do to recover other than intentionally dying and starting again from scratch.

Omochao missions are so uninspired that it's almost difficult to believe, lol. 

I don't know. Not a big fan. It feels like SonicTeam went back to some old habits and removed a lot of the improvements that they've been making to the series over time. Game's fun at times and there's some inspired moments but all in all I'm disappointed. I still have more to play and no, this is not Sonic '06 or Sonic and the Black Knight. Not a terrible game. Just not a very fun one, IMO.

[Radrappy]

Multiple paths are greatly reduced, leading to a far more linear experience.

This is simply untrue.  The game has way more paths than generations. 

[Randroid]

Just beat the game tonight (Wii version). Awesome, awesome game. I got this ahead of Colors and second best to Generations for the modern era Sonic games.

Super hard towards the end, but in a "make you a better player" sort of way. Revisiting the older levels is a joy once the end levels force you to master the controls. I've never understood people's issue with the death pits/traps. In the previous sonic games, they were literally the only threat to your lives. I love how Lost World removed the death pit sign posts and wow, actually made the badniks a legitimate threat (old school). And thank thank thank you for not dragging the end boss on forever like they did in Generations.

My only knocks are that I do think that Colors beats this in the story and cut scenes department. Also, if someone was to call this game a Mario knock-off, a small, small part of me would agree as the similarities in each aspect of the game came up from time to time (something I never agreed with in the slightest from Sonic 1 to now).

After all is said and done, great game, not going to stop playing it anytime soon and I really hope they take all the best things from these games and make Generations 2 next ( with Lost World gameplay for the modern stages ) on WiiU (I need games for this thing).

[Ben]

This is simply untrue.  The game has way more paths than generations. 

I'm not sure I believe that. There are only a few levels here where it seems like I had any choice in which direction to take Sonic. The game's first level seemed to be the most non-linear of the bunch; many others are pretty much an A-B path.

Regardless, it certainly doesn't compare to the amount of paths in Colors. (And I still stand by the idea that it doesn't compare to Generations' either.)

[Barry the Nomad]

Ben, you have not been exploring the levels if you think the game does not have multiple paths.

[Ben]

Ben, you have not been exploring the levels if you think the game does not have multiple paths.

I didn't say the game doesn't have multiple paths....

But yeah, many of the game's levels are pretty linear in nature, moreso than the past 2 Sonic games. In Sonic Colors for example you had choices to use Wisp powers or not, and that using some in certain places would take you to entirely new parts of levels. That's almost completely gone here. The only purpose Wisp powers here serve is to continue to get you from Point A to Point B. 

When many of these levels take place on small spherical floating objects, there isn't a ton of room for exploration. Branching ARE here, but they're typically less significant; rarely taking you far from the original path, and some levels do away with them entirely, while Colors and Generations seemed to make multiple paths and "levels that don't play the same way twice" a priority.

By the way....I am liking the game in some respects. I'm not trying to give off the impression that this is the next Sonic '06. But I'm definitely finding myself to be a bit disappointed in various aspects.

I also think the setting's a huge wasted opportunity. They chose to set the game on an entirely different planet, and yet we wind up with level themes copied-and-pasted out of NSMB:U.

[Radrappy]

Generations seemed to make multiple paths and "levels that don't play the same way twice" a priority.

Again, while you might have an argument for Colors offering more paths, that's simply not true for Generations.  Generations levels had one alternative route, if any, per level and they weren't so much desirable alternative routes so much as penalty paths for missing a jump.  The game is the very definition of linear.  Slw on the other hand has some levels that are practically free roaming in nature (tropical coast act 1 and 2 have some wide open segments that allow you to go in any direction you want).  It may not have the exciting exploration of Colors, but the flexibility at work is undeniable. 

[Ben]

SLW also has levels like Sky Run Act 2 which consists literally of a single path. Usually it seems like the Act 1 is the one that offers multiple paths while many of the others seem pretty linear and guided.

I'm not going to support Generations a ton since it's been a long time since I've played it, but I definitely thought I remembered multiple paths.

[CrazyT]

So I just recently got a job so I ended up buying this anyway. I'll just say that i'm not gonna listen to reviewers anymore after wonderful 101 and this. I'm enjoying the game a lot so far.(just beat the 2nd boss).

I should have known I was going to enjoy this because most of the whining came pretty much from people who like sonic as a test your reflexes experience. On the other side of the coin however, the controls aren't that great. There's something about them that kill the flow. Mainly the jumping and landing kills all momentum. Having said that the controls are much much better than I expected them to be from footages. There is no instant halt like sonic 4 and there's actually a build up even when pressing run. And sonic does seem kind of slow mostly I agree with what was said about that earlier now

I haven't played a sonic game that required my input every second in a long time. Also the variety between every act is really great. They really have the right idea with this game. I can see where they wanna go with this. The concept is really brilliant for sonic in 3D so I really hope they wont give it up because of the reviews..

[Aki-at]

I'm not going to support Generations a ton since it's been a long time since I've played it, but I definitely thought I remembered multiple paths.

You're not remembering it wrong, Sonic Generations had a lot of optional paths, especially a great deal after you hit Sky Sanctuary onwards.

[Happy Cat]

I know most people hate this site, but this is a really good Sonic Lost World review and i suggest people watch it. Guy brings up some really good points

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM

[CrazyT]

So far i feel mistakes have been mostly my fault which feels really great. apart from a few trial and error bits, the game has been pretty fairly challenging. I gotta say that I am really digging the thought behind this game. There's just so much to do and explore in most of the levels. Fuck i've been mislead(also by myself). It just feels so good to be fully in control for a change. It feels especially good once mastering.

My brother got the 3ds version and i think one thing i prefe about it is how jumping and landing doesn kill momentum like it does on wiiu. I think this is a pretty big flaw cuz the game would have felt alot better without it

[Barry the Nomad]

Also, 3DS version does parkour better, as well as jumping and landing as you mentioned.

[Happy Cat]

Would give the game a 7 based off the demo, but i heard the game really starts to fall apart in the second half. So i can't really say until I play the full game, and I won't be buying this game new. I like this game better then colors. I didn't like all the blocky platforming in Colors. It's hard to compare it with generations because they are both really different and i like them both in their own ways. I would say that Sonic Generations is easily the better game though thanks to the classic Sonic gameplay.

Random thoughts i had:
Feels really slow at first but got used to it after a while

Performance is very rarely a constant 60 FPS lots of minor slowdown and pop-in issues, breaks the feeling of immersion

Game takes getting used to, which is fine for some games, but Sonic games have always been about being easy to get into and rewarding to master. This game shouldn't punish you for not knowing it well, especially on the first level. People should be able to have fun regardless of not knowing the game mechanics well.

Controls are need tweaking, very twitchy feeling at times, and can easily cause you to die for reasons that aren't your fault.

There is nothing classic Sonic about this game aside from the visuals. Very much so heavily Mario inspired, and that's a bad thing, all the good things about this game are the things that aren't taken from Mario.

The alternate paths are fun and the sense of exploration can be fun too

Speed running feels satisfying when you've found a good path

waaaaay too many automated sections, many more then Sonic Generations ever had.

the cloud sections are horrible

i like the random fast bits between all the slower paced stuff, keeps things interesting. would get boring if there was no fast sections.

Final Thoughts:
Sonic Lost World isn't a bad game, but it's not a great game either. There is lots of issues that need fixing.

Speed Sonic up a bit, get rid of all the Mario influences(timer, font,  some of the music, the horrible uninspired boss battles, the uninspired level themes, the planetoids, crappy world map, etc), make the stages a big open world with lots of different paths to take with an emphasis on building momentum, put on next generation consoles so the game can run a constant 60 FPS without choking, put a bit more detail into the graphics, bring back stage ranks and give a reason for people to want to find alternate paths to get a higher score.

Also, give Sonic some good physics that don't feel like a faster version of Mario and get rid of automated sections that are just littered through out the whole game, and tweak the controls to not be so weird and twitchy. Also make the game mechanics fun for newbies but also something for hardcore Sonic players to master.

I think that if those kinds of changes are implemented in the next Sonic game then we will have something good on our hands.

I appreciate Sonic Lost World for trying something different, but it's copied Mario way too much for my liking. I love Sonic Unleashed/Generations and their boost, but honestly, I'm tired of boosting, as fun as it was. I would like to see SEGA / Sonic Team greatly improve upon what they've got with Sonic Lost World for upcoming games.

[TimmiT]

I know most people hate this site, but this is a really good Sonic Lost World review and i suggest people watch it. Guy brings up some really good points

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM

Watched the first four minutes. Far too much nitpicking.