LTTP: Sonic Lost World

[Sharky]

Late to the party: Sonic Lost World
So I finally got around to properly checking out Sonic Lost World and I have a few thoughts.


Lets start with the bad:
-My biggest complaint really is the whole thing with having to hold down a button to go fast, this is just not right for a Sonic game, speed should just progressively build as it has always done. Speaking of speed Sonics top speed isn't as awesome as it is in other recent Sonic games which really felt exhilarating.

-Another issue is simply the whole cylinder world thing they have going on... It just doesn't feel right imo. Some how makes the game feel extremely linier even though there are branching paths I feel very restricted like I'm constantly being pushed forward.

-The Wisps felt tacked on, I do love the drill wisp but the flying one sucks... I like the whole power up idea for Sonic though I would rather Sonic just got new abilities from smashing TVs like the old days instead of him turning into weird things... Also I still don't like gimmicky controls and controllers but I'm going to blame Nintendo for that crap- Knock that shit off!

-No life when 100 rings reached? Why?

-A small things I want to note that I dislike is the sound effect and blue trail when Sonic is wall running... Just, looks and sounds bad. I get it, it's something new and you're proud of it but don't over do it!



Okay now for the good:
-The art direction and level aesthetic are so nice, it's a really colourful and fun and easy on the eyes. I particularly like the desert themed stages they look great. It doesn't hurt that graphically the game is beautiful, no doubt helped by the quirky art style.

-Sonics slow game. I have felt for a loooong time now that in modern Sonic games, when Sonic slows down the game falls apart a bit. The animation is weird, precision jumping is off and all round it feels a bit naff. This has done a complete turn around in Sonic Lost World, it feels tight and responsive, good animations. I love all the little Mario-style puffs of dust and speed trails as Sonic runs and star shaped explosions when he hits an enemy. Just adds a lot of weight, life and character to the animations. All round this is the biggest improvement and I really hope they keep this going forward.

-2D sections! While this games 3D sections aren't as good as previous games the 2D sections are very good! They feel very platformy and fun to traverse, no doubt helped by Sonics more precision slow game move set. But there is some light puzzles and platforming, which is a nice break from 'FAST'

-The boss battles are a huge step up from Sonic Colours, very inventive and fun to play. Reminded me of classic Sonic where each has a distinct gimmick. Fun.

-It's a small thing, I really like that they have brought back classic badnik enemies including freeing the animals from them and the animal capsules! Why did they ever stop using these! It just feels very Sonic to me!

-Cutscenes... Funny, well written with a few bum notes. Comedic is the right direction for Sonic.

-Music is brilliant again, I think Sonic games just do this right time and time again even when the music style is completely different like Sonic Rush compared to Sonic Lost World... It's always brilliant. Big shout out to this tune from Desert Ruins 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYvN5jdPpGY


Conclusion:
All round it feels like they have made some big improvements and yet miss-stepped again. In some areas they are even closer to the perfect modern Sonic game but in others they have taken a step back from Sonic Colours. Perhaps next time they'll nail it if they stay the course...

P.S Fuck you Sonic Boom!

[CrazyT]

The thing with me and sonic lost world, is that I loved going through it. But once replaying it just didnt have that replayable factor of other sonic games. The reason why is because the flow is very off and the main thing that hurts it is the overall feel of how sonic moves in sonic lost world. It's got the same issue as sonic 4, but without the slow accelerating. Its instant speed> instant stop. Instant speed>instant stop. Weird twitchy turns, double jumping and then losing all momentum. It hurts wanting to go back and play again, especially on the wii u where there's top quality platformers(and hopefully more coming)

But the content was great. The stages and acts were very well done. Don't have a problem with new enemies like the deadly 6, although they did feel very random. But they were fun battles. Better than the usual "chase and sidestep" type of boss. They are a bit on the easy side once you find out that you can charge the homing attack at enemies when letting the reticule be aimed for a while. Makes the bosses die in 3 hits. But at least they al required different tactics for a change

Overall I agree. I'd say both colors and generations are better but lost world has the great level design and non boost gameplay I prefer over generations and colors. Its just held back by bad programming.

Id say its a game you can get and enjoy going through. I bought it at launch at the time and no regrets. Staying away from sonic boom though

[Barry the Nomad]

-No life when 100 rings reached? Why?

A patch should have reverted it to the usual system of 100 rings = 1 life, check your updates

[Radrappy]

A man after my own heart.  SLW was criminally underrated for what it accomplished for the franchise all things considered.  It faltered mainly in the area of level design IMO and didn't have the ingenuity or scope of Colors. 


But as you say, they really nailed the aesthetics and the "slow game."  Sonic was an uncontrollable turd at low speeds in Gens/Colors/Unleashed; something that I think everyone has been giving way too much of a free pass.  I love people who think this game looks too "kiddy."  The art style is the perfect anti-pathogen to the gross dark games of yesteryear (Sa2, Shadow, 06).  And the badniks look 100% like their original concept art from S1. 


Sincerely hope they continue down the SLW path, even though the critical reception was quite mixed.   

[Trippled]

A patch should have reverted it to the usual system of 100 rings = 1 life, check your updates

Also Wisps can be controlled with the analog sticks now too.

Overall my thought resemble a mix of thoughts resembled here. Tough personally I thought the graphical style was a little too simple. Also like CrazyT said, more fluidity in controls please.

[Nirmugen]

I think they choose the slow way for LW because with the boost formula they couldn't work with any other character that are as fast like Sonic or less or have abilities based on speed.

With the controls in LW, they have more options to choose from and they could give Sonic more speed as a main ability in planes, loops and curves for the next game.

I think they want to do that because it's clear that ST or Iizuka wanted to do more things for Generations.

They even worked all the models as a playable one.

That's why is not difficult to mod the Sonic model into another one.

Also, in Colors you can't have an extra life after 100 rings. Same director too.

[Chaosmaster8753]

Great, now I just reminded myself of the Legend of Zelda Zone and how I feel like maybe more 3D Sonics should have more open space for Sonic to run around in instead of mostly narrow pathways.

[plumbersaccount27]

One thing I'll agree with you on is the total lack of exploration. The most we get is golden cannons leading to mach-speed sections, which take up more time beating the level instead of making your journey faster and easier. The branching pathways need to make a comeback, especially for the exploratory type like myself.

The total lack of a proper tutorial system for the new control system bugged me as well, since I fear the complexity of said system is enough to throw off newcomers. In fact, I don't remember see the TouchPad tutorial feature in the demo I played at the Sega Arcade last year; it's like Sonic Team was developing the game and realized they forgot to teach the player how everything works, so they tacked on this TouchPad feature at the last minute.

Few levels are also pretty gimmicky, especially the Hidden World stages. I wished they left out the Rubik's cube level...

Other than these flaws, I find Sonic Lost World to be pretty damn good, my second favorite 3D Sonic even (Top pick being Generations). I'll admit I hated the new control scheme when I first played it, but the more accustomed I became, the more I saw how everything works, the more I liked it, and the more fun I had with it. The  whole "Run" button may throw every Sonic fanboy off, but personally I like the idea they were going for. Not only does it help give the player a better emphasis on controlling Sonic, but it also works closer to the initial concept that Sonic "father" Yuji Naka had: a faster 2D Mario. And that's EXACTLY what this game feels like, a faster Mario. And I really do get a kick out of the new Parkour feature, though it'll take some time to learn.

Some may find it weaker than Colors, I actually find it better in some respects. One of the criticisms I've had with Colors and a few other recent 3D games, especially is the severe amount of automated speed sections and scripted areas, where there's very little to no input in controlling Sonic and the game itself is doing half the work for you. With Lost World, there are still some scripted areas and loops, but it seems underplayed, compared to previous games, which is a plus on my account.

On top of all that, Lost World puts Sonic back into being the speedy PLATFORMER that he's supposed to be. As somebody who started with Sonic at the age of 5 in his very first game for the Sega Genesis, I much prefer Sonic to slow down and conquer platforming sections rather than blaze through it all in the boost-to-win games (Though I do highly praise Generations for cramming in as much platforming as possible.). Even Sonic 3 & Knuckles, my favorite game of all time, still had a major amount of platforming despite it being the fastest of the 16-bit games. It was all about WORKING to be fast, memorizing the stages, finding new tricks, and finding new ways of completing them in the fastest times possible. It's what made these earlier games so rewarding. That still reins true here, though to a lesser extent than Generations, sadly.

Still, I really like this installment. Despite its flaws, it seems to be working closer to that 16-bit game being brought over to the 3D world, and whatever flaws it has, I hope they can improve on in the next game.

[ROJM]

Alex Kidd was a faster Mario. And Naka never was the father of Sonic. That was..Naoto Oshima.

[plumbersaccount27]

Alex Kidd was a faster Mario. And Naka never was the father of Sonic. That was..Naoto Oshima.

My mistake.  One of the creators of Sonic anyway...

[Team Andromeda]

Alex Kidd was a faster Mario. And Naka never was the father of Sonic. That was..Naoto Oshima.

Alex wasn't faster than Mario and Oshimha-san just drew Sonic that doesn't make him the father. Like any game it was a Team effort

All round it feels like they have made some big improvements and yet miss-stepped again. In some areas they are even closer to the perfect modern Sonic game but in others they have taken a step back from Sonic Colours. Perhaps next time they'll nail it if they stay the course...

Yep its a really nice game , that's almost a classic but some of the latter levels let it down a bit . But the game is well made and fills me with hope for the next Sonic from this team

[Randroid]

-My biggest complaint really is the whole thing with having to hold down a button to go fast, this is just not right for a Sonic game, speed should just progressively build as it has always done.

This is my biggest complaint to. If only they reversed it, it would be perfect. Speedy as the default and hold the walk button to slow down.

-Music is brilliant again, I think Sonic games just do this right time and time again even when the music style is completely different like Sonic Rush compared to Sonic Lost World... It's always brilliant.

It was brilliant, but the fact that some levels had reused music made this feel Mario-ish, which for me was hard to overcome.

I still found it to be a great game overall, which I pop in every now and then to play my favourite levels: Sky Road 1 and Frozen Factory 1, mainly because there music is so awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKJFWmoqXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKpAEDb1y3E

[Marionette Cherry]

I didn't like how this game resused assets not even halfway through the game or when in cutscenes a character would say something threatening but there was no pay off, especially eggman, all bark and no bite.

[TruthEnigma]

Just picked this up cheap at my local CEX and absolutely correct on this one. It's a decent game that got written off by many due to the poor reputation Sonic has these days. It has flaws, the controls could use work, particularly as pointed out above, the run fast button, and I dislike the lack of exploration. For me the 2 main components of the classic Sonic games were the speed and the ability to explore the levels, to find the hidden bits an pieces. They were much more about exploration than the classic Mario games which were more linear in their design, but now it's the opposite. Sonic games are very linear experiences while Mario games are all about exploration.

Positives? It looks great, very colourful and I love the return of the Badniks. The soundtrack is great also. Some of the levels feel very Mario Galaxy, but quite frankly, that's a great game to take some inspiration from. The side scrolling levels are fantastic. Overall, a pretty good title.

[Ben]

Yeah the game was patched to allow for 100 rings to grant you a life, you should have downloaded the patch.

It's an improvement that I wish was there to begin with, as it would have made the game much better.