Is there really any point in reviewing a Sonic game nowadays? The people who love the series are going to buy it regardless and convince themselves they enjoyed it and the people who aren’t die hard Sonic fans have already bid the series farewell.
3D Sonic games aren’t all bad. Most people will say they liked Sonic Adventure, and after Sonic 2006 set the lowest possible bar for just how bad a Sonic game could be Colors and Generations both came out smelling sweeter than normal. So how does Sega’s latest stack up in the grand scheme of things?
Sonic Lost World follows our hedgehog hero as he explores a new world known as the Lost Hex. It’s here that they encounter Dr. Eggman as well as a more sinister enemy in the form of the Deadly Six. What starts as a fight with Dr. Eggman quickly spirals into a partnership as the group realizes just how dangerous the Deadly Six actually are.
Our heroes are portrayed in a remarkably unlikable fashion in this game. Sonic himself causes most of the conflict by acting too quickly and not listening to Tails. When the duo is eventually given no choice but to work with Dr. Eggman it’s Eggman who proves to be the most rational and mature while Sonic and Tails behave like bratty children despite the fact that they’re the reason their world is in danger to begin with.
Lost World starts pissing away its goodwill early on with the game’s miserable tutorial system. After taking just a couple steps into the first level you’ll find a colorful icon on the top of the TV screen. This is a tutorial and if you tap the corresponding icon on the gamepad it will pause everything and provide you with instructions on how to play. Aside from pulling out the sparse manual this is the only information the game will give you on how to play it. These tutorials are really easy to skip accidentally and it often means that you’ll have to bring Sonic to a complete halt in order to access the tool tip. This illustrates one of the key problems in Lost World: Going through levels quickly is rarely rewarded and is in fact oftentimes punished.
I probably don’t have to tell you that Sonic games are the most fun when Sonic is moving fast. The problem is that traditionally moving fast is counter-intuitive to the platforming genre. It’s a simple problem, the faster you go, the harder it is to control the character and avoid obstacles. Rayman Legends found an easy solution to this problem with its musical levels, the music gives you cues for when you’ll need to jump and because of that you’re able to move quickly but always feel like you’re in control of the game.
Sonic can be challenging to control, and then to make matters worse a lot of the stuff out to kill you behaves in unpredictable ways. Enemies rarely provide a visual indicator as to how you’re meant to kill them, instead you’ll find out by attacking them and getting hit or killed because you used the wrong type of attack. You’ll find similar issues with a lot of running segments as well. Some levels have such hefty difficulty spikes that you’ll either be forced to move at a crawl or memorize the jumps and turns you need to make.
The ice levels change the pace nicely by taking Sonic from being difficult to control to near impossible.
Why do platforming games still have “lives”? It’s a holdover from a bygone era. In Lost World you’re given 4 lives and if you should run out you’ll be booted back to the overworld to start the level over from the beginning (regardless of what checkpoints you reached) with 4 new lives. This makes the game more challenging, but not in a fun way. It just forces you to repeat segments of the game that you’ve already figured out. There is nothing is more frustrating than being on the last checkpoint of a level and being forced to start over because you lost three of your lives on the level before it.
I’m not sure if it was meant to pad out the length of the game but Lost World now locks the last level of each zone by forcing you to rescue a certain amount of animals. I’m sure they’re riffing off of Super Mario’s required star coins. But unlike in Mario where the Star coins force you to explore the levels animals can be found anywhere in Sonic. Why go back and explore levels you had a hard time beating to begin with when you could just grind on easier levels to get the required animals? Plus searching for animals entails risk because if you collect a boatload of them and then lose all your lives you’ll have to do the entire scavenger hunt over again.
Lost World also introduces Parkour to the Sonic series. Hopefully you haven’t been waiting for ages to do sweet wall runs with Sonic because it’s decidedly not fun. Parkour is never faster than simply jumping over an object; at best it might get you up to a ledge you can’t reach by jumping but usually it’s just a waste of time and you’ll find yourself only using it when the game forces you to.
A level made out of desserts. How original.
The early levels in the game are noticeably better than the later levels. The camera moves dynamically, the production levels feel higher, and Sonic is fast and in control just like he should be. Unfortunately this peters out as the game progresses forward and culminates in some of the worst boss fights I’ve ever seen in a game. You might have fun for a little bit, and if you’re a Sonic fan, let’s face it, you’re picking this up anyway. If you’re just looking for a fun platformer this isn’t for you.
