Ultimately I think Sonic Lost Worlds saving grace is that none of the bad moments in it are as bad as the ones in Sonic Unleashed. Too many things in Unleashed fealt insurmountable. For every pure Sonic level in the game you were expected to do two or three werehog stages in a row, some of which could take almost an hour to get through on an initial run, and were often punctuated with terrible quicktime event centric flying stages. The worst part is that the genuine Sonic levels lasted three or five minutes on average meaning you were thrust right back into the garbage parts of the game all too quickly. The biggest shame is that this is the game where Sega really started putting some effort in regards world building and story (voice acting would come later, though Mike Pollucks Dr Eggman was and always is excellent), only to waste it all on a game most didnt have the stomach to finish. By now the genuine Sonic levels from Unleashed have been ported to the Sonic Generations engine on PC, so at the very least theres a way to experience the best parts of that game, and using a more refined gameplay system to boot. Which brings us to the worst part of Sonic Lost world: Nothing in it may be as bad as the worst Unleashed had to offer, but none of the best moments are AS good as the best moments from Sonic Colors or Generations. Its not even a matter of different gameplay styles, as the Sonic series has always defined itself on inconsistancy. Sonic 1 was very much a straight up platformer while Sonic 2 was more of an action game. Sonic CD had a focus on exploration with its time travel gimmick while Sonic 3 (and Knuckles) was wrapped up more in the size and scope of the adventure the player was on than putting an emphasis on any one gameplay style from the previous three games (its also no surprise that Sonic 3&K is generally most fans favorite sonic title, though I still prefer the visceral speed of Sonic 2). It doesnt help that Lost World follows Sonic Generations, a game that functioned not only as a love letter to (arguably long suffering) fans of the series, but was an excellent game in its own right. What Lost World lacks is CONFIDENCE. The new parkour system that allows Sonic to run along or climb up any wall feels good. Like Colors and Generations controls, theres a learning curve involved with the parkour system. Its very nuanced. However, learning it doesnt feel as rewarding as mastering the ins and outs of the boost system. It doesnt help that almost none of the levels are built around the concept. The same goes for the wisp power-ups borrowed from Sonic Colors that had Sonic blasting off as a rocket or tunneling through the ground as a drill. Here the wisps are almost exclusively used so the player can avoid using the parkour system. Sonic games have always featured levels built around multiple paths, but this feels more like putting a band-aid on the unrefined level design. Alot of reviews make comparisons to Super Mario Galaxy, but Lost World really only borrows superficial design elements and aesthetics from that series. What it DOES do however, is sloppily borrow gameplay concepts from titles like New Super Mario Bros, Rayman Origins, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Which would be fine, but theres zero effort put into understanding how these elements work. Sonic can jump between walls like Rayman, but he runs out of momentum too quickly for there to be any real obstacle courses built around the ability. There are now levels akin to the rocket barrel rides ala Donkey Kong Country Returns but theyre less thoughtout and harder to control besides. Things like this exist to pad levels and worlds out and avoid building on any one element. Colors got around the padding issue simply by offering smaller stages inbetween the longer ones. Generations sidestepped the issue entirely by focusing on a more polished core experience and offering a slew of optional challenge levels for each stage. With Lost World Sega seemed unwilling or unable to build a solid core experience around their new gameplay style and the game as a whole suffers for it. Some side notes: The story, as previously mentioned, is great and really should be the mark at which future games shoot for storywise. Which makes it all the more curious that theres no option to replay cutscenes. Equally curious is that rings no longer grant lives when you collect 100 of them, yet are still given out like candy, making the whole thing feel like an oversight. The 3DS version proves that Sega should just let DIMPs make portable titles on their own terms instead of having them make half hearted versions of the console titles. The game is sloppy to the point that it really shows how little time it was made under. Its not unplayable, but a lot of the iffier bits are more unforgiveable than the Wii U versions problems. Generations was released a year after Colors was, so the hope remains that Lost World was made by Sonic Teams B team while the main team focused on the next big title, meaning next year could see a much more refined experience. On the other hand, Colors was nowhere near as uneven as Lost World is so Sega may have just dropped the ball on this one. Everytime a Sonic game isnt up to par people begun urging Sega to drop the franchise and focus on something new. Or regress Sonic back to his original design (as if that alone will fix everything), or make Sonic Adventure 3 (ignoring the fact that SA3 was more or less Sonic 06, that Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes followed the Adventure style gameplay, and that Unleashed was called Sonic World Adventure in Japan. Or that simply being called Adventure 3 will fix everything anyway). Then again, these are the same people who think that Nintendo needs to drop Mario because each new title doesnt make their heart sing like it did with the original Super Mario Bros or Super Mario Bros 3, so what the hell do they know.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 10:40:10 +0000
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