Sonic has had his ups and downs in the past, as any Sonic fan will know. On the one hand, he was one of the main reasons that the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis, for you in the US) was such a powerful contender when put next to Nintendo’s NES and SNES. And then, there was Sonic The Hedgehog 2006. The less said about that one, the better.
The question is, where will this sit on the Sonic - Spectrum? Will it achieve the sort of glory that 16-bit era titles captured, will it be acceptable like Sonic Rush, or will it be disappointing like Sonic The Fighters?
The answer is a bit mixed. Sonic Lost World takes a similar approach to that of Sonic Generations, and mixes 2D sidescrolling areas with 3D areas which are reminiscent of Sonic Adventure, but to the degree of which they succeed in blending these two differs greatly throughout the game.
Sonic Lost World has a storyline, which is, quite simply, that Eggman awakens six Zeti warriors and it’s up to Sonic and Tails to stop an evil scheme they’re hatching. There are regular cutscenes, in which Sonic and Tails converse as if they’re Bart Simpson wannabes in a 90s sitcom. “This bites.” “That’s rad!” and so on, and so forth.
The 2D sections work better than those seen in Sonic Generations, with areas that feel smoother, and speedy sections work better as the camera is panned further out, giving a better field of view of the stage, which is essential for Sonic’s trademark speed. However, it’s one step forward, two steps back.
A lot of classic Sonic enemy characters appear, “Badniks” recognizable from the likes of classics like the first three Sonic games on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), but although this sounds great, well, it’s not. Enemies are different, almost as if they are still built for Sonic to blitz past them at bewildering speeds, but Sonic is slower than ever before. Less speed helps platforming sections, but debilitates maneuverability. As a result, enemies will hit you often, and in classic Sonic style, hit once, all rings gone; hit twice, you’re dead.
Sonic: Lost World feels somewhat cheap, in places. The only sections where you manage to build a decent amount of speed end up being too chaotic, and of course, two quick hits mean you’re dead. Slipping into water means you’re dead. Slip off the course means you’re dead. After some time with the game, the main adjective I could think of was “frustrating”.
But those are the negative points. Let’s look at something else: for instance, Sonic Lost World has beautiful areas, and a few levels are both great fun to play and look at. One that springs to mind is the “Dessert Ruins” (that’s not a typo, in case you’re wondering). The only problem is, these moments of genius seem too infrequent, perhaps one out of every four zones is an enjoyable work of genius, whereas the others can be a mix of fun and frustrating, with the frustration being a bit more prevalent than one would like.
Let me be clear: the game isn’t horrible. It’s not broken, and every level has positive sides. The thing is, although I can pick out many points which frustrated and annoyed me, there are also plenty of points which I enjoyed. The problem is, at the end of each level I asked myself; “Would I want to play through that level again?” and for most of them, the answer was no. Not all, as I said, a good few levels were interesting and fun, just not enough of them.
The music is fine, but it didn’t feel memorable, and all the gravity-bending physics feel old-hat after the Super Mario Galaxy titles. Unfortunately, Sonic Lost World just isn’t Sonic’s return to grandeur, no matter how much I wish it was.
