• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Sonic Lost World |OT| Too X-treme for the Galaxy

steveovig

Member
After playing the later zones, I can't see myself going for Super Sonic. Some of those levels are frustrating enough just to finish, let alone getting all the red rings.
 

I Wanna Be The Guy

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Does anyone else find it weird there's a button for rolling? I mean that slow roll, not the spindash. I mean....what's the point? It's completely useless. I do think it would be cool if in a sequel that button returned and rolling had the same effect as the classics with proper rolling physics, gravity and momentum and whatnot. I wanna be able to roll down hills to get to great speeds again.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
There is absolutely nothing wrong with super sonic having no special boss battle. I find it very strange that you consider SS being playable in all stages a last minute inclusion but are fine with SS being limited to just a final boss.

I'm not saying Super Sonic in this game isn't half arsed, but not having a boss dedicated to Super Sonic has nothing to do with it. Sonic Colours Wii is the best implementation of Super Sonic since S&K and that game was the first main series 3D game to not have a Super Sonic boss fight.
Yeah, S3&K did it right where he felt different compared to regular Sonic & in addition, there was the additional battle/ending. That felt like a great reward for doing the special stages.

In Colors, I just remember being...eeeh when trying him out. Granted, I DID unlock him before beating the game & using him a bit (it's how I was able to get past that one stage before the final battle), but he didn't feel too different aside from invincibility & unlimited boost. He didn't feel as different compared to the 2D games where I felt faster & could jump higher.

Maybe I was just used to the fact a majority of the games before Colors had some form of a SS battle or SS ending you could get & I got my hopes up the same would happen in Colors, so it ended up as a disappointment. & I guess to be fair, it was the first game since S3&K where you could actually use him outside of a final battle, so I can understand how it's considered a welcome change to some. I still need to unlock him (only have two emeralds at the moment), so maybe my opinion will change & I'll find him fun to use.

I rather have Super Sonic playable, but done right, rather having him be final boss fight as Unleashed and Generation Super Sonic section were terrible.
Completely valid point, so I won't argue there. At least with Generations, it still had both a battle & the option to play as them....even if you had to "equip" it as a skill.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
Sonic Adventure had a pretty cool final boss fight though. At least from what I remember. I'm sure if I went back to it I'd be like, 'wow this is janky' ha ha. But at the time I had never heard of Super Sonic so I thought it was cool.

Yeah Adventure one was pretty cool.


I haven't played SS in any other game yet though, so I'm not sure how they all compare.

They actually got worse,

-Adventure 2 was too easy.
-Heroes was a joke and basically fill the Team Blast gage up.
-Unleashed, the HD version was basically a QTE movie.
-Generation, is annoying and goes on far too long.

Does anyone else find it weird there's a button for rolling? I mean that slow roll, not the spindash. I mean....what's the point? It's completely useless.

It's to help you move quicker in the the green goo in 2 cave levels.
 

branny

Member
I played up through the 5th world yesterday on the Wii U version. I pretty much agree with the people who like how Sonic controls but feel the game around him is a little lost.

It's fun in its own way when it's not being too gimmicky, but I'm not super excited to play it like I was with Colors, Generations, or even the DS games.

Starting to feel like Sonic Team doesn't really understand why Colors was so good. =\
 

CrisKre

Member
Did a 180 on this game. Hated it at first.
My second play through things clicked and it is now my favorite 3d Sonic. Word of advice : if you stick to it it is very rewarding. Learning the flow of the levels makes them a ton of fun.

As a Sidenote, Sonic tlw miiverse posts are about to surpass wonderful 101 with almost 17000 in two days. I'm not sure whether I should feel happy or sad.
 
Enemy placement couldn't be more frustrating in some spots. On Frozen Factory Zone 3. I think that seems to be one of the more prominent problems in the game, on top of zero indication of whether or not thy can only be kicked or homing attacked.

I still can't get over the uselessness of rings in this game, it really irks me. I wish they could patch the old life system back in.

The music is wonderful however, and there's lots of great ideas. Sonic himself controls better than ever in the history of 3D games, so that's a breakthrough. On the story so far, didn't expect the
conflict between Tails and Sonic,
so there's at least something semi interesting happening this time around. So much more effort for the cinematics this time around over Generations.
 

I Wanna Be The Guy

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Yeah, S3&K did it right where he felt different compared to regular Sonic & in addition, there was the additional battle/ending. That felt like a great reward for doing the special stages.

In Colors, I just remember being...eeeh when trying him out. Granted, I DID unlock him before beating the game & using him a bit (it's how I was able to get past that one stage before the final battle), but he didn't feel too different aside from invincibility & unlimited boost. He didn't feel as different compared to the 2D games where I felt faster & could jump higher.

Maybe I was just used to the fact a majority of the games before Colors had some form of a SS battle or SS ending you could get & I got my hopes up the same would happen in Colors, so it ended up as a disappointment. & I guess to be fair, it was the first game since S3&K where you could actually use him outside of a final battle, so I can understand how it's considered a welcome change to some. I still need to unlock him (only have two emeralds at the moment), so maybe my opinion will change & I'll find him fun to use.

Completely valid point, so I won't argue there. At least with Generations, it still had both a battle & the option to play as them....even if you had to "equip" it as a skill.

I thought he was noticably faster than regular Sonic in Colours. Maybe not a classic level speed gap, but it was fast enough that I noticed the speed difference straight away. His jump was also noticably different and higher. The downside being that he couldn't double jump or use wisps. I was fine with the way SS played in Colours. My only real issue with Colours Super Sonic is that too many of the stages just weren't suited to him and often you wouldn't actually get 50 rings until near the end of the stage making it pointless.

Lost World on the other hand does not have a noticable speed bump and the jump doesn't feel different the way Colours and the classics do. But on the plus side Super Sonic in Lost World has the boost instead of spindash so it does have something unique going for it over regular sonic.
 

Mumford

Member
Is this game good on a platformer level? I see the reviews & for the most part I'm getting Wonderful 101 syndrome. (The reviewer just doesn't understand what the game is going for.)
Sonic: Lost World seems polished to say the least.
 

Teknoman

Member
Is this game good on a platformer level? I see the reviews & for the most part I'm getting Wonderful 101 syndrome. (The reviewer just doesn't understand what the game is going for.)
Sonic: Lost World seems polished to say the least.

Feels pretty polished as far as platforming goes to me. There are some issues at certain points if you dont know how to use the parkour correctly, but thats usually just a case of traveling through a separate part of the level, rather than something thats required. So far anyway.

Tropical Coast Act 1 was pretty fun platforming imo. Its fun to do Sonic OVA /cut scene style actions without being a qte as well (jump off a platform, bounce off an enemy, kick one into another, then run off an adjacent wall).
 

Regiruler

Member
Sky Road Zone is amazing I don't know what you guys were talking about.
I don't even care it's recycled, although the best level in it, Sky Road 2, has a decent bit of new stuff. That one part in Sky Road Zone 1 where
you were racing past the enormous mecha worms
was just insane.

Eggman has some pretty good quips, one of my favorites being "I didn't raise my hand..."

EDIT: Is there any sort of long-term penalty for seeing the section skip objects? The mario series has an annoying tendency to take away your shiny stars for dying enough to see it.
I rather have Super Sonic playable, but done right, rather having him be final boss fight as Unleashed and Generation Super Sonic section were terrible.
Wii Unleashed Super Sonic was a good fight though. Same with Big Core (Egg Wizard) although that's probably because I like Shmups. Nega Mother Wisp was boring.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
The 3DS version is the same game as the Wii U version right?

I'm playing a rental 3DS copy right now and maybe I don't yet have a full grasp of what the 3DS is capable of, but I'm pretty impressed by this game on a technical fidelity standpoint alone. I just didn't expect a full-blown 3D platformer here, but something significantly cut-down.

Otherwise it's pretty good I guess, though the platforming feels just as uneven as the last few 3D Sonic games have.

My main issue is the story and characters, or the very need for the game to have any. I think this is a crucial difference between Nintendo and Sega. Sega seems to think it needs some kind of involved plotline with cut scenes and voice acting. Nintendo just has some emoting character models and maybe a few lines of dialogue here and there in their console games. Sega doesn't need to go big here, and its falling on its face in the attempt with more obnoxious characters.
 

Suzuki Yu

Member
Does anyone else find it weird there's a button for rolling? I mean that slow roll, not the spindash. I mean....what's the point? It's completely useless. I do think it would be cool if in a sequel that button returned and rolling had the same effect as the classics with proper rolling physics, gravity and momentum and whatnot. I wanna be able to roll down hills to get to great speeds again.
this move will allow you to move in muddy/Sticky areas.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
I'm thinking to get this for my 3ds, should I? Or shall I avoid it?
Love mario galaxy and mario 3ds land (using as a basic for 3d platformers)
How does this compare?
 
I guess I can give a general review on the Wii U version now I have all red rings (clocked at 13 hours).

I really appreciate all the variety of things to do, it's one of the things I disliked about Colors which was just run from point A to point B.

But a lot of it feels underutilized or not not probable. Like the tier system, I feel that Sonic should've ran normally, but ZR would be for parkour, which is actually really fun in certain sections, but it's annoying to start running up a wall when you touch one and want to go a different way.

Spin Dash is a welcome return, but sadly, it's really hard to use it properly without running/spinning into shit.

The Homing Attack... is surprisingly unreliable, a lot of time it doesn't register and I end up taking damage... sometimes in crucial situations which is not fun, and a life is loft because of it.

I'm also not a fan of the overused cylinder levels, they could've had a proper open world level at least once, yeah Desert Runs is close... except most of it is closed off with sand that you can barely run on...

Not to mention there's little incentive to explore, nothing is interesting to see really, this is NOT like in SA1 where you would want to look at your surroundings to just stroll and check out. LOVED doing that in Mystic Ruins.

Oh and the timer is also a killer for exploring.

I did appreciate the P Wing where you can warp to the next checkpoint, got me out of a jam when I just wanted to clear a level and couldn't figure my way out (Sky Road rail section!!!...).

And again like many others I want to be someone that ISN'T Sonic, Tails would suffice.

The story, in my opinion, is the BEST written story since the Adventure era, I constantly LAUGHED and was wowed by the interaction between Sonic, Tails, and Eggman, and I really liked the Deadly Six as underutilized they were, Zavok was fucking, BADASS, ADORE his voice! Zazz was batshit crazy! Ken Pontac and Warren Graff redeemed, shocking after how bland as fuck Colors and Gens were story/writing wise (well I did like one or two lines from Colors :p, especially the PA stuff, that was really good but not part of the story, shame).

Let's see if I can so a positive and negative list:

Positive:

+I liked the slower pace, it's a nice framework for a modern Adventure engine.
+Parkour when done right, really works!
+Writing, boy did I love it. This is what I would've expected from the MadWorld writers given the material.
+Actual variety in the music, this is Adenture-era variety, loads of different genres, all it;s missing is PUMPKIN HILL RAP!!!
+The boss variety, again, not just the characters but each had something unique to them, unlike the THREE from Colors and used twice, FUCK.
+Spin Dash is fun as hell when used properly.
+Faster Homing Attack is a welcome return from the Adventure era.

Negative:

-Parkour can hinder when not intended, which is a lot. This is a major pace killer. Recommend maneuvering small places via walking.
-Spin Dash sadly can't be used properly to its fullest easily at all, at least in most places.
-Some bosses are RIDICULOUSLY easy, I beat Zor in the proper boss fight in two seconds, the first time was actually a challenge though. Not all were piss easy, but a number of them are.
-Red Rings can be a BITCH at times, especially in Sky Road and Lava Mountain, not sure if that's good or bad.
-Weak ending to the story. Hard to comment without giving much away, let me spoiler tag below.
-Cylinder levels, boring.
-Wisps, they do feel out of place and some even really hard to control, it took me a while to figure out Asteroid and Eagle. All the Colors one work just fine, ironically.
-Homing Attack inaccuracies. Quite a problem.
-Slowdown and glitchy at times. Not to freak anyone out, but there were times when the framerate would cripple and even slowdown, they were rare, and of course my infamous Casino level glitch. GROOVY!

Story spoilers:

I loved how Eggman showed a good side by saving Tails, and that felt genuine even after the ending when he was the final boss as most predicted. Same with him saving Sonic at the bridge, if he wanted him dead, he could've just dropped him. I do get the feeling he wants Sonic defeated, not dead. At least now (due to in SA2).

The Deadly Six have NO ending, they just disappear after they're defeated at Lava Mountain, I expected them to turn good or something, but nope, they just vanish. I was hoping for redemption or something.

I love how sweet Orbot and Cubot are, they want to be cared for, and maybe they would be better off with Sonic. They don't seem like the kind that want to hurt anyone at all. Good on them.

One of my fav scenes was Zazz vs Sonic and the subtle looks Sonic makes, fucking hilarious. XD

I hope if Ken and Warren come back, they bring back their A game, but also I wouldn't mind a darker turn or something, SA style. But hey for what we got, it was DAMN good.

So I guess overall, I give the game 7 Dorito Popes out of 10.

It's good, but not among my favs, the story is one of the biggest redeeming qualities. As was the music, those alone can really save a game for me. :)

That's pretty much it for now. Hope you liked my review. :)
 

Boogiepop

Member
Just beat the game, and it was great. I'm honestly baffled as to how on earth this game is getting polarized reviews. It's pretty easily the most polished 3D Sonic, so I'm really going to have to go and read some of what people said about it. The only level that felt actively screwy to me is the part of the water world where you have to use Rocket on the spherical worlds (IE you can't see where you're supposed to aim and far as I can tell you can't cancel it out, which can lead to some lame deaths).

I'm not sure how this is a "hard" game, either. I mean, I think I only saw about one game over screen per world (and none for the first) outside of the last world. Admittedly the second one in that lava world was a bit tricky with that DKC-minecart-esque design, so I got a handful of Game Overs there. And the Zavok fight in the sixth world and the final one at least took me a bit to figure out.

Other than that, I'd say the cloud segments are a little lame, and Eagle feels a tad loose (plus the Rhythm one feels kind of meh). But honestly it's a polished, fun game, and I'm pretty confident it's the best 3D Sonic.

Hell, even the story wasn't too obnoxious for once. Zavok was a bit cheesy, but better than a lot of the super-evil enemies from the series, but other than that the enemies taunting you throughout was fun.
 

Hale-XF11

Member
Got the 3DS version a few days ago. I'm at the end boss of the ice world and the game is really, really good. Miles better than Generations (3DS).

This is where I am too, actually. I'm really digging this game so far. It's like a mini-Mario Galaxy on the go, which is what I've always wanted.
 

Boogiepop

Member
Okay, I just read some of the review synopsis on Metacritic and the Nintendo Life review and... people found the controls poor/complicated? It's just Sonic's normal 3D moveset+a kick. It's not even vaguely complex. And one thing I'm confident of is that this is the smoothest controlling Sonic game at least since the series hit 3D. I always felt like I was in full control, nothing felt slippery, and the double jump was even balanced by having it cost you some momentum, making it less "broken" than in Colors. I also saw some mentions of the homing attack, and I didn't have that misfire once.

I mean, I'm fully aware of the kind of antics and crappy, unfair difficulty that can come with 3D Sonic, as I'm WAY too familiar with the worst parts of Sonic history. And that's just plain not present here. When I died, it was my fault, and I got a little bit better in the process. The only level I felt pushed the envelope in difficulty was the rail stage in the lava world, but as mentioned above it feels like it's ripped out of the DKC series and I don't see those getting the kind of awful reviews that this game is. Hell, Nintendolife mentions the snowball stage as being some kind of monstrous hurdle and... I think I maybe died once or twice? Is this seriously what's considered an unreasonably hard game nowadays?

Ugh.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
What's different then? Is it like a cut-down version of the Wii U game or a completely different game?

The 3DS version plays more like Colours with the traditional Sonic mechanic and parkour.

However the level designs are terrible and few of the level have puzzle where you need to defeat a number of Badniks or solve a puzzle to progress.

Honestly you're better off at not getting the 3DS version at all.

I'm thinking to get this for my 3ds, should I? Or shall I avoid it?
Love mario galaxy and mario 3ds land (using as a basic for 3d platformers)
How does this compare?

Avoid at all cost or wait for a price drop.

the game is nowhere close to Mario Galaxy or 3D Land.

-Red Rings can be a BITCH at times, especially in Sky Road and Lava Mountain, not sure if that's good or bad.

Bad thing as getting the red rings in Colours and Generation weren't as annoying in Lost world.

But at least the Red ring actually unlock something unlike in Sonic 4-2.

-Weak ending to the story. Hard to comment without giving much away, let me spoiler tag below.

I got so ticked off at the ending and was glad that you couldn't rewatch the cut scene.

-Wisps, they do feel out of place and some even really hard to control, it took me a while to figure out Asteroid and Eagle. All the Colors one work just fine, ironically.

Yeah it was like they threw everything they learn about using the wisp in Colours out of the window and just shoe horned them into the game which the story makes no mention how the wisp return and they really feel out of place as they slow the gameplay down.

I'm not sure how this is a "hard" game, either. I mean, I think I only saw about one game over screen per world (and none for the first) outside of the last world. Admittedly the second one in that lava world was a bit tricky with that DKC-minecart-esque design, so I got a handful of Game Overs there. And the Zavok fight in the sixth world and the final one at least took me a bit to figure out.

It's hard because lives are hard to get, especially when 100 rings doesn't yield a life.

It's also get hard when you get all the red rings.

But honestly it's a polished, fun game,

I wouldn't call Factory Zone 4 or the use of the wisps polished.

and I'm pretty confident it's the best 3D Sonic.

I say that Colours and Generation are the better Sonic game.
 
Um... That's how platformers usually work, yeah?

To a point. :p There's no exploration and it does essentially fall into "hold boost to win".

Where as in Lost World you had different ways of finishing stages than just running. Like the flying stages, the stealth stages, Or in earlier games like in SA2 you would go hunting (which I actually liked contrary to like everyone else...) or the shooting levels.

I like doing more than one basic thing during a whole game. :p

Basically I'd likely been fine with the way Colors worked... if I hadn't played most other games which did lots of different things. Some franchises follow a simple formula for the whole game and that's fine but when there's been variety in the same series prior, comparisons can be made for better or worse. :)
 

Boogiepop

Member
It's hard because lives are hard to get, especially when 100 rings doesn't yield a life.

It's also get hard when you get all the red rings.



I wouldn't call Factory Zone 4 or the use of the wisps polished.



I say that Colours and Generation are the better Sonic game.

Is a Game Over screen every once in a while that bad? I think I got maybe 10 in my course of the game, with 3 coming from 7-2. The levels were fun, so I didn't mind when I'd fail here and there and have to play, at most, 3-4 minutes of the level again. I don't know, were people getting constant Game Overs here or something? And there are definitely a TON of areas that are generous with the 1-ups, so I can't imagine farming lives would be that hard.

I'll give you Eagle, Rocket (but really only on the sphere stages, where it was poorly conceived), and I guess Rhythm for being kind of dull and feeling a little pointless. But Drill, Hover, Asteroid (though I only had it once or twice), and Laser all worked fine, and I'm sure Eagle just takes some getting used to (again, only had it once or twice). And I'm honestly not sure what's wrong with Frozen Factory 4. I think I died once or twice there, and I definitely didn't get a Game Over. Is it the ice blocks? I guess they were a little funky, but nothing too bad.

And I could see people feeling Colors and Generations are better, but at the very least I feel it's close. After all, it's not like Colors and Generations didn't have some serious problem areas (I always think of the impossibly dull Colors level where you run around the ring hitting a few switches, and Planet Wisp+the final boss from Generations are pretty bleh).

I don't know, I just felt it worked smoother than any other 3D Sonic game and had a ton of creative ideas that weren't just plain broken (I mean, comparing Galaxy-esque areas here versus SA2 is CRAZY).
 
Anyone figured out how to do that special parkour move Sonic does when he's flashing? I'm seeing a lot of walls where you have to run up, and then to the side. I know the ? said if you press B while he's flashing, he'll do a special move, but I've yet to see it/pull it off.
 
Anyone figured out how to do that special parkour move Sonic does when he's flashing? I'm seeing a lot of walls where you have to run up, and then to the side. I know the ? said if you press B while he's flashing, he'll do a special move, but I've yet to see it/pull it off.

What I do is when he's straight up, hit A left or right and he'll hop in that direction, do this repeatedly to move on.

Won't work if the wall is facing to the right or left, it has to face the camera.
 

Hale-XF11

Member
Okay, I just read some of the review synopsis on Metacritic and the Nintendo Life review and... people found the controls poor/complicated? It's just Sonic's normal 3D moveset+a kick. It's not even vaguely complex. And one thing I'm confident of is that this is the smoothest controlling Sonic game at least since the series hit 3D. I always felt like I was in full control, nothing felt slippery, and the double jump was even balanced by having it cost you some momentum, making it less "broken" than in Colors. I also saw some mentions of the homing attack, and I didn't have that misfire once.

I mean, I'm fully aware of the kind of antics and crappy, unfair difficulty that can come with 3D Sonic, as I'm WAY too familiar with the worst parts of Sonic history. And that's just plain not present here. When I died, it was my fault, and I got a little bit better in the process. The only level I felt pushed the envelope in difficulty was the rail stage in the lava world, but as mentioned above it feels like it's ripped out of the DKC series and I don't see those getting the kind of awful reviews that this game is. Hell, Nintendolife mentions the snowball stage as being some kind of monstrous hurdle and... I think I maybe died once or twice? Is this seriously what's considered an unreasonably hard game nowadays?

Ugh.

Same experience for me. I pretty much love everything Nintendolife hates about this game, lol. I can't help but wonder if the reviewer just wanted to power through the game to get their review out without having to deal with some of the more challenging levels and then simply wrote those moments off as being unnecessary.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
I think the issue is that the game doesn't do a good job explaining all of the new stuff outside of the minimum "press button to do this" things you can appear via GamePad or the digital manual. It takes a while to fully get used to the controls, but I wouldn't call them poor. It took me a few plays of the first stage, but I was able to grasp the controls and abilities in a short amount of time. Though it does leave out stuff like being able to actually CHARGE the spin dash or the fact I can continue it after jumping by holding both buttons again, which I didn't know about until people mentioned it on here.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Did a 180 on this game. Hated it at first.
My second play through things clicked and it is now my favorite 3d Sonic. Word of advice : if you stick to it it is very rewarding. Learning the flow of the levels makes them a ton of fun.

As a Sidenote, Sonic tlw miiverse posts are about to surpass wonderful 101 with almost 17000 in two days. I'm not sure whether I should feel happy or sad.

Happy that this game is getting players, but sad because TW101 is going to be the unfortunate hidden/flop of a gem for the console. It's a shame but I also think Nintendo failed to market that game properly.

As for The Lost World, the game clicked nearly instantly for me. I think there is such a variance in the control scheme that it's hard for people to adjust to it. But I think the general consensus is that the controls are quite good, despite a few disagreements on preference. I definitely think it's the best controlling Sonic so far anyway. However a lot of people seem to not like the mishmash of different gameplay types that were put into the game.

For the people who are complaining about frustrations in level design, I feel like they are misplacing difficulty for bad design, but that's just my perception of the situation. I haven't come across anything that was outright unfair or crap design that led to extra deaths. There are a number of situations that you will die through trial and error but that doesn't bother me. It does bother some people though.
 
Finally picked up my 3DS copy today, just played through the first world. I have to say, the 3D controls surprisingly well. The 2D segments, on the other hand, are kind of jank. The lack of momentum and Sonic sticking to the ground gets really confusing when you see a ramp and a high prize, spindash for it, and instead of launching you just wrap around the ramp and keep going at top speed. The parkour is finicky in 2D too.

Dimps apparently didn't get the memo about rings, because 100 still grant an extra life here. You can also lock-on to floating 1ups, and most other items, but not all. Also strange that the Wii U plays a remix of Reach for the Stars as the invincibility theme, but the 3DS version plays a remix of Sonic Heroes.


Oh, yes, the special stages are "amazing", but between the L button to pivot, and the X button to freeze motion (so you can reorient the 3DS to something sane), they're possibly not as awful as people say. But, not going to lie, patching in Circle Pad support would be wise.
 
What I do is when he's straight up, hit A left or right and he'll hop in that direction, do this repeatedly to move on.

Won't work if the wall is facing to the right or left, it has to face the camera.

Thanks!



After spending more time with the Wii U version and playing for a few hours making it to Silent Forest zone, this honestly is the best 3D Sonic experience. Sonic controls really well, it's fun running around in 3D space with the peel out animation and not having to worry about going to fast or janky acceleration/de-acceleration. The environments are extremely well done (sometimes there are too many open paths, lol). "Hmm I wonder if I should take this route, or just go underneath to the other side and go the other route".

There's a lot of Sega Genesis/Megadrive love too, from the sound effects to the extradoniary amount of classic badniks: Motobugs, Caterkillers, Buzz Bombers, the praying mantis guy, the claw and bumper guy from Casino Night Zone, the mushrooms, dragonflies and roosters from Sonic & Knux, the Cluck Generals from Sonic 2's Wing Fortress, Orbinauts (guys with the spiked orbs around them), Grounders, the bomb hog guy from Sonic 1's Scrap Brain Zone, Coconuts the Monkey from Sonic 2, the list can go on and on.

The music is wonderful and to be honest it's a pretty straight forward game. No treasure hunting, no shooting, just all Sonic. Kicking enemies into other enemies is a blast, and locking on to multiple targets for homing attacks work well (I don't see where the complaints are coming from, it works fine for me as I give it time to lock on). The platforming could use a little work but for the most park works really well.

My only gripe is that the Wisp powers are kind of a waste this time and not really that much useful as they were in Colors.

Unfortunately I think because of negative reviews, Sega/Sonic Team might go back to "Boost to Win" for their next Sonic game. Which is funny, because Sonic Lost World is probably the closest thing (platforming, less emphasis on speed, multiple paths, secrets, Badniks, colorful environments, etc) to the classic Sonic titles in 3D that we'll probably ever going to get. The formula is there, they just need to refine it some more. We're almost there, Sega. Almost there.
 

Kokonoe

Banned
To a point. :p There's no exploration and it does essentially fall into "hold boost to win".

Where as in Lost World you had different ways of finishing stages than just running. Like the flying stages, the stealth stages, Or in earlier games like in SA2 you would go hunting (which I actually liked contrary to like everyone else...) or the shooting levels.

I like doing more than one basic thing during a whole game. :p

Basically I'd likely been fine with the way Colors worked... if I hadn't played most other games which did lots of different things. Some franchises follow a simple formula for the whole game and that's fine but when there's been variety in the same series prior, comparisons can be made for better or worse. :)

I agree. Actually, my issues with Colors is all of the death traps or cheap parts at Aquarium Park and Asteroid Coaster. That one level where you're just bouncing as a ball on a trampoline platform was pretty terrible as well. The platforming wasn't really that great either with weird double jump mechanics in Sweet Mountain and the annoying blue coin bits in Starlight Carnival. I actually found most of Aquarium Park and Starlight Carnival confusing in the 2D segments. Sometimes it's not obvious how to proceed or you have parts where you fall down and have to climb back up. Just don't care for that game personally.
 

qq more

Member
Thanks!



After spending more time with the Wii U version and playing for a few hours making it to Silent Forest zone, this honestly is the best 3D Sonic experience. Sonic controls really well, it's fun running around in 3D space with the peel out animation and not having to worry about going to fast or janky acceleration/de-acceleration. The environments are extremely well done (sometimes there are too many open paths, lol). "Hmm I wonder if I should take this route, or just go underneath to the other side and go the other route".

There's a lot of Sega Genesis/Megadrive love too, from the sound effects to the extradoniary amount of classic badniks: Motobugs, Caterkillers, Buzz Bombers, the praying mantis guy, the claw and bumper guy from Casino Night Zone, the mushrooms, dragonflies and roosters from Sonic & Knux, the Cluck Generals from Sonic 2's Wing Fortress, Orbinauts (guys with the spiked orbs around them), Grounders, the bomb hog guy from Sonic 1's Scrap Brain Zone, Coconuts the Monkey from Sonic 2, the list can go on and on.

The music is wonderful and to be honest it's a pretty straight forward game. No treasure hunting, no shooting, just all Sonic. Kicking enemies into other enemies is a blast, and locking on to multiple targets for homing attacks work well (I don't see where the complaints are coming from, it works fine for me as I give it time to lock on). The platforming could use a little work but for the most park works really well.

My only gripe is that the Wisp powers are kind of a waste this time and not really that much useful as they were in Colors.

Unfortunately I think because of negative reviews, Sega/Sonic Team might go back to "Boost to Win" for their next Sonic game. Which is funny, because Sonic Lost World is probably the closest thing (platforming, less emphasis on speed, multiple paths, secrets, Badniks, colorful environments, etc) to the classic Sonic titles in 3D that we'll probably ever going to get. The formula is there, they just need to refine it some more. We're almost there, Sega. Almost there.
There were plenty of platforming in those "boost to win" games... Not arguing against this game's style though.


I agree. Actually, my issues with Colors is all of the death traps or cheap parts at Aquarium Park and Asteroid Coaster. That one level where you're just bouncing as a ball on a trampoline platform was pretty terrible as well. The platforming wasn't really that great either with weird double jump mechanics in Sweet Mountain and the annoying blue coin bits in Starlight Carnival. I actually found most of Aquarium Park and Starlight Carnival confusing in the 2D segments. Sometimes it's not obvious how to proceed or you have parts where you fall down and have to climb back up. Just don't care for that game personally.
As much as I've enjoyed Colors (and even considering it my favorite 3D Sonic), I do admit the game gets a bit rough towards the end. Asteroid Coaster Act 2 is especially mean :(
 
After spending more time with the Wii U version and playing for a few hours making it to Silent Forest zone, this honestly is the best 3D Sonic experience. Sonic controls really well, it's fun running around in 3D space with the peel out animation and not having to worry about going to fast or janky acceleration/de-acceleration. The environments are extremely well done (sometimes there are too many open paths, lol). "Hmm I wonder if I should take this route, or just go underneath to the other side and go the other route".

What? I don't even.

Unfortunately I think because of negative reviews, Sega/Sonic Team might go back to "Boost to Win" for their next Sonic game. Which is funny, because Sonic Lost World is probably the closest thing (platforming, less emphasis on speed, multiple paths, secrets, Badniks, colorful environments, etc) to the classic Sonic titles in 3D that we'll probably ever going to get. The formula is there, they just need to refine it some more. We're almost there, Sega. Almost there.

I completely agree here though.
 
What? I don't even.

I've experienced a lot of janky clipping in SA, SA2 and Heroes. Basically when trying to stop and such, sometimes I would get a repeating "landing" animation from jumping or something. It's just something minor. Or when even try to move just a little bit over something like a step, the character's frames of animations would clip out sometimes.
 
I've experienced a lot of janky clipping in SA, SA2 and Heroes. Basically when trying to stop and such, sometimes I would get a repeating "landing" animation from jumping or something. It's just something minor. Or when even try to move just a little bit over something like a step, the character's frames of animations would clip out sometimes.

I don't think that has anything to do with acceleration. It's just bad collision in general.

Anyway, better physics are the only thing I think this style of gameplay needs. Do that next time around, more coherent level design and it's should be gold.
 

qq more

Member
They need to seriously ditch Gyro controls. That planet wisp is annoying to control... is there an alternative to controlling it?! (Wii U)


Game is fun so far, controls outside of Wisp ain't bad, takes a bit to get used to, but I'm not sure how I feel about Sonic's speed, especially in 2D play.
 

Het_Nkik

Member
They need to seriously ditch Gyro controls. That planet wisp is annoying to control... is there an alternative to controlling it?! (Wii U).

Don't worry about it. It's in those two early levels and then you'll never see it again. It really seems like some of the Wisps were thrown in at the last second just because.
 

qq more

Member
Don't worry about it. It's in those two early levels and then you'll never see it again. It really seems like some of the Wisps were thrown in at the last second just because.

Thank god. I was worried this was gonna be a common problem in the game.
 
I'm on the fence over this game. I LOVED Generations and Colors, and even liked the daytime stages in Unleashed. Is there a good chance I'll enjoy this one? I wish there was a NA demo...
 

Het_Nkik

Member
Thank god. I was worried this was gonna be a common problem in the game.

That's not to say there won't be other annoying Wisps to control : p Nah, the only other one I had trouble with is some
musical note
Wisp that's movement is stupid and didn't make any sense to me at first.
 
Played the 3DS version up to unlocking Silent Forest now, a few more thoughts...

From what I've seen of the Wii U version (watched two full walkthroughs) versus what I've played of the 3DS version, Dimps did a better job sticking to the core gameplay mechanics and theming the levels, where the Wii U version reminds me of Sly Cooper 3, which made practically every level have some kind of "twist" or minigame to it. That's still present in the 3DS version, but it seems to do a better job of establishing a clear core to the game.

The levels can be pretty meaty, especially the 2D levels which, compared to Generations 3DS, are shockingly robust and have a lot of routes. Unfortunately, sometimes it gets really easy to get lost, and it doesn't help when the levels do things like flip your gravity mid-bounce. And sometimes you just can't see what's coming at you, or have enough time to react your first time or two through. (And Dimps loves their "oops you missed it can't go back ha ha" moments.) So on one hand I want to respect them for how much they've creatively crammed into these stages, but on the other hand, way too often I'm asking, "Where the hell do I go?"

That said, fuck Frozen Factory 3. The gimmick was cute as first, but went on for way too long, would screw up your targeting, get you stunlocked repeatedly, AGH.

Speaking of which, whoever made the somersault kick the same button as Bounce, AND made it only work when targeting something (which is spotty), AND didn't set target priority well, so that it targets things not affected by the kick instead of the things that are (FROZEN FACTORY 3)... that's a paddling. Chain Homing also gets a little overenthusiastic at times, when you go to attack one enemy, and you end up zooming backwards unexpectedly to tag an enemy or a switch or a random piece of stage decoration.

There's other weird quirks, too. Sometimes it's hard to avoid the Super Guide items (why don't they show up on the Touch Screen?). Sometimes Sonic gets knocked down and it takes a LONG time to get back up. You can't disable parkour by not holding the Run button, it's speed-based, which means that sometimes you actively try not to run up a wall and fail, but not all the time. They don't label the teleport pads, whether it's going to send you backward or forward, and it's surprisingly hard to land on top of one, especially when enemies are swarming into you. And you're on ice. And there's a stupid huge snowball with eyelashes freezing you over and over.

The bosses actually seem better here (although Zeena was a pushover). It's weird because they were clearly given certain guidelines and pieces to work with (Zomom has the robot head, Zeena a snowman, etc), but they ran in very different directions with them.

And, I've beaten four of them, and... uh... I kind... of like the Special Stages. Yeah, you have to stand up, and spin around like a goof, but they work reliably, and have a few creative mechanics to them, like matching up the colors of the orbs. One small complaint is that it doesn't reset your position between rounds, and because you can tackle them nonlinearly, sometimes you'll end up flying into Dash Rings that send you backwards, because they're trying to push you through a sequence that you didn't follow. But so far I haven't failed one. As long as you pepper dashing instead of spamming it, so you can better control your flight path, they've been quite manageable, even if my arms are a little tired by the end.
 
Is there any chance of a sale soon on this? I wanted to give this a shot, but I don't want to pay full price with the reviews its gotten.
 

Boogiepop

Member
Is there any chance of a sale soon on this? I wanted to give this a shot, but I don't want to pay full price with the reviews its gotten.

Maybe wait for Black Friday and see if anything pops up at this point?

I'll admit I appear to be an outlier, but at the very least the core complaint amongst all the reviews seems to be difficulty, which may be why I had no problems, but I'd argue if you're a decent gamer and can handle something like, say, DKCR then you probably shouldn't let the reviews worry you too terribly. But as I said, it looks like I'm probably an outlier in feeling that the game is awesome, so take from my opinion what you will.
 

Lijik

Member
Beat the hard mode on Lost World 3DS, its surprisingly much easier since they just throw lives at you like candy. I stocked up 99 with little effort by the time I reached Silent Forest whereas in the normal mode I only had about 20.

I think I'll wait for a guide on the red rings before I tackle those.
 

branny

Member
Okay, so, I beat the Wii U version late last night. I think the game as a whole is an interesting experiment. If taken as a proof of concept, it actually accomplishes that goal pretty admirably. However, it feels like a rough draft that could benefit from more focus, elaboration, and polish.

What Lost World does best is really define Sonic's controls. I'm not 100% satisfied with them (his mid-air arsenal leaves room for improvement, IMO), but they're strong enough that most players will be content. I miss mid-air boosting. I am confused why we cannot use the ground stomp in rail sections unless it's after a homing attack. I think his wall-running is also pretty finicky. Wisps in the game are generally awful and underutilized, too. Other than what I've mentioned and a few other little things here and there, Sonic's movement is Lost World's strongest asset.

Most stages in the game are a different story, though. Level designs are all over the place, with the latter half of them devolving into unwanted gimmickry or punishing linearity. The game's lives system is also pretty frustrating when coupled with spotty targeting and a few iffy checkpoints. If everything felt 100% my fault, I wouldn't have minded as much, but some stages drag forever and have some freaking obnoxious things in them...

I just feel like I'm not on the same page as Sonic Team with this one, especially after playing the first level of that Special Stage or whatever with the Rubik's cube block stuff. I have no clue what the hell that nonsense is.

The soundtrack is nice but nothing too special outside of a few songs, and I thought the presentation of the story is a little better than Generations, at least.

I'm on the fence over this game. I LOVED Generations and Colors, and even liked the daytime stages in Unleashed. Is there a good chance I'll enjoy this one? I wish there was a NA demo...
Our tastes are similar regarding those other Sonic games. Personally, I felt disappointed with Lost World in comparison. It's still fun when it's not being annoying, but it doesn't grab me as much as the Boost trilogy, even at its best. It's kind of its own thing. =\
 
Top Bottom