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[Spinluck]

I was coming to say the exact same thing. This bit from Joystiq's review:

Guess RubyEclipse wasn't bluffing about being able to take more risks...

Ok, they fucking goofed by changing that. Why?

 

[NotLiquid]

The Guardian: 4/5

 

[qq more]

Dat Sonic cycle.

The OP specifically said no Sonic Cycle

so let's not start this, please

 

[Vire]

Polygon - 6

 

[Spinluck]

Seriously, I think it was bad by design. Sega admitted that they made the game bad on purpose by making Sonic's walking speed on that game as slow as possible. I probably wouldn't believe them if they admitted that with words, but no one can doubt this fact when the game's design is the opposite of what it should be.

I wonder why though. Maybe testing how much a fandom can take? Maybe Lost World is their way of rivalling Capcom, who has stepped up their game on that matter lately.

Not sure what they were thinking. Not only was it bad, but the soundtrack had absolutely no identity and was pretty forgettable..

 

[Kouriozan]

Yep, just got it, will post my impression in the OT later today.

 

[greg400]

Game Informer - 5

Same reviewer that gave ZombiU a 5.

 

[Byronic Hero]

Wow @ the 100 rings not giving you an extra life. That's like taking the 100-coin life away from Mario. What the heck Sonic Team? This is how you make your game harder? By making it have cheaper deaths and limited lives? Forget that, now I'm thinking this game will be very low on my games Q. :/

 

[Yagharek]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86501560&postcount=73

Someone here said there would be a demo tonight or tomorrow. I haven't heard anything, but if Australia gets it it should be available in EU too?

Edit: shit, I was wrong sorry. The email that I got which I thought said a demo was coming was actually saying the full game was on the eshop. Not a demo.

Sorry, please dont shoot me too many times.

Repeat: no demo on Aus eshop.

 

[Sendou]

Also if this blows as hard as reviews are indicating Wii U's holiday lineup looks pretty horrible from gamer's perspective. It even looked good before Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze delay. As far as good exclusive games would go we would have Wonderful 101 in August/September, Wind Waker HD (just a port even if it's a good one) in October and Mario 3D World in November. This is not a spectacular lineup.

 

[KingSnake]

The Guardian: 4/5

I always like the writing of the Guardian's reviews.

 

[Vire]

Also if this blows as hard as reviews are indicating Wii U's holiday lineup looks pretty horrible from gamer's perspective. It even looked good before Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze delay. As far as good exclusive games would go we would have Wonderful 101 in August/September, Wind Waker HD (just a port even if it's a good one) in October and Mario 3D World in November. This is not a spectacular lineup.

Super Mario 3D World looks good enough to carry everyone on its back.

 

[Sendou]

Mario 3D World looks good enough to carry everyone on its back.

No it doesn't. It looks very good but it doesn't make up for everything.

 

[fi1ip]

Ouch. Game looked promising on some trailers. I expected this to get mostly 8/10 reviews.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

Who to trust, who to trust...

I'm just trying to understand if they game boils down to idiosyncratic taste or if the mechanics are actually bad.

 

[Yoshi]

The scores are all over the place but personally I don't care too much about them. The two things that worries me most about this game are the length and the difficulty.

Length aside, the question of the difficulty is more important. I've been playing Giana Sisters and while I'm quite good at platforming and I'm currently in the second to last level of the game, there have been numerous occassions where the difficulty has been unfair. Meaning, the graphics hide some of the obstacles or those obstacles are placed so that the game becomes a speedtest. That wouldn't be a problem if the controls actually worked like they should: if I push up, the character goes up, not diagonally.

And this is the feeling it get from the reviews of Sonic. Unfair difficulty with everything thrown at the player with far-away checkpoints which results as me losing interest. Don't know, might get this when in bargain.

- There are plenty checkpoints
- There even is a super guide, popping up when you lose your last life before you go Game Over, or whenever you lose too many lives which lets you skip to the next checkpoint
- I didn't think ANY section was unfair, you could always get all information you needed to act correctly early enough

 

[Into]

Also if this blows as hard as reviews are indicating Wii U's holiday lineup looks pretty horrible from gamer's perspective. It even looked good before Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze delay. As far as good exclusive games would go we would have Wonderful 101 in August/September, Wind Waker HD (just a port even if it's a good one) in October and Mario 3D World in November. This is not a spectacular lineup.

Yeah maybe, but i am sure 3D World will kick ass and get raving scores. It will easily be up for GOTY contention, 3D Land was excellent and Nintendo will just make it even better, i am not worried at all.

But you are right that it might not be enough from a sales perspective, but the game will kick ass and rock our faces off

 

[TheCongressman1]

Wow @ the 100 rings not giving you an extra life. That's like taking the 100-coin life away from Mario. What the heck Sonic Team? This is how you make your game harder? By making it have cheaper deaths and limited lives? Forget that, now I'm thinking this game will be very low on my games Q. :/

Wow, indeed. Those instadeath moments got on my nerves before, but this takes the cake. Rings are fairly useless now. Just keep one and you'll be fine. No incentive to think otherwise.

This is a game full of bonehead decisions. Without all of these little flaws this game could have been so much fun, but it seems like it's going to be really mediocre.

 

[maquiladora]

Wow at Gamespot, IGN, Joystiq, Eurogamer.....getting a lot of low scores. Worse than I expected.

 

[MIlky1985]

Some people are saying the deaths are cheap, from what i've played the deaths are not cheaper in any way, in fact its quite easy to see what will kill you.

And on level 1-4 for me it was mostly the sheep, died about 10 times to them

This is the first sonic game in a while where i have had to use a continue, you know what, I like that. I honest believe that you can't have a difficult game any more as it will get panned in reviews (unless its dark souls where people buy into it being punishing) by reviewers who have no time for difficult games that challenge them .

However any complaints about the game not explaining itself are correct, for example, nowhere in the game is there a controls menu that i could find, its in the electronic manual (that no-one looks at), i know people don't like tutorials shoved in there faces but this one has gone too far the other way. Hell once you have run past the point where the little ? appears you can't get it back again!

There even is a super guide, popping up when you lose your last life before you go Game Over, or whenever you lose too many lives which lets you skip to the next checkpoint

Haven't seen anyone mention these, hell even the game doesn't, i took it once when i thought "whats this" , then i realized it had teleported me to the end of the level and realized what it was

 

[Coxy]

so are they selling lives as DLC or preorder only?

 

[Box of Bunnies]

The Guardian: 4/5

Oh boy, more "fathers of Sonic" talk that completely ignores Yasuhara.

Carol Yas never getting the credit he deserves for being the true quality of the Mega Drive games.

 

[Vire]

Video Gamer - 5

CVG - 7

 

[Peff]

Wow @ the 100 rings not giving you an extra life. That's like taking the 100-coin life away from Mario. What the heck Sonic Team? This is how you make your game harder? By making it have cheaper deaths and limited lives? Forget that, now I'm thinking this game will be very low on my games Q. :/

It's a weird change, but I think they did it because you get so many rings that if it worked as usual you might as well not have lives at all. It's still baffling, though, but at least there a couple of short levels with streaks of 3-4 lives, clearly to allow for hoarding for the harder levels.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

This line stuck out in the escapist review

It's a rehash of what made Sonic awesome in 1991. It's not a videogame from 2013. It controls like a game from 1991, it has gameplay like a game from 1991. Warts, blemishes, sluggishness and all. It is, by all measures, an astoundingly average game

Coming from how limited and clunky Sonic 1 feels compared to the rest of the classic games, I dont think this is far off the mark.

 

[Dark Schala]

Reviews up to page 3 edited into the OP. Thanks a lot everyone.

I'll put up the non-English ones in a moment since I have to manually translate some of them.

 

[Yagharek]

This paragraph from the Eurogamer review really killed my interest in the game:

Sometimes, when you need to hit several enemies in a row to get across a large gap, you'll hit the first two, Sonic will inexplicably fail to connect with the third and you'll fall to your death. Sometimes you'll jump towards an enemy and Sonic will opt instead to perform a simple double-jump and take damage as he collides with his intended target. Sometimes the reticle will automatically target an enemy that damages you when you try to attack. Sometimes it does that when you're in the air and the camera helpfully assumes a position that prevents you from seeing what you're about to land on. Sometimes you will want to shout and swear and throw things.

Sounds just like my experience with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

 

[marc^o^]

Gamersyde: GOOD

The latest title of the Sonic saga is definitely a good game. By borrowing its gameplay sequences from games like Sonic Colors, Super Mario Galaxy or even Super Monkey Ball, it manages to mix various ways of doing platforming while still keeping its own identity. And cherry on the cake, it manages to keep boredom at bay by varying the gameplay styles and has a good replayability potential. And finally the addition of a way to slow down Sonic thanks the the running trigger makes the platforming much more interesting than in the past. As a result we get a title where all gameplay styles are enjoyable and interesting.

 

[IncandescentPrecept]

Always trust your instincts about a game.

 

[Spinluck]

No it doesn't. It looks very good but it doesn't make up for everything.

It probably will for me if I'm honest, lol.

 

[LAA]

Hmm shame, I very nearly jumped on this game, if they released a demo for EU, I would have tested it out and decided if I wanted it or not.

Disappointing to hear that deadly 6 edition too is simply reskins, oh well. They have one more exclusive to make for Wii U I think? Maybe they can get that right.

 

[KennyLinder]

This paragraph from the Eurogamer review really killed my interest in the game:



Sounds just like my experience with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

Yep, just like SA1 and 2. Got enough to play and will be saving my platform game of choice for Mario 3D World (and Knack IF it turns out well).

 

[RobbieNick]

9/10 Nintendo World Report

 

[papercan55]

Wow, indeed. Those instadeath moments got on my nerves before, but this takes the cake. Rings are fairly useless now. Just keep one and you'll be fine. No incentive to think otherwise.

This is a game full of bonehead decisions. Without all of these little flaws this game could have been so much fun, but it seems like it's going to be really mediocre.

In my opinion, the game isn't actually that hard, it's just full of very cheap deaths, mostly caused by a bad camera and enemies that hit you from off screen.
One of the worst things for me was the level timer, it ran out for me around 15 times, as soon as i stopped to explore for even 15 seconds, i ran out of time.
And once i realised that 100 rings didn't give me an extra life it became very hard to keep my lives count high enough so that i could explore, i.e if you want to explore the level you are likely going to run out of time, thus lose an extra life. the problem is that you can't increase your life count so you end up seeing the game over screen.
If you just rush through without exploring you will have no problems.

Also the tutorials at the start of the game are poorly executed, you get a ? pop up on the tv screen but you have to look down and press the ? on the gamepad to see the tutorial. The problem is that if your slow in pressing the button, or have more than likely moved passed that point in the level then the chance to see the tutorial is gone.

 

[Yoshi]

Wow, indeed. Those instadeath moments got on my nerves before, but this takes the cake. Rings are fairly useless now. Just keep one and you'll be fine. No incentive to think otherwise.

This is a game full of bonehead decisions. Without all of these little flaws this game could have been so much fun, but it seems like it's going to be really mediocre.

Rings are not totally useless, there are Achivements about them and also (big spoiler)

Spoiler

you unlock Super Sonic

for getting all red rings,

Spoiler

so you need 50 rings to turn into Super Sonic and finally make this game fast

. But yes, it's a bit strange that rings do not give lifes anymore. It doesn't make this a worse game though. Also, what are cheap deaths? If you screw up, you die, what's wrong in that? I can't understand this demand for all too many safety nets among gamers .

 

[Byronic Hero]

It's a weird change, but I think they did it because you get so many rings that if it worked as usual you might as well not have lives at all. It's still baffling, though, but at least there a couple of short levels with streaks of 3-4 lives, clearly to allow for hoarding for the harder levels.

But with new ways to die (IE the spotlight deaths, being eaten by worms(?), ect.) along with the regular and pitfall deaths, it would have been more balanced right? Still feels like a cheap way to pad the game out a bit longer. I guess I'll reserve judgement until I actually play it, but boy that sure sucks.

 

[Spinluck]

This line stuck out in the escapist review

Coming from how limited and clunky Sonic 1 feels compared to the rest of the classic games, I dont think this is far off the mark.

Sonic 1 had the most solid platforming of the Genesis titles, imo.

Gametrailers said that this game does away with the cheap deaths, so...

opinions.

 

[marc^o^]

NintendoLife: 7/10

Sonic Lost World shows flashes of brilliance, where clever design, bright visuals and a daring sense of fun align perfectly. There are a few significant lows, however, and a raft of content that is passable but easily forgotten. That leaves us with an uneven experience that we recommend to keen Sonic fans without hesitation, but suggest that the less committed should think carefully. If dealing with frustration to reach high points is an acceptable sacrifice of your gaming time then this is worth strong consideration, but be under no illusions — this isn't the definitive Sonic experience we may have desired.

 

[primasaurus]

Another one of those love it or hate it games

This is what you get when you try something different

 

[TheOGB]

This paragraph from the Eurogamer review really killed my interest in the game:



Sounds just like my experience with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

But don't they have different buttons for each air attack? I can see where the homing attack doesn't lock onto the entire chain, but from what I've heard of some of those on GAF that have played it they separated double jump, homing attack and homing kick.

 

[Vire]

Another one of those love it or hate it games

This is what you get when you try something different

Different as in copying Mario Galaxy, except poorly executed?

 

[Yoshi]

This paragraph from the Eurogamer review really killed my interest in the game:



Sounds just like my experience with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

There is a red marker that shows you what Sonic will attack. If it's a spiky enemy and you still decide to attack him, is the game to blame? Also, I didn't have any problems with getting the homing attack to always without fail hit the enemies I wanted to hit.

 

[Spinluck]

Different as in copying Mario Galaxy, except poorly executed?

Mario Galaxy wasn't the only inspiration.

Monkey Ball

Sonic X-Treme

Sonic Colors

 

[Acquiescence]

I expected better. It always looked really good to me.

 

[KillerTravis]

Always trust your instincts about a game.

I wouldn't trust your instincts even if my life depended on it.

In this case though it does seem the game is shit.

 

[Dragon1893]

I guess I saw it coming but still disappointed that the 3DS version is so poor.

 

[Yoshi]

Different as in copying Mario Galaxy, except poorly executed?

This is just bullshit, the game borrows some ideas from Mario Galaxy, but it is far off a copy-cat. It isn't poorly executed either.

 

[NotLiquid]

VentureBeat: 8.5/10

Sonic Lost World is beautifully brutal. More important, however, is that it’s a worthy addition to Sega’s most beloved franchise. Considering the Japanese publisher’s recent inconsistency with its mascot’s endeavors, this is good news.

After all, many Sonic games have tested my talents, and Lost World’s late-onset thumb-blistering difficulty evoked a period where I would feverishly slam shiny black pieces of plastic into my favorite 16-bit console to get my gaming fix.

And, come to think of it, that’s pretty high praise.

 

[Prince Vultan]

Ouch at all those 5 and under reviews.

Game sounds like a real turd.

 

[KingSnake]

Ouch at all those 5 and under reviews.

Game sounds like a real turd.

Slow Sony news day?