Reinventing the Wheel… Again | Sonic Lost World (Wii U/PC, 2013) Review

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

I don’t have anything witty to say here, so let’s dive straight into this review!

Background and History

Following Colors’ development, Sonic Team proceeded to experiment with ideas for a new Sonic title - with Iizuka stating he wanted to deliver a new experience with the game in interviews up to the game’s release. Ultimately Sonic Team wanted to stick to Sonic’s core gameplay while creating something new and different. Ideas came about for giving the player the ability to control Sonic’s speed with a “run” button and a new parkour system to expand Sonic’s moveset and fluidity, alongside “tube-like” levels with inspiration stemming from… Jack and the Beanstalk of all things, while also maintaining elements like the mix of 2D and 3D gameplay and Wisps from Colors.

Among all this, an agreement was made between Sega and Nintendo involving the release of three new Sonic games coming out at least initially as exclusives on Nintendo platforms. This being the first of which, with Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (and I’m assuming Rise of Lyric) following it up in the coming year.

The game was announced in May 2013 via a Nintendo Direct presentation and the Wii U and 3DS versions released in October that same year, with a PC version eventually coming out a couple years later. The game received mixed reviews from critics, and from what I can tell is a bit… divisive among Sonic fans. To this day there’s a lot of people who like it well enough, but a lot of others who outright dislike the game. A lot of criticism is directed at the game’s story and finicky controls, and ultimately it was a step down in reception compared to the two major entries preceding it - Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.

Personal Experiences

When this game was announced I was becoming more well-versed in upcoming game announcements, at least ones that pertained to the kinds of games I liked. At this point, coming off of what is considered to be the “Dark Age” of Sonic in the mid/late 2000’s, it seemed like Sonic was getting back on track with the positive reception of Colors and Generations, so I was definitely excited for the next Sonic game and could only imagine the series going up from there.

I didn’t watch the Nintendo Direct - largely since I didn’t know it was even happening - but I definitely caught the trailer not long after it was uploaded to Nintendo’s official Youtube channel, and I was definitely excited for it. A lot of people made comparisons to Super Mario Galaxy, but my first thought was actually Sonic X-treme - I remember even commenting on the ROBLOX forums when those were still a thing about how Sonic Lost World reminded me a lot of Sonic X-treme, and I sort of felt like it was a spiritual successor or revisit of that kind of gameplay. Course, supposedly none of the development team aside from Iizuka knew about X-treme so ultimately any comparisons that were drawn were purely coincidental, but it was at least an interesting thing to think about.

Aside for it’s initial trailers though I didn’t really follow the game up to it’s release, and to my surprise, reviews of the game… didn’t seem great. IGN gave the game a 5.8/10, which I initially just brushed off as IGN being IGN, but after looking at reviews from other sites and fans it definitely seemed like Sonic Lost World was necessarily the hit I was looking forward to.

That said, I didn’t get a chance to play it for a couple years. I didn’t own a Wii U or 3DS when the game came out. I did get a 3DS for Christmas the following year, and received the 3DS version of Lost World for my Birthday in 2015, but I wouldn’t experience the Wii U version until 2016 - after the PC version came out which was how I played the game for the first time (where I picked up a Humble Bundle which included the game). And, honestly, I enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was the best Sonic game ever, but I did consider it a solid follow-up to Colors and Generations, at one point considering it to be my third favorite 3D Sonic game, following those two.

In 2018 I finally picked up a used Wii U and one of the first games I got for it was Sonic Lost World, so I could experience the game on it’s original hardware. Again, I enjoyed it and since then… while it’s not the Sonic game I’ve gone back to most, I have generally enjoyed the game when I have gone back to it, including for this review. It definitely has it’s problems, but, well… let’s talk about that.

Story

While pursuing Eggman who’s up to no good once again, Sonic and Tails crash land on the “Lost Hex”, a world in the sky (a lost world, huh????) where Eggman is controlling a group of “Zeti” known as the “Deadly Six” through a conch. But Sonic, in his haste, kicks away the conch while Eggman is using it, thus giving the Deadly Six free reign to drain the planet of it’s energy and control Eggman’s badniks. As such, Sonic and Tails are left with no choice but to team up with Eggman so he can help shut off the machine being used to drain the planet of it’s life.

Now, with Colors’ story at least, I was a bit more lenient towards it than most. It was a more simple, lighthearted and “chill” story that I think did a fine enough job with it’s characters and didn’t feel overly complicated like, say, Shadow or 06, but didn’t feel too flat and make Sonic feel like a generic shonen hero which was a problem I had with… well, all of the “Dark Age” stories to some extent or another.

Sonic Lost World, however, is commonly cited as one of the worst Sonic stories and unfortunately… I do have to agree with this consensus. There are a few things I like about it - admittedly Sonic roasting the Deadly Six can actually be pretty funny and I like the bit of Tails reprogramming a machine using a toothpick and laundry detergent, which comes back later on in the story, but otherwise the story is pretty bad.

To get this out of the way first… I don’t care for the Deadly Six. Pretty much all of them just feel one-dimensional and trope-y for lack of a better word. Their personalities just feel like stereotypes that I’ve seen a billion times - Zavok just being generically “evil” (and for some reason constantly being brought back), Zazz being the “crazy” one, Zomom being the “fat” one, Master Zik being the “wise” one, Zeena being the diva bitch, and Zor basically being a stereotypical depressed teenager - a trope that this game’s story made me realize I absolutely despise. They feel underdeveloped, and just come off as extremely one-note villains.

Now, I haven’t really talked about this, but whereas the mid-late 2000’s are deemed the “Dark Age” by classic Sonic fans, the 2010’s are often deemed the “meta era” largely by the age group that grew up in the era of the Adventure games and/or “Dark Age” titles. Yeah… I know, this whole era shit is annoying, but I did want to bring that up. A lot of those fans often criticize this era, including Colors and Generations to an extent, for having too lighthearted and comedic stories.

And I mention this because I feel like with Lost World, the issue with it’s story isn’t necessarily a result of being too lighthearted or dark, but rather that the tone feels… inconsistent. I’m not really sure what to call it exactly, but let’s say this - Colors’ plot generally had a more lighthearted and comedic tone, but it did know when to take itself seriously depending on the moment - for example, during the climax when Sonic throws Tails onto the shuttle before fighting Eggman, or the finale when Sonic barely survives running from a giant black hole.

With Lost World, the tone comes off as… confusing. There are a lot of cases where I feel like they’re trying to tell a more lighthearted story, but other cases where it’s more serious, in a way that I don’t exactly know when to take the story seriously or not. 

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how to explain it, but I think those who have at least watched Lost World’s cutscenes probably know where I’m getting at. And this sort of shows through a lot of major plot elements - namely, the dialogue. In general, the dialogue in this game is very poor, with some lines almost coming off as the same tier as Shadow the Hedgehog (the game)’s lines. A lot of people have made jokes about the “I was too slow to save my buddy” scene, but I should also mention that the Deadly Six each “speak” to Sonic during certain levels - particularly when approaching a boss, and at one point Zavok says “You are a waste of my time, Sonic. And I despise waste.” That line just always comes off as weird to me - it would’ve been fine without the last part, and the fact that it’s there just makes Zavok seem even less threatening than he already is.

I feel like the voice acting and delivery is also at least somewhat affected by this game’s strange tonal issues. I’ve mentioned that Roger Craig Smith is my favorite Sonic voice actor, and I feel like he can do a good job putting up with both lighthearted and serious tones as needed, as seen in, well, Colors. But here, a lot of the time I sort of feel like he isn’t taking the game’s script seriously and his delivery as Sonic often comes off as… sort of whiny and almost monotone feeling.

So yeah, this is one case where I find myself agreeing with many of the hardcore 2000’s fans in that Sonic Lost World’s story just isn’t very good. I have heard from some that the Japanese version is a bit better, but I haven’t really gone and sought that out.

I will say though that on a presentation level, the animation is pretty good - feeling pretty “snappy” overall with a decent amount of fluidity to the characters and movements. It’s not the greatest, but it is an improvement over Colors and Generations’ cutscene animations in my eyes.

Presentation

I will say though that this game’s visuals and art style always stood out to me. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I definitely like the bright, colorful environments this game is full of and it helps the game really ‘pop’ in my eyes. And some stages really take advantage of the more bright and colorful art style - particularly Frozen Factory Act 3 and Silent Forest Act 4, the latter of which has a pretty cool “darkness” effect on a blue background, where you need to lighten up the room to see better. 

I still prefer Colors and Generations’ art style overall - Lost World does feel pretty blocky at times with a lack of interesting, organic backgrounds and whatnot, but when Lost World’s art style works well, it definitely looks pretty nice. It also runs at 60FPS, which really helps give the gameplay more fluidity.

And the soundtrack… to be honest I did at one point feel like it was a bit forgettable, but playing it again I ended up realizing how much I enjoyed much of the game’s music. Windy Hill’s themes were always among my favorites, but I also found myself liking Honeycomb Highway, Sea Bottom Segue, Double Down (which has a few seconds of sounding like the Flintstones theme) and the boss themes. It isn’t my favorite Sonic soundtrack out there, but I was actually kind of surprised with how much I liked it when going back to this game.

Gameplay

As I stated in the Background and History section, Sonic Team wanted Lost World to be a new experience entirely, and Lost World is definitely that. The Boost formula from Unleashed, Colors and Generations is pushed to the side as Lost World takes upon a new formula - some calling it to be the “parkour” style of gameplay.

The reason for that is quite simple. Sonic’s core moveset overall is expanded upon in this game. Sonic’s spin dash returns in a major console title for the first time since 06 (not counting Generations’ Classic gameplay), and in addition to that, his homing attack and Wisp powers, he can also run and hop along walls vertically and horizontally. 

His homing attack is also a bit more beefed up - now having the ability to “charge up” and allowing you to either hit multiple enemies or doing extra damage to stronger enemies (particularly in the case of the bosses). The kick is also an added ability that works similarly to the homing attack, but when pressing the B button a second time (in the Wii U version anyway), Sonic can “kick” enemies that can’t be hurt with the homing attack and vice versa.

And to be honest I really like the idea that Lost World’s expanded moveset and controls is going for. I feel like in the past we’ve seen Sonic as being acrobatic, both with loops and curvature being a staple of the series’ design as well as in cutscenes - particularly Sonic CD’s opening - but this concept has never really been applied to his core moveset.

On top of that, with the series’ emphasis on fast-paced gameplay and alternate means of traversal, this concept does open up potential for the level design and allows players to find new paths and means of traversal using Sonic’s improved moveset. So it makes sense for this concept to be applied in an actual game - expanding his movement abilities to add a layer of depth to the controls and level design.

In execution, I think Sonic Lost World does a fine enough job of applying a base for these concepts to work off of, but there are definitely some issues which arise with it’s first attempt at doing so.

From a level design standpoint, I do think the levels offer some good opportunities for replayability when utilizing Sonic’s moveset. Well, mostly. Many of the levels offer alternate pathways or just means of traversal that can only be accessed with Sonic’s parkour abilities, and these offer some reward. Red Rings make a return here, and these tend to be the primary reward for traversing the level in these ways, but you also have “Number Rings”, for example, which appear occasionally and reward you with a 1-up if you hit them from 5 to 1 in order. On top of that, capsules appear throughout the stage which release animals when pressed - and these are fairly important when progressing through the game, since you need a minimum of animals to access some stages.

However, the game’s levels also occasionally go into… gimmick territory. By that I mean, doing something entirely different from the core gameplay that doesn’t utilize Sonic’s moveset. Some levels do offer gimmicks that go fine with the core gameplay - I mentioned Silent Forest Act 4 earlier having lights you need to turn on - but some levels just feel… out of place. Sky Road Act 3 is a good example of this, in which the entire level is basically just… Flappy Bird. Flappy Sonic, if you will. There’s also Frozen Factory Act 2 in which you control Sonic inside of a snowball without his abilities, and the rail grinding levels which felt pretty trial and error heavy, and with this game’s controls did lead to some annoyance (there’s one level in particular that I really despised, but we’ll get to that).

I will say that with how much criticism I’ve seen towards Sonic Lost World’s levels feeling gimmicky… surprisingly it wasn’t that much of an issue for me. I didn’t really mind many of what would be considered gimmicks in the case of examples like the sand slides in Sky Road Act 4 or the fruit sections in Tropical Coast, and this might be a result of knowing how to optimize my run after playing through this game so many times, but I did find them easy enough to overlook at the very least.

I should mention though there are some gimmicky elements in levels that I didn’t care for though. Cloud hopping appears a few times, and each of these sections… didn’t really offer anything for me. Most of it just felt like landing from platform to platform and holding the jump button for a higher jump. Occasionally these did have alternate platforms that contained collectables, but I felt like they tended to just kind of slow the game down. 

Honeycomb Highway, or Desert Ruins Zone 2, serves as an autorunner which I… surprisingly enjoyed. Usually I don’t care for these kinds of levels - like the Mach Speed sections of Sonic 06 or the entirety of Secret Rings - but at the same time I did find it pretty fun. Maybe the controls were just better compared to those games I mentioned but still.

I should also bring up the “tubular” level design which I mentioned earlier. To be honest I don’t really have much of an opinion on it, though when thinking about it it can offer the potential to expand on the level design in unique ways for similar reasons why Sonic’s moveset would. Some levels utilize it well for gaining collectibles, although I feel like it was sort of underutilized in this game - even some of the levels that do utilize it don’t really do much with the concept other than pure spectacle. It’s not necessarily something I’d lose sleep over either way, but there are cases where I think the game could’ve made better use of it.

Still, I think this game’s levels, for the most part, were at least fun, and did carry over elements of Sonic game design that I like - when it comes to multiple pathways and means of traversal. At it’s core, I think Sonic Lost World does serve as a good, fun platformer, with many unique ideas and potential for replay value. And as a fan of platformers (obviously), I will say looking in that regard, Sonic Lost World always did appeal to me, and is the reason as to why I liked this game more than many others.

Something I will talk about is how some people consider this game to be a Super Mario Galaxy rip-off and… I can’t really say I see it. I mean, theme-wise alone the game doesn’t really have much of an emphasis on space aside for the Lost Hex being another planet, but I think most people point towards the tubular level design and… maybe? I guess? But I don’t really feel like that’s enough - Super Mario Galaxy’s levels were generally designed with an anti-gravity mechanic in mind and frankly Sonic Lost World’s use of that sort of design feels, combined with the parkour mechanics and whatnot, feels completely different. 

Besides, I mean, Sonic Adventure 2 had occasional anti-gravity stages, some even spherical (like Mad Space) so I don’t think Super Mario Galaxy invented the idea of this sort of design.

Anyway, Windy Hill in general I think serves as a solid introductory zone with some good level design that, again, does take at least some advantage of the new mechanics, and my favorite levels from this game usually stuck to this core concept - like Tropical Coast and Silent Forest’s levels, as well as Zone 3 of both Desert Ruins and Frozen Factory (although I still don’t understand why those levels just suddenly decided to change the theme but… whatever).

However, some levels definitely didn’t really gel well with me - particularly the more gimmick heavy ones - and in many cases I don’t really feel like the game did enough with it’s concepts and Sonic’s moveset. There’s definitely potential for replayability here, and many of the core stages do a fine enough job with it… but this game does leave a lot of room to expand upon these concepts.

My least favorite stage in the game was definitely Lava Mountain Act 2 - one of the “rail grinding” levels that really displayed a lot of the game’s core issues. The level contains “bomb” karts that one-hit kill you regardless of whether you have rings or not, and combining the game’s weird physics, Sonic’s consistent forward motion, and some really annoying hazard and platform placement, it just outright feels frustrating, and you will most likely die a lot, at least on your first few playthroughs.

Which sort of brings me to talk about this game’s controls. Like I said, I really like the concept of the parkour mechanic and whatnot, and when the levels are designed around it, it can really offer some good replayability. But I think the controls themselves… could be better. They aren’t necessarily game ruining for me, but throughout the game, Sonic has a weird… floatiness to him, especially when jumping. 

I mentioned that there’s also a “run” button in this game - which in concept I don’t have much issue with in of itself, but the execution of it isn’t quite there. It often feels like Sonic has two speeds with little in between - either feeling way too slow when the button isn’t held, or feeling too sensitive and slippery when it is. I don’t necessarily mind the concept of giving the player more control over Sonic’s speed, but this game doesn’t exactly do a great job of what it was intending to do with that.

The Wisps also don’t feel as good as in Colors, especially with the new Wisps feeling either forced or just contributing nothing to the gameplay. I constantly forget that the Bomb Wisp even exists, the Eagle Wisp feels weird to control, and the Rhythm Wisp… again, just kind of feels forced into the level design and doesn’t really add much to the gameplay.

But I think my biggest issue with this game in this respect is that it doesn’t exactly do the best job of explaining or easing the mechanics to the player. I sort of feel like this is where a lot of players get tripped up with this game - while the mechanics can be fun to learn and the game does reward you for doing so, between how underutilized they are in the core gameplay and the lack of real tutorial for them, it sort of results in the game just feeling… weird overall. 

I remember seeing a few reviews from Youtubers - particularly TheRetroReplay and I think SomecallmeJohnny - mentioning how the second playthrough of Lost World was a better experience overall than their first one, and I can understand why this is. Sonic Lost World’s learning curve is a bit steep and all over the place, and you don’t really get the chance to understand it’s controls unless you’re going back to the game multiple times and purposely trying to utilize them to reach new areas and collectibles. Sometimes it straight up feels inconsistent - there were times even in this playthrough I did where Sonic would cling to a wall, and other times where he, well, didn’t. Hell, there were times when Sonic would cling him to a wall when I didn’t want him to, and times when he didn’t when I needed him to.

And I think this also sort of goes for some of Sonic Lost World’s more gimmicky level elements - when you do fully understand certain things like moving fruit into the blades to create a new path, it’s easier to get past them when playing the game multiple times, but I can understand that, with how the game does tend to deviate from it’s core gameplay, when playing for the first few times or so, they can definitely get in the way and break the game’s pace or just feel frustrating to some extent or another. Again, this game’s learning curve is basically all over the place, and I feel like this is sort of the reason why this game has a pretty polarized reception.

Sonic Lost World and it’s levels can definitely be fun, and contain some good potential for replayability, but between the occasional gimmicks and odd learning curve, you are left with a game that inevitably some will really enjoy and others will really dislike.

And something that I thought about in the time when I began this Sonic retrospective and when going back to Lost World is that this game… kind of suffers from First Game Syndrome, for a formula that was never followed up upon. I guess maybe in the case of the 3DS version, which I admittedly haven’t played all the way through, but with how that was created by separate development team, Dimps, and serves as more of a subsequent game to the main Wii U game, it’s hard to really call it a follow-up.

But that’s besides the point. Sonic Lost World introduces the base for a lot of new ideas and mechanics that can be used to expand upon the levels and design of the game, but has a lot of things that don’t work so well and quirks that could be ironed out, leaving the potential to improve upon what the game was going for. But the game, again, was never followed up, and these mechanics weren’t utilized again. Maybe in Frontiers, being a new formula with open world elements, we’ll see some of Lost World’s concepts brought back and improved upon, but with how little we know of the game right now, that’s something only time will tell.

But that’s really the bulk of what I have to say. I could also talk about the bosses - they’re easy as fuck, although the last fight with Zavok I think is pretty good. Makes for a more unique final boss than the actual final boss which is basically just a retread of the Nega Wisp in Sonic Colors. For the record I do like that final boss in Colors but they could’ve definitely thought of something more original.

Conclusion

Personally, I think Sonic Lost World gets too much hate. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely has issues and I can’t necessarily blame people for disliking the game, but I think there is valid reason to enjoy the game as well. At it’s core, Sonic Lost World is, maybe not the best Sonic game, but at least a fun platformer with some unique ideas that open the door for replayability, as well as for later Sonic games to build upon. The levels can be fun, and I like the parkour mechanics even if the game doesn’t do the best job of teaching them, and I can say that I do enjoy my time with this game when I go back to it. It isn’t my favorite, but it is a solid title in my opinion. Not for everyone, but it does have a unique appeal to it.

I would say this is a game worth at least trying out - maybe you’ll enjoy it, maybe you’ll despise it. Between the two “HD” versions for Wii U and PC, I’d probably recommend the Wii U version if you have access to it. Obviously not everyone has a Wii U, but I do feel like the game is designed more for that. Certain HUD elements that were meant to be used with the touchscreen are in the PC version and are inaccessible there, and some aspects like the Yoshi’s Island and Zelda DLC, as well as the bonus “Circus” stages are missing from the PC version.

The PC version on it’s own is fine enough for most people who don’t have a Wii U, but if you do, I’d recommend going for that version. Even the modding scene for the PC version isn’t exactly great compared to Generations or even Forces surprisingly.

But there is one other version of Sonic Lost World I have to review - the 3DS version, and I’ll get to that in time.