Sonic Lost World
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Rise against the Deadly Six!
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Sonic Lost World is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. Initially, the game was a Wii U and 3DS exclusive due to an agreement between Nintendo and Sega.
A Steam port was released after the exclusivity deal expired.
Good Qualities
- Beautiful and well-composed orchestra soundtrack that sounds like it was composed by Heitor Pereira.
- Nicely-detailed graphics with vivid and vibrant colors.
- Good and responsive controls.
- The Wii U version includes DLC levels based around franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Yoshi's Island.
- The game has some elements from the canceled Sonic X-Treme game.
- The wisps are much better integrated in the 3DS version, where they are actual additions to Sonic’s moveset (aside from places where they are mandatory in order to progress).
- The Two-Player Race/VS Mode is a fun side-mode to play.
- Each stage has five Red Rings to collect.
- Great voice acting, as usual.
- Sonic's moveset is more fleshed out than ever before:
- The main selling point - the parkour system - is very fun to use. You can use it to scale walls with ease, and run alongside them as you please.
- The double jump returned from Colors. With this, you can save yourself from a bottomless pit. It also makes you a touch faster.
- The spindash is awesome and allows you to cross levels at lightning speed. If you hold down the spindash button, you can also spindash indefinitely, keeping the game fast.
- This is pretty much a combination of his moveset from the Adventure games (aside from the Light Speed Dash's absence, save for the Hover wisp's ability).
- Sonic can turn Super in both versions of the game (in the Wii U and PC versions you just have to finish the game, while in the 3DS version you have to complete the special stages), and best of all, Super Sonic is a stellar improvement over Generations as you actually get additional speed and jump height and extra attack power for your homing attack.
- The 3DS version offers the classic way to collect the Chaos Emeralds along with cool-looking and original special stages (although ruined by the overreliance on the gyroscope feature).
- The story is an improvement from previous Sonic games written by the Pontaff duo (albeit still worse than games prior to it), as the stakes are slightly higher than usual, characters show some actual emotions, it can get serious/intense at times and Sonic (sometimes) knows when to shut up with the dumb jokes.
- The level design (for the Wii U/PC version at least) is usually amazing.
- Dr. Eggman is finally portrayed as a more serious character, rather than being played as a joke in previous games like Sonic Colors. He still has funny moments though.
- Despite the PC Version having shortcomings, it still has some good qualities;
- You get a ton of more animals, negating the need to grind for them;
- All the wisps are controlled by buttons;
- It can go up to 4K at 60FPS;
- It can also achieve a higher framerate (or lower) if you use launch option
--F{number}, or--Fto disable the framerate lock entirely (Be warned, this may break the game, though);
- It can also achieve a higher framerate (or lower) if you use launch option
- Cloud saves and other Steam bonuses;
- Like previously with Sonic Generations, the PC version has mod support. An Improvement Mod which fixes the problems with Sonic's controls and the Levels can be found and download here.
Bad Qualities
- The whole game feels like a Mario game ripoff, from the 3D aesthetics and level design to the story. Speaking of the latter...
- Despite GQ#13, the storyline is still too basic, sloppy, and straightforward. Amy and Knuckles are not even worth mentioning, and Sonic constantly spouts out stupid jokes and corny lines. Tails is flanderized as an obnoxious and jealous brat who lashes at Sonic just because he "trusts Eggman more" (That being said, he's better-written here than in Forces) and Sonic even calls him out one scene (to be fair, he didn't want Tails to get hurt, so scolding him out in worry can be very understandable), and the moment where Sonic recklessly kicks Eggman's Cacophonic Conch and frees the Deadly Six to leech the planet's energy.
- Despite Eggman being a decent villain, he has some flawed writing regarding his personality. Especially for how he is meant to be a threatening antagonist who's also entertaining. In this game, his traits of being serious & comedic don't really have a level of balance to them and the direction of his characterization can come off as vague and confusing in hindsight (a good example of this is how he had an infamous moment of getting seriously vengeful towards the Zeti by claiming how he wants to strangle them and eat them for being provoked by Zavok and Zazz, yet he is treated as the object of ridicule type of villain in later cutscenes).
- The Deadly Six are forgettable. They are very generic and one-dimensional bad guys, as well as possible rip-offs of the Koopalings or even other fictional groups like the Suicide Squad.
- The cutscenes try way too hard to be funny & "edgy". Aside from two funny moments of Sonic roasting Zeena, Zomom whacking Sonic with a long sandwich for correcting Sonic's annoying retort, and the memorable scene of Eggman unleashing his anger onto the Zeti by punching a screen, it generally never works at all since the humor is very childish, insufferably unfunny and it's attempts at being edgy come off as hasty & lame than anything else.
- The Rhythm Wisp is definitely the lamest of the bunch.
- Many levels have random and rather intrusive gimmicks that often don't control well.
- The parkour system is a bit of a hindrance until you get used to it.
- Collecting 100 rings originally didn't give you an extra life. This was later included in a patch due to fan backlash.
- Despite the decent controls, you need to hold a button to run (like most Mario games), which further emphasizes how this game tries to get a piggy-back ride on Mario's success.
- The PC optimization is very mediocre, leading to several technical difficulties (which are framedrops), even on PCs that can run the game above its requirements. It can also consistently crash on high refresh-rate monitors, especially early game.
- Speaking of which, the PC Port is inferior to the Wii U version in many ways:
- As mentioned above, the optimization is terrible;
- The Zelda and Yoshi DLC packs were removed, but the Nightmare DLC still remains;
- 2P Battle is gone;
- RC vehicles were canned;
- The carnival was removed, but the animal requirements have been adjusted accordingly, so at least you don't need to grind for them;
- There's no Anti-Aliasing or filtering of any kind;
- And the cutscenes look very bad. They weren't even re-rendered, and are super pixelated.
- In typical Pontaff duo fashion, it has some very cringeworthy lines, like "I've been dreamin' about pounding his sorry blue butt!" and "That was COOL; pun entirely intended."
- The Nintendo 3DS port, while not the worst Sonic game, is a inferior port due to this reason:
- Some levels are taking too long to complete, it can be 10 to 30 minutes of gameplay.
- The Bonus Level is absolutely worst due to mandatory gyro controls.
- The objective of the Bonus Levels is collecting orbs as much as you get. The problem is the gyro controls is extremely unresponsive and it can be headache, and this bonus levels is considered the worst bonus levels ever in the Sonic games.
Reception
Sonic Lost World has a very polarizing reception, and critics disagreed over what to make of the game as a whole. The Wii U version has the highest ratings, standing at 63/100 on Metacritic, the 3DS version is the 2nd highest at 59/100, and the PC version has the worst reviews, standing at 53/100. Many reviews generally liked the level designs, graphics, and music. The controls and the Wisps were criticized, at least on the HD Versions. The 3DS version was praised for the controls and the Wisps, but some disliked the level design. However, all versions were blasted for the gimmicky levels and story. Many critics noted the game's quality felt like a rollercoaster.
Trivia
- It spawned the Sexy Tails meme.
- It has 100 Steam Achievements, which is by far the largest of any Sonic game on there. For comparison, Sonic Generations has 49 and Sonic Forces has 48.
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