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Sonic: Lost World
Wii U
Not Quite Galactic
4/5 stars
“Sonic: Lost World” is the 2D/3D hybrid platforming follow-up to last-generation’s excellent “Sonic Colors,” in which Sega finally managed to create an amazing ‘Sonic’ game by cribbing numerous ideas from Nintendo’s ‘Mario’ franchise while also cutting all of the superfluous cruft that had collected on their flagship hedgehog franchise since it last saw popularity in the Genesis era. If “Sonic Colors” resembled “Super Mario Galaxy” in its seamless blend of high-quality 2D and 3D platforming, “Sonic: Lost World” resembles Mario’s recent outings even more, with the new addition of bizarre gravity and physics. The biggest question ‘Sonic’ fans need answered, however, is whether or not Sonic Team, Sega’s hedgehog-game development house, has continued to keep the franchise’s focus on the things it does well rather than letting their focus drift.
Presentation
“Sonic: Lost World” looks a heck of a lot like “Sonic Colors,” graphically. The character and enemy models look similar, though shinier due to the fact that the WiiU is an HD platform where the Wii was not. It’s tougher to tell whether cutscenes are pre-rendered or in-game-engine in “Lost World” than it was in “Colors,” so at least the improved visuals are doing their job. The main difference in visuals between “Sonic: Lost World” and its predecessor is the way stages are designed. Instead of the contained and tight stages of “Colors,” “Lost World” features a very large number of stages (or parts of stages) built on chunks of floating land in the shapes of spheres or lozenges. Clearly this idea was ripped from the playbook of “Super Mario Galaxy,” which, in turn, had stolen it from “Ratchet & Clank.” There are a significant number of new villains added to the mix, with somewhat strange designs that make them each feel unique, despite the fact that they aren’t identifiable as any particular animal.
The audio in “Sonic: Lost World” is likewise similar to that of “Sonic Colors.” The returning characters’ voiceacting is still incredibly well done, while the new villains each have a distinctive voice and frequently taunt Sonic as he races through their stages. Unfortunately, the audio balance is a bit off, which makes it hard to understand these taunts over the background music. This background music is fairly innocuous and typical ‘Sonic’ fare that still pales in comparison to the fantastic tracks of the ‘Sonic Adventure’ games on the Dreamcast.
Story
Like “Sonic Colors,” “Sonic: Lost World” does not take any questionable tangents with its storytelling. Instead, the tale opens with Sonic and Tails riding in Tails’ bi-plane in hot pursuit of Dr. Eggman’s/Robotnik’s Egg Carrier with its precious cargo of captured woodland critters. As has always been the case in the ‘Sonic’ universe, Eggman uses these helpless animals as power sources for his army of killer robots.
This airborne chase comes to an unexpected end when Eggman successfully shoots down Tails’ plane and our heroes are forced to make an emergency landing on a mysterious sphere (well, most of a sphere) of gigantic hexagonal tiles floating in the air above the Earth: The titular Lost World. As it turns out, Eggman has already established his influence in the Lost World and has enslaved the inhabitants, a race of creatures known as the Zeti, with the sounds of a special conch shell horn. Eggman’s latest nefarious plan involves using the Lost World as an anchor for a giant energy siphoning machine which he intends to use to draw enough life force from the world below to power-up his latest egg-shaped ultimate weapon.
Events come to a head early in the story as Sonic confronts Eggman and takes the Zeti-controlling conch out of the picture, which leads to all-out rebellion in Eggman’s ranks. As the Zeti overload Eggman’s energy siphon with the aim of destroying the world below while simultaneously super-powering themselves, Sonic and Eggman find themselves working toward a common goal for possibly the first time in the franchise’s history.
I really enjoyed seeing these events unfold – via one-time cutscenes before and after each stage – and the character interactions between the eternal nemeses of Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Much in the same way that Squaresoft’s and Nintendo’s collaboration on “Super Mario RPG” revealed that Bowser was much more than a one-dimensional evil-doer, “Sonic: Lost World” reveals that Eggman’s personality and character have the potential for just as much depth.
The new Zeti villains, however, are wholly one-dimensional, as each of them is modeled after a vice. I would say that they were the Seven Deadly Sins, but there are only six of them.
Gameplay
Like “Sonic Colors,” “Sonic: Lost World” blends 2D Platforming with 3D Platforming. “Sonic: Lost World” tends to combine both platforming styles in every stage, with only a handful of stages that are purely 2D or purely 3D. The 2D sections are practically identical to those in “Sonic Colors,” whereas the 3D sections are much more open with a number of branching paths. The camera in the 3D sections isn’t nearly as well-behaved as the one in “Sonic Colors,” despite still being non-adjustable. Of course, since the camera needs to keep track of Sonic as he runs around the entire surface of floating spheroids, it’s surprising it works at all.
The Color Wisps and 5 Red Rings to find in each stage have returned from “Sonic Colors,” as has the general stage layout. “Sonic: Lost World” features a hex-based world map divided into 8 Zones, each with 4 Acts. Sega and Nintendo teamed up to create 3 Bonus Acts that appear in Zone 1, each of which is themed after another mascot game franchise: “NiGHTs,” “The Legend of Zelda,” and “Yoshi’s Island.” The “NiGHTs” bonus stage is, unfortunately, on-disc DLC that is limited to those who purchased the ‘Deadly Six’ edition of the game (which I did), while the other two bonus stages are free DLC from the Nintendo eShop.
Despite the Wisps’ return, they appear in relatively few stages and aren’t particularly useful compared to their appearance in “Sonic Colors.” Indeed, the presence of the Wisps seems to take a back-seat to the addition of unintuitive parkour to Sonic’s repertoire as well as the return of the classic spin-dash.
I had a difficult time getting into “Sonic: Lost World” early on. The introductory stages, while showing off the new “Super Mario Galaxy”-style design handily, aren’t particularly fun or well-laid-out. Even worse, the in-game tutorials for how to control Sonic with the GamePad are woefully inadequate, while the instruction manual included with the game is essentially a picture of the GamePad with vague labels for what the buttons do. After getting past the initial hump of not understanding the controls, I began to have much more fun with the game. Regardless, the fact that the spin-dash is practically worthless, the Wisps are super-situational, and the parkour is difficult to control makes a number of “Sonic: Lost World’s” stages less than enjoyable. Some stages even throw the normal controls out the window for a one-off round of unique gameplay, such as Sonic being stuck inside a giant snowball, but expect the player to figure out the situational controls via trial and error. Other stages are just incredibly tricky to navigate due to parkour elements (especially when trying to collect Red Rings). In one stage, I died somewhere between 40 and 60 times trying to clear it with the Red Rings – a disaster that was only possible due to the extremely easy 1-up farming in Zone 2, Act 3, which I revisited often. Fortunately, the majority of the game’s stages are still really well done. There’s even a Bonus Zone to unlock by collecting all of the Red Rings which includes bizarre, unique stage ideas that didn’t make it into the main body of the game, but are interesting concepts nonetheless.
Overall
Despite not quite living up to the excellence of either its predecessor, “Sonic Colors,” or its inspiration, “Super Mario Galaxy,” “Sonic: Lost World” is one of the better ‘Sonic’ games out there. The excellent storytelling and character development are a bold step forward for a franchise that typically elicits facepalms with its attempts at writing, and the gameplay is still fun about 80% of the time. Despite its shortcomings, “Sonic: Lost World” is one of the WiiU’s strongest titles.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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