Sonic: Lost World (Wii U & 3DS)

Sonic Lost World

Developer(s) – Sonic Team & Dimps

Publisher(s) – Sega & Nintendo

Director(s) – Morio Kishimoto & Takao Hirabayashi

Producer – Takashi Lizuka

PEGI – 7

Sonic: Lost World takes the franchise back to basics with 2D side-scrolling elements. As well as including certain elements from later 3D platforming titles in the series. After playing, I thought it was an OK game. But I found myself having the same old complaints as I have whilst playing older games in the rest of the series.

Graphics – 7.5/10

To begin with, the visuals of the game aren’t too bad. I think along with being in lieu of Sonic the Hedgehog tradition, Nintendo’s involvement in the series has at least had some positive influence in this respect. The game includes some pretty diverse settings and creature designs. It’s also interesting to see what looks like the triforce from the Legend of Zelda on the roads in the desert levels. What I can’t say the same for, however, is how the Deadly Six characters were designed. The way I see it, they all look pretty generic. And below par with what either Nintendo or Sega are usually capable of.

Gameplay – 5/10

Over the years, I’ve always had issues with how Sonic the Hedgehog games play out. I’ve always felt that though Sonic’s speed was put in place to add more intensity to the game compared to others, there’s hardly anything to do with it and very little space to use it. This game is no exception, unfortunately. To me, high speed has always taken away any fluency in any of the Sonic games. And a lot of the time, it makes them pretty annoying to play through.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the 2D side-scrolling sequences, where there is only one direction to go in anyway. Making high speed is pretty redundant in my own personal opinion. Though interestingly there is influence taken from the canceled Sega Saturn game Sonic Xtreme, The 3D sequences don’t greatly encourage exploration either; as I hope will be present in Sonic Boom when it comes out.

Controls – 9.5/10

Though the controls are straightforward enough, I did find it annoying to turn from left to right in the 2D side-scrolling sequences. Like the analog stick took far too much time to respond to what I wanted the character to do. But otherwise, there were no other issues I found whilst playing.

Lifespan – 3/10

Considering that Nintendo has already put out quite a few games like Sonic: Lost World on not just the Wii U, but every other console before it, it seems much shorter than either New Super Mario Bros U or Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The game can be done in less than 3 hours. Most probably due to the lack of side quests compared to the other two aforementioned games. But nowadays especially, that short amount of time makes for a very fleeting experience even for a 2D side scroller. Let alone any other kind of video game.

Storyline – 6/10

Sonic’s latest adventure has him and Tails pursuing Dr. Eggman, who has captured their animal friends to be used to power his robot army. They must also fend off Eggman’s primary henchmen. The Deadly Six. I was pleased to find the story much less predictable than I’d initially anticipated. There are a few twists and turns towards the end to keep things interesting for the most part. That’s the kind of thing that the Wii U needs to have in order to make their games as interesting as possible in my opinion. And not to include the kind of predictable stories that many of the Mario games have nowadays.

Originality – 5/10

There’s not much new in this game. Although it has a new and unique story, repetitive gameplay has been a problem come every time Sega has tried to revive the franchise since mid-way into the sixth generation.

Niiutral

In summation, Sonic: Lost World isn’t a bad game, but there was definitely room for improvement for me. There’s nothing to suggest to me that this game could have renewed interest in the series, and predictably, it hasn’t to any substantial degree.

Score

36/60

6/10 (Average)

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