Recentemente eu assisti a um curta chamado "Dolapo is Fine" tratasse de uma garota preta, nigeriana e com um sonho de trabalhar com mercado financeiro de sua cidade, até que ela consegue uma entrevista com uma pessoa que era sua referencia. Na entrevista, Dolapo foi julgada por ser o que é, por ter o que tem, mas a pessoa diz a ela "Assimilação é tudo, Dolapo" no sentido de que a protagonista devesse abdicar de suas raízes para que fosse aceita ou tivesse alguma relevância. Mas o que isso tem a ver com Sonic?

Assimilação sempre foi tudo para Sonic.

Mas geralmente, Sonic sempre assumiu pra si todas as tendências de mercado e em internalizar sempre tomou pra si e fiz daquilo tão único, tão seu. Sonic 1 assimilou o debate ambiental dos anos 90, Sonic Adventures assimilou a rebeldia da juventude dos anos 00 e Sonic Unleashed assimilou a essência da cultura emo.

Veja, Sonic nasce assimilando sempre, mas o que tem de errado com Sonic Lost World? Ora, não existe sonic, existe apenas uma tentativa de se assemelhar com Mario Galaxy e podemos definir ai, Sonic Lost World é uma tentativa barata de ser Mario Galaxy.

No caso, o jogo leva em questão de brincadeiras com a câmera e o level design, mas enquanto em Mario galaxy é quase uma ouroboros do game design aonde o sentido de galáxia está ligado desde o nome até ao level design... Em sonic Lost World o que você tem é apenas a estética sem base alguma, um sonic da serie boost que é lento, e os chefes são primos distantes dos poupançudos da caixa.

Sonic Lost World é o exemplo de uma assimilação dando errado, não se trata apenas de roubar pra si, mas de roubar como um artista, e nisso (e em todo o resto) o jogo deixa a desejar.

This game sucks. Sorry, but it does.
One of my earliest memories of being on the Internet outside of Roblox and this one other niche game-making website was finding out that Sonic Generations wasn't the grand finale to the franchise that ten-year-old RJ could only picture it as.

I think I speak for the entire fandom when I say that just about everyone who still cared about Sonic by this point was on the edge of their seat, deep in anticipation of what the next big, mainline Sonic game could possibly be. (We don't talk about Sonic """"4"""")

Then, the reveal trailer dropped. I think my brain went on autopilot when I was watching it. I was just so confused, and too young to process what I was witnessing - but I understood one thing: This was not Sonic Generations 2. This was not Sonic Colours 2. This wasn't even Sonic Unleashed 2. This was something else entirely.

And hey, who knows, y'know? "Something else entirely" wasn't the worst thing this game could've been, hot off the trail of an incredibly fun, well-made game with next to no originality factor whatsoever. Unfortunately, however, this game turned out to be a slimy example of "too different."

There is a genuine element of appeal here, let me get that out of the way now; I found legitimate enjoyment in a lot of aspects of this game. It's creative and conscious of its predecessors in more ways than people let on. For example, I didn't know it even had a bounce until I played it myself, and you'd think the Internet would've been screaming over that, considering how infatuated everyone is with Sonic Adventure 2. There's a fairly creative story premise at play here, and even the antagonists aren't inherently bad ideas. The art-style, while I and many others personally find it unpleasant and mundane, never evokes the feeling of "they weren't trying." There's some clever ideas, gimmicks, more effort to cross over with other franchises than ever before, and until the updated Sonic Frontiers, the best post-game content we've ever had, by far. That's not a high bar, but it's still an achievement nonetheless.

Sonic Lost World can be summed up in one sentence:
"This game had already aged poorly when it first came out."
- Me, circa 2023

To elaborate, this game clings so tightly onto design philosophies and concepts that are either dragged - kicking and screaming - out of their appropriate time periods, or simply deeply flawed to begin with. All-in-all, this is an insanely frustrating experience.

My first time playing Sonic Lost World was the 3DS version, which I found myself rather apathetic towards, it was an inoffensive, weird game that felt more like a discarded, high-ish-effort spin-off than a big mainline follow-up to Sonic Generations, but despite my poor memory of the experience, I must've enjoyed it, because once I beat it, I even started a hard mode playthrough (very cool idea on the developers' part, by the way). It took me about nine years before I actually had the opportunity to play the official version, with-which I downloaded a few mods to get closer to the proper Wii U experience, as well as the community code that added a retry button, because I did NOT have the patience to put up with this game's rubbish without one - still, the broken resolution and janky controls were more than enough to break me even without the PC port's numerous other ridiculous problems.

Playing this game is like being Sisyphus, pushing that boulder endlessly up the mountain. I don't mean in the sense that it feels never-ending, but rather, every time you get a good flow going, or feel anything other than animosity towards the experience, you'll receive a swift slap to the face from yet another inconsistency or piece of game design so questionable, it makes you wonder if this was an early testing ground for AI Game Development.

I know this review has been scathing up until this point, but I will give credit where credit is due, and say that this game did evoke many thoughts within me of how much potential it has, and how it's completely understandable to find enjoyment within the spaces between its flaws. It's by no means broken, or anything like that, it's just... a mess.

Though, to be honest, most of my personal enjoyment of the game came out of repeatedly thinking about how miserable I was with Sonic Adventure 2, and finding it difficult to believe that this could possibly get any worse, which it didn't, surprisingly.

I don't know what else to say about this game, really, it's just a weird specimen of a product that had the ingredients of greatness tossed into it, but they were all mouldy, and were thrown against the wall repeatedly, in hopes of at least some of them sticking. Did some of it stick? Well, maybe, but the ingredients aren't any less rotten because of it. God only knows what they were trying to cook with that mission/achievement system.

At the end of the day, this is an incredibly stupid, low-mediocre game that I can't really explain nor justify the fun I had within, but hey, at least it wasn't so torturous that it took me nearly a year to beat, right?

...How did my life wind up at this point?

It's a bit offensive to even try to compare this game to Super Mario Galaxy when by 2013 Nintendo already had their heads deep into 3D World, but it's an obvious inspiration nonetheless.

It's cute and charming (the villains are a bit iffy though), I just wish it was a little less broken. It has difficulty addressing it's own mechanics because they sometimes simply don't work. They try to shower you with like 40 lives, but I got a Game Over 3 times because some things would simply not work (though most of these were on optional Red Rings). The wisps from Colors have no business being in this game either.

That being said, I like Sonic.

Sonic Lost World doesn't feel like a Sonic game. For the most part, it's just a generic, bland, and broken platformer with sonic assets plastered over it. The parkour gimmick had potential, as the wall running can be fun at times, but it was just executed too poorly. Furthermore, the level themes are just your basic grassland, desert, snow, jungle, etc that's seen in nearly every platformer, and the villains (The Zetis/Deadly Six) all have cardboard personalities. All their dialogue and jokes are completely based on a single defining trait. For example, one's fat so every line has something to do with food, one's emo so he just acts depressed constantly, and one's a woman so her entire personality is based around liking boys, fashion, and shopping. It's just all so uninspired; the game feels as if it was designed by a parent who calls every console a "Nintendo", like the creators had only the most basic concept of what a video game is supposed to be and went through a checklist of the bare minimum requirements and left it at that. And then there's the writing of Sonic, Tails, and Eggman... Their characters were butchered so badly, especially that of Tails. All three of them just argue the entire game and Tails is just a whiny asshole because he's sooo jealous that Eggman is helping Sonic fight the Zetis. Again, the only interesting thing about this game is the parkour mechanic, but the controls are so buggy and the level design is so bad that you can't even fully enjoy the parkour. Everything else is just boring at best. The Zelda DLC level was really cool though, I wish Sonic and Nintendo would do more crossovers in better games.

Ich wollte schon immer mal wissen wie es sich anfühlen würde die wirklich grässliche Sonic 06 Steuerung in einem Spiel das 10mal mehr auf plattformen setzt zu spielen.
Zum Glück hat Sega mit Lost World diesen Wunsch erfüllen können 🥰
Zu dieser wunderbaren Steuerung kam dann noch die Entscheidung das man jede Wand gegen die man läuft automatisch hochläuft, welches im Spiel dazu führt das man nach 2 Leveln das Spiel schon wieder schließen will weil man einfach nicht vorankommt.

Das Level Design der ersten 3 Welten ist nichts besonders aber zum Glück auch nichts besonders schlechtes. Dazu kommen dann noch einige Perlen wie 2-2 und das Erlebnis ist trotz der... ausbaufähigen Steuerung (besonders durch die gute Musik) eine immerhin noch ganz nette Erfahrung.
Dann kommen die nächsten 3 Welten.
Diese... wunderbaren Geschöpfe Leveldesigns haben ungefähr einen gleichen Spaßfaktor wie wenn man seine Eier in einen Mixer hält.

Viel absurder noch sind aber eigentlich die Bosse.
Man muss sich vorstellen man läuft 10, 15 Minuten durch ein absolut schreckliches Level, will einfach nur das es aufhört und dann?
Kommt immer ein guter und unterhaltsamer Bosskampf
...leider nicht.
Stattdessen wird man abgefrühstückt mit etwas, und dass muss ich so drastisch sagen, Niveau technisch UNTER Super Mario 3D World Bum-Bum liegt.
Wie unfassbar einfach diese Bosse sind wird nur noch stärker in der letzten Welt aufgezeigt welche mit einem Bossrush bestehend aus ""schwereren"" Formen der ersten 3 Bosse startet.
Diese unfassbare Mammutaufgabe ist nach fast 10 Sekunden auch schon wieder vorbei, weil man fast alle der Bosse sofort angreifen kann und auch absolut alle der 3 Bosse quasi direkt sterben. Es ist wirklich unglaublich.

Zusätzlich kommt noch die (wie bei eigentlich jedem Sonic Game) für eine derart große Marke absolut lachhaft schlecht abgemixte deutsche Synchro, schreckliche neue Charaktere welche man alle mit einem Wort beschreiben kann, die Devs haben es schließlich exakt genau so getan sowie wirklich kurze Spielzeit (Welche ich gerade nicht mal negativ sehen kann, schließlich hätte noch ein weiteres Level wie 4-4 dazu geführt hätte dass ich das Spiel nie wieder gestartet hätte)
Normalerweise würde ich auf diesen Punkten nicht wirklich herumreiten schließlich "ist es nur ein Sonic Game, was erwartest du an Dialogen" aber es ist schon fast dreist wie eindimensional die Antagonisten sind. Es fehlte wirklich nicht viel bis der "Fette" einfach nur noch durchgehend "Ich will essen, Ich bin Fett, Ich will essen" in Dauerschleife wiederholt, nicht das die anderen auch nur irgendwo besser waren.
Alles in allem nicht das erste schlechte Sonic Game das ich blind am Stück gespielt habe, und wahrscheinlich (leider) auch nicht das letzte. Aber naja, was will man machen

3/10

Tú empiezas el juego y dices: controles de mierda, cámara vomitiva, diseño basura y el mapa de abajo me está mintiendo, pero vaya, se deja jugar. Luego juegas el segundo nivel (que es en 2d) y te encuentras como un wisp de estos que te convierte en un agujero negro y te cuentan una movida de que se le controla inclinando el gamepad (mentira, se le controla con el joystick) y te encuentras un jefe al que no le afecta el homing attack (a pesar de que es lo que te dicen que hagas en el consejo) y que tiene 4 fases a las cuales 2 de ellas se le vencen con 6 golpes ??? bueno total que este jambo me da game over y cuando por fin me lo paso veo en la cinemática que dicen nosequé de que son los 6 mortíferos o nosequé mierda y Sonic le vacila y te vuelves a enfrentar al SoS este o como se llame y yo ahí pues ya cerré el juego. Cada vez que te pasabas un nivel se intentaba como conectar a internet y yo estaba atrapada en una casa en un pueblo perdido de Alicante sin internet así que no se podía conectar y me obligaba a estar quieta como un minuto pero en verdad creo que si hubiera tenido internet tampoco habría cambiado nada.

Uh-oh! The Sonic franchise suddenly had an identity crisis again after Generations and decided to go a whole different direction by ripping off another game people really liked at the time, this time being Super Mario Galaxy.

To be serious, there is so much wrong going on here that it's almost concerning at this point. There's so many missteps in Lost World that left me frustrated and baffled through my entire playthrough of it to where I felt like even minor annoyances of the game feel outright soul-sucking to get through. This review is gonna be a little different from my previous ones because this was genuinely an awful experience that I cannot fully wrap up in just a few words and in context to my post-06 Sonic run-through, it's something I really want to break down.

So after the major success of Colors and, in particular, Generations (which I thought was great), it seemed like Sonic was finally getting back on his feet with everyone, including and especially, the fans. Having a game that is a celebratory run of the franchise with its most iconic levels and a new take on them depending on if you're playing as Classic or Modern Sonic was a huge refresh the series needed, with so much love and care that was put behind it, and I could fully see that energy that was put into it. It rekindled a lot of faith in Sonic and reminded people that the series and Sonic Team can still put out something great, whenever its blasting through levels at high-speed and learning new paths and ways to get through them with the Boost formula, or having that quick, engaging, and satisfying platforming playgrounds of the Classic levels. With such a strong interest by many to continue the momentum of Generations, what was SEGA and Sonic Team's next step after their anniversary triumph of its iconic mascot?

Completing ditching that entirely and decided it needs to be just like Mario.

Now I cannot talk about Lost World without mentioning how much of Mario is in the game's DNA. From the mechanics including having a Run button (I will get into this later), to levels having timers, to the overworld structure, and ultimately, some of the literal zones of the game, its in just about every ounce you can think of here. This doesn't even include the second to last boss essentially being a Bowser fight and the entire existence of Hidden World. It's so bizarre that this is the direction they went for after their last few sets of games leading them to feeling like Sonic can stand on his own two feet. One of the few times that the game feels more of an inspiration rather than a clone is in the first act of Windy Hill, but from that moment on, everything becomes a messy, balancing act of an identity crisis playing out in front of you. Which lead into the level designs...

They're just a straight up mess. Again, its trying its best Galaxy impression and it doesn't really work in its favor because it lacks the well-thought-out design and mechanical nature of what makes that game enjoyable, but also its still trying to be a Sonic game with its occasional running sections that feels like the level is actively trying to kill you and its rail sections which are the worst they've ever felt from the exclusion of grind stepping (but for some weird ass reason was in the 3DS version of the game), but also there's 2D sections that don't mesh well with some of the zones and are a slog to get through, but also there's a bad gimmick in almost each one??? Why is there an awful stealth section? Why is there a zone where I'm slowly moving through a poor man's version of Super Monkey Ball as a snowball? Why is there a gliding zone that feels bad and very floaty? There's no rhyme or reason for how a lot of it comes together so you end up with levels that feel incredibly disjointed in themselves (and that's not including the actual out of place level themes that are within each world that feel like they belong in a completely different part of the game). A good portion of Sonic's strength is going fast and getting through a level as quickly as you can, but you spend more time moving slow either due to the levels not being built around being fast, and/or making sure you don't die from the game's absurd design choices, which makes levels that are already too damn long to get through go on even longer. It makes for a slow paced game that's also incredibly frustrating because certain levels will troll you and you'll end up losing a life on a whim from either its artificial difficulty spikes in the later portion of Lost World or just a poorly thought-out execution. There's zones like Sky Road Zone 2, which requires you to be precise with platforming but becomes a pain in the ass because of the game's air movement being really stiff, and then zones like Lava Mountain Zone 2, where not jumping and moving near-perfect through the railings will either land you into a bottomless pit or an instant-kill bomb cart. Some sections of the game are so difficult to get through that the game will just load you up on lives when it can and if you die enough times, the Warp item appears to help skip a section. While it's a nice thought by the devs, their implementations feel almost patronizing as they seem well aware that game has pretty BS sections and this is their best solution for that.

The experience is made even worse when not only are you fighting against the levels, but the controls and mechanics. Instead of the usual "move this direction to start building up speed", there's now a Run button in place for you to start moving quickly....except its not really that fast. The movement of the game feels so slow, which while I do understand why due to how the game is designed, it also fucks you over more often than not. From either how sluggish the controls can be, or the slight lack of air momentum you'll have from jumping after being a tiny bit too slow that leads to you falling into a pit, or to the quick and whiplashy nature of the ice levels where you'll fall off and die because you may have moved a tiny bit too quickly in the other direction, there's rarely a moment where any of the movement and controls feel nature or good. The only kinda good addition to the game is the parkour system, but it comes off way better on paper than in actual execution to everything else going on. I'm also not really a fan of the revamped homing attack system, where now there's an automatic lock on system and a charged homing attack system that works by approaching enemies. None of these really work well, as they either just kill any momentum of speed you're trying to get (which is barely anything most of the time), or trivializes bosses that weren't that interesting to begin with. None of this helps when the game can even be really vague explaining its mechanics, and at times, a few of the objectives. Sadly you'll probably end up having to slow down anyway and rely on your homing attack on enemies because the game decided to bring back the pace-killing medals objective from Sonic Unleashed, in form of freeing animals from either destroying Eggman's robots or contraptions. It's still just as much of a waste of time as before, but slightly less grindy.

Oh yeah Wisps are back now too. Does the game explain why they're here? No. Do they need to be here and fit well with the levels? Not really. Are they at least fun and useful? Mostly no. Did Sonic Team put them here because they're still riding off the highs of Sonic Colors? More than likely.

Now this isn't something I usually bring up from Sonic games, but its something to absolutely point out because it's very telling when even someone like me, who usually isn't too stressed over this element from the franchise, can notice and point out how bad it is. The story and writing in Lost World are presented horribly. The general plot is that Sonic and Tails must stop Eggman, then eventually have to team-up to stop the Deadly Six from destroying the world after Eggman loses control over them. To clarify, I don't think Sonic or anything has to have some top-level, Shakespearean-ass writing or storytelling. Sonic has more simple, straightforward stories and that's cool! But one of the problems here is it's trying to have a more serious, world-threating plot, but it still has the same Saturday Morning Cartoon tonal feel of Sonic Colors, so it ends up clashing with each other and completely falls flat in the process. You have scenes like this with this problem while having forced drama and conflict that comes out of nowhere despite this not being the first time they had to work with Eggman, while those same moments will have someone like Tails act completely out of character. I thought the little dude was nice, why is he suddenly an asshole now? There's also other scenes where they're suppose to be this big serious moment with the characters but end up being laughably bad either from the voice direction, the dialogue, or just the straight up fact that these are colorful cartoon characters trying to play up a high-stakes plot with the presentation of a 4Kids episode. None of the humor lands and when it does, its very unintentional. Also the Deadly Six are extremely one-dimensional boring characters that bring virtually nothing new to the table and are the weakest villains in the series by a lonnnnnnng shot (and all of their boss fight sucks).

I will say there is one undoubtedly good thing about Lost World and that's its music. To keep it brief since I don't really have much to say on it, its just good, not to the levels of the highs of other Sonic games, but it gets the job done.

I hate that this ended up being my longest review, but I had to get everything out because the game encapsulates every problem I've had with nearly every Sonic entry I've played post-06. It has levels that take too long, sluggish to whiplashy controls, some of the worst level designs I've played by far in the franchise, tacked on gimmicks that either add nothing to the game or makes the overall experience worse, locking level progress via collectibles that slow down and hurt the pacing of the game, and the biggest one, its lacking sense of identity of what it is, with probably the worst story that ends up being the cherry on top of this dumbass mountain. While its not necessarily the "worst" Sonic game on a technical level, it feels like the worst complete Sonic experience once everything comes together. Even the worst games in the series like '06 have something that people like about them, whereas here its almost nonexistence asto what can be savaged from it. At this point, I would rather play something like Sonic 4 Episode 1 or even somehow, Secret Rings, because while those games are bad, they're at least consistent in their own garbage and are simply eclipsed by other Sonic entries. It's so strange that by the time Sonic got its confidence back, it goes right back to being pulled in a million different directions that do far more harm than good. I think Lost World is the perfect subtitle for this one, because it really does seem like Sonic is lost in his own world.

Hexagons are my favorite shape, so this gets brownie points on that alone.

But wow, yall need to play more bad games. This is pretty alright! After three boost-style games back to back, I actually welcome Lost World's slower pace. I mean, having a Run button in a Sonic game is funny as all hell, but I dunno... I didn't find it that intrusive? I think the game was designed well enough around it. This is easily one of the most platform heavy games in the series, if not the actual number one. It was a cool change of pace, and there were a number of high speed sections here and there to reminds us that "Hey, it's still Sonic".

Also, uh. Best rail grinding controls so far? That took me by surprise. Instead of awkwardly snapping from one rail to another like SA2/Heroes, or automatically switching to a different one like Colors/Generations, you instead jump between rails and it feels REALLY accurate. There are two levels dedicated entirely to rail grinding(accompanied by my favorite track in the game. One of my favorite tracks in the series? Like wow. The violins at 0:49, good lord), and they felt super fair.

In fact, I'd say the entire game is very fair when it comes to its difficulty. There was never a moment that made me go "that's bullshit"; the slower pace really puts emphasis on accuracy over stylish automated setpieces, though there are still instances of automation. This is a post SA1 Sonic game, after all.

Stellar soundtrack, as usual. Tomoya Ohtani, my man, I think I love you. The aforementioned Sea Bottom Segue, Dragon Dance, Silent Forest Act 1, fucking hell THE FINAL BOSS THEME! This guy quickly became one of my favorite composers, he just gets it.

I do agree that the story is dumb as all hell. What tone were they going for here? Stupid silly fun like Colors(Baldy McNosehair), or serious(Tails getting captured and experimented on, Amy and Knuckles freezing to "death")? From the halfway point onwards, it constantly zigzags between the two but never really commits. This means the comedy hardly ever hits any notes, and the drama does not stick in the slightest.
Also, you wanna talk about forgettable villains, you start with these 6 fuckos. Why does Zavok hate Sonic again??? I thought Eggman was the one who enslaved him and Sonic literally kicked the doc's mind control device away. Oh, he's evil and wants to suck away the Earth I guess. Cool...?
Also yay fatphobia yay

I don't know man, I've played much worse. Aside from the shitty story(which isn't even a huge detriment considering this series' previous narrative trainwrecks), this is a perfectly fine game. Maybe a bit too simple, but it clicked for me.

Sonic Lost World is one of the most mixed-up bags I’ve ever seen.

Sonic moves too damn slow, that much is true. His controls can be a bit clunky and the parkour is rarely ever required. The level theming is not just uninspired, but ripped straight from the New Super Mario Bros. games. Grass world, desert world, beach world, ice world, jungle world, sky world, and lava world. Am I playing Sonic or NSMB 2? The level design is so blocky and/or narrow that it can be a pain to try and pick up speed. On top of all that, there are some aggravating gimmick levels, like that one where you have to roll around in a snowball or that particularly infuriating rail-grinding one in the last world.

On the other hand, when the game works, it works well. While the parkour is very underutilized, you can do some legitimately cool stuff with it to skip massive portions of levels. The levels themselves are littered with alternate paths and secrets in typical Sonic fashion. And occasionally, you’ll be running through a level at top speed, plowing through enemies, loading up on rings, and you’ll think “Hell yeah. This is Sonic.”

The story and characters are meh. The cutscenes are well-animated, but too fast-paced. The Deadly Six, as a whole, suck. They’re meant to be the Sonic equivalent of the Koopalings, so like the Koopalings, each one has a defining character trait and nothing else to them. However, the reason the Koopalings work is because they’re only ever used in boss battles and appear sparingly, so their lack of personalities doesn’t annoy the player. The Deadly Six, on the other hand, have too much screentime, making it glaringly obvious just how shallow they all are, to the point that they become annoying very quickly. Zavok, at the very least, is decently threatening and taken seriously. Zoe’s excessive nihilism is unironically funny, especially at the end. The rest are just annoying as shit and I couldn’t stand them. Not helping matters is that Zavok is the only one with halfway-decent boss battles, while everyone else is piss-easy, which really diminishes the team as a threat. Like, really? These dumbasses are trying to destroy the world? Whatever you say. Even worse, the game never explains what they are or where they came from, meaning they don’t even have a place in the series’ lore. So yeah, that’s the Deadly Sux. Here’s hoping they never come back.

At the core of the story is the alliance between Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. I’m gonna go against the grain here and say that I actually like Sonic’s arrogant and snarky attitude in this game, as it contributes to an actual character arc for him and gives Roger Craig Smith the opportunity to show off his comedic timing. Tails… not so much. Tails spends much of the game upset towards Sonic for teaming up with Eggman instead of trusting him. The problem is that this game is like the fourth time they’ve teamed up with Eggman, and Tails has never had a problem with it before, so he just comes across as whiny and unreasonable.

Then there’s Eggman, who gets his own paragraph because he’s the best part of the game. The writers, unfortunately, failed to go in-depth with Eggman and his dynamic with Sonic and Tails in the way that Adventure 2 and especially Frontiers did. However, Eggman is still fantastic in this game. He’s treated as a genuine threat and there’s some moral ambiguity to many of his actions throughout the game (him not wanting to destroy the world, saving Tails, and allying with Sonic in the first place), even he’s still clearly a bad guy. We also get to see just how cunning and manipulative he can really be for the first time since the opening of Unleashed, which is a relief since he’d been treated like a complete buffoon for like 5 years by the time this game came out. Mike Pollock, as always, does an excellent job, especially in the scene where Eggman swears to strangle the Deadly Six to death and burn their world to the ground (this game is for kids).

The graphics are surprisingly good. The art style, while simplistic, fits the cartoonish nature of Sonic and friends in a very natural way. The music, of course, slaps my balls; we’re treated to an energetic jazz orchestra that successfully captures the game’s (admittedly uneven) tone perfectly. Gotta love Sonic music.

All in all, Sonic Lost World hits about as often as it misses, and is a disappointment after Colors and Generations. However, when taken on its own merits, it’s a fun time with some missed potential that doesn’t deserve the sheer level of scorn that the Sonic community levels at it, especially considering how awful some of the Blue Blur’s other adventures are. Sonic Lost World is just… fine.

Sonic embodies the spirit of the Wii U with an adventure that seems interesting but ultimately doesn’t execute as well as you’d hope.

Many people say “Super Sonic Galaxy” but in terms of tone and presentation it actually reminds me more of Super Mario 3D Land and to a lesser extent Sonic 3D Blast. This game feels like it came from a different universe where Sonic Xtreme took off instead of Sonic Adventure which makes it notable enough to at least check out. The movement options give you lots of room to experiment as you explore the levels, but sadly mission rankings apply to Time Trials where only speed (and not score) matters. It is a missed opportunity to get the most out of the parkour and multi attack systems.

Despite not quite coming together the game looks gorgeous and stands out from all other 3D Sonic games. The story is good for what it needs to be, introducing classic villain Zavok and including great lines like “These animals are quite underwhelming. Next time, bring better animals.” The game actually uses the game pad a lot for things as essential as the basic tutorial, so I would not recommend playing the Steam port if you can avoid it.

I would recommend you play this and try to at least get through level 2-1 if you have a Wii U still hooked up to see if you like it.

I don't think I've ever played a Sonic game that both annoyed and bored me, but Sonic Lost World finally took the cake! What were they on when making it.

Sonic just feels bad. He's stiff, and his momentum/mobility just shuts down whenever you homing attack enemies, bounce, etc. The parkour system is such a neat idea in concept but in execution its so clunkily implemented with the blocky level design not really accounting for it well. It's even worse with the 2D sections because with the run button, the parkour mechanics trigger the moment Sonic touches walls, it's like he's magnetic. This also applies to the 3D sections. The gimmick stages are 100% Mario imitation, bosses are boringly easy/annoying, the writing is so bad it's good, level and world theming is pretty damn uninspired.

Really, the only thing keeping this from me giving it a single star is the music. The music is great. But that's really it. Fuck this game.