Sonic Lost World is just a disaster. I ended up tapping out at the first Zavok fight in Sky Road, when I realized that I was continuing to play solely out of spite.

What makes Sonic Lost World immensely frustrating is that at its best, the game is immensely playable and quite cinematic in-Act (the 'cinematics' are woeful with horrendous dialog, on the other hand). It's both hyper-linear and quite dynamic, freeing the player from the boost formula which dominated Sonic's previous 3D era. In a better game, the base-level concepts here would be quite refreshing. But they're not in a better game: they're in a game whose shoddy physics and copious jank don't play well with already shaky level design.

To play Sonic Lost World is to ride a carousel of first-pass ideas and innovative sources of frustration. Lost World surprises, but it certainly doesn't delight.

Reviewed on Dec 29, 2023


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