Sonic Lost World (3DS) Review

Sonic Lost World (Nintendo 3DS)

What does a long-term Sonic fan take away from this latest 3D outing?

Let me preface this with just a quick summary of where I’m coming from. I’m pretty much a lifetime member in the Sonic fanboy club. I cut my teeth on the Sonic 16-bit titles, but I was super-stoked to watch Sonic the Hedgehog evolve into a 3D experience. Some critics loathe Sonic’s transition, I think Sonic has proved himself in 3D from the beginning with Sonic Adventure (1 & 2) on the Dreamcast and scattered throughout this tumultuous period (i.e. Sonic 2006, Sonic Unleashed), there are some gems across the Wii and the Nintendo DS like Sonic Colours and the Secret of the Rings.

Sonic Lost World was released exclusively to the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. I would have considered picking up a Wii U for Sonic Lost World before I played the 3DS version, but I’m not particularly excited in the direction this game has gone. I knew Sonic Lost World wasn’t going to be the next Sonic Adventure, but on paper I was interested in what Lost World bought to the table, namely the rotating stages and some amazingly beautiful stage design. We’ve got an actual 3D game-play element that looks very familiar to an unreleased Sonic game for the Sega Saturn. It’s worth mentioning for anyone who might be excited about seeing some of those old ideas being reworked, don’t get too carried away. This is a totally new game and the Sega Saturn days are far behind us now; this isn’t Sonic X-Treme.

It’s no surprise now that Sonic Lost World didn’t exactly give Sonic the Hedgehog fans much hope. I’m not going to totally write it off, it’s a competent game but Sonic is a long way from the Sega systems where he started out. Bumped up against games like Mario on the 3DS, Sonic Lost World has obviously been steered towards a different audience. With different expectations and a different pace. We got a much slower, platform and puzzle solving orientated game compared to the blistering fast action a lot of Sonic fans will be here for. The first time playing through each stage, I found myself dying and getting aggravated. Stages mostly consist of several segments; 3D platforming, tubes & tunnels, 2D platforming, sprinting, snow-boarding and gliding on rails.

A lot of my problems stemmed from falling off platforms to my death. It’s a common platforming obstacle but now what I was expecting in a Sonic game. Traditionally, Sonic games have obstacles like water and sand, but missing a jump means a spike pit and loosing your rings. I find the ‘Death drops’ tend to be less common in Sonic games than in a Mario title (for example). Maybe you’ve had a different experience with Sonic but regardless, I found myself dropping to my death a lot (especially when snow boarding).

The difficulty is another pain point for me personally, a lot of time I died because of missed jumps or due to confusion. If I ran out of time, I expected to go back to the start of the level, but the game steps in and hands over an extra 10 minutes and practically says “Keeping going sport, you’re doing really well”. It felt patronizing! After a few stages drowning and falling to my death, the game senses I’m in trouble and teams me up with a special helper that kills enemies instantly (doesn’t stop me from drowning) or a vehicle capable of just flying through the location where I’m stuck. I avoided them where I could because it honestly feels like, “Oh, I failed, I’ll just skip this bit.”

Once you start going back and revisiting stages, they’re a bit easier to play through and there were stages I really enjoyed and wanted to revisit.Overall, I can’t help but feel Sonic has evolved without me and this game has been loaded with challenges and obstacles I just didn’t expect. Rolling fruit, bouncing on clouds and those stupid special powers.

Sonic’s powers (or Wisps as they’re known in Sonic Colours) felt unwieldy in their own special way and they really slowed down the experience. The aquatic drill controlled like a tank and the boulder quake power uses the gyroscope in the 3DS. The powers didn’t make me feel ’empowered’, they felt like a hindrance and I really resented having to use them.

One moment in particular I want to point out is in the silent forest. I found myself high up on floating platforms, needing to turn into a boulder for a few seconds to press a massive switch. Then I turned the power off. Ran to the next switch and repeat… That was my turning point. With all the pretty graphics, spin dash and homing attacks, I could try and pretend this was just another average Sonic game that missed a few marks… But it didn’t feel like Sonic anymore. I was playing a different game, I’ve been tricked!

On a positive note, on the production side, Lost World looks freaking amazing. Some of the classic enemies return to the fray, the colours are all very vivid and even the cut-scenes look spectacular. I wasn’t a massive fan of the dialogue between characters or the introduction of the Zeti characters, but this a Nintendo 3DS game and I imagine the target market is skewed a bit younger. I’m not going to beat down the cut-scenes, as far as I’m concerned they look great, they keep the story going and they actually have a morning-cartoon vibe. Kids love cartoons.

So what got me to play Lost Worlds in the first place? I’m working my way through the Adventure series on the Dreamcast as I wrote this review. I’m seriously enjoying the trip through the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog environments and I wanted to see where the 3D Sonic has headed on handhelds. Sonic snowboarding? That happened in Adventure. Sonic getting new powers? That happens in Adventure too. I will say Adventure 1 & 2 feel like longer, better produced games that did take risks, didn’t always succeed but managed to create an amazing experience but it’s also important to remember these were flagship games on Sega’s own hardware. This was a unique time when Sega was setting the standard for their 3D Sonic titles.

There’s already been a few Sonic games on the Nintendo DS, like Colours and Sonic Rush, but they were 2D side-scrollers and as much as I tried, Sonic has evolved a lot since my Sega Mega Drive days and it didn’t feel ‘right’. Nearly like there was too much animation, too many walls to scale, too many platform sections when all I want to do is blaze through the first few levels and get a feel for the game.

I was looking for a 3D handheld experience, and ultimately, the unique stage designs really sold me. If you’re on the fence, I can’t recommend picking this game up brand new. Download the demo and try it out (be warned, I did find the first ‘section’ the most fun), I can only conclude that Lost World didn’t feel like it was made for the long time Sonic fan, I guess that’s just not the market for Sonic the Hedgehog on the 3DS. If you’re a platformer fan looking for some new challenges or you just want a new Sonic game to play on the train that tries doing something new, don’t be too put-off by the adult critics who complain when a Sonic game doesn’t remind them of their youth (yes, including me) or the cut-scenes have comical characters and voices aimed at children.