Sonic Lost World

As part a three-game deal on Nintendo’s ill-fated Wii U console, Sega released Sonic Lost World (Lost World) in 2013, as a follow-up to Sonic Colors (Colors) on the Wii. Although the game has since been released on PC, I opted for the Wii U version (specifically the Deadly Six edition with a code that no longer works) when that console’s storefront was being shut down. While going back through Sonic’s back catalogue of games after watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I decided to finally play Lost World, only to not quite finish the game due to a number of factors stemming from the game design.

While chasing Eggman to stop him form turning animals into Badniks, Sonic and Tails end up on Lost Hex, where they have to stop a group of creatures called Zeti (Zavok, Zeena, Zomom, Zazz, Master Zik, Zor) collectively known as the Deadly Six. It soon turns out the Deadly Six are working with Eggman, who controls them with the Cacophonic Conch, as he extracts a small amount of energy from the Earth to power his machines. While witnessing Eggman use it, Sonic kicks the Conch away, which turns out to be the only thing preventing the Deadly Six from taking control of Eggman’s robots. This event quickly forces Sonic and Tails to have to team up with Eggman to stop the Zeti before they use Eggman’s unstable machine to drain the planet completely.

Although I liked the idea of the game’s story, the execution is a bit flawed. Eggman messing with powers beyond his control and having to team up with Sonic to stop it isn’t a new development, but Eggman taking more precautions displays some interesting character development, and stopping his Extractor when it proves unstable seemingly shows that he had learned his lesson from the events of Sonic Unleashed. However, at least one moment between Sonic and Tails feels a bit forced for the sake of adding drama to the plot. Additionally, while the humor feels consistent with Colors due to having the same writers, even calling back to a previous joke from that game, there are moments where the humor feels ill-timed and doesn’t quite land as well. I will also mention that most of the Zeti aside from Zavok go unnamed in the game itself.

 

Note that "Zomom" is misspelled here.

The core gameplay is similar to that of Colors, this time taking place in circular-based level design rather than tiles, along with the rather franchise-unique (and somewhat finnicky) mechanic of wall running. Wisps even make a return, albeit in a smaller capacity, with the introduction of several new ones (Crimson Eagle, Indigo Asteroid, Magenta Rhythm, Black Bomb, Gray Quake) hidden in each Zone. Omochao serves as a way to earn Items and other bonuses from completing side quests, some of which are more difficult to complete depending on how far into the game you are. Notably, the game features some integration with the Wii U Game Pad, including using Items in a side menu, the ability to swap between TV and Game Pad views, a Zone progress tracker when not viewing Tutorials and the additional ability to instantly warp to different parts of the hub world (which can enable easier completion of side quests). If you’re having difficulty in a Zone, an Item will spawn after 5 deaths that warps you to the next checkpoint, and losing all of your lives restarts you with 9 in the hub world (post-patch, you can even earn extra lives by collecting 100 Rings). Red Star Rings make a return as well, collecting a certain number of which in a level unlocks a bonus minigame that can help with collecting the necessary animals needed to progress to the last Zone in an area.

While the game is mechanically sound on paper, what hinders the experience greatly is that it does a very poor job explaining its controls, not even with all the in-game tutorials, and the printed manual can only take you so far. The game doesn’t even explain what Items are or what they even do, leading to the player having to guess what they do through using each of them once. This can lead to a great deal of frustration, especially in the late game, in part because of the random difficulty spikes between levels and the oft-unclear controls (not to mention the existence of a run button in a Sonic game), as well as the fact that, like Colors, you lose all of your rings if you take even one hit. Possibly the worst offender is a boss fight against Zavok, which is arguably a textbook example of bad game design (to beat him, you have to dodge his attacks to get him to the edge, then, while he’s distracted, you have to hit him with a lengthier charged homing attack, neither of which the game even bothers to tell you about). The difficulty spikes culminated in me actually rage quitting at Lava Mountain Zone 2 due to what I saw as unfair design, but I am aware that beating Lava Mountain unlocks a non-canon Hidden Zone with extra stages (I also turned to YouTube to get the remainder of the plot).

 

One of the worst boss fights ever.

As for the unclear instructions, I learned while writing this review that Sega released Tails' Tips explaining them further on their official Twitter account, albeit three months after the game had already come out. These have fortunately been archived, so for the sake of completeness, I will be including them here (though why these weren't in the game itself is anyone's guess).

 

Gameplay frustrations aside, I will also say that the Wisps don’t really have a story explanation for them to be in Lost Hex, not to mention there seemed to be a disconnect between the circular level designs in a hex-based world (even if there’s maybe one or two levels that actually have a hexagon theme). Playing through the story also unlocks more tracks and racers for a 2P Race mode, but by the point I got to I was too frustrated with the game to even try it out for myself. It is, however, worth playing the Wii U version of Lost World specifically because it contains extra levels based on Nintendo IPs, namely The Legend of Zelda and Yoshi’s Island, both of which are unlocked very early in the game.

Despite my frustrations, I will admit that Lost World is certainly one of the better-looking Sonic games on the platform, especially in comparison to the ill-fated Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. The music manages to remain a high point with some memorable tunes, plus you can tell that the new voice cast from Colors are getting more used to their respective roles.

 

I do, however, question why Tails posed like this when captured.

Sonic Lost World has some interesting ideas, but the execution is flawed to the point of not doing these concepts proper justice. While the plot is canon to the main Sonic storyline, the frustrating gameplay alone makes it difficult to recommend even to a Sonic fan. If you still wish to play it, however, it is worth getting the Wii U version for the extra Nintendo-themed levels.