Lost World: Discussion, Impressions and Fan Reviews

[Celestia]

As far as I can tell, the running speed is exactly the same in the 2D levels. It probably just feels slower because of the perspective from the side. If I'm wrong, then I didn't notice it, which means it's not nearly as bad as it was in UnWiished.

 

Honestly, I'm not surprised the game is slower paced since it was developed by the Colours team. Yes, Colours had it's fast moments, but it was always in autorunning sections, full on automation (like the fastest moments in Lost World, I'll admit), or boosting sections. In my opinion, this game really isn't too slow, but I'm still interested in seeing what would undoubtedly be a faster paced take on this gameplay style from the Unleashed people.

 

We probably won't see the run button again, since that's a common criticism, though if they kept it and made it acceleration-based instead of near-instant full speed, I think it'd be a nice compromise. It might be better off to just have a parkour button, though.

[VGamer]

So ignoring that the game seems to be attain more infamy then straight up fans, the people who do like the game must obviously do so because Colors and Gens were good…games? That kinda falls apart as a theory when most people who didn't like this game want to go back to the boost era and let SLW fade into obscurity.

 

I don't mean that anybody who likes it only enjoys it due to coming off of Gens and Colors. I mean 

that if this game was released in the "dark age" then I feel that a lot of people would have been a lot harsher on this game (for better or for worse).

 

Also, reading through the entire post I can see "feels like" and "Sonic" about a dozen times and I have to wonder what IS Sonic to people anymore. Is running not Sonic? Is platforming not Sonic? Is parkouring not Sonic? You also frequently compare this to Rayman which makes no sense to me, 2D or 3D wise, as games like Origins and Legends play totally different from how they do in this game, just because they both have a run button does not strike an instant similarity.

 

I'm not bringing up Rayman to compare directly in terms of gameplay, that wouldn't make any sense. The general control scheme just feels like it though. You slow walk without pressing anything, you run with the right-trigger, you can run up walls, it just made me feel like it "felt" like Rayman if that makes any sense I guess.

 

I'm not saying all this stuff as a solid fact, just what I felt when playing the game. I don't know what Sonic's supposed to be since Sonic Team keeps changing the damn formula every 1-3 games ever since SA2, so you're gonna have to ask the people who make the games themselves. Is Sonic about gaining speed? Is Sonic about hero-based gameplay? Guns? Boosting? Memorizing stages to go fast? Puzzles? There's no concrete definition that anyone can give to Sonic games because the games themselves barely establish that as we go on with the series.

 

Perhaps I worded my post poorly, but I meant to say that I liked when you could gain speed in the older games. It was fun, it was rewarding, it was entertaining. This whole "press ZR to speed up!" idea annoyed me so much, since it just felt like I could go in a straight line the whole time without having to react to anything. With the boost you at least had to quick-step, slide, jump, etc. There were times in this game where I felt like I could go in a straight line by holding ZR and win.

 

There was actually plenty of times in Gens that happened, like those gates in M. Sky Sanctuary, or those spin tops in the classic version. I guess it's somewhat easier to miss because you're plowing through most of it. And you bring up 06 of all games? The game where there was several instances of "kill x amount of enemies to progress" bullshit? Come one man not even SLW had anything like that, things in SLW stopped you because the enemies were, well…actually a threat, and learning to overcome them is half the battle when it comes to keeping a decent flow.

 

Plowing through it makes it feel fast. The spinning tops in Sky Sanctuary still kept you moving, and it didn't necessarily feel any slower than Classic Sonic himself, since you could just spindash to gain more speed if you were falling. I can't point out any moment though when parkour would have been a help in Gens, Colors, Unleashed, or any of the games really. You mean to tell me they would have placed trees in the middle of your path in Windy Hill 1 if you didn't have parkour? Or making jumps that you could barely make if you didn't have the ledge-grabbing ability?

 

As for the enemies, why should I have to learn to kick them? "Learning to overcome them" is literally "Oh no I got hit, that means I should kick him instead". I still find no difference between the kick and homing attack. It's the definition of padding, it's just there to be there. Why can't I just homing-attack Egg Pawns and get on with it? Kicking them is the EXACT same thing, you just fling them away and that's it. The only time it was used in a unique way in this game was the Zavok boss fight in Sky Road 2, since it actually signifies that he's shielding himself, giving you at least a bit of a hint that you should kick first.

 

Now see, that kinda just sends me the message that just because it's 2D, it's instantly Sonic. When in fact the 2D levels of SLW don't…..really have that sort of feel at all to them, at least when comparing them to the classic games. Levels like Desert Ruins 1 at least bothered to have dash pad-less ramps that you could actually pull off genuine momentum with using the spin dash.

 

Not at all, I would really hate to come off as a person who thinks that Sonic only belongs in 2D games. All I meant to say is that the 2D levels in this game are the only ones that don't come packaged with any bullshit or unnecessary designs to me. Since we're going with the fact that "it's Sonic" doesn't have a concrete definition here, it's at least a platformer, you know, what I was promised when I heard this was a Sonic game? There's anti-gravity gimmicks, but they just alter the level design.

 

Not once in a 2D section was I forced to do something that wasn't platforming (except skydiving to be fair). It's all the basic formula, with it's own twist on things (wall-running, wall-jumping, finding cool shortcuts, other basic elements you would find in a Sonic game).

 

 I get why some may not have liked the idea of a run button, but it confounds me why people would want something like the parkour completely gone after just one game, I don't think people were this hard on the boost of all things. It offers more controls, gives Sonic more moves to play with, it assures that Sonic can be constantly moving in some fashion. Sure it's not perfect but I sure as hell wouldn't see something like genuine added control be gone from the series.

 

I'd like the parkour to stay, as long as it's used for what they said it was made for: a problem solver. An example I already brought up is the trees in the middle of your path in Windy Hill 1. Why the hell are they there? What do they provide? Okay, I climbed up the tree, but for what? Rings? They wouldn't randomly place objects in front of you in any other game, so why now? I don't see how it adds to the game for me to "parkour" up a small block in front of me in Windy Hill 4. What did that even accomplish?

 

I think having a parkour button instead of a run button would be better really. Better yet, why not let us earn speed ourselves, and when you reach a certain speed in the game, parkour is activated? That's the exact same thing, but you actually feel rewarded that way in my opinion. THAT would be fixing the problem the way I see it.

 

EDIT: Holy hell this was long, sorry about that. I'll try to not make my posts this long in the future, my apologies.

Edited December 3, 2013 by dark3tar15

[The Deleter]

even slower blocky platforming than in Colors

Okay no

 

Stop

 

The yellow spring levels, tropical resort's extending steps, sweet mountain's moving platforms, starlight carnival's blue wisp sections, planet wisp's vertical platforming, aquarium park's underwater platforming, asteroid coaster as a whole, the clunkyness of the floating platforms, and pretty much just the basic level design philosophy of it all adds up to some of the most pace-breaking and clunky level design I have ever played in a Sonic game -- no, wait, correction, platformer -- since, ever. At the very least SLW has the decency to build the level design around the gameplay mechanics to allow it to flow better this time around.

 

In fact, I think that's something SLW accels at to a very notable degree: Flow. The floating platforms are bottomless and act more as steps than obstacles, the moving platforms are at bare minimum, the step-y level design is treated as simple terrain irregularities rather than the abused fire-escape style of step platforming (as seen in Colors), and the parkour, oh the parkour! This move kills so many of the problems blocky platfoming has when used in Sonic games, it's not even funny. To compare SLW's platforming to Color's and state that the former is slower, honestly makes me raise my eyebrow.

[Kuzu]

Aren't there points when you have to push objects into holes to move on in this game? How is that not a pace breaker?

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[Junko]

Aren't there points when you have to push objects into holes to move on in this game? How is that not a pace breaker?

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In the 3DS version of Frozen Factory, yes.

[Speederino]

I just finished writing a review for the 3DS version of Lost World, so I figure I should post it here. http://speederino.tumblr.com/post/68898904159/lostworld3ds

 

I've been meaning to post my thoughts in this forum for a while now, but this way I can just say everything I want to without creating a super-long-post-of-doom.

[The Deleter]

Aren't there points when you have to push objects into holes to move on in this game? How is that not a pace breaker?

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I'm mainly talking about the Wii U version, as I'm sure DIMPS has found a way to weasel their puzzles into their version of this Sonic game, per the norm. Though, there are a couple of times in Tropical Coast where you can guide fruit into holes to open pathways, but most of it is optional.

 

[pppp]

Oh and btw Silent Forest 2 is baffling to me. What the hell is the point of the Rythm Wisp? You use the touchscreen to touch these spots to get to the next stretch of land and....well that's it. I don't like any of the wisps in this game but this is the one in my opinion that really breaks the pacing for me. It's slow, it's completely insubstantial and is constantly making me alternate between the TV and the Gamepad. At least the other wisps are optional aside from Drill, but i never found a way to get through Silent Forest 2 without usting Rythm.

 

Oh and stealth sections shouldn't be in Sonic Games. Ever. Not only is the stealth boringly simplistic but again, forces me to just stop every 5 seconds, breaking my flow.

[Celestia]

You can easily get through SF2 without Rhythm. Each of the gaps where there's one to use has a vine, right? Well, you can just Spindash through those vines with a Ten Ring near the bottom of them. The last one, which supposedly has a big gap where you "need" to use the Wisp, has a hidden spring at the end of the loop that takes you across the gap. (Although the first time I tried it, I double jumped across, I only realized there was a hidden spring in a later playthrough of that level.)
 
Also when I was doing the time attack to get an S rank I realized that it's completely possible to keep moving and still avoid the searchlight. There's certain parts where you need to be tricky to avoid it, but it's not impossible by any means.
 

Aren't there points when you have to push objects into holes to move on in this game? How is that not a pace breaker?

 
That's just the 3DS version. There's nothing quite like it in the Wii U version aside from Tropical Coast, and I only found the latter annoying when it comes to "pushing" the giant pineapples, due to the planetoid you're on + camera angles. Plus the actual "pushing" mechanics are kind of dumb, you don't even physically push them--hence my use of quotation marks--Sonic just walks near them and they roll away from him?? It's weird.

[VGamer]

I'll agree the Wisps are super pointless in this game. I didn't like some of them in Colors to be quite frank, but in that game they had an actual purpose (both story-wise and gameplay-wise). They took you to red rings, secret paths, 1-UP's, etc. In this game, they just take you throughout the level even more... Why?

 

You can easily get through SF2 without Rhythm. Each of the gaps where there's one to use has a vine, right? Well, you can just Spindash through those vines with a Ten Ring near the bottom of them. The last one, which supposedly has a big gap where you "need" to use the Wisp, has a hidden spring at the end of the loop that takes you across the gap. (Although the first time I tried it, I double jumped across, I only realized there was a hidden spring in a later playthrough of that level.)

 

Perfect example right here, what's the point of the Rhythm wisp at all, if you can bypass the area without using it? I'm not saying Wisps should be forced, I'd hate that, but why doesn't it take you to some secret area or something? 

 

They could have been fun in this game, but just came off as literally unnecessary.

Oh, and the Bomb Wisp is outright uncontrollable.

[Celestia]

Exactly, that's why I agree with people who say the Wisps are completely pointless in this game. It's especially offensive to me since I actually like using them, the controls work well (stupid ass Rhythm aside) in my experience, and I'd love to use them to find new paths and find secrets...but nope. Nothing.

[VGamer]

As much as I hate making Mario & Sonic comparisons in the year 2013, I think they were going for something more like Mario's suits with the Wisps? You know, finding them at some point in the stage where you can use them for some extra help/secrets? They at least got the first half working.

 

The only instance I can think of a Wisp leading to a secret path would be the Eagle in Silent Forest 1 leading to the second hidden mach segment in the level.

 

(stupid ass Rhythm aside) 

 

Really? Personally I found the Rhythm really basic (and kinda boring because of that), just tapping on the notes one-by-one. If anything, I thought people would have more problems with the Eagle. I can only get it to descend when I tell it to, but it never ascends when I tilt the Gamepad up?

 

Bomb is just in it's own league.

[Celestia]

As much as I hate making Mario & Sonic comparisons in the year 2013, I think they were going for something more like Mario's suits with the Wisps? You know, finding them at some point in the stage where you can use them for some extra help/secrets? They at least got the first half working.

I'd actually be all for Wisps being more like Mario (and Classic/Adventure Sonic) powerups, where they aren't timed and can be used anywhere. I think Wisps would be more interesting if they weren't so limited.

 

The only instance I can think of a Wisp leading to a secret path would be the Eagle in Silent Forest 1 leading to the second hidden mach segment in the level.

You can reach that cannon with a hidden spring (seeing a pattern here? XD) in the...liquid. There's this one spot with four Motobugs--only place they appear in that level, too--where there's a square patch of the acidic stuff, and if you jump in the middle of it there's a spring that takes you to the cannon. Of course, it's much easier to just use Eagle, but yeah.

[T-Min]

A more free, if sporadically designed type of gameplay that I can play in a variety of different ways is more fun to me then "play the level this exact way all the time", even if it is more solidly built. It's like comparing pouring a glass of water to a margarita. Sure you can poor  a normal glass of water without a hitch, but at the end of the day it's still only water. As opposed to a Margarita which takes tons of different ingredients to get the best flavor, and the end result is much more satisfying, sure you may have flubbed a number of ingredients along the way but in the end it's till a decent mixture that's more remarkable then water. Others will see it differently, but that's my take on it.

I'm going to chime in and say that this is basically how I feel, if not to the same extent. At its best, Sonic Lost World felt more satisfying to play than the boost trilogy for me. Especially levels like Windy Hill 1 and 3, Desert Ruins 1, Tropical Coast 1, Silent Forest 1 - and heck, I'd even say Silent Forest 3 in a sense - really showed the kind of advantages this play style has over the boost games. I still think Colors and Generations are better games, but if they could refine this to the level of Generations, we'd probably have something truly phenomenal.

[Blue Blood]

Desert Ruins 1 in consistently satisfying to playthrough. All those ramps with absolutely no scripting are oodles of fun.

[Soniman]

Yes, there's also an area of TC1 that has a hilly sloop that has you pull off well timed, genuine momentum and spin dash right at the top of a high ledge (where you'd have to run up it going normally). I wish Sega would realize how fun doing stuff like that is and add more slopes.

[GreatAndPowerful]

Regarding wisps, while I like them, I’m glad that they weren’t used as much as they were in Colors or Planet Wisp in Generations. Yet, there are times where they feel unnecessary, which is unfortunate. Other than Drill and Rocket (which are mandatory), they mostly serve as an easier way to progress through the level.

 

The color powers, for the most part, controlled fine for me except for Rocket. I had one heck of a time trying to aim it the first few times. The Drill underwater and Bomb can be shaky at times, too. I also had trouble with the Magenta Rhythm at first until I spent time figuring it out.

 

As for finding secret paths using wisps, in Silent Forest Zone 2, if you backtrack a few steps from where the first magenta wisp is, you can use it to go up between the two pillars and get above the part you can climb across. That’s the kind of thing I like to see.

[MegasonicZX]

The wisps for the most part actually control fine (whoever said the controls are broken is a liar  ) but the motion controls are unneeded though, it basically makes you wonder why did they do this if they could've done this.

[azoo]

The wisps for the most part actually control fine (whoever said the controls are broken is a liar  ) but the motion controls are unneeded though, it basically makes you wonder why did they do this if they could've done this.

 

I can't say I agree. Rocket Wisp was the most obnoxious thing in the whole game. It's repeatedly made me not want to play Tropical Coasts 2 and 4.

 

Also the non-scripted slopes and loops in Lost World are very satisfying, but they're all too far and few between. That one in TR1 and those couple in DR1 are like some of the only ones I can think of throughout the entire game. Everything else is either flat ground or scripted.

[Komodin]

I can't say I agree. Rocket Wisp was the most obnoxious thing in the whole game. It's repeatedly made me not want to play Tropical Coasts 2 and 4.

 

If I may inquire to ask, what, exactly, makes the Rocket Wisp so bad in this game?

[MegasonicZX]

I can't say I agree. Rocket Wisp was the most obnoxious thing in the whole game. It's repeatedly made me not want to play Tropical Coasts 2 and 4.

Really? besides having to twist my whole body just to aim in all directions (don't ask why I was doing that) it controlled perfectly fine from what you would expect from something that controls like aiming a camera, sure its not your wii-u.

[azoo]

It had jittery steering that couldn't stay still or align even if you wanted it to, it would only turn around so far until it made it impossible to see what you were doing, and there was also that thing where you had to basically cross your fingers and hope that where-ever you aimed it, it didn't send out of the atmosphere dead. 

 

Basically the entirety of it was me being forced to struggle using the (badly implemented on Sega's part) gyroscope controls in hopes of actually progressing the stage and not dying.

[MegasonicZX]

It had jittery steering that couldn't stay still or align even if you wanted it to, it would only turn around so far until it made it impossible to see what you were doing, and there was also that thing where you had to basically cross your fingers and hope that where-ever you aimed it, it didn't send out of the atmosphere dead. 

 

Basically the entirety of it was me being forced to struggle using the (badly implemented on Sega's part) gyroscope controls in hopes of actually progressing the stage and not dying.

As far as aligning goes, it always stayed still when I was staying still and I never actually did shoot off of my intended target since they make the targets pretty big to aim at (small planetoid/big balloon that has a cannon in it) only time I could imagine it being a problem is when getting rings but thats about it (and even then, just aiming through the middle of them gets you where you need to go) and while I will admit being forced to use them is stupid on segas part they work perfectly fine for what they are used for.

[Blue Blood]

I can't say I agree. Rocket Wisp was the most obnoxious thing in the whole game. It's repeatedly made me not want to play Tropical Coasts 2 and 4.

 

Also the non-scripted slopes and loops in Lost World are very satisfying, but they're all too far and few between. That one in TR1 and those couple in DR1 are like some of the only ones I can think of throughout the entire game. Everything else is either flat ground or scripted.

 

The most annoying thing is, all of the scripted ones still work fine if you manouver Sonic around the boosters. Try the second planet in Windy Hill 1. If you run past the speed boosters on the slopes there normally, it still plays exactly the same. But if you spindash past them, you actually take a teeny shortcut and end up right by the next  checkpoint.

 

Does Sonic Team really not see all this potential that they're not tapping?

[Kuzu]

The most annoying thing is, all of the scripted ones still work fine if you manouver Sonic around the boosters. Try the second planet in Windy Hill 1. If you run past the speed boosters on the slopes there normally, it still plays exactly the same. But if you spindash past them, you actually take a teeny shortcut and end up right by the next  checkpoint.

 

Does Sonic Team really not see all this potential that they're not tapping?

 

I've been asking this very same question for years.