Sonic: Lost World

Genre: Platformer / 3D Platformer

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless)

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Review:

Sonic: Lost World is a game that’s equal parts Platformer and 3D Platformer, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013. A different game bearing the same title and featuring similar gameplay was released on Wii U in 2013 and ported to PC in 2015. Much like its console counterpart, I’m somewhat perplexed by this game, and for many of the same reasons. This is not so much due to the game itself, but due to a range of external factors.

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Sonic games, and even at their best, I tend to think they pale in comparison to Mario’s better games. Of course, this could just be a matter of personal preference – Mario games tend to focus on exploration, finding hidden secrets, and level design variety and gameplay variety, while Sonic games tend to be at their best when the player is only just barely in control, gracefully speeding through the game’s levels.

Of course, ever since the Sonic series entered the third dimension, most would agree that the results have been mixed at best. However, in general critical review scores for the franchise have been in the dumps since Sonic left the Dreamcast. Oddly, despite that most people seem to talk favorably about Sonic: Lost World, the game was not well-loved by critics. However, I can’t very well understand why – Despite my general lack of enthusiasm for the Sonic franchise, I was delighted with this game – I think Sonic: Lost World follows in the footsteps of its Wii U counterpart, resulting in one of the best 3D Sonic games ever made.

Look, I could continue to copy-paste much of what I wrote for my review of the Wii U game here, and most of it would remain true – the two games are very similar, after all. However, that would be doing both games something of a disservice, as they are different games, despite their similarities. However, at a distance much of what I have to say here will be the same – like its console counterpart, this game draws its inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy’s gravity-warping mechanics, with 3D stages that are often not flat planes but 3D objects that gravity warps around.

Once again, the level design here is superb, and the game does an excellent job highlighting the best qualities of the Sonic franchise, giving Sonic additional acrobatic moves that help to keep the gameplay flowing. However, while this game’s 3D stages are excellent, albeit perhaps not quite as good as the console version of the game, I’d say that the 2D levels in this game are a bit better than the console version. Still, the result is overall an excellent Platformer all the same, roughly on par with the console version, more or less.

Having said that, there are a few complaints I have here. A few of those complaints are the same as the console version – the controls here seem to lack the precision I would hope for with the high speeds at play here, and as fun and creative as this game is, it’s still not quite as good as Mario – Sonic is still more about spectacle than deep gameplay.

Speaking of spectacle, one of the other issues I have with this game is that the spectacle is somewhat subdued here compared to the console release. While Sonic: Lost World still looks good on the Nintendo 3DS, its worlds are smaller in scope, and segmented into different areas more frequently. The result is an experience that doesn’t feel as big and impressive as the console version. In addition, the decision to reuse the console version’s pre-rendered cutscenes was a bad one, both because this game deserves better than its big brother’s recycled leftovers, and also because those video clips look absolutely terrible on the Nintendo 3DS, with a horrendously ugly low resolution. At the very least this game also carries over the console version’s excellent soundtrack, which is just as great here.

Oh, there is one other complaint I have here. This game’s bonus levels make use of gyroscopic motion control to move Sonic around, and players must have a free 360 degree range of movement, something that’s cumbersome unless you’re playing the game in a rotating office chair or in a place where you have a lot of space to rotate freely. While this sort of gameplay isn’t terrible, it’s unnecessarily inconvenient.

Overall, I have more complaints about the Nintendo 3DS Sonic: Lost World than its Wii U counterpart, but both are still excellent games, and I would argue that both are absolutely worth playing for fans of Platformers and especially Sonic fans. I think the Nintendo 3DS game handles its 2D stages better, but doesn’t have the same level of spectacle as the Wii U version. It’s hard for me to say for sure which of the two I like better, but know that just because this is a smaller and less-impressive game than its big brother doesn’t make it any less of a delight to play.

tl;dr – Sonic: Lost World on Nintendo 3DS features similar gravity-defying gameplay as we saw in the Wii U version (which in turn was clearly directly inspired by Super Mario Galaxy), but it has different stages, a smaller scope, and a less-impressive presentation. It’s still an excellent Platformer, and I would argue that this game’s 2D levels are better than the Wii U version’s 2D levels. However, in the end I think both versions are well worth playing.

Grade: B+

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