Sonic Lost World

[Nester the Lark]

Sonic Lost World is the first of three exclusive Sonic games for Nintendo consoles. (The others are another Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, and one unannounced game.) This one reminds me a little of the unreleased Sonic Xtreme on the Saturn, except without the nauseating fish-eye effect.

This is the kind of game that makes me more interested in the Wii U. It looks fun, and I like the hook. One to keep an eye on.

[Shadrio]

Gotta admit, it looks fun and I like the new gameplay mechanic, the parkour elements, as they feel right within the game's mechanics.

[The Qu]

Dang, it's been 17 years since Sonic X-Treme got cancelled. It's about time we finally get something similar. Hope it ends up being worthwhile.

[8bitretroshit]

Ha, trailer gave me X-Treme vibes aswell. I thought the old concept was kinda cool, so I think it's neat they're revisiting it.

The return of checkered Green Hill zone, ye olde trapped animals and goofy badniks makes me happy too.

[nocturnal YL]

I was actually expecting another real-lifey Sonic before watching this. Is this game for retail or is it for download only? It looks rather small-scale, giving you maybe just 18 or 24 stages.

[Nester the Lark]

I'm pretty sure it's a retail game.

It also reminds me a bit of Sonic Colors, which is a good thing, because Colors was a fantastic Sonic game. I think Sonic tends to work better when it's a bit surrealistic and cartoonish.

I also like that they've come up with new villains. Having a hero fight the same bad guy over and over gets boring. Although, I suppose they could still pull a Dr. Wily, and reveal that Eggman was behind the whole thing all along.

[nocturnal YL]

If Eggman's mentioned in the story and the game is taking a "classic" or "Mario's rival game" approach (GameXplain mentioned that they noticed lots of similarities between Lost World and Sonic 1~3 and Colors), then Eggman is likely a final (perhaps secret) boss.

[The Qu]

The story, for those who have missed it:

"In his latest plot to defeat Sonic and rule the world, Dr. Eggman has harnessed the power of six menacing creatures known as the Deadly Six. However, when the Deadly Six rise up against their new master, Sonic must unite with his arch nemesis Eggman and explore the mystical Lost Hex in order to take them on head-to-head. Use Sonic's amazing new moves and incredible Color Powers to speed across a variety of unique terrains, racing inside, outside and upside down in every level."

Compare to Sonic X-Treme's plot:

Dr. Robotnik stands facing the Master Chaos Emerald in the center of the room. All sorts of robotic arm contraptions are drilling and zapping the huge gemstones trying to tap its mysterious power. The flashes bottom-light Robotnik's face as he laughs like a triumphant maniac. After a few moments the Dr. notices something strange. Leaning closer, he looks curiously disturbed as the Master Emerald glitters and clouds within. Suddenly the gem explodes in a flash of light, hurling Robotnik back against the wall next to Knuckles and Tails. The dark room is lit by rapid pulses of black light as the three stare in awe. Cut to the Master Emerald spilling out loads of foggy smoke. Cut to Knuckles and Tails looking curiously at each other.

Out of the gemstone and into the mist glide small flickering lights almost like fireflies. Cut to Robotnik sprawled on the floor, propping himself up, looking exalted and a bit frightened by the spectacle. Six tall shadows materialize and loom large over the Dr., Knuckles and Tails. Truck-in to Robotnik's sweating, shocked look as the shadows draw in and "smother" him.

In addition, compare these mushrooms with these from X-Treme. This is getting interesting.

[nocturnal YL]

Whoa. So the whole "reviving Sonic X-Treme" thing seems to be intentional.

And Sonic having to clean up Eggman's mess doesn't sound unfamiliar. I think I've heard of such plot in some earlier Sonic game...

[Prince~Of~Light]

I really hope they nail up the speed control like they're trying to target to. I think Sonic-game having a run-button seems like potential idea. Parkour-mechanics are also warmly welcome.

[Deleted]

I've liked where this series has been going since Colors. I think Generations was fantastic. Things seem to be looking up. Aside from what others have said, I like the comic book style of the graphic designs and logo. I think that's pretty unique in the series.

Sonic X-Treme had a great idea and didn't execute it very well at all, which -as the story goes - got it cancelled. Sega had quite a hard time with the polygon ceiling. I'm interested in seeing them finally pull it off.

[kirbychu]

May 30, 2013 2:57:38 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

And Sonic having to clean up Eggman's mess doesn't sound unfamiliar. I think I've heard of such plot in some earlier Sonic game...

Yeah, Sonic and Eggman joining forces isn't a new thing.. it's happened at least twice before. But in those cases they were enemies for the majority of the game and then sided with each other at the very end to take down a larger threat. This seems to be the reversal of that, with them being allies for most of the game and then Eggman (probably) becoming a threat again at the end. That's something they haven't done before, as far as I remember.

I'm glad the small animals are back, but I wish they'd redesign them slightly. Those Sonic 1 designs look so out of place next to modern Sonic and these new guys.

[Deleted]

After re-watching the trailer just now, I noticed that the motion blur effect in the game looks really bad. I hope that isn't intentional.

[Nester the Lark]

New color powers! I'm thrilled that they're keeping the wisps from Sonic Colors. They were a pretty brilliant power-up mechanic that solved the problem of adding longevity to a game that you're supposed to run through really fast. Plus, some of them were just plain weird, and that made them awesome!  Glad to see that some of the new ones are keeping that weirdness factor.

[Nester the Lark]

According to a recent interview with Takashi Iizuka, color powers are going to continue appearing in future Sonic games as a standard.

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of the color powers mechanic, so I'm really happy to hear this. With Mario, he's always had new power-ups introduced in each game that expand the gameplay and are fun to use, but Sonic has always struggled when it came to expanding his abilities. The different shields in Sonic 3 & Knuckles were kind of a cool idea, but not quite fleshed out enough to make a big difference in gameplay. The color powers are great because they're fun, they expand the core gameplay, they're kinda wacky and funny (in a cool way), and they can stay fresh because new powers can be created in future games.

And as you may have heard in the Nintendo Direct, there's going to be connectivity between the Wii U and 3DS versions of Lost World, in which you can create remote controlled gadgets in the 3DS version that can be imported into the Wii U version. A second player can then use those gadgets to assist Sonic.



For a long time, I thought (based on nothing but assumption) that the Wii and DS versions of Sonic Colors had some kind of connectivity, and it seemed weird when I realized there wasn't. I guess it's usually just a way to get people to buy both versions of a game.