After the original three “Boost Formula” games: Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations, SEGA and Sonic Team decided it was time for a change of pace. In 2013, they released Sonic Lost World on Wii U and 3DS. Calling it the Super Mario Galaxy of the Sonic series is an apt comparison. This is a review of the Wii U version of the game.
Mario Galaxy?
This game takes a lot of inspiration from the 3D games in the Super Mario series. Unlike the previous 3D Sonic games where the rules are the same in basically every stage, the stages Sonic Lost World change up the mechanics constantly.
The best way to describe how Sonic Lost Worlds plays is “weird”. The concept of momentum which the Sonic series was based on is basically completely absent in this game. Instead, it controls more like a Crash Bandicoot game except with level design that is a hybrid of Sonic and Mario games. Weird is not necessarily bad, but it is safe to say that this is not a game that one would consider to feel fun to play, whatever that means.
Unfortunately, the level design is hardly impressive. The amount of levels that are notably good during the main campaign is quite small, and the rest of the levels range from somewhat boring to annoying. This sounds harsh, but considering the genre this isn’t too bad. The good levels in this game manage to be above pretty much any other 3D platformer you will play not named Mario.
There are also 2D levels in this game, and although they add a change of pace, it is not necessarily a good one. These sections just don’t control particularly satisfyingly, and the level design doesn’t make matters any better.
Who is Zavok?
One of the most unfortunate aspects of this game is how they approached the story and world. It is totally self contained, but unlike Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors which at least somewhat retained a style resembling what one would expect from Sonic, Sonic Lost World wasn’t able to do that. The group of boss enemies that they introduced in this game, which basically serve the same function as the Koopalings, really don’t feel like they belong. They are quite a bit worse than previous Sonic characters by almost any metric. The level based on The Legend of Zelda is cool, at least.
The story itself leans into the idea of Sonic being funny more than ever before, and it maybe somewhat entertaining, if you are being nice. Maybe it goes over better with an extremely young audience, but for anyone who would read this review it doesn’t have much to offer. It is only barely better than games where the story is basically nonexistent or blatantly poorly executed.
What about everything else?
Musically the game is pretty good. The music is at least somewhat memorable and better than the vast majority of other games out there. The voice acting is pretty good too, if you can get past what they are actually saying. There isn’t much notable to mention about the sound beyond that.
Graphically the game looks pretty decent. Considering the art style it probably couldn’t have been any better on a Wii U. The frame rate and resolution are both pretty much as good as they could possibly be.
The art style definitely isn’t Sonic Team’s best work. The visuals it produced range from about average to more appealing than most games, but it is far from the best out there. It is hard to imagine the game with a different art style, though it might not be so hard if the game was better than it is now. Overall it was a decent attempt, but there are much more appealing looking games out there.
Should you play it?
If it interests you, it is probably a safe bet that you will enjoy it enough to justify the price. It is decently high up there for its genre. If you really care about all the stuff besides how the game plays you will be massively disappointed compared to past Sonic games, though.
Overall the game is a 7.0 out of 10.
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