Sonic Lost World (Wii U, 3DS, PC) Megathread

While I do agree with you, I'm still looking forward to trying this game because of the new parkour system to master (which effectively should replace the Sonic Boost), and by the looks of Windy Hill's level design, the sheer number of alternate paths mean that a more moderate pace would be better. The Unleashed/Generations/Colours formula is a good one but I think it's getting just a little bit tiresome for me.

I've been boosting through levels since 2005, I think this will be a welcome change for me.

 

Rude.

 

I think he meant to say your music is good, but Sega doesn't discern good from bad, just that people like it. It was a burn on Sega, not you Or at least I hope that's what he meant....

Because you're music's phenomenal, the best Sonic-related tracks to come out since the classics

 

Anyone else notice this?



I'm thinking this just means Zone 3 was the first level of Desert Ruins they wanted to show off, hence being labeled "1." I still think this looks rather silly, though.

 

yeah it's weird that they did that. most likely Desert Ruins Zone 1 will be actually desert ruins.

 

Totally understood what Lange meant. Which is why I said 'rude.' I wasn't implying poor taste by Sega with my post. Quite the opposite in fact.

 

So, we've got six different Zones with three separate Acts for each. (Yeah, I realize that apparently each individual level is counted as a "Zone". This is just to keep things straight in my head.) That means that we're dealing with an estimated 18 total levels, not including the six different bosses and a final boss, giving us a final total of 25. That's coming out as a rather short game, to be honest.

The guy playing through the levels seemed to go through them fairly quickly, so there's got to be more than they're letting on. I mean, Sonic Colors was really short, and it had roughly 5 Acts and a boss for each area. From what I'm understanding, one of the reasons that they switched from the Unleashed/Generations formula was because this style of level is much easier and faster to develop than countless miles of detailed scenery. There's got to be a ton more levels than what I estimated. If we're getting such a short game, then we're going to be emulating the classic series in a different way than I was hoping: A game that can be breezed through completely in about an hour.

If you think about it, Super Mario Galaxy had similar world design as the Windy Hill area they showed to us. Even though the individual levels in that game were probably somewhat smaller, they still managed to fit a huge number of worlds in the game compared to this one's estimated 25. From Lost World's art style, I'm going to assume that they're not pushing the WiiU to it's absolute limits (at least, I really hope not), so they should be able to fit more than just that, right?

Now, what I'm hoping that they're doing is something like "World-Zone-Act" to squeeze in more levels. That could possibly give us something like "Windy Hill: Zone 3 - Act 2". Probably not the direction they're planning, but it'd be nice.

Also, I'm really liking the way that DIMPS is handling 3D areas. The 3DS game looked rather similar in design to the WiiU one on that point. I did notice how each giant spring "launched" Sonic into a mini loading screen and that each separate section of the level was it's own area entirely. The idea isn't bad, but I'm really hoping that they find a way to disguise the loading segments a bit better. Maybe instead of a jump-cut, they could manually zoom in on Sonic, do a jump-cut to holding the camera steady while keeping the exact same angle, and then jump-cut again to the exact same angle but with the camera then manually zooming out for Sonic to land. The way they're handling it now is rather jarring and very noticeable.

The other thing that bugged me was how they seemed to spam the trick-rings in areas. I mean, making a tunnel out of the things doesn't look nice at all, it would be much nicer to just place one and have it plop you down where you need to be. The speed-boosters seem to be used just to help you change direction quickly in certain areas, which makes me a bit hopeful that there could be a "hard mode" with most, if not all, of them removed so that you have to pay more attention and change direction on such sharp turns for yourself.

Finally, I'm not really sure what I think about the parkour system. I mean, when it's for things like Sonic climbing a tree and launching himself up to what could be a hidden Red Ring or alternate route, that's just fine. Actually, that's really good and can open up more varied level design. However, I noticed that the 3DS desert pyramid level seemed to feature an awful lot of Spin-Dashing into a wall just to begin a parkour wall-jump climb up. I can't think of a single way for that to do anything to help the level design like the tree-jumping part can, and it feels an awful lot like something that's too easy to over-use and become annoying like the Homing Attack chains have become. (In my opinion, possibly more so) I mean, I can't think of anything that the Spin-Dash/Wall Jump combo does that normal platforms or ledges on the wall can't do just as well. The Unleashed/Generations style levels had the Wall Jump work fairly well because you had to pay attention to when you hit a surface that let you do that and quickly perform the action to climb up to a different area, or else you would fall down to the normal route. This version of the idea seems rather pointless and has too much potential to be abused for the level design.

 

I hope this doesn't come off a Dimps bitching, because frankly the 3DS version has shattered my expectations. I'm just worried about how loose Sonic's controls on that version are. He just seems to fly around willy nilly in the air and on the ground, and at one point there's a moment of S4 physics in the desert stage. They're just a couple of things I want to keep an eye open for. But as a whole, the game actually looks really, really good, and not just because it's finally got 3D. The Desert Ruins stage has a really fun platforming gimmick woven into balanced that I can't really compare to any past Sonic game.

The Wii U version looks better still, though this has to be the first time where it looks like no version is going to get the short end of the stick. It's going to be a gruelling number of months waiting for release.

 

While the main functionality of boost is pretty silly, air boosting was actually quite useful. If you noticed, Sonic now has two kinds of jumps in mid-air to make up for the lack of air boost. Not only he can double jump, he can also do a jump dash (as evidenced in a part in the second level where Aaron goes in a straight line mid-air). So it's not really replaced by the tiered speed on the ground alone, its air functionality is gimped.

I'm gonna guess the closest you'll have to air-boosting is spamming spin-dash and jumping a-la Adventure style.

 

I really think this is a step back from Generations Gameplay Mechanics. At least in that you have momentum and sense of speed. With the run triggers we are having Sonic capped at a certain speed limit until you press and hold the trigger for him to go faster. Besides if all these levels have these gravity type effect to them. How will slopes even work or exist in this game? Also do not like that jumpball/spindash ball they use. Sure its animated and stretches. I'm gonna miss that cool one from Unleashed/Generations when you jump in the air.

And essentially this is just Colors 2. We'll be getting 3 main acts for the level. And the rest just redesigns/missions for the levels. We'll probably have one huge main act as shown for Windy Hill that has both 3d and 2d. And then have a full 2d act like that Dessert Ruins. I mean its not bad but I won't be expecting a lot. Especially if that homing attack is really gimped. Doesn't look like you actually get distance with it. Its only for thing that are up close to you with it.

 

My personal thoughts about the revamped gameplay is basically, well, it's a huge step up from the last three games in terms of gameplay flexibility and and less linear, more open level design. The 'tiered' manual speed controls, while they aren't exactly what I had in mind, is a good idea, and the context-based parkour system ala Sands of Time is exactly what I've been wanting to see. But I also would say that the running mode not having proper acceleration is something of a missed opportunity. The incredibly blocky 2D and the auto-running segments also leave a nasty taste in my mouth. I'd rather they not mess around with that crap and focus on making a solid fully-3D platformer. I also think the Wisps are completely unnecessary and are just there for an obligatory shoehorned-in touch screen mechanic.

Long story short, loving the direction the direction the 3D gameplay is going on, just need some gameplay tweaks (including other smaller things I didn't mention) and get rid of the 2D and automated crap and it'll be perfect.

 

I just watched the trailer on the front page. Outside of the homing attack still being in, I'm in love with it. To me this seems like the best idea for Sonic in 3D that I have seen.

Edit: If I have one other criticism, it would be that I would rather the trigger slow me down than have it speed me up.

 

I quite like how the homing attack is in this game. It's quick and gets straight to the point, practically no delay after hitting an enemy. That's one of the reasons I found Sonic 4's homing attack to be so painful to use, had to wait until Sonic rose up before you can use it again.

 

This is a pretty good point. It does gimp Sonic's air play a bit. Maybe done on purpose due to the planetoid design. Sonic seems to have a lot of air resistance to him, but we won't know until we get some gameplay of someone with their fingers glued to both the triggers. Makes me wonder if there is more air functionality. Like there is the double jump, the smaller airdash, maybe there is another third tier. Something like Sonic spins really fast and sort of spinshots himself ala his side B the movement trick in Brawl. Like around 2 minutes in this video.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oZXWmnwphyk#t=138s

Hell I played around with an aerial spindash similar to this. It was pretty nifty in a 2D setting, but I never considered it in a 3D one.

 

At least that put a little bit of the skill back into play. They've made it an I Win button again, which is why I hate the homing attack in the first place.

 

I'd be for having it removed if it weren't so dang awkward to hit enemies without in 3D games. Completely unnecessary in 2D of course, but it's really hard to attack more than one enemy per jump without it.

 

I almost considered it odd that the Desert level has its correct theme in the 3ds version and the wrong theme in the Wii U version, but then I looked up the proper spelling of the wii U version and it's the 3ds game that may have the wrong theme and it's suppose to be Dessert Ruins. Maybe Sega Japan misspelled the level name before Dimps got the list.

 

Nope. The Wii-U version is called Desert Ruins as well.