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

Yeah you guys are right, Mario 3D World is gonna be fun and Mario Kart next year will be the icing on the cake. I'm downloading the Sonic and all Stars Racing Transformed demo for the Wii U just for fun to see how it runs.

Oh also I can grab my self a copy of Sonic Colours to play again.

 

I also advise putting homebrew channel as well as the bootloader so you can dump your NAND, then transfer your Wii items to the Wii U, then flash the NAND on the Wii to restore your stuff.

 

Sonic Lost Worlds seemingly gets tonnes better when the Sky World comes around, and I've gone back to previous levels and now that I actually know what the hell I'm doing, it's a much more enjoyable experience. If it's any help, try and stick to Lost World and put in a good few hours. As I said, I've been terribly frustrated over the shitty bits of the game I stated above, but it is still a decent game... mostly.

I had to take a day off and step back from my rage.

However, Mario 3D World looks amazing. I went from not even being bothered by it to WOW DAY ONE BUY from that video posted above.

 

Dang... this is the most divisive Sonic game released in years. Some love it so much they'll forgive any of its shortcomings, others find it "infuriating" and are alienated by its strange new gameplay. I honestly don't know what to make of it anymore.

 

Special stages are annoying me still on 3DS. Pretty much cleared the Wii U one on Sunday/Monday, but I seem to be stuck at 4 emeralds on 3DS.

 

Interesting. I still don't get the idea behind the score in Lost World. There are multiple ways of increasing your score in stages (like homing attack chains) but unless high score is what unlocks the ? stages it all amounts to nothing. The game doesn't keep track of each level high score (only the total combined score) and ranks only appear in time attack, but time is the only factor there anyway.
Since every level has a countdown timer, it would fit a "score attack" mode very well since there would be no way to endlessly increase your score, kinda how Colours did. Weird choice to not consider this.

 

If only you knew.

 

Spoiler

It's where the game goes off the deep end. Skyroad is basically a mishmash of all the tropes in the game only with a cloud backdrop. Act 1 is just Windy Hill with the giant catakillers plus speedboosters that send you to your death. Act 2 is just a few platforms with awesome music and a confusing/poorly thought out boss. Act 3 is a poor Rayman updraft level that has fuckall to do with Sonic with a confusing miniboss, and Act 4 is the most piece of shit level design and gimmick in the entire game, plus a boss that's entirely confusing.

I say confusing a lot because it is. The game doesn't teach shit about how to damage its bosses. You just try all your moves when you see the homing icon and then that's what becomes a problem in Act 3 and Act 4. Then you get to Lava Mountain which doesn't actually have any decent stages.

 

The Zone so far is a major improvement but I've yet to reach Act 4. The miniboss was confusing though. Why the fuck would I spend an entire level dodging missles only to then find I have to actually bounce them back at the enemy? I died 3 times before I figured this out. I'm not spoiler tagging this because if you're not there yet, you deserve to know in advance. What a fucking liberty.

You may notice I'm swearing a lot. This is because Miiverse prohibits bad language and I have to vent to likeminded folk somewhere.

 

Fuck this game. It's probably the reason Retro's been a barren wasteland for the past two months. Maybe everyone's finally come to their senses and cut the cord with all the bullshit. Fuck Nintendo. Fuck Mario. And above all, Fuck Sega. I will now go back to the Sonic I knew and loved. Sonic '06 may have been an experiment gone terribly wrong, but it was still Sonic. This is not Sonic, this is Mario doing a disgraceful cosplay. R.I.P. 1991-2013.

 

Well, that escalated quickly.

Seriously. It's one game. Calm down. Plus, the old Sonic's still exist as they have before, they never went anywhere. Although I will say, these gameplay shifts cause many many fanbase rifts and I think we now have yet another. Now we have Classic, Adventure, Boost, and Parkour. And they wonder why they can't please anyone.

EDIT: I guess the term "Modern" no longer works since it's no long Modern. So Boost it is.

 

And just like how elements of Adventure (aka platforming) were slowly reintegrated into Modern Boost gameplay, a little more Boost (aka flowing speedy sections) should be shoved back into Parkour. I believe it's a case of overcorrection. I had my doubts about Lost World since gameplay footage was released, but it's hopefully the shakeup Sonic Team felt they needed to get out of their system. Now they can see what we liked and what we didn't and use that for the next game. It's as though they only product tested with Mario fans this time around.

 

I could believe that. I mean they must have some hunch that if we can still be Sonic fans after 06, we'll be fans forever.

 

Just wait. They'll get the wrong message and make an ez mode barren platformer while cramming more "variety" down our throats. Oh and the Parkour would be gone.

If the game didn't scream like it was trying to be Mario then I would say that it seriously feels like a massive dose of overcorrection. The the boost gameplay and Generations had people saying the game was too easy and all you were doing was running forward the whole time. Now the game has questionable difficulty and less speedy sections while they pack in as much stupid junk they could think up in its place.

Like who thought the wisps were even remotely fun? It's like someone thought that since it worked in colors they could toss them in as motion control gimmicks. There wasn't even a point to use them for alternate paths since there were either forced or lead to nowhere.

 

I thought they were fun in Colors, but they seem poorly implemented in this game, which is a shame because I do like the idea of them.

Also I wouldn't be too worried about endless "variety." This is the one game out of a ton in the past 8 years that has had more than 3 unique gimmicks in it. This game is the exception, not the rule, and I stand by the idea that this game was like a field test of all the ideas they could possibly think of in order to gauge fan/reviewer feedback for a future title.

 

I agree with Jason, Lost World's problem was that it was an overcorrection of some of the problems people had with Generations.

There is a middle ground to be had, and all it needs is a few tweaks to what Lost Worlds is doing.

I for one would like to see the Sonic "gear shift" needs to be reversed to a degree. Sonic's speed should increase as it has in the past, gaining momentum, and there should be a button to slow him down to "Mario-esque" speed for the platforming, as opposed to having him go at three fixed speeds.

I like the idea of parquour. But it needs refining.

But I do have to say, I love the dialogue of Lost Worlds. I was laughing quite a bit, and

Spoiler

the rift between Tails and Sonic was something I've been hoping they would put into a game's plot for a long time. It was perfectly implemented, not too heavy-handed, and not too immediately dismissed. The tone was perfect.

The story itself was pretty underwhelming, but they got the characters down absolutely perfectly at long last.