Sonic Lost World doesn't have a vocal theme song.
Vocal theme songs have been a staple part of the series since Sonic Adventure 1 (arguably earlier, with Sonic CD's themes and 3D Blast's credits song etc) and part and parcel of the fanbase's excitement for each new game lies in the hype for a new epic track to add to the canon. By Lost World's release in 2013 it was practically mandatory, especially for a mainline 3D title; Sonic Generations had skipped on that too but it was a game purposefully built on nostalgia and included so many of the old ones that you didn't even miss it. But it's striking in its absence, particularly as the game's end credits roll and all you have is the semi-orchestral but wholly instrumental title theme. Lost World has plenty of other, real problems, but having recently revisited a number of Sonic soundtracks the lack of a "proper" theme song struck me as a really strange occurrence - and in a roundabout way it's a summary of the game's key issue. Lost World just doesn't really seem to want to be a Sonic game and that indifference permiates through the game so much that it never feels like one either.
It all piles up. There's a separate button to make Sonic run which, in a Sonic game, is borderline absurd. Super Sonic is almost completely absent except as a simple unlockable bonus. The character and plot focus is on the Deadly Six, a group of budget Saturday morning cartoon rejects that look like they came from an entirely different series. Part of the magic of the Sonic series is that the Sonic Team isn't afraid to experiment or shuffle things around, and so breaking away from the series' conventions isn't an unwelcome thing, but Lost World acts like an unfocused collection of hodgepodge ideas that have hastily had a Sonic skin wrapped over it. It doesnt feel like a Sonic title, and the more I played the game the more it bugged me; I'm by no means a Mario expert and the Galaxy comparisons around Lost World are done to death, but the final world in particular with its Bowser-esque castles, tricky 2D platforming focus and the Giant Zavok puzzle fight all felt too eerily like a "heavily inspired" fan game of another series. I'm a big Sonic dweeb and normally even many of the weaker titles have that tone of a Sonic game that hits certain pleasure spots in my brain in a particular way. The closest Lost World ever came to that was with the bonus stage featuring Tails' plane - ironically because of its interpolation of Tails' vocal theme from Sonic Adventure 2.
Lost World is also just not fun to play, and no matter how it feels that's of course the biggest issue. Much like the overall design, the gameplay and level design also feel unfocused and like the team didn't really have a clear plan ahead. The idea of small segmented 360-degree environments (think Mario Galaxy's planetoids), where theoretically each side is its own path, never really comes to life in a manner that would make it seem inspired. Sonic is always either too slippy to control when you hold the run button or too slow to get anywhere if you let go, and the 2D platforming sections can be especially awkward thanks to the inconsistent speed and floatiness. The game tries to add depth to Sonic's basic moveset by introducing a way to build up power for the homing attack, giving Sonic a dedicated kick move to alternate attacks and enabling the hedgehog to parkour over ledges and across walls and ceilings with a tactical use of that infamous run button, but the ideas feel raw and half-implemented. The power-up wisps from Colours are inexplicably back again too, feeling more superfluous than ever like a quickly implemented afterthought that rarely results in genuinely rewarding gameplay changes. The game also has a bad habit of not actually teaching the player properly how to make use out of all these ideas and then suddenly mandating their use, which frequently results in the feeling of being stuck until you find out that there's a now-mandatory mechanic you never even noticed before.
I just don't have fun with Lost World. At best it's fine, at worst it's a frustrating churn. There are very few memorable levels, and the most memorable of them is the Dessert zone in the Desert world which, honestly, genuinely a funny idea and kudos for that but I also primarily remember it because it's an extended joke. I never had a desire to go back and replay a stage either for fun or to get all the red rings. Add to that the middling soundtrack which is like a discard pile of Ohtani's demos that weren't good enough for the last two scores, and barely-there plot with little space given even for any of the casual banter dialogue that is typically all over these games. It is quite possibly the weakest mainline Sonic, even below the infamous '06 because that game at least tried; Lost World, on the other hand, plays like the whole dev team operated on zero enthusiasm for it after the decision was made to trap it as as a WiiU exclusive at the time.
Vocal theme songs have been a staple part of the series since Sonic Adventure 1 (arguably earlier, with Sonic CD's themes and 3D Blast's credits song etc) and part and parcel of the fanbase's excitement for each new game lies in the hype for a new epic track to add to the canon. By Lost World's release in 2013 it was practically mandatory, especially for a mainline 3D title; Sonic Generations had skipped on that too but it was a game purposefully built on nostalgia and included so many of the old ones that you didn't even miss it. But it's striking in its absence, particularly as the game's end credits roll and all you have is the semi-orchestral but wholly instrumental title theme. Lost World has plenty of other, real problems, but having recently revisited a number of Sonic soundtracks the lack of a "proper" theme song struck me as a really strange occurrence - and in a roundabout way it's a summary of the game's key issue. Lost World just doesn't really seem to want to be a Sonic game and that indifference permiates through the game so much that it never feels like one either.
It all piles up. There's a separate button to make Sonic run which, in a Sonic game, is borderline absurd. Super Sonic is almost completely absent except as a simple unlockable bonus. The character and plot focus is on the Deadly Six, a group of budget Saturday morning cartoon rejects that look like they came from an entirely different series. Part of the magic of the Sonic series is that the Sonic Team isn't afraid to experiment or shuffle things around, and so breaking away from the series' conventions isn't an unwelcome thing, but Lost World acts like an unfocused collection of hodgepodge ideas that have hastily had a Sonic skin wrapped over it. It doesnt feel like a Sonic title, and the more I played the game the more it bugged me; I'm by no means a Mario expert and the Galaxy comparisons around Lost World are done to death, but the final world in particular with its Bowser-esque castles, tricky 2D platforming focus and the Giant Zavok puzzle fight all felt too eerily like a "heavily inspired" fan game of another series. I'm a big Sonic dweeb and normally even many of the weaker titles have that tone of a Sonic game that hits certain pleasure spots in my brain in a particular way. The closest Lost World ever came to that was with the bonus stage featuring Tails' plane - ironically because of its interpolation of Tails' vocal theme from Sonic Adventure 2.
Lost World is also just not fun to play, and no matter how it feels that's of course the biggest issue. Much like the overall design, the gameplay and level design also feel unfocused and like the team didn't really have a clear plan ahead. The idea of small segmented 360-degree environments (think Mario Galaxy's planetoids), where theoretically each side is its own path, never really comes to life in a manner that would make it seem inspired. Sonic is always either too slippy to control when you hold the run button or too slow to get anywhere if you let go, and the 2D platforming sections can be especially awkward thanks to the inconsistent speed and floatiness. The game tries to add depth to Sonic's basic moveset by introducing a way to build up power for the homing attack, giving Sonic a dedicated kick move to alternate attacks and enabling the hedgehog to parkour over ledges and across walls and ceilings with a tactical use of that infamous run button, but the ideas feel raw and half-implemented. The power-up wisps from Colours are inexplicably back again too, feeling more superfluous than ever like a quickly implemented afterthought that rarely results in genuinely rewarding gameplay changes. The game also has a bad habit of not actually teaching the player properly how to make use out of all these ideas and then suddenly mandating their use, which frequently results in the feeling of being stuck until you find out that there's a now-mandatory mechanic you never even noticed before.
I just don't have fun with Lost World. At best it's fine, at worst it's a frustrating churn. There are very few memorable levels, and the most memorable of them is the Dessert zone in the Desert world which, honestly, genuinely a funny idea and kudos for that but I also primarily remember it because it's an extended joke. I never had a desire to go back and replay a stage either for fun or to get all the red rings. Add to that the middling soundtrack which is like a discard pile of Ohtani's demos that weren't good enough for the last two scores, and barely-there plot with little space given even for any of the casual banter dialogue that is typically all over these games. It is quite possibly the weakest mainline Sonic, even below the infamous '06 because that game at least tried; Lost World, on the other hand, plays like the whole dev team operated on zero enthusiasm for it after the decision was made to trap it as as a WiiU exclusive at the time.