Last time I played Lost World was back in 2015 at a friend's house, and I can't remember much about it beyond taking a while to get adjusted to the controls. I forgot I'd gotten this as part of a Sonic Humble Bundle some years until the other day, when NightlyComet mentioned it was one of her least favourite Sonic games and I became legit curious to see for myself.

Having played it over a couple days, I can definitively say that I think it's okay.

It's prolly the most experimental of the main Sonic games. Not just in radically changing the controls and overall gameplay from the last few games, but the way it's structured. How it changes level styles every stage and leans much more into an abstract sense of place, with floating tubes, planets and other bits of geometry lightly decorated with whatever theme that level wants to have.

Locales feel like the most general "desert/forest/sea" places with not much detail, to focus on more setpiece-driven designs that can completely reject the zone's established theme on a dime (e.g. going from desert temples to a candy void full of suspended cakes, sweets and liquorice). In a way it reminded me the Master System version of Sonic 1, which also leaned into "level 1 does X, level 2 does Y" stage designs - although that game managed to retain a sense of place in the level themes.

On the one hand, I kinda admire that as an excuse to let Sonic Team stretch its legs and throw whatever at the wall to see what sticks. It also that if you don't like the stage you're on, you won't have to deal with something like it again for a good while. But that abstraction means that level locales don't really matter like they do in other Sonic titles, to the point where Sky Road doesn't have a concrete setting and is just a bunch of random stages themed after earlier worlds.

Stuff doesn't build on top of each other either thematically or mechanically, and I think that causes the game to lose something. Sonic's wearing the skin of a more typical platformer, and it's a shame that the tube stages (its one distinct contribution) only appear occasionally. I can deffo see why Lost World tends to be remembered as more mediocre, while even more derided Sonic titles feel like they're trying to hit for something that's more distinct tonally or mechanically.

I thought it accomplished its intentions well enough, though I wish it controlled better so I'd feel more encouraged to enjoy the feel of moving around and want to revisit stages to try alternate routes (when they offer that anyway). I really dig the brassy, almost ska-like vibes of the soundtrack, I appreciate how easy and straightforward the bosses are, and I like that there's a Super Guide option to skip sections if you die too many times. The dub acting gives me hives though lmao.

I have no clue how many times I've played through this over the years, but it's the first time I found everything. Normally I'll try to find what I can but elect to skip past something if it's a bit too tricky for my patience, so it's rad that whatever mindset I was in allowed to persevere and obtain 100% completion!

Having also found everything in Spyro 2/3 (albeit in 2019 and 2017 respectively), this means I've finally 100%-ed the entire original trilogy after playing them on/off for roughly 14 years. Heck yes!

I also did something a bit unusual, where instead of playing through all the levels in each world before moving on to the next, I'd find whatever I needed to advance to the next world and immediately head on over. This allowed me to reach the fourth world within roughly an hour, and I then spent the rest of my playthrough bouncing back and forth between all the worlds to play through the levels I'd skipped past.

This really breathed new life into the game, using its freedom to experience levels in totally different orders from what I'm used to. I'd bounce back and forth between the earlier simpler stages and the later trickier ones, noticing greater contrasts in the architecture (like how Ice Cavern has a lot of the "Peace Keepers" towers and buildings but frozen over) and enjoying a more varied experience overall.

I get why the looser structure can feel a bit repetitive when you're doing the same thing of "go in, find what you can, leave", but the way you're allowed to experience a lot of this makes it more interesting for me to replay than 2 and sometimes even 3 - despite those having more varied missions and level designs.

Always nice to revisit the Spyro games, and even nicer to discover something new that I can bring into future playthroughs. : )

Gonna try and play through the entire Broken Sword series (despite playing most of them, I've only beaten 1 and 5), which is as good a reason as any to revisit this. I've played it about half a dozen times since first checking out the DS port in 2013, and it's probably my favourite 90s adventure game.

It's a very cozy adventure where a lot of the dialogue makes me smile and occasionally laugh a bunch, helped greatly by the voice acting which lends a lot of flavour to the conversations. I'm particularly impressed by how much each area you head to feels like a place you truly get to know, despite only being comprised of a handful of rooms and three or four people to talk to at any time.

I remembered most of the puzzle solutions at the back of my mind, so I took the opportunity to mine more conversations out of characters I previously ignored and showed as many items to everyone as I could. There's a lot of fun tiny discussions to be had, but I noticed that there aren't as many unique replies after the halfway point - with either quick and dirty "does this mean anything?" "no" conversations or George straight up deciding not to even bother. I wish the game had a little more time in the oven so there could have been more unique convos written and voiced, but I get how that can happen.

Still, it was very nice to come back to these familiar places and faces once more, and super cozy playing it on a laptop where I could click on something, sit back and enjoy the story being told. Heck yeah.

Gonna try and play through the entire Broken Sword series (despite playing most of them, I've only beaten 1 and 5), which is as good a reason as any to revisit this. I've played it about half a dozen times since first checking out the DS port in 2013, and it's probably my favourite 90s adventure game.

It's a very cozy adventure where a lot of the dialogue makes me smile and occasionally laugh a bunch, helped greatly by the voice acting which lends a lot of flavour to the conversations. I'm particularly impressed by how much each area you head to feels like a place you truly get to know, despite only being comprised of a handful of rooms and three or four people to talk to at any time.

I remembered most of the puzzle solutions at the back of my mind, so I took the opportunity to mine more conversations out of characters I previously ignored and showed as many items to everyone as I could. There's a lot of fun tiny discussions to be had, but I noticed that there aren't as many unique replies after the halfway point - with either quick and dirty "does this mean anything?" "no" conversations or George straight up deciding not to even bother. I wish the game had a little more time in the oven so there could have been more unique convos written and voiced, but I get how that can happen.

Still, it was very nice to come back to these familiar places and faces once more, and super cozy playing it on a laptop where I could click on something, sit back and enjoy the story being told. Heck yeah.