Sonic Lost World represents an embarrassing misunderstanding from Sonic Team and an utter disregard for longtime series fans.
By far, the worst aspect of this game is the controls. Sonic's controls in his best games are quick and fluid, and the challenge the games have comes from trying to maintain Sonic's insane momentum while getting through the levels. This gives the other games great replay value, as the player is encouraged to learn the levels inside and out, so they can blaze through them faster and faster each time.
But in this game, the controls are way too stiff to make that possible. This may be the most sluggish and unsatisfying Sonic has ever felt. The infamous run button doesn't help. Instead of building up speed using your knowledge of the level's environment, you just hold down the button, which makes the gameplay way less interesting.
And even if Sonic controlled well, its not like the levels are really built for speed anyway. Yes, this Sonic the Hedgehog game actively discourages you from going fast. Some people might look at this review and think "He just doesn't like it because its different from the other Sonic games!" But that's not why I hate this game. I'm fine with games that try different things.
The main reason I hate it is because it's so fucking boring. The gameplay is agonisingly slow. In the 3D stages, most of the time you can just run past all the enemies and not bother fighting them. None of the platforming is challenging on its own, the only semblance of difficulty comes from fighting against the janky controls. And the 2D gameplay is just a much simpler, much more annoying version of the worst levels in New Super Mario Bros.
Most of the levels throw in unneeded gimmicks that just make the game worse. The wisps are a big one. Almost everyone sees the wisps' inclusion in this game as unnecessary, and I wholeheartedly agree. There's only 2 or 3 levels where you even really need them, otherwise you might as well ignore them since the Gamepad's controls for each wisp is abysmal. The entire game is like this. Why throw in a terribly controlled rolling snowball segment? Why am I slowly waiting for this fruit to follow me so I can open a path forward?? Why are you forcing me to do a terrible stealth segment when I'm trying to run through a level and fight a boss??? WHAT IS THIS GAME?!
This isn't my least favourite Sonic game, but it might be the one that infuriated me the most. The clear lack of coherent design decisions is so obvious that it makes the whole thing seem a little cynical. The only reason I'm not giving this a half-star rating is for the great soundtrack, and how some of the cutscenes are slightly funny. But other than that, avoid this game at all costs.
By far, the worst aspect of this game is the controls. Sonic's controls in his best games are quick and fluid, and the challenge the games have comes from trying to maintain Sonic's insane momentum while getting through the levels. This gives the other games great replay value, as the player is encouraged to learn the levels inside and out, so they can blaze through them faster and faster each time.
But in this game, the controls are way too stiff to make that possible. This may be the most sluggish and unsatisfying Sonic has ever felt. The infamous run button doesn't help. Instead of building up speed using your knowledge of the level's environment, you just hold down the button, which makes the gameplay way less interesting.
And even if Sonic controlled well, its not like the levels are really built for speed anyway. Yes, this Sonic the Hedgehog game actively discourages you from going fast. Some people might look at this review and think "He just doesn't like it because its different from the other Sonic games!" But that's not why I hate this game. I'm fine with games that try different things.
The main reason I hate it is because it's so fucking boring. The gameplay is agonisingly slow. In the 3D stages, most of the time you can just run past all the enemies and not bother fighting them. None of the platforming is challenging on its own, the only semblance of difficulty comes from fighting against the janky controls. And the 2D gameplay is just a much simpler, much more annoying version of the worst levels in New Super Mario Bros.
Most of the levels throw in unneeded gimmicks that just make the game worse. The wisps are a big one. Almost everyone sees the wisps' inclusion in this game as unnecessary, and I wholeheartedly agree. There's only 2 or 3 levels where you even really need them, otherwise you might as well ignore them since the Gamepad's controls for each wisp is abysmal. The entire game is like this. Why throw in a terribly controlled rolling snowball segment? Why am I slowly waiting for this fruit to follow me so I can open a path forward?? Why are you forcing me to do a terrible stealth segment when I'm trying to run through a level and fight a boss??? WHAT IS THIS GAME?!
This isn't my least favourite Sonic game, but it might be the one that infuriated me the most. The clear lack of coherent design decisions is so obvious that it makes the whole thing seem a little cynical. The only reason I'm not giving this a half-star rating is for the great soundtrack, and how some of the cutscenes are slightly funny. But other than that, avoid this game at all costs.