Sonic Lost World (Wii U) Review

There’s no hiding, no denying it – Sonic Lost World draws inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy. It looks like it, feels like it for most of the game and the levels all draw upon the planetoids theme we loved from the Galaxy titles. So how does Sonic slot into the equation? He’s not Mario. He’s nimble, quick and a blur and it’s a friction that never feels quite right. Sonic Lost World tries something new with the story this time around. It’s nothing that special and the voice acting isn’t fantastic but least they tried. Dr. Eggman  naturally wants to destroy the world and he’s going to use the power of the Deadly Six. These six walking stereotypes however don’t like being used by Eggman and revolt. Sonic and Eggman must team up and take them on.

Sonic Lost World is predominantly a 3D Sonic experience, the last good one of those was Sonic Colours on the Wii and there’s a feeling that Sega knew this when making this latest game. The game also has a significant portion of 2D sections, they’re never up to Generations quality but still work well enough. A lot of the game is on rails too, oh boy I hear you say – but it’s not bad, Lost World is fast and in the later levels, punishing. Having that break as you get to see Sonic zoom around levels is nice. Each level is also deeper than it appears, a simple run through a level will get you there the fastest but slow down and you’ll notice hidden paths and tracks in which you can find extra goodies.

Sonic’s movements are made easier with the new parkour system. While you’ll be still be smacking into walls at a million miles an hour, smaller obstacles can be jumped over, wall runs and jumps are also part of the new system.

The parkour system though is still at the mercy of the games controls. they’re a little different in Lost World and there’s a steep learning curve. To run, Sonic now requires a button to be pressed, otherwise he’s just going to walk around like some Italian plumber. While this helps with simple platforming in the 2D portions but just seems like ‘too much’ everywhere else. Sonic’s acceleration and braking as he moves around don’t feel quite right either and this extra button doesn’t help. Sonic moves differently in 3D to how he does in 2D and it’s hard to know if you’re doing things right. It’s hard to tell what Sonic is going to do because the outside environment affects how Sonic moves so much. The lock on and homing button being the same button as the double jump complicates thing too. Sometimes Sonic will gleefully bound toward his enemies popping them other times the lock on just fails and all your rings are gone. It’s really frustrating and it’s never clear as to what is actually going to happen.

The only time the GamePad is really used in Lost World is for the Colour abilities which have returned from Sonic Colours, they do feel a little pointless though – there’s nothing significantly gained from seeking these guys out. The Red Star rings have returned as well, now they can be gained when using the Parkour systems or from bells within levels, collecting them will unlock secret levels. These secret levels are far from the old special stages in older Sonic games but instead little mini games that can be played on the game.

Once you’ve burned through the story you can revisit each level with a time attack mode, these are ranked and getting the S ranks isn’t easy. Each level also has leaderboards split up by your friends, your country and the entire world. Some of the times, none of which I was even able to approach, were insanely fast. There’s two types of multiplayer in Sonic Lost World as well, first up is co-op which is essentially one of those ‘helper’ modes where one player plays the game and the other doesn’t really. The helper in this instance will control a robot helicopter that drops bombs. There must be people who like this mode or developers wouldn’t keep including it, right?

Outside of co-operative there’s a split screen race mode, this is a little better as one person can play on a Wii Remote or Pro Controller and the other on the Gamepad. No Splitscreen needed here, it’s separate screen multiplayer and it’s something only the Wii U can do.

If there’s one thing you absolutely can’t knock Sonic Lost World on is how it looks. The fabulous bright and colourful worlds are beautiful. The game has a great art style and the new Deadly Six characters slot into the Sonic world quite easily. Each level is visually distinctive as well. From the hills of Windy Plains to the level that’s full of donuts and candy. I want to go to there.

The games’ soundtrack is as bright and cheerful as the game too. You’ll be whistling the main theme tune for at least a day soon after. The team working on the music for these latest Sonic games are definitively earning their pay.

Sonic Lost World feels and looks great on the Wii U, it’s bright and cheerful and runs at full speed. There’s unfortunately a learning curve with the controls that some may never get over and the later you get into the game the more punishing it gets.  It never quite lives up to Generations though and Sega still have a while to go to figure out what they want Sonic to be.

If it looks like Sonic, runs like Sonic, sounds like Sonic but doesn’t feel like Sonic – what is it?