Sonic Lost World is the latest offering from Sega and it is clearly heavily inspired by Nintendo’s own Mario Galaxy and that is a great thing. It also combines 2d and 3d Sonic in a different way than in Sonic Generations.
First off, the whole game is wrapped in a very clean candy coated look that is well suited for the character. Since the demo I got to play was sectioned off into very clear 2d and 3d levels, let’s start with the 2d portion.
The 2d stuff really didn’t feel but like old school Sonic but closer to Sonic Generations. It is alright but the levels felt a bit sparse and the branching paths were less prevalent. It was interesting but didn’t really capture me– and I was even jumping around on cakes and cookies. It could have just been that level that was chosen though.
The 3d mode was so much more interesting and played very well. The 3d stages have you running straight away from the screen on a circular platform– but let me explain that a bit more. Think of this like Mario galaxy where you can run around a cylinder, or where the camera rotates around it to follow you as you travel round and round. It might sound a bit confusing but it all worked very well. There were secret paths to be found by going around to other sides and jumping around to secret areas for some collectables. Rotating around stages was a bit strange at first and can lead to running into a pit of spikes if you aren’t too careful but I got it down fairly quickly.
The other 3d stage had flying/falling portions that were kind of simple ‘dodge the whatever’ sections and the whole stage rotated on a tempest-esque hexagon. Running around both of those levels was great to see and just felt right for Sonic. It helped that the game ran at a very solid and smooth fps. These stages reminded me of classic sonic despite them being in 3D. I’m really looking forward to see what they can do with it in the full game.
I also got to check out the 3ds version which played basically the exact same but I was told that all the stages would be different and there would even be unique power ups. The basic gameplay was the same and that is a very good thing. For the 3d stages you would think that the 3ds 3d option would really add a lot to the game but it was hardly noticeable at all. That isn’t a big issue though and the handheld version also felt like a solid title.
It is kind of strange to say but be on the lookout for two solid Sonic Lost World titles this November.
