IGN: A Tour of Sonic Lost World [Gameplay]

[Lady Soniko]

Disappointment is naturally going to come with each transition in gameplay, you have people who grew up with and those that loved the classics, but then SEGA went 3D and introduced the SA/SA2 era gameplay so new fans came with that, but left the Classic lovers in the cold, whilst some of them migrated over to the new gameplay, some refuse to budge from that magical feeling they get when they play the old Sonic games, something that to them can't be emulated in the modern games, but then Unleashed gameplay came, and tried to pull the modern fans and the classic fans back together, a few more budged from their classic frame of mind and joined the new sonic, whilst more where left behind, now in Classic AND SA gameplay, fans who preferred the latter don't like the new Sonic, even with the new fans that got on board there are still those that would rather stick to SA or the Classics.

 

And now we have Lost World, another shift in gameplay, no doubt we'll have fans transition onto the new gameplay and love it, whilst others will stick with Unleashed gameplay, SA fans will stick with SA etc. etc.

 

TL;DR Edition; Sonic will gain new fans, Sonic will lose fans, Sonic will rekindle old school fans, Sonic will lose long term fans, as Sonic's gameplay continues to evolve so will his fanbase, but you'll also still have those fans that won't budge from their comfort zone, their ideal representation of Sonic how they imagined it, you've just got to accept that there will be disappointment and there will be praise, you cannot please everyone. i.e. If Sonic went back to his Classic look and gameplay, I'd probably draw the line and jump off the bandwagon, because I grew up with SA Sonic, I love the gameplay, I love his design and I love the fact he's evolving so much through the years.

[Kuzu]

Times change and so does Sonic; you can either go with the flow or push for your preferences of the series. That's really how a fandom works, and sadly Sonic's got such broad appeal that you get opposition from all sides.

[Candescence]

My personal thoughts about the revamped gameplay is basically, well, it's a huge step up from the last three games in terms of gameplay flexibility and and less linear, more open level design. The 'tiered' manual speed controls, while they aren't exactly what I had in mind, is a good idea, and the context-based parkour system ala Sands of Time is exactly what I've been wanting to see. But I also would say that the running mode not having proper acceleration is something of a missed opportunity. The incredibly blocky 2D and the auto-running segments also leave a nasty taste in my mouth. I'd rather they not mess around with that crap and focus on making a solid fully-3D platformer. I also think the Wisps are completely unnecessary and are just there for an obligatory shoehorned-in touch screen mechanic.

 

Long story short, loving the direction the direction the 3D gameplay is going on, just need some gameplay tweaks and get rid of the 2D and automated crap and it'll be perfect.

[Marcello]

I just hope not all full-control 3D levels have this Snake Way design. That'd really be too bad.

 

Also, hope the 2D levels are better than what we've seen so far. Desert Ruins was really disappointing. Level design was boring and the sweets gimmick wasn't utilized enough.

 

I never said anything about attacking :V I just notice this pattern that whenever somebody criticizes something that everyone seemingly likes, that person is generally under fire more. It happened when Dio called out Generations two years ago, and I remember how much shit he got for it. 

I remember how much crap he got for his complaint about the purple rock in GH . People played it up to be as bad as the green eyes debacle was in their minds.

Edited June 8, 2013 by MarcelloF

[Dizcrybe]

The incredibly blocky 2D

 

 

incredibly blocky

 

 

blocky

 

 

Every time I see this word used to describe a 2D section in a Sonic game, I just groan internally. It's like, what do you people want from a 2D section in a Sonic game? Were the classics completely devoid of blocks or something?

[azoo]

I like all the good games in the series to some extent (basically all the mainstream games that weren't Heroes, Shadow and 06; and the ones I liked were in a range from general enjoyment to absolutely loving them), grew up on the classic and SA era simultaneously and although on the fence, I still liked the boost-era games alright and I'm sure I'll still like this game. My on-the-fenceness doesn't come from disliking the games in general but disliking them as Sonic games; for various, different reasons.

 

This game will still be a really great game, mind you, but it feels more foreign from the series so far than anything before it. Why is it bad to want a game to play similarly to a previous entry in the series? Most series are much more consistent than Sonic has ever been, and those are usually the ones that shine the most since they offer the feeling of something new while keeping whats been established. Sonic doesn't share that consistency, and no I don't think thats a good thing or a "neat quirk" about it.

 

Also just to answer for him,

 

 

Every time I see this word used to describe a 2D section in a Sonic game, I just groan internally. It's like, what do you people want from a 2D section in a Sonic game? Were the classics completely devoid of blocks or something?

 

Slopes. Hills. Loops. Stuff like that.

 

And with that, I once again broke my own rule. Now I'm back in the shadows.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Azookara

[Maddnsk]

This pretty much rings true for me. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but it gets rather tiring when you're constantly seeing people dismiss something you genuinely like because it's "not comparable to the classics." In fact, I'm not the least bit surprised that's partially why I have a... "meh" opinion of the classic titles nowadays.

 

i dont like lost world not because its not as good as overrated era or serious buisness era or boost2win era, but after watching full gameplay of three levels i dont find gameplay and  level structure to be good enought, seriously, candy level looks cool, but sonic runnig on a some kind of rope is not appealing for me, its missed opportunity, thats not kind of structure i looking for in sonic, i want to see the rest of the game of course, but for now its meh. I dont care if sonic not curl into a ball, i just dont think that sonic team did a good job in terms of gameplay this time, parkour is great, but in my opinion so far they not implemented that well.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Maddnsk

[Chooch]

It seems like the main idea that Sonic Team had when coming into this game was wealth of control. While I can completely understand and appreciate that I'm not completely sold on a lot of things. The tube like structure of the 3D sections leads to the camera jerking around incessantly in a desperate attempt to follow Sonic's every move and keep him on screen. There are multiple distinct paths and Aaron Webber mentioned that this was in an effort to make the game feel more like a classic Sonic game, but the super unorthodox (and Mario-like) level structure makes me feel like the message was a little skewed.

 

There is no high path, middle path and low path. There is no real reward for sticking to a particular path and/or section of a level (outside of maybe a Red Star Ring or two). It's giving you freedom to go where you want, but not in a particularly meaningful way. Classic Sonic isn't just having a bunch of alternative pathways. It's strange to think that day stages in Unleashed and the modern Sonic acts Generations had more of a resemblance to classic Sonic in their level design than anything I've seen in this game so far.

 

The homing attack is so strangely automated (You can even see a glitch due to the automation in the Wii U footage) that I find it rather jarring. How does it even work exactly? From what I can tell there's some control over it but it just looks weird. The new kicking attack seems pointless and the animation is awkward enough that it looks like more of a glitch than a feature. The Wisps aren't "new and improved" in any sense of the word. They are just as they were in Sonic Colors. They are single use, they have one very simple and basic function and there is no real thought or creativity put into how they function.

 

All they really do is strip the control from the player temporarily so that you can witness some odd and colorful spectacle that lasts for maybe a few seconds. In a game where wealth of control is a selling point, it's almost contradictory that the developers bothered to include Wisps at all. Luckily it seems as if they're entirely optional at this point. I can only hope that things don't change as we see more of the game.

 

The multi-tiered speed system and the parkour system are great. I love what they bring to the table and they are easily the most exciting aspects of the game. I'm all for having a wealth of control and room for more hardcore precision platforming sections. A parkour system in a game series like Sonic the Hedgehog where the primary goal is to keep up your speed and momentum makes perfect sense. When I first saw the parkour system in action one of the first things I said was "Why didn't I ever think of that?" It seems so obvious in retrospect.

 

Right now the game looks a little too focused on the platforming and parkour aspect tho'. It's.. slow. Even when the run / parkour button is pressed Sonic doesn't really move that quickly. I actually liked the sections of mind numbing speed in the games like Unleashed and Generations. The boost system quite obviously had its flaws, but dare I say it helped make me feel more like I was really Sonic the Hedgehog when playing through various stages. *shrugs*

 

To this day I think that the best example of what I want in a modern Sonic game is Sky Sanctuary Act 2 in Generations, so I can't help but be disappointed that they seem to be moving away from that. It's new, it's different, it's interesting and I like it, but it's just not really ideal.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Chooch

[Candescence]

Every time I see this word used to describe a 2D section in a Sonic game, I just groan internally. It's like, what do you people want from a 2D section in a Sonic game? Were the classics completely devoid of blocks or something?

More freaking curves/slopes? Colours had a serious problem with being nearly devoid of slopes in its 2D sections. It's not rocket science.

[Nepenthe]

This game will still be a really great game, mind you, but it feels more foreign from the series so far than anything before it. Why is it bad to want a game to play similarly to a previous entry in the series? Most series are much more consistent than Sonic has ever been, and those are usually the ones that shine the most since they offer the feeling of something new while keeping whats been established. Sonic doesn't share that consistency, and no I don't think thats a good thing or a "neat quirk" about it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting a game to take notes from older titles, but it can be an uphill battle to do so during the hype machine depending upon the game in question: the classics for reasons I explained (although to be fair, I don't take issue with your acceleration idea on any "classic" grounds), and the other games because they range in quality, meaning anything taken from them- even if it's a decent idea on paper- is possibly seen as a direct endorsement of that game's middling quality and the way the idea was originally done. Slingshot mechanics and monsters are now out of the question forever because they can be tangentially linked to the Werehog, for example. Same with branching story paths depending upon your actions and the way you move in a level: can't be bringing anything back from ShtH. Hell, people have railed against "government" in a storyline, no matter how irrelevant it is to the overall themes and conflict, because of SA2 and Sonic 06.

[Diogenes]

Every time I see this word used to describe a 2D section in a Sonic game, I just groan internally. It's like, what do you people want from a 2D section in a Sonic game?

Curves, mostly.

Yeah the classics had some blocks. You gotta have flat ground and solid walls sometimes. But they also had all sorts of curves and angles and bumps to make use of the physics that made Sonic unique. If a game doesn't have that, you're basically just playing a heavier, somewhat faster Mario.

[tenchibr]

If you want a series that lacks innovation, go play FPS's.

 

Sonic Team made a handful of mistakes over the course of TWENTY years; I bet a quarter of our readers aren't even that old yet. But ST grew up from it, and still are.

 

LW's gameplay is a step in the right direction. There will never be such a thing as a perfect Sonic game, and no, the classic Genesis games weren't. Perfection means that it could stand against the test of time and I could show it to my kids, and their kids, and they would love it just as much as I did.

 

I will be honest: I don't like the rotation level scheme as much as I could because I feel like it could be motion-sickness inducing, but I can see where they are going with this. Unless they were to be as unoriginal as making a LW2, I wouldn't expect the rotation scheme to come back after this title. So, enjoy it for what it is, and get used to the Parkour era, because I have a feeling that's gonna be the one constant for the next 3 major titles, just like Boost was.

[Soniman]

. The Wisps aren't "new and improved" in any sense of the word. They are just as they were in Sonic Colors. They are single use, they have one very simple and basic function and there is no real thought or creativity put into how they function.

 

All they really do is strip the control from the player temporarily so that you can witness some odd and colorful spectacle that lasts for maybe a few seconds. In a game where wealth of control is a selling point, it's almost contradictory that the developers bothered to include Wisps at all. Luckily it seems as if they're entirely optional at this point. I can only hope that things don't change as we see more of the game.

 

 

I hate to keep beating a dead horse here but really, we have no way of knowing this. In the gameplay videos we saw two Wisps used the Laser wisp (which wasn't even used to it's purpose due to Aaron messing it up and moving on, and a new one (implying that we may see more new ones down the line) which turns things into blocks (which seems to just instant kill everything, but the fact that it can turn even pieces of the environment into blocks implies there's more to it than what was shown) and the drill wisp which wasn't used. 

 

So yeah, three wisp in all the videos we seen and only ONE was actually used correctly, id say that doesn't really accurately represent the potential/improvements they bring to this game. And strip away control? I dunno that Saturn Wisps looked pretty damn controllable to me, and I can place my bets on the Drill wisp being perfectly controllable like last time, so again I don't know where you're getting this from, the Laser wisp I can understand but even then id imagine there will be some skill involved in aiming it where you want it to go (like some of the ricochet puzzles that were in Colors). Who knows I could be wrong once the game comes up, but for not these criticism just don't make a whole lotta sense.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Soniman

[Diogenes]

I actually liked the sections of mind numbing speed in the games like Unleashed and Generations. The boost system quite obviously had its flaws, but dare I say it helped make me feel more like I was really Sonic the Hedgehog when playing through various stages. *shrugs*

I know this is just going to come down to personal opinion, but I can never wrap my head around this. Boost gameplay doesn't make me feel like Sonic; when you play well, Sonic just sort of glides through the level, there's no sense of interaction with the level, just timed button presses to not be stopped. There's no weight, no contact, the game could've been an FMV game with little lost.

I have my complaints about Lost World, but the emphasis on actually controlling Sonic is so important that I have trouble imagining it being worse than Unleashed or Gens. Wall running alone is huge...

[Nepenthe]

Does anyone still think there's a high chance that Laser will have different uses like I described beforehand simply because Aaron didn't hit the crystals which were blatantly pulled wholesale from Colors? Same with Drill. I don't understand this notion that there's a huge chance Sonic Team isn't actually taking the same system from Colors. If boosting was any indication, they're not known for continually building on top of an idea meaningfully or revolutionizing it. xP

[Kuzu]

I hate to keep beating a dead horse here but really, we have no way of knowing this. In the gameplay videos we saw two Wisps used the Laser wisp (which wasn't even used to it's purpose due to Aaron messing it up and moving on, and a new one (implying that we may see more new ones down the line) which turns things into blocks (which seems to just instant kill everything, but the fact that it can turn even pieces of the environment into blocks implies there's more to it than what was shown) and the drill wisp which wasn't used. 

 

So yeah, three wisp in all the videos we seen and only ONE was actually used correctly, id say that doesn't really accurately represent the potential/improvements they bring to this game. And strip away control? I dunno that Saturn Wisps looked pretty damn controllable to me, and I can place my bets on the Drill wisp being perfectly controllable like last time, so again I don't know where you're getting this from, the Laser wisp I can understand but even then id imagine there will be some skill involved in aiming it where you want it to go (like some of the ricochet puzzles that were in Colors). Who knows I could be wrong once the game comes up, but for not these criticism just don't make a whole lotta sense.

 

 

Just as you can assume there will be more to the Wisp, people can assume there can't. Like you said, we literally know nothing about them other than what's been shown so people have to go on SOMETHING. Are we just not allowed to say anything about the game period until we have it in our hands?

 

From what I've seen, I can't really see the Wisp functioning any different than from how they were in Colors aside from the fact that you need a gamepad now. So for people that never liked the Wisp to begin with, its not exactly outside their right to criticize their inclusion.

 

Personally, I think the game could have done fine without them.

[Marcello]

Well, I'm sure the old Wisps will work pretty much the same, but they can still use them in new, interesting ways, I think.

[Kuzu]

Well, I'm sure the old Wisps will work pretty much the same, but they can still use them in new, interesting ways, I think.

 

 

But we haven't seen anything to this effect yet, so...

[Soniman]

But we haven't seen anything to this effect yet, so...

 

Maybe because we barely SAW anything....

[Diogenes]

I'm not going to hold my breath for fancy new wisp uses.

[Marcello]

I know, I'm just saying, that just because they have the same functionality, it doesn't mean they can't use them newly. I'm not saying they will, either, but they definitely can. Colors used them in the most basic way possible, from what I can remember, so this could easily build off it and use them in more interesting ways.

[Kuzu]

Maybe because we barely SAW anything....

 

Exactly, so people have a right to judge what they've seen so far and say if they like it or not. We shouldn't have to wait to see every detail of the game before giving our first impressions, this is how people judge if they want to buy a game or not.

[Nepenthe]

Of course they can use them in new and awesome ways, but the reigning question is: will they? No one has any reason to assume they will from what they've shown, so people not enthused about the very idea aren't going to get excited at unfulfilled potential.

Let me put it like this: If Sega said an idea you didn't like was coming back, be it Werehog, guns, alternate gameplay, whatever, and tacked on to it was an asterisk that said this idea was "new and improved," would your reaction be of fairness (new game, new era, they say it's new, so I'll wait), or would you have a visceral negative reaction to that thing even existing again? Be honest. :/

[Marcello]

Was the discussion about someone not liking Wisps? Haha, must have missed that. I thought we were just talking about how they work.

 

Then I agree, if I didn't like the gimmick, I wouldn't like it returning, even if it's improved. I think my comments in the Zelda topic sort of prove that.

[Kuzu]

I like we ignored every other part of Chooch's post and just focusing on the Wisp part :V