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Lost World: Discussion, Impressions and Fan Reviews


Carbuncle

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I really think one of the main reasons I have more fun playing this game is because I think Im better at platformers than most people.
Im not trying to sound conceded its not my intention.
Im one of those people that VERY FREQUENTLY boots up the old genesis games and plays them allot still.
Im used to bottomless pits and hard platforming.
I got through most of the levels in lost world fairly easily (still hard enough to be a fun but not frusterating challenge), hence why I think I had more fun with the game.
This game felt so much like a sega genesis game.
Speaking of which, did anyone get a major oldschool throwback vibe when playing skyroad?

Back in the day I remember a number of games towards the end throwing in a level similar to the first level just more challenging.
Even the music choice reminded me of something that would have been picked back then for a level of this type.

Edited by TheDanimator
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TSSZ written and video review of SLW (Wii U)

 

2.5/5

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM&feature=player_embedded

 

Ryan Bloom does make some fair points.

Edited by -Bender-
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TSSZ written and video review of SLW (Wii U)

 

2.5/5

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM&feature=player_embedded

 

Ryan Bloom does make some fair points.

 

I thought this site was a no no

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I don't really agree with a lot of it but I will admit he does make a few good points.

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I have mixed feelings about this game.

On one hand, I like that it finally brought something new to Sonic mythos: Deadly Six looks fresh, and may give a lot of material for fan-works (compare to Sonic Generations, where only really new thing was Time Eater). Zeena and Zor looks cute, Zavok and Zik looks impressive. I don't like Zazz and Zomom, but, well, nobody's perfect, and it's ok that it's shown that team have some "simple" members.

And sometimes game looks really epic and gives feeling of global catastrophe, wich must be stopped by Sonic.

On other hand, Deadly Six don't fit in Sonic style enough. They looks rather cartoonish, compare to monster-enemies of previous games: Time Eater, Erazer Djinn, Dark Gaia, Mephiles/Iblis/Solaris, Black Doom, Biolizard and Chaos. They all looked epic and serious! The only monster, wich looked as cartoonish as Deadly Six, as far, as I remember, is King Boom-Boo, but he was very secondary antagonist.

As well, style of the game's world is very dream-like, while in previous games you feel the real planet(s), though with different life.

And, though the most game is epic, the ending has spoiled it. Eggman simply cartoonlish falls with unworking jet-pack, and Tails turns off his machine... There are no great destructions, and no great happiness, it's simply shown that now everything is ok, and that's all, no Eucatasrophe! I like this moment in videogames - the ending, when you see that you aspired for all this time. In this game this moment has dissappointed me.

Furthermore, while Sonic, Tails and Eggman are talking about teamwork, it looks as if they never united in previous games, though Eggman has helped to heroes a lot of times.

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TSSZ written and video review of SLW (Wii U)

 

2.5/5

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM&feature=player_embedded

 

Ryan Bloom does make some fair points.

 

This is the perfect review of the game imo. Everything he says here i agree 100%.

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So Johnny has reviewed the game: *link* 

This is a review I can heavily agree with.

 

Your link is off, its not loading correctly for me. so I'm just gonna post the video here instead:

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So I downloaded and played the 3DS demo today.

 

Graphics are passable but they could be a lot better. Music is pretty nice, although I do agree with Blue Blood that they should bring the cartoonier sound effects back.

 

It's probably because of the tutorial level, but coming from the boost era I didn't have too much trouble getting accustomed with the controls.

 

Wisps were turned off. Fine by me, because I was able to have some fun without them. I was fine with just the supplied electric shield.

 

I can see what everyone is talking about when they say Sonic is too slow. Even at his running speed it's nothing compared to how fast he went without the boost in the boost trilogy or even the Adventure games.

 

The controls seem pretty twitchy. There were several times I hopped from one suspended platform to another, only to land on the edge and fall off.

 

Not a fan of how the spindash is implemented in the game. It's pretty ineffective unless you hold it down until until sparks starts to show. It also would had been nice if they made it so that you can continue to roll after you release the spindash by holding down the R button.

 

The game could really use a camera the player can rotate, many times I'd walk or run up into what appeared to be an invisible wall but was actually an out-of-focus building structure.

 

Do like the faster reworking of the Homing Attack, but the reticules don't really seem to work sometimes.

 

The "parkour" (which is actually just wall-running up and to the side of walls) seems pretty..."stiff." What I mean by that it's kinda restricted to "lanes" and Sonic can easily fall off.

 

The level design for both the tutorial and the first level, which were both in 3D (the only available levels in the demo) was surprisingly decent. I found it more enjoyable than Dimps's usual attempts at 2D level design. Some automated areas but nothing too bad. That's arguably my biggest compliment to the game so far.

 

From what I played there are definitely some problems but it's not awful. I think the controls and implementations of a lot of Sonic's abilities just needs a lot of refinement. Still weary of Dimps, but I think they could be more competent at 3D level design than they are with 2D level design, although I've heard that after the first few zones the level design takes a deep nosedive.

Edited by Gabe Scrooge
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Just tried the 3DS demo out and... eeeh, I don't know what to think of it. 

 

On one hand the controls are smooth, the run button works rather well, bouncing on enemies retains your momentum instead of stopping you in your tracks, (thank goodness) and the 3D levels are a lot more fun to speedrun, but on the other hand the jump is slippery and more suited for horizontal movement instead of vertical, the parkour is rigid and unnatural, the homing attack sifts through targets backwards sometimes and takes forever to charge up, the kick is useless on normal enemies and is scripted to the button for both the bounce and spindash, the spindash feels very underpowered and is cumbersome with the way the level design works, the mach speed sections are twitchy and unprecise, the usual DIMPS pitfalls in level design show up again, and the cylinder levels are cut in half, giving you only one pathway out of what was supposed to be the game's main gimmick.

 

I want to like this demo, but stuff like that just keep getting in my way. The level progression definitely feels more like a usual Sonic game compared to the Wii U version, but whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you.

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So, will the Chaos Emeralds be in a specific order in the future now? Because the order in SLW is the same as in Generations.

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So, will the Chaos Emeralds be in a specific order in the future now? Because the order in SLW is the same as in Generations.

 

All of the Dimps games apart from S4E2 (which tried to mimic S2) and main series instalments follow the structure Red > Blue > Yellow > Green > White > Sky > Purple. The main games since S3 will start with Green most of the time too- I think SA1 is the only exception to that.

 

It's just a nice little touch of consistency. I'm curious to try and check out the order of the Emeralds in all the games now.

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Well, the order in Generations HD and SLW Wii U is Green > Purple > Blue > Yellow > Red > Sky > White. I honestly hadn't gone and looked at Dimps' ones.

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The Dimps games just stood out to me like a sore thumb, cause for reason getting the Red Emerald first just didn't seem right to me. :P

 

Oh yeah, there's also Chronicles which uses the same sprites as from the Advance series, but for some reason Bioward decided to change the colours to orange and pink and whatnot, so like, yeah... Quality control.

 

Anyway, Lost World...

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Clearly this is the best review yet: DIzzy Dizzy Dizzy tongue.png

Literally tried to watch that one but it wasn't sounding all too legit when he brought that up.

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TSSZ written and video review of SLW (Wii U)

 

2.5/5

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubF1FlKmBM&feature=player_embedded

 

Ryan Bloom does make some fair points.

 

Ryan Bloom has now reviewed the 3DS version. No video review here, just a written review.

 

1.5/5. "A trainwreck."

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I'm playing through the 3DS version now, and I have very mixed feelings at the moment. Windy Hill was great, most of Desert Ruins was shit and overstayed its welcome with the exception of act 2, and I'm on Tropical Coast Act 3. It's been fairly enjoyable so far, but holy hell does the Drill Wisp control horribly in 3D sections. The music is growing on me a bit, but it doesn't really scream "Sonic" to me and isn't very catchy. Graphics are good for the 3DS, and I applaud Dimps for actually using the Wii U's cutscenes, although they do look compressed. Overall, presentation is nice so far, but the level design is all over the place.

 

I'll post a full review once I complete the game, I hope I enjoy it later on.

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Well just finished the game, and I enjoyed this, but I am going to make this short and sweet, since we already have tons of thoughts on here:

its not perfect, but the core parkour gameplay is a step in the right direction. the design both had the right and wrong idea when it came to enviroment, mixing it up every level did help keep it fresh, however there was no real connection between locations, and thats something that made SA 1&2, and even heroes stronger, but making everything flow together. also while the almost completely interactive enviroment, I wouldnt mind a mix of that with a more cohesive and grounded enviroment like we have seen in the

 

Also this game makes me wish for alternate characters so much, it feels like that alone could add so much replayability factor

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Wii-U - version.

 

So, rented this bitch and played it on sunday. Did not like it. Thought i would.

 

It's a beautiful looking game with some fun levels. But it feels like it's all over the place and i never felt that i really knew what i was doing because the game was "changing" all the time. The snowball level, the casino stage with all the tokens, the juiceblender stage, the tube stages - annoying stuff. The platforming works grate though! Really liked it. The parkour as well.

 

The bosses where terrible. Boring and easy. I hate the wisps. Yeah, i know they are optional at most times. But still. Nice try though to make a non-boost based Sonic-game. But i would rather have another Sonic Generations than another Lost World to be honest. With Generations Sonic Team really mastered the "Hedgehog-engine"-gameplay. They pretty much perfected it. But yeah, nice try and i hope they try again, without the wisps, without the weird level designs.

 

5/10

Edited by Michael Myers
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Wii-U - version.

 

So, rented this bitch and played it on sunday. Did not like it. Thought i would.

 

It's a beautiful looking game with some fun levels. But it feels like it's all over the place and i never felt that i really knew what i was doing because the game was "changing" all the time. The snowball level, the casino stage with all the tokens, the juiceblender stage, the tube stages - annoying stuff. The platforming works grate though! Really liked it. The parkour as well.

 

The bosses where terrible. Boring and easy. I hate the wisps. Yeah, i know they are optional at most times. But still. Nice try though to make a non-boost based Sonic-game. But i would rather have another Sonic Generations than another Lost World to be honest. With Generations Sonic Team really mastered the "Hedgehog-engine"-gameplay. They pretty much perfected it. But yeah, nice try and i hope they try again, without the wisps, without the weird level designs.

 

5/10

 

 

While that may be true, the boost games were just going to boost them into a brick wall because there weren't any massive improvements throughout them that could be really called interesting. In fact, in that regard Colors was one step forward, two steps back. Even though I'd say it's my favorite of the three modern titles.

 

Lost World's style actually gives them flexibility, something a mechanic that constantly forces you forward doesn't give you without some serious thought and retooling. While I may not like the game, I'd say it was a decent first attempt.

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So I was just at the Sega Forums (don't ask) looking at this thread on whether Sonic Lost World's parkour gameplay element should be kept in future games. The result?...I wrote a bloody wall of text about it below.

 

---

 

Sonic Lost World's "parkour"...isn't exactly parkour in the "true" sense of the word. Parkour involves more or less using your environment to your advantage by maneuvering past obstacles as if they weren't there-all while not slowing down for any reason. From what I've seen of Lost World, it's mostly poorly-implemented wall-running that one can do vertically or horizontally along with ledge grabbing and ledge-vaulting that's restricted to...well, wall ledges that is hyped up as parkour.

Wall-running itself it's nothing new in Sonic games. Anytime Sonic had to roll or run up a steep slope to another platform in the 2D games (or, in the case of Knuckles' Chaotix, had characters who could stick on and walk/run up walls), or had a sequence in both the Adventure series and the Unleashed trilogy when he had to run alongside or down a wall, that was wall-running.

And when you think about it, parkour actually isn't all new in Sonic games either. To get through the levels in the Genesis games, you had to use Sonic's abilities (running and rolling, compounded by momentum you built up) and the environment's level design (walls, slopes, loops) to get through the level or reach certain sections. The Adventure game's more open level design allowed one to in a sense skip through certain platforms to get to the goal. And now that I think about it, Unleashed (and Generations to a lesser extent) was arguably closer to parkour than Lost World-you had wall-running of course, but you also had to dodge airborne attacks by Eggman's mechs, performed small but speedy hops over blocks that could trip you up, slide under gaps, quick step past hazards, perform quick-time events to get to certain paths, etc. The 2D sections for Unleashed were arguably the best example of this as you had to use these abilities to get through the sections in the fastest methods possible. In hindsight, although thanks to the speed-focused mentality of the levels, this was a far cry from the exploration you had in levels of the Genesis games; it was still a lot more closer to Sonic on a pure basis of speed mixed with platforming (and IMO more fun) than the block platforming of Colors and a good chunk of Generations.

tl;dr for the above, this spoilered TVTropes segment about Sonic at it's Le Parkour article
 

Quite a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog characters can do this, especially Sonic himself. Wall Jumping, Roof Hopping and In a Single Bound are also invoked, but are much less capable in gameplay. Sonic certainly is a traceur in spirit. He wall jumps, wall-runs, runs and leaps at amazing speeds... all the while choosing the one path (among several choices per level) that may potentially get him to the finish line as quickly as possible. In some recent titles, Sonic will move forward on his own and will only stop if the player makes him, so you only have to keep him away from obstacles.

 

The only difference between those games and Lost World is the fact that Sonic can run up or alongside any platform of level design (albeit in scripted lines) and grab onto ledges, which in Lost World's case isn't very interesting because the design of the platforms and landscape are either round/planetoid shaped or square/rectangle/parallelogram shaped blocks. Compared to the past games, Sonic running up, down, or the side of walls were restricted to (on-rails) gameplay sequences.

That said, the "parkour" in Lost World can be tweaked so that it (and by extension the level design) feels more natural and more in line with Sonic's gameplay and abilities. The following are my suggestions on how this can be done better:

For starters, map the ability to use parkour to a button-in particular, have the parkour button replace the "run" button. This is so you don't always end up "wall-running" everytime you touch a wall while moving.
Second, don't make it scripted to specific lines. Allow the player to run anywhere on the wall, and by extension run around corners. Third, take some pages from the Genesis games and tie in how long/fast you wallrun with your momentum. The faster Sonic is moving, the faster Sonic can accelerate, and by extension the longer you can run up/alongside the wall. If Sonic slows down or stays at a constant speed, the more prone he is to slipping/falling off, and thus the harder he is to control. Don't have the game determine how long Sonic stays on the wall on the speed he is going when he starts moving.
Fourth, throw in some obstacles on the ground for Sonic to maneuver over. As I said, parkour consists of constantly moving without letting any obstacles slow you down. See how Sonic speeds towards Little Planet by maneuvering off rocks, falling boulders, and the like in the intro as well as dodging badniks in the ending? That is parkour. To make sure the player isn't feeling like s/he's wasting their time dodging off objects, reward them with momentum, like how using rolling rewards you with momentum in the Genesis games. Maybe even go a step further and (depending on the difficulty of it) place the standard monitors (invincibility, shields, Super Rings), zone/act-specific powerups, or maybe even portals to bonus stages or special stages and the like on hazardous (sequences of) objects.

Wouldn't it feel cool to use such skills to, say (using an made-up example here), dash through giant sinking boats, run across some clumsily propped-up boulders, and finally scale up to the tip of a lighthouse to obtain a surfboard powerup, useful on a unsafe segment of shark badnik-infested waters that also experience choppy mile-high waves that you could surf on, rather than running across at the risk of presenting yourself as badnik chow?

Edited by Gabe Scrooge
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