3/5 ★ – BlueSorcerer's review of Sonic Lost World.

Well, it isn't that much better than the 3DS version. The controls are still especially slippery, the music is one-to-one with the 3DS version, and the levels and bosses don't differ too much. But the latter two are a little different this time around. Windy Hill is still a good starting ground for the game itself, and Tropical Coast is just a little more comfortable to play through than in the 3DS version. Some zones are actually less stressful than their 3DS counterparts. Desert Ruins didn't have the giant worms or capsules that prevented progression, and Zone 3 was honestly one of my favorite levels in the game. Sky Road also had some pretty cool level ideas, and Zone 2 is a fair example of that. Lava Mountain isn't a glorified boss rush zone which is nice, but the levels themselves aren't all that better. As for Frozen Factory and Silent Forest, they still aren't that great. Silent Forest Zone 2 aggravates me due to the searchlights that instantly take a life if they catch you, and Frozen Factory Zone 2 reminds me how aggravating the method in which you collect the Chaos Emeralds is. There are seven zones in the game, and in this version you get the Emeralds by collecting every red ring in each zone. What bothers me about this method is that some levels might give you only one shot at getting a certain red ring, otherwise you have to replay the level for another shot. Sure the red rings aren't hard to come by with proper exploration and the checkpoints do save your red ring progress, but this method is still not the best. Better handled than in the 3DS version? For sure, but not by much. The bosses are a little better than the 3DS version albeit sometimes less creative, but some of them make creative use of the Wisps like the second boss against Zomom in Desert Ruins. And claps to the Wii U version for making the final boss against Eggman actually more responsive and thus smoother. But man, SEGA was really trying to replicate the Mario formula so much with this game—and Zavok is literally SEGA Bowser which is made increasingly evident by the fact that he grows large in the last fight against him. Still, the bosses aren't that bad even though some of them can appear cheap in hindsight. At this point, I've pretty much addressed all of the elements of the two versions of the game and compared them. So that just leaves the story, and it's an... interesting one. The story begins with Sonic and Tails giving chase to the mad doctor in Sonic 2 fashion. After missing to free an animal capsule that I initially thought fell to its demise offscreen, Sonic and Tails end up landing on the Lost Hex, a mysterious floating locale which comprises the seven main zones of the game. Eggman is seen enslaving animals to power his robotic creations once again, but this time he is joined by these new badies called the Deadly Six—the Inside Out of Sonic so to speak. And by the end of the story, they pretty much amount to nothing. "Worst enemies" be damned. With the Deadly Six's help, Eggman creates a machine that he plans to use to extract energy from the planet for power supply. But in a twist, the Deadly Six take control of Eggman's robots—as that is something they can do—causing Eggman to flee and a temporary truce with Sonic and Tails to be formed. In time, the trio endeavor to stop the Deadly Six from siphoning all of the energy out of the planet using Eggman's machine, Tails is captured and nearly turned into a robot until he changes the programming behind the Deadly Six's backs to mask it until he reunites with Sonic (Good job you Deadly Idiots), and both the Deadly Six and Eggman—who faked his death to power his final mech in secret—go down as all Sonic villains do. The world and its energy is then saved, and Sonic proceeds to take a nap on the flat green grass thus concluding Sonic Lost World. In all honesty, Lost World's story is one of the most typical, run-of-the-mill plots in the Sonic series. But not so much for good reasons. Lost World might have steller presentation and visuals, but the story's writing and direction is extremely half-baked. One, Knuckles and Amy amount to pretty much nothing in this story. Two, some of the dialogue sounds forced. Sonic's "That's funny, because I know the perfect spot to kick you" line just sounds corny, and a lot of the quotes in this game can amount to similar reception. Three, Sonic's characterization bothers me a bit. He's a little too impatient and carefree to my liking, the scene where he disregards Tails' warnings and goes to engage with Eggman which consequently causes the Deadly Six to gain the upper hand being a chief example. Sonic shows some indications of growth by the end of the story, but I put strong emphasis on the word "some". Four, why does Tails get so conflicted with Sonic throughout the story? Like when Sonic and Eggman start teaming up, Tails starts to feel that Sonic trusts Eggman more because he says they need Eggman to shut down the energy machine. It makes sense for Sonic to say this because it's Eggman's machine and he knows how to operate it. This doesn't outright show that Tails can not figure out how to operate Eggman's machine; it just shows that Sonic only trusts Eggman to shut it down and nothing else. With that in mind, Tails should have no reason to bash Sonic the way he does. It just comes across as problematic. And five, the Deadly Six could have amounted to much more but the story wrote them off as a lesser threat. If anything, Sonic roasting Zeena is more memorable than the Deadly Six themselves. The developers really could have done more, but it ultimately amounted to far less. Thankfully the IDW comics represent them much better. And that's about all I have. All in all, Sonic Lost World is one of the best Sonic games visually and musically, but it mostly falls apart everywhere else. As a counterpart to the 3DS version, it's a slightly better experience. But on the whole, this game could have benefited from doing more and benefited from doing less.