2/5 ★ – KingChiliPepper's review of Sonic Lost World.

I hate this. I started out thinking it was pretty decent. The visuals are really pretty at times, the music is excellent, some of the cutscenes were pretty enjoyable in a goofy cartoonish kind of way. I was ready to vibe with it, but the quality just dives off of a cliff. I had soooo many game overs because Sonic just never felt right. I thought it would click after a few hours of playing but it just didn't. I never felt I had control over his movement and I was having so little fun trying and trying again to beat these levels that I was moving around so cautiously for fear of flying off the stage. I hate playing platformers like that, I want to be able to get speedy and expressive, especially in a Sonic game. I don't think the idea of giving Sonic a run button is an innately bad idea. I welcome control over his speed, but how it affects the jump or forces you into a wall run just breaks the game here. It doesn't help that a lot of the levels feel like they were built for a different set of physics. Many have dismissed Lost World as a Mario rip off and it definitely feels that way. You can see influences from Galaxy in the little planetoids and New Super Mario Bros. in the level theming (ice zone, lava land, sand world etc). Nintendo nail Mario's movement though, you can always put Mario right where you want him. This Sonic is an unwieldy, unpredictable liability. His jumps can range anywhere from no momentum whatsoever to a record breaking shotput that launches him into the nearest bottomless cavern. Every other level gave me that "thank fuck for that, I am never doing that again" feeling upon beating it. That's probably the ultimate knock against the game. I had no desire to try to go back and speed run or collect the red rings because I just felt I might not be so lucky with the controls on a second visit and be trapped there forever. I made it close to the finale but I am at the end of my tether and have no interest in getting any further. It probably has an ass final boss that would make me knock another star off anyway. Honestly I have played some shoddy Sonic Team output in my time, but this infuriated me more than most.