Two weeks ago, I covered Sonic Lost World on
the Wii U after a year long gap between it and my previous main series Sonic video.
But we are back, relatively quickly, to talk about more Sonic games. Like I did
for Sonic Unleashed, Colors and Generations, I am covering the handheld version of Sonic Lost
World that was released on 3DS before we continue on with the following games. Lost World, being
a game that, on console, was very underwhelming, both at the time of it’s release and to this day.
I feel better about Lost World than I used to, but not in a way where I have anything super nice
to say about it. It’s a finished game and in fact, might be the most polished 3D Sonic game of all
time. But it just didn’t capture the imagination much. Not that this should be a requirement for
the game to be good, but man that game was bland. Now, Lost World on Wii U is a game I have played
a couple times since it was released almost ten years ago on Wii U, but it’s alternative version
on the 3DS is one I have actually never played before. For starters, by age 13, the need to
digest every alternative version of the new Sonic game was really lowered. Secondly, I never
heard good things about this one. Sonic Lost World on 3DS is definitely one of the most infamous
Sonic games of the last ten years, being one that most fans regard as a waste of potential and a
frustrating one at that via it’s numerous baffling design choices. Before it came out, people were
interested in trying this one out because it was going to be the first 3D Sonic game released
on a handheld, something Generations on 3DS, or even the Sonic Rivals series on PSP before
that could have done, but opted not to. So the 3DS version of Lost World was trying something
new. But I never had an opinion on it because of the fact that I never played it. All I could tell
was that it didn’t look particularly fun in what I saw from the Let’s Plays and reviews coming
out for Lost World at the time. And I already didn’t like the Wii U version anyway, so an even
worse Lost World was something I especially didn’t need to experience. It looked like it would make
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keeps.com/jsreviews. Now having said that, let us return to the subject matter of this video, which
is Sonic Lost World on Nintendo 3DS.
When comparing Lost World on console to the
handheld version, it’s interesting to note how we don’t have much to talk about besides the gameplay
and level design, because in most other respects, it lines it with the console counterpart.
Each world still has 4 levels to play in, all of those worlds are the exact same as
the console original and the story is also 1:1 with the Wii U game as well. This game just
uses and heavily compresses the cutscenes from the Console version and then plays them at their
respective moments in the story. I guess this goes to show that the developers at Dimps had a better
grasp on the 3DS hardware since, like I said when talking about Generations 3DS, that game used none
of the 360 cutscenes, instead reinterpreting the story like Colors on DS had done. Although, maybe
it’s just that it was easier to use the cutscenes from Lost World on Wii U because those were
already pre-rendered video files anyway, so therefore it’s a compression upon a compression,
when the cutscenes in Generations were mostly in engine, so they’d have to compress them from
there. Still, it doesn't quite make sense why they didn’t use the pre-rendered scenes that the
console Generations had for it’s handheld release, but that’s neither here nor there at
this point. In terms of the gameplay, Lost World 3DS technically plays like the
console version. Sonic still has three speeds, controlled by a run button, he uses parkour in
almost the same fashion as the console game, only now spin dashing keeps your momentum going
forward rather than moving you upwards. Parkour in general is used much more often in dedicated
segments, as opposed to the console game where it was optional more than half the time. And in
terms of combat, Sonic’s kick attack is a ranged move rather than something you get up close and
do, which I think better distinguishes the homing attack and the kick anyway. But the best element
of all would be the spindash. I said I found it satisfying to do in the console version, but
found it annoying how landing from a double jump canceled the spindash, when a spin dash with the
infinite duration combined with the distance of the double jump would have been fun to use. In
Lost World 3DS, this is actually how it works, so I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to
see that, and felt it was as fun to use as I had anticipated. But the trade off with this is that
Sonic handles much worse on the ground than he did on Wii U. In that very version, Sonic moved very
stiffly when turning, it was pretty awkward. But on the 3DS they instead made Sonic fly in whatever
direction you were turning in while running which makes precise movement while going fast a real
nightmare. Therefore, walking becomes much more useful in Lost World 3DS than it was on Wii U
where I almost never went at the lowest speed.
Lost World 3DS is an interesting game to compare
to the console version since it, in many ways, takes everything I didn’t like about the Wii U
game and makes it far worse. For example, combat. I thought the kick attack and the charged homing
attack only served to slow the pace down on Wii U, but on 3DS it’s even worse since numerous stages
will have a big mini boss that requires you to wait around for their attacks to be completed
before you must stun them and then wait for the charged homing attack to fully power up which
takes even longer here than it did in Sonic Team’s version. The multi homing attack also gets you
into trouble frequently because it will target enemies and objects that aren’t even in your
line of sight which puts you at the risk of taking damage or dying, like this glorious moment
from a 2D Segment in Frozen Factory. Yeah…what an idiot I am for my inability to predict that.
Then the handheld game takes the gimmicky aspect of the original and ramps that up to 11
as well. I feel like the task of creating a 3D Sonic platformer on the 3DS wasn’t something
so unachievable that they needed to pad the game out the way they did, but regardless, you
spend several levels across the campaign doing miscellaneous tasks like solving puzzles where
you lead balls into slots and then kick them so the ball is stunned, leaving it place for
you to make it through the door that is open, repeat the process 14 more times…that was a
sentence. Or pushing a snowball in the snow until it grows big enough to hold down a switch and or
fit into a slot, repeat the process 20 more times while being chased by a killer snowball. Solve
a maze where you get teleported to random spots, making it so you have to find which teleporter
is the real one, riding on a missile with gyro controls for an entire level. Pushing fruit onto
switches to teleport the fruit onto this elevator with a blender that you push the fruit into that
rises the platform higher and higher…that was another sentence I definitely just said. Hopefully
you get the picture. The game is more random than the console version and that’s because it’s
an onslaught of…not even mini games, just objectives that have nothing to do with fast paced
action platforming. And it gets very repetitive, very fast. Lost World on 3DS takes things I didn’t
like on Wii U and made them worse, like I said. Alternatively, it takes things I didn’t like
and then flips them on it’s head and makes the experience even worse in the process. For example,
I thought the wisps were pretty shoehorned into Sonic Lost World. On 3DS, you better get used to
them, they are everywhere in this game. Entire stages that are solely based around controlling
wisp powers…like a 3D underwater drill wisp I could barely get the hang of, or a 3D
asteroid wisp you need to absorb material with in order to get big enough to damage a mini boss
or do tight platforming with, or swinging on poles with the lightning wisp or worst of all, trying
to carefully maneuver the gyro controlled Quake wisp that kept going whichever way it felt and
often sending me plummeting into the abyss. You need this stomp ability the Quake Wisp has to
hit these switches, but that’s not a move you use with a button, it’s only done when activating
the transformation, so you need to wait it out for the bar to deplete and then grab another one,
or realize you can cancel the transformation with this life icon on the bottom screen. Very
intuitive stuff. The bosses are also flipped on their head from the console game where you could
clear them all in 2 seconds since here it can take several minutes. Some of those are just because
of animations and attack phases going on too long like gathering the materials as the asteroid
wisp to attack Zomom or aiming to find Zor, but others are just because of the game not remotely
telegraphing what’s going on like how the boss with Zik just completely changes the controls to
be a full 3D rotation with the analog stick which, fun fact, made me think my controls were broken
for a second, or the boss with Zina that I could barely move without the janky aiming of the
lighting wisp screwing with me. The game just has dreadful boss encounters and makes you miss the
fights from the console version of Lost World.
And on top of all that, this game introduces
new problems and headaches to the Last World experience that are completely separate from the
Console version. Like how the game still has 2D levels but now you move so quickly through them
that you can barely see what’s coming in front you, so you will crash into obstacles and enemies
left and right. Especially since you can’t roll into a ball in this game while on the move. By
collecting 50 rings and reaching the end of the stage, you gain access to a special stage.
These being almost unanimously agreed upon as the worst special stages in Sonic history. The
concept is that you have to collect multi-colored spheres like you did in Colors DS. But this
time, you control Sonic in a full Star Fox All Range Mode Map but…with the 3DS’ gyro features.
Since I played this game on the 3DS emulator, I set it up with the DualShock 4 which has
gyro compatibility, so this was plenty awkward at first, but the basic gist of it is that you
move around with the controller itself and when you need to recenter, you stop moving with the
triangle button and then recenter the controller yourself. No way to adjust the camera or Sonic’s
position or anything. Once you figure that out, you can get through a few of these stages
but again, it’s really awkward and unitivite, and if you are playing on a real 3DS, you
will spin and rotate around looking like a complete moron. How anyone is supposed to play
like this when on a bus or if you are a kid in the backseat is beyond me. I gave up at Special
Stage 5 because the patterns the spheres were in, combined with the short time limit just made
it a nightmare to play that might just give you motion sickness. But the flaws don’t end there.
The 3DS game still only has four levels per world, and one of them is just a boss fight. So with
three real levels per world, how does the game make space for all these gimmicks they repeat
over and over and over? The answer is by making the levels go on for eons. You might spend about
5 minutes meandering through the maze of Desert Ruins, but then have 10 minutes left of using the
Asteroid Wisp and fighting mini bosses before the stage finally relents and ends. This being a game
wide issue where levels, whether they be standard platforming or some bizarre gimmick, just overstay
their welcome to the max. It seriously took me 18 minutes to clear Frozen Factory Zone 1, because
it was like 4 levels rolled into one. Standard gameplay, snowboarding, switch puzzles, 2d
elevator rides…did they ever think that was overkill? Did this game have to be 5 and a half
hours? Generations 3DS lasted only 2 hours, and even if you didn’t know what you were doing,
a skilled player could clear that game in a day because it’s very simplistic. That game felt
undercooked, and should have had more meat on it’s bones by maybe 30 minutes. This game is
just a marathon. Every zone, I said to myself, well, at least I am through with the worst of
it, and then my friends laughed because every single one introduced some new crazy gimmick that
stretches that playtime out. The game gives you fifteen minutes to clear Silent Forest Zone 1,
and I timed out, in the end, taking 23 minutes to beat the stage. If you are creating a ticking
clock for a Sonic stage and you even need it to go towards 20 minutes…I feel like that’s when you
should be taking a step back and asking yourselves if that was really needed. And here’s the thing,
I am sure, with a second playthrough, Lost World 3DS would be…easier to play. I have seen examples
of this on the channel just recently. But I think this argument is a slippery slope. I find a lot of
reward in getting better at games and finding them way easier as a result. So many of my videos have
discussed that effect. However, what makes this a slippery slope when considering my thoughts on
a game is that…this is true…for every game. Just look at my video on Sonic 06, one of the core
points was that, as a kid, I played the game so often that I am adjusted to the crap factor, so
therefore I won’t have a super terrible time with it. However, I don’t say and never said it was a
good game, because when looking at it’s execution of the most basic elements of game design, it
flopped. But even off screen, games I used to say negative things about in passing are games I
can find enjoyment in when playing it again. Every game gets infinitely simpler the more you play
it. But on that note, not all become more fun.
In order for me to want to even try to get better
at a game, I have to enjoy the experience to even the slightest of degrees. Now, that’s the
subjective part, because if you think this game is fun enough to come back to, that’s just
how you felt, and your experience going up from there is logical. In my case, words can’t do
justice to how much I hated this game. I mean that without hyperbole, I felt like I was trapped
in purgatory playing this game, and yet I still feel like this script has captured the extent of
that feeling. I thought every level sucked and went on for an eternity. I thought every gimmick
it introduced was trite and that the game handled like a prison toilet. So, needless to say, I
am never playing this game again for the rest of my life. Definitely one of my new, least
favorite Sonic games. Which I guess brings up the discussion of how it ranks compared to…other
Sonic games I have branded with that title. And I can say this…it’s tricky. When looking at this
rating system I mentally divide games up with, I think it’s a shoe in for that E Tier, however…I
hated enough to where I want to slap that F on it, but like I said when I introduced it in the
Sonic Free Riders video…I don’t want to go around handing F Ranks out like candy. It’s reserved for
the worst of the worst. Let it be known that I am still unsure of where I’d precisely rank it, just
know that it’s one of these bottom two. A truly soul devouring experience. The biggest shame of
it all being how this was the note that Dimps went out on for developing Sonic games. This
is a company that during the 2000s, was seen as one of the few bright spots in terms of Sonic,
providing the Game Boy Advance with the excellent Sonic Advance lineup, and the DS with the quality
Sonic Rush titles, alongside Sonic Colors on DS, which was more or less a sequel to those. But of
their last few games, they were either mediocre like Generations 3DS and Sonic 4 Episode 2,
or just trash like Episode 1 and Sonic Lost World. Sonic Lost World on 3DS being, like I said,
their last Sonic game. If you like this game, more power to you. Reading the comments on
my Lost World Wii U review, and by seeing the climate on YouTube, it seems some people do
like Lost World 3DS, even more than the console version. I personally don’t see it, but again,
more power to you. I am pretty sure this version sold more copies than the Wii U version did, kind
of like the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed that Dimps also made that went alongside Sonic Team’s
version. So a lot of people remember this one well. If you are in that camp, feel free to share
why below. Since I am with the seemingly majority in thinking that this one was just fundamentally
missing the mark. But that’s pretty much all I can say in regards to this game. I thought it sucked,
and I think it’s a shame that Dimps didn’t get the chance to do another game and maybe redeem the
legacy they have left behind in the series in their final few entries. But otherwise, it’s not
super relevant to the history of Sonic, like an 06 or…huh, the next Sonic game I am going to review,
which would be…Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on Wii U. Spoilers, I actually never beat this game back
when it came out, for reasons you will find out when that review drops in a few weeks. I am sure
it will be interesting indeed. But of course, we can’t directly do that next because…do you know
what month it is? It’s September of 2022, the 20th anniversary of Sly Cooper! I gotta celebrate. So
hope you look forward to that. In the meantime, I will say what I always do, thank you all
for watching and I will see you next time!
