It almost seems customary to mention the Sonic Cycle whenever a new Sonic game comes out, that rollercoaster of emotion that every long time fan is supposed to feel with each new game in the long running series, from the excitement and hope when it’s announced to the disappointment when they finally play the game and it’s not as good as the originals on the Mega Drive/Genesis.
In my preview I said that Lost Worlds may be the game to finally lay the ‘Sonic Cycle’ to rest.
But on reflection, I’m sick of this theory, not only does it put the original Mega Drive trilogy on a dubious pedestal but it also paints Sonic fans as completely unreceptive to change. I will admit one thing though; since Sonic made the leap to 3D, Sega has never quite been able to get it right.
And this is why Sonic can never go back to Seaworld
As impressive as Sonic Adventure looked, its highlight was certainly its opening, in which Sonic burst into the real world, ran incredibly quickly through a seaside resort, then escaped from a killer whale as it destroyed the pontoon you were running on. The problem was after the initial excitement of seeing Sonic in 3D died down, it fast became apparent that the game was far from perfect and that there were some fundamental problems with the way Sonic handled in three dimensions. The one-button-does-all controls that served the series so well during the 2D incarnations suddenly felt haphazard. Jumps became difficult to judge and the new homing attack felt more like a quick fix to compensate for how fiddly the simple act of jumping had become than a cool new trick.
That classic Sonic character err. sorry what was his name again?
Also with each successive entry since 1999, Sonic gained not only a more obnoxious attitude akin to his character in the cartoons, but an impressive menagerie of pointless additional characters. Who doesn’t love Big the Cat, Rouge the Bat and Cream the Rabbit? And who could forget classic characters such as Vector the Crocodile, Mighty the Armadillo and Charmy Bee?
This downward spiral hit rock bottom with Sonic’s first HD outing: Sonic the Hedgehog, which, despite looking quite nice, just didn’t work at all. The platforming was shonky, the sense of speed was lost and the less said about Sonic’s questionable interspecies relations the better.
It was clear that Sonic needed an overhaul, and to be honest, each iteration since they fired the furry in charge from 2001-2006 has been a marked improvement on the previous entry. It seemed that SEGA had listened to their fans. They reintroduced 2D sections, culled a lot of the pointless new characters, and went back to trying to make Sonic work in 3D. Thus far they’ve done this with middling success, Sonic Generations managed this mostly through nostalgia, but the Wii exclusive Sonic Colours, which Lost World is a semi sequel to, managed to finally bring back that element of platforming complexity that most of Sonic’s post 2000 entries lacked but it was still tied into the mostly unchanged physics and controls from Sonic Adventure, which never worked very well to begin with.
Enter Sonic Lost World, which as a long time Sonic fan, I have to say, is one of the most radical shake ups the series has seen in over a decade.
But it’s not the level design. No, Mario Galaxy was a red herring. the most substantial change in Lost World is how The Blue Blur controls and handles, The complexity of control has increased exponentially in Lost World, The simple one button does everything and automatic acceleration of previous entries has been replaced with a system in which each of Sonic’s action has a button, it is no longer just a case of pushing forward and hoping you’ll get up to speed.
Off TV play is always a welcome addition.
The most radical change is the introduction of a run button. Hold down ZR and Sonic will run on the spot and then zip off as soon as you tell him to, and continue to build up speed as long as ZR is held down. Hit a wall with ZR held, and he’ll run along it. Tap B and he’ll jump, tap B again and he’ll double jump catapulting himself slightly higher or further along depending on how fast you were running. Press Y whilst jumping to perform a kick that enables Sonic to boot enemies into each other, meanwhile tapping A will have him complete a string of homing attacks that enables him to cross bigger distances and do more damage.
Take your finger off the run button and Sonic jogs around the level at Mario speed, giving him a much greater level of precision in his jumping.
As someone who’s been playing Sonic from the start, this took some getting used to. In the early stages I died a lot. Mostly because my muscle memory of double tapping jump for homing attacks, left me cart wheeling into bad guys and losing all my rings or forgetting to hold the run button and not getting enough inertia to make a jump (although luckily Sonic now grabs the edge of ledges if he doesn’t quite get there) which was bloody frustrating to say the least, but as soon as things began to click, my opinion of the game did too.
I began to think about what the series had been missing since its leap to 3D, the answer is precision, plain and simple. At some point in the transition from 2D to 3D Sega got it into their heads that Sonic was all about speed and little else.
In making Lost World, it’s clear that with their new two speed set up, Sega were attempting to find a way to make Sonic work properly in three dimensions, and to bring back the finer platforming elements that the series has been sorely lacking for just over a decade.
Thanks to the much more robust controls and some clever, if at times, fiendish level design SEGA have managed to achieve this. By creating a delicate balance between tricky platforming and giddy sensory overload as Sonic hurtles along at breakneck speed, bouncing from bumper to bumper and running through huge loop de loops and corkscrews in various mini set pieces that book end and reward players for getting through trickier platforming sections, Lost World feels more like a proper continuation of the original 2D trilogy than any other 3D entry before it, but still retains the sense of showmanship that has become a hallmark of modern era Sonics.
Although it would be easy to give credit to Mario Galaxy for Lost Worlds new style of play and modular level design, the fact of the matter is that most of the game has far more in common with the 3Dish bonus stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Adventure than with Mario’s last 3D outings. Both use the novel cylindrical level design, with Sonic being able to run sideways up walls and along the ceiling. This is mostly apparent during stages such as the beautiful, although admittedly at times brutal, endless runner stages such as Desert Ruins 2 in which Sonic races at break neck speed through the middle of a hive. As I sped along with the camera fixed firmly behind my back, shifting from side to side to get extra rings and avoid obstacles, I wasn’t reminded of Nintendo’s three dimensional triumphs but SEGA’s early experiments.
Sonic X-treme look familiar?
Speaking of experiments, the other obvious source of inspiration, despite the developer’s protestations to the contrary, is the cancelled Saturn entry: Sonic X-treme. Judging from the footage that was released of the game, Sonic X-treme used a modular level design akin to Mario Galaxy only several years earlier, and was a slightly slower paced more precise platformer in a very similar vein to Lost World.
When all these disparate parts comes together it’s magical; lush graphics, a silky smooth frame rate, fantastic tunes and Sonic zipping and diving from platform to platform; running, spinning and destroying everything in his path as the game flits from 3D to 2D and back again. However when it goes wrong it’s absolutely infuriating. As you dive off ledges, narrowly miss bumpers and fall off the level, go hurtling straight into walls – dying instantly, and see enemies butt you right off the edge of the stage.
As a result I developed a weird sort of love/hate relationship with Lost World, similar to the one I had all those years ago with Sonic 1-3 on the Megadrive, it’ll drive you demented at times, but you can’t help but fall in love with it.
The storyline by and large is garbage, but at least there’s no cross species hanky panky! This time, Dr.Robotnik , sorry, Eggman (urgh!) has enslaved a bunch of angry yet incredibly stereotypical, demonic types called the Deadly Six to keep Sonic busy whilst he completes his latest dooms day device.
Tracking Eggman to the Hex World, Sonic eventually finds the good Doctor, and in an act that proves just how dunderheaded the stupid blue rat is, destroys Eggman’s only means of keeping the Deadly Six in check, they then quickly turn on him, taking control of all his Badnik army as well as the aforementioned doomsday device which they decide to use to destroy the planet.
This results in a shaky truce between Sonic and Eggman as the two must work together to shut off the machine and defeat the Deadly Six.
The Deadly Six, More like The Obnoxious Stereotypes.
My only major bugbear with Sonic Lost World was the Deadly Six. Not only because they were pretty badly drawn characters which fell into the usual stupid archetypes; Zomom – the fat one, Master Zik – the old one, Zeena – the female one, Zazz -the crazy one, Zor – the emo kid, and Zavok their leader, but because you had to fight them in all too frequent, and mostly substandard Boss fights on every other level. It’s also worth mentioning that most of the 3D encounters were the only proper attempt that the game made to properly emulate Mario Galaxy and failed miserably in almost every attempt. You are forced to face them on tiny little asteroids as they pull every dirty trick they could find to stall their demise until such a time that you ran out of time and dropped dead.
In fact the only 3D boss fight I enjoyed was the final stage of Lava Mountain, which I don’t wish to ruin for you because it’s also the final boss, but despite feeling more like one of the classic battles from Sonic Adventure, which will become clear should you get that far, it still wasn’t without its headaches. I’ll give you one piece of advice, make sure Sonic is lined up correctly before you attack or you’ll be in for a whole world of frustration!
The 2D boss fights on the other hand faired a lot better. Mostly basic, multi tiered-affairs that made use of Sonic’s newer abilities. Highlights included Windy Hill 2 in which you had to chase Zaaz through lush green hills which literally rolled as you ran around them before finally catching up to him and having to fight him whilst dodging a weird looking, grinning, bouncing yellow ball with a properly timed double jump.
My other favourite was Desert Ruins 4 in which you had to escape from a level destroying tornado created by Zomom before finally confronting him in a funky boss battle which made great use of Sonic’s new wall running ability and greatly improved homing attacks.
All in all, Sonic Team have finally created a 3D entry in the Sonic franchise that manages, for the best part, to recapture the spirit, complexity of level design and challenge of the original 16bit entries and marry it fairly successfully with the spectacle of Sonic Adventure.
It’s a bright, beautiful and incredibly fluid game that despite a lack of decent boss fights is easily one of the best Sonic games in years, and further proof that the Sonic Cycle is fast becoming completely irrelevant. If you’re looking for a solid platformer to pass the time whilst you wait for Super Mario 3D World, you certainly can’t go wrong with Sonic Lost World.
