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YMMV / Sonic Lost World

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  • Accidental Innuendo:
    • In the early portion of the game, Zazz notices Sonic approaching and comments "I've been dreaming of pounding his sorry blue butt!"
    • A lot of Zomom's lines revolving around wanting to eat Sonic are rather easy to take out of context.
      Zomom: He looks like a blueberry, all plump and juicy... Hope I don't get any spines stuck in my throat when I swallow him whole!
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Are the Deadly Six genuinely as malicious as their title implies, or are they a bunch of Jerkass Woobies who were mistreated by Eggman and are just enacting some Disproportionate Retribution against the doctor by destroying his world? Did they die in their final encounters with Sonic, or did they survive? Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) answers both by not only showing that they survived, but that they're most definitely in the former. Spin off games also confirm the first point, but are ambiguous about the second.
    • Tails: is he a naive kid who learns through Character Development to be a better person, or a self-centered Spoiled Brat who loves to always be right about everything?
    • Eggman's morality is a bit difficult to pin down in this game. While he does turn on Sonic at the end, he did still keep up his end of the deal by turning off the Extractor by the time Sonic and Tails had arrived. Before then, he also gives Tails a Diving Save from Cubot (which even leaves Sonic questioning Eggman's values, as he'd just been casually discussing the possibility of destroying the entire Lost Hex to simply take out the Deadly Six), and solemnly praises Tails for sacrificing himself to save Sonic from the Zetis' trap. Was he always planning to turn on Sonic while pretending to team up, or was he sincere about the alliance until the opportunity presented itself?
  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • While Zeena's first fight is infamously annoying (see Goddamned Boss below), her second fight at the end of Frozen Factory is pathetically easy. The intended challenge is evading the snowballs she swings at you on icy terrain, but since you don't have to wait for or initiate a state of vulnerability, you can simply defeat her in about 10 seconds with the charged Homing Attack.
    • After being built up the entire game as the ultimate threat that need to be stopped, the Deadly Six are ultimately defeated with no real closure or fanfare after their final battles with Sonic. There's not even a cutscene explaining what happened to them after their defeat; they're just gone with no explanation and no further references are made to their whereabouts or fates. The battles themselves are pitifully easy in the Wii U version and don't make use of Sonic's abilities in any meaningful way, while the 3DS version simply recycles their battles from before.
    • The Eggrobo that serves as the actual Final Boss allegedly has overwhelming power from Eggman charging it up with the Extractor before it was turned off. In practice, at least in the Wii U version, it's essentially a watered-down version of the Nega Wisp from Sonic Colors.
  • Ass Pull:
    • The Zetis' Magnetism Manipulation comes completely out of left field; it doesn't fit with their inspiration from Oni, nor does it seem to serve any purpose outside of hijacking Eggman's Badniks (which they were already using under his service) in a single cutscene to push the Doctor into an Enemy Mine with Sonic.
    • After Zavok sets up a computer to subject Tails to Unwilling Roboticisation, he uses the fur on his tail tip to grab a toothpick from a half-eaten sandwich that Zomom left behind for no apparent reason so he can sabotage the process.
  • Awesome Boss: The final battle with Eggman is easily the most exciting boss fight in the game, easily resembling the final fight from Colors, and is accompanied by awesome music. Especially considering it follows the lackluster boss fights against the Deadly Six. The only downside is that the final boss is still incredibly easy, but it's still the best boss this game has. It is, however, more difficult and involved in the 3DS version, where it's very hard to hit (you have to lock on five targets at once to deal damage), has way more complex patterns and even a black hole that kills instantly and pulls you in.
  • Awesome Music: This game has its own section here.
  • Awesome Video Game Levels:
    • Desert Runs Zone 2, for capturing the appeal of Generations while also awesomely integrating the features of Lost World, complete with an awesome song and unique boss battle.
    • The Legend of Zelda Zone, due to all the Zelda Mythology Gags, the amount of detail put into it, the music, and Sonic wearing Link's outfit exclusively for the level.
    • Tropical Coast Act 1. Out of all the "normal" levels in the game, this one has the most diverse environment, with a ton of alternate routes and platforming to do. Plus, if you're really good at the controls, it's massively fun to just spin dash past everything.
    • Hidden World act 3. The only Hidden World act without a gimmick to it, it is instead a surprisingly challenging Bonus Level of Heaven. Nearly every single surface is temporary and nearly every single surface is also covered in rings and animal capsules. Easily one of the most rewarding and cathartic stages in the entire game, with a snazzy soundtrack to go with it.
    • In the 3DS version:
      • For people who like the Special Stages, the controls are surprisingly accurate — they are some of the most immersive Special Stages in the franchise for this reason.
      • Windy Hill is easily the best Zone, as it features very few strange gimmicks, almost no game-halting puzzles (focusing instead on the parkour itself), and Wisps that aren't offensively difficult to control (Asteroid, Burst, and Laser). Each level is refreshingly different from one another, and as a bonus there's an extra Tutorial stage which easily counts as a great main stage. It's the Lost World system at its best, and had the entire game been built like that, it would've been one of the better Sonics.
      • Silent Forest Act 2 is pretty damn fun when Sonic's busy zipping down rails, switching between them in a 360Âş layout. The music is even taken from the Wii U's Desert Ruin Act 2 (Honeycomb Highway). That said, it also has moments of That One Level...
      • The 2D levels (1 per zone) are pretty good in general — the only problems being the somewhat labyrinthine level design and zoomed-in camera. It's simply down to easier platforming and better control over the parkour.
  • Broken Base: With its simpler, cartoonish art style, lighthearted tone, and slower parkour gameplay, fan opinions on Sonic Lost World are split. Some consider it a decent game in its own right and enjoy its unique ideas and level design, while others decry it as one of the worst games in the series and a bland Mario clone.
  • Character Rerailment:
    • Amy, surprisingly enough. In a cutscene, Amy is seen comforting the animal friends that Sonic has recently freed. In games like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Amy can be shown being a caring person in cases like the Flicky from Adventure 1, and this aspect of her character was nearly forgotten due to the character's Flanderization. Not once has Amy gushed about Sonic in the entire cutscene, and she was even seen having a normal conversation with him through the Miles Electric. Over the course of the entire game, Amy never even mentions her crush aside from the scene where she appears to die during the Deadly Six's world-draining.
    • Tails, likewise, gains a bit of independence towards the end of the game that he hasn't had since the days of Sonic Adventure.
    • Although it already happened in the previous two games, fans are pleased that SEGA is continuing to treat Eggman like a credible villain even after he gets betrayed by the Deadly Six, having them under his thumb beforehand and only losing control over them by bad circumstance caused by Sonic rather than being an outranked patsy from the beginning like nearly every other "partnership" Eggman makes. He even wins back his status as Big Bad at the end of the game with brains alone!
  • Common Knowledge: Being a Pontac and Graff game, it means Sonic is a quipster who never treat his enemies seriously, right? Actually, after Zavok takes Tails hostage and threatens to turn him into a robot, Sonic takes him completely seriously. In fact, Zavok is not a victim of any of Sonic's quips compared with the other Zeti and Eggman.
  • Contested Sequel: Following the critical and fan adoration of Sonic Colors and Generations, Lost World is generally considered to be a letdown. Many criticize the game for ditching the "Boost" formula that worked so well in the previous installments in favor of the new parkour gameplay, which is much slower and harder to control. However, fan opinions vary on whether the game is decent in its own right or outright terrible.
  • Evil Is Cool: Dr. Eggman, despite being usurped by the Deadly Six at the beginning, proves to be no less cunning when stripped of his resources. He guides Sonic and Tails across the Lost Hex, defiantly swears retribution against the Zeti for betraying him, and— most impressively— plays Sonic and Tails like complete fools, successfully manipulating them into taking out the Deadly Six and allowing him to stealthily rebuild his empire right under their noses.
  • Fan Nickname:
  • Game-Breaker:
    • The ability to lock on to certain enemies multiple times before delivering a more powerful Homing Attack makes a joke of most of the bosses in this game, as they will generally go down from just two fully-charged hits.
    • The Yoshi's Island DLC. Each Yoshi saved gives you three extra lives. Combine that with the abundance of coins, and you can easily get over thirty lives in one run of the stage.
    • The patch that was released re-instated the ability to gain lives for every 100 rings. This ends up destroying the game, as ring collection is more to the tune of Sonic Unleashed, with you typically gathering rings in large clusters with totals reaching the THOUSANDS in some zones. Nightmare Zone, Desert Ruins 2, Silent Forest 1, Sky Road 1, and Hidden World 2 stand out as the most beneficial, and one of those can be accessed as early as when you get to the world map!
    • The extended Spin Dash, which is faster than simply running and can destroy enemies on contact. Unlike the Sonic Boost in Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations, the extended Spin Dash never runs out of power. This was used to absolutely annihilate most of the S-Rank times in Time Attack and makes some stages much easier than intended, like Frozen Factory Zone 3 and parts of Lava Mountain Zone 3. In addition, enemies were definitely designed with Sonic's normal running speed in mind, such as the timing of the Ball Hogs in Silent Forest Zone 2.
  • Goddamned Boss: Zeena's first fight in the Wii U version is not too terribly difficult (none of the bosses are, actually), but it makes up for it by being a Puzzle Boss. Zeena hides in snowmen during the fight and Sonic must destroy them all to draw her out. If he takes too long or hits a snowman with a bomb on it, the snowmen will reset and he'll have to start over. Compounding the difficulty is that he has to do this while trapped in a snowball himself, restricting his movements to running, jumping, and the Spin Dash. While there's no risk of dying beyond time running out, it's frustrating as hell for first timers.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • During Eggman introduction to the Deadly Six to Sonic has him declare them as "his worst enemies". It's supposed to be a threat, but it unintentionally became characteristic of the reception of the fanbase with the Zeti.
    • Sonic's line after Tails gets captured: "I'm supposed to be the fastest, but I was too slow to save my buddy." takes on a darker context come Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where he fails to save Pikachu from an attack that turns everyone into puppets, including Sonic himself. It doesn't help that Tails (who is even obtainable in World of Light), Knuckles, and Amy are among those turned into spirits, while the Deadly Six are not.
    • Zavok's words to Sonic as he sees his friends dying and his despair at being unable to contact anyone or have Tails by his side has a lot more impact when the movie shows a Sonic who is lonely and without any friends being incredibly miserable.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Sonic traversing the open area of The Legend of Zelda zone DLC. Come Sonic Frontiers, the first Wide-Open Sandbox in the series, taking Sonic across an open landscape almost similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
  • He Really Can Act: In a franchise not exactly known for stellar English voice acting, Mike Pollock pulls off a genuinely badass, and threatening, sounding Eggman in various parts.
  • It's Hard, So It Sucks!: A somewhat common complaint. It's a step up in difficulty from previous Sonic games, and when combined with the new gameplay controls and the fact that the game is very stingy with extra lives (before the patch at least), this game has proven to be very frustrating for some players. Better start grinding for lives in Windy Hill Zone 1!
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The Final Boss gets a lot of flak for essentially rehashing the Nega Wisp at the end of Sonic Colors; it attacks and gets attacked in a similar manner, and both fights end with Eggman flying off and bursting into fireworks.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Some of the Deadly Six could fall under this, due to Alternative Character Interpretation.
  • Magnificent Bastard: This version of Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik starts off with complete control of the Deadly Six through the use of the Cacophonic Conch and only loses them due to Sonic's recklessness. Now stripped of his machines and resources, Eggman decides to ally with Sonic and Tails and take advantage of his past habit of uniting against a stronger force. He even goes so far to save a suspicious Tails's life to make his alliance seem completely altruistic. In the climax, Eggman seemingly sacrifices his life so Sonic can defeat the Deadly Six, but Eggman faked it by using a jetpack to break his fall. Spending the time beneath notice building a mech powered by the energy the Extractor had absorbed, Eggman claws his way back to Final Boss status in a stunning display of manipulation and patience.
  • Memetic Mutation: See here.
  • Mis-blamed:
    • Some fans have blamed Nintendo for the game's shortcomings all because the game was made under an exclusivity contract. Nintendo only put the game under contract; it did not get directly involved.
    • There are some who believe that the game's subpar design is due to it being developed by the "B-team" of Sonic Team, which is supported by data-mining showing that its file structure was similar to that of Colors. As it turns out, though, while the game's preliminary structure was the work of some of Colors' staff, the game was a whole-team effort by the studio, with development beginning in earnest once Generations finished development.
    • While Ken Pontac and Warren Graff had more say in the story's final form than they have before or since, they still wrote it based on a general outline handed to them by Sega.
  • Moral Event Horizon: The Deadly Six cross it when they activate Eggman's Extractor to drain the entire world's energy and completely destroy it in the process, something that even Eggman himself is appalled by.
  • Obvious Beta: Not to nearly the same extent as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), but from the amount of tweaks and adjustments to the gameplay that were made by the patch, along with the correction of a few minor glitches, it's clear that the Wii U version wasn't tested as much as it should have been prior to release.
    • Of particular note is the infamous Super Sonic problem in the Wii U version; his model includes 2 mouths and will erratically switch between them if the camera is positioned just right, and some of his animations are bugged as they're meant for regular Sonic instead.
    • Completing all of the missions also causes the text "You have received a reward!" to appear on screen, but the reward is...nothing.
    • An easy-to-miss one is a glitch involving the green goo in the cave levels and the sandy out-of-bounds areas in Desert Ruins: trying to move while in this sand causes Sonic to move very slowly (and is shown physically yanking his feet out of the goo when in the caves), and is only able to get through these areas via rolling. ...unless you move the joystick forward VERY slightly, which would make Sonic or any other character in any other game move very slowly. If you do this, Sonic walks at normal speed out of the goo/sand.
  • Older Than They Think: Lots of people think the Wii U version of this game was the first in the series to initially make it so that 100 rings didn't grant an extra life. In actuality, Sonic Colors was the first one to do so.
  • Play the Game, Skip the Story: The general feel for the game. While the gameplay radically departs from the Boost formula in the games before it and suffers from some poorly explained controls and annoying level gimmicks, when it works, it works well. The story, however, is generally derided, mainly for its shallow setting and villains.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: See here.
  • Self-Fanservice: Zeena might not have many feminine "attributes", but that hasn't stopped the fanart from pouring into the Internet.
  • Signature Scene: Eggman's Villainous Breakdown against the Zeti, when he swears violent retribution and destroys a projector made of solid ice with his bare hands, is one of the most infamous scenes in the largely light-hearted story, and one of the main reasons that the game ended up with an E10+ rating from the ESRB.
  • So Okay, It's Average: The overall opinion on the game seems to be that it fails to measure up to Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, but still manages to be better-received than Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) — more specifically, it gets a few things right, for multiple reasons, but a lot of other things it manages to screw up, leading to a very mixed bag. Opinion is similarly mixed on the 3DS version, but on the whole, slightly lower than the Wii U version due to questionable design in certain levels and some technical issues, including frequent frame drops and rampant pop-in.
  • Special Effect Failure: Due to an animation error, Super Sonic has two mouths in this game.
  • Superlative Dubbing: A downplayed, interesting example occurs with this game, as it was written by Graff and Pontac (who had simply been localizing the games since Sonic Colors). The Japanese version made a few changes that some may find a little more palatable, with less phony jokes as well as a Dub Personality Change to some Zeti.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • That One Level: See here.
  • They Copied It, So It Sucks!: One of the largest criticisms aimed at the game was how much it tries to copy the Super Mario Bros. games, having been explicitly geared toward Mario fans. Besides the fact that the game incorporates cylinder and planetoid level design similar to Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. The level themes are the same as the ones featured in the New Super Mario Bros. titles and follows a similar level progression to those games, the Deadly Six are Alternate Company Equivalents to Bowser and the Koopalings (with Zavok's final battle having him turn giant like Bowser frequently does in the Mario titles), the art-style takes on a simpler and cartoony approach similar to the Mario titles and it even gives Sonic a run button like in the 2D Mario games, Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World. These criticisms would quickly become Hilarious in Hindsight after it was revealed that one of the two Nintendo DLC zones would be based on Yoshi's Island.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Despite being the game's main setting and the story presenting it as a lost and mysterious place that Tails seems to have some knowledge of, what the Lost Hex even is, as well as where it came from and why it looks the way it does, is never touched upon by the game or even in supplementary material.
    • A robot Tails would have made an interesting boss. Sadly, he managed to avoid being controlled by his enemies, and this isn't even the first Sonic game to waste this kind of plot. His robotisation only amounts to a brief fake-out for Sonic, and his attachments are inexplicably gone by the next cutsence.
    • Sonic and Eggman being forced to work together could also have been used to make some interesting levels, but their alliance is only shown through cutscenes. The Deadly Six overthrowing Eggman ends up rather negligible to the actual game, as Sonic not only continues singlehandedly beating Badniks and Zeti as he was already doing before their rebellion, but ultimately fights Eggman anyway as the twist Final Boss.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: A major conflict in the game is how Tails starts feeling like Sonic is beginning to lose faith in him in favor of Eggman, and just wants to be of use to his hero. However, it was completely reasonable to assume that the Extractor's inventor would know best how to turn it off, Tails made little objection to even allowing him to help in the first place, and it's not like this is the first time they've joined hands with Eggman against a greater threat. In fact, this has the side effect of making Sonic Unintentionally Sympathetic, as he's treated negatively for his earlier actions that kicked off the plot despite his genuine remorse and trying to make amends. The plot is firmly on Tails' side of the conflict. and in the end, Sonic apologizes for "not trusting him enough".
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The game takes the Genesis art-style and upgrades it to HD, and it looks quite beautiful as a result.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The game features some very dark dialogue, such as "I long for death's cold embrace", "First you're contemplating genocide" and talk of skinning alive, and Amy and Knuckles get the life sucked out of them.
  • The Woobie:
    • Sonic. He was already feeling pretty bad about endangering the world because of his recklessness, but things just get worse from there. His best friend gets captured and is planned to be roboticized, his other friends presumably get the life sucked out of them, and the last thing he sees of his only remaining allies is them falling towards a river of lava. No wonder Sonic is so distraught throughout the second half of the game.
    • Tails counts too. He gets injured AND captured due to Sonic's recklessness, gets converted to a robot (well, faking it anyway), and feels hurt because his best friend seems to trust the egomaniacal madman who tried to kill them for years over him.

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