Sonic has been in a rut for a long time. Many consider Sonic Adventure the last great game of the series, and that came out in 1998. It’s been a long road but it hasn’t given up.
In the latest issue of Official Nintendo Magazine, producer Takashi Iizuka shared the team’s desire to win back both fans of Sonic and platforming games with their upcoming game: Sonic Lost World. He said:
Sonic started out as a platform title but, as we got to the more recent ones, it changed to be a more speed-based game. Recent fans will be familiar with that speed-based gaming, but with Lost World, we wanted to win back the platform fans. We don’t just want old Sonic fans to come back, though: we want Mario players and other platform gamers to enjoy the new game, too.
The only problem is the game is exclusive to Wii U and 3DS, leaving some classic Sonic fans without a platform to play it on.
For those who will be able to play it, it’s well worth being excited over. Its showing at E3 was surprisingly fantastic with some of the Sonic Unleashed style of gameplay but with much more adherence to what made the classics great. Level design in particular appears to be much improved with good difficulty balance and constantly evolving challenges. Fans of the series will find a lot of the visual style familiar with homage to several of the original releases, but there’s some new stuff as well. One level is themed like Candyland with mints and candy to jump to and from. There are even some new modes that add a nice touch of extra play value to the experience.
Look out for Sonic Lost World when it releases on October 22nd.
