Sonic Lost World

Sonic Lost World was one of the results of a deal that brought several Sonic games exclusively to Nintendo platforms, and it's also the most experimental 3D Sonic of its time. The game abandons the wide highways of previous entries and builds its levels on cylindrical and spherical bodies, around whose surfaces Sonic runs, hops between them, and climbs walls. Visually it resembles a construction set of floating chunks of landscape, each with its own rules, and the game happily switches between a side view and a behind-the-back view mid-level.

A major change was speed control. Sonic now runs slower by default, and sprinting is held on the trigger, so the player must decide for themselves when to speed up and when to slow down instead for precise platforming. Added to this is a set of moves called Parkour, allowing Sonic to run along walls and climb over obstacles. The main antagonists are a group of six called the Deadly Six, and the game also features abilities gained from Wisps, tiny aliens who temporarily transform Sonic and open up alternate paths through the levels. The Wii U version offered a map and control of certain abilities on the GamePad screen, along with a cooperative mode for a second player.

Musically it's one of the series' strongest soundtracks, with orchestral and big-band arrangements that differ quite a bit from the rock sound of previous entries. Contemporary reception was mixed; critics mainly took issue with inconsistent controls, unpredictable physics, and uneven difficulty, though some players appreciated the courage to try something completely different. Today Sonic Lost World is interesting precisely as a dead end the series later abandoned, and as a game with unusually inventive level design. Anyone who adjusts to its different pace and stops expecting nonstop speed from Sonic will find plenty of cleverly built levels and ideas that never appeared in any other entry. That's exactly why the title holds onto a small but vocal group of defenders.