Sonic Lost World

"Rise Against the Deadly Six!"

- The game's tagline.

Sonic Lost World (ソニックロストワールド) is an upcoming video game and the next main installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game is being released exclusively for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS on October 18 at Europe, October 22 at America and October 24 at Japan of 2013. The game is currently under development by Sonic Team for Wii U and Dimps for Nintendo 3DS, and is to be published by Sega (in Japan and America) and Nintendo (in Europe and Australia). This is the first out of the three titles of the SEGA and Nintendo exclusive collaboration, the other confirmed one being Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Story
Sonic is chasing after his longtime foe, Eggman. He encounters a mysterious floating island known as “Lost Hex,” where he runs into the Deadly Six and learns that Eggman used them to harness their power. But, because of Sonic's recklessness, the Deadly Six rebel against the Doctor himself and threaten to destroy the planet. Sonic and Eggman are forced to work together in order to save the planet and put an end to their misdeeds.

Gameplay
The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog in an action platformer. The setting of the gameplay takes place on spherical worlds that shift in perspective, allowing for both 2D and 3D gameplay. Stages will change and shift to use various gimmicks and aesthetics, from a candy themed 2D level in Desert Ruins to a Snowball pinball area in Frozen Factory to a stealth-centered area in Silent Forest. The boost-integrated gameplay from the more recent 3D titles has been eschewed in favor of a new control style, more similar to the control style found in the Sonic Adventure titles. The game brings back a few moves from Sonic's past, such as the Spin Dash, Bounce Attack and Super Peel-Out. The Homing Attack can be chained in quick succession. The game introduces also the "parkour" system, which is allowing Sonic to maneuver across obstacles and climb walls. The game will also feature returning and new Color Powers, gained from Wisps, a returning element from Sonic Colors, with different Wisps exclusive to both versions of the game. Similar to past installments in the series, the player has to reach to the end, where the single capsule, which contains animal friends that are ready to be released from the capsule. After pressing the large button on the top of capsule, the player has completed that act in the zone. Smaller capsules can be found within the stages as well .Red Star Rings from Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations make a return, which like before can be collected for unlocking collectible content.

Wii U Version
On the Wii U version, using the D-pad or left control stick will move Sonic at a moderate pace, whilst holding down the right trigger button will engage his running speed. Pressing both triggers allows Sonic to perform  the Spin Dash. Sonic will also be able to do a jumping Kick attack that can destroy enemies the Homing Attack cannot in the Wii U version. Miiverse is featured in the form of item-sharing, where players can obtain and share various capsules, such as Elemental Shields and Black Bomb Wisps that are exclusive to this feature, that can be used during gameplay. The Wii U version will offer both competitive and cooperative multiplayer, but there will not be an online multiplayer mode. When playing in multiplayer mode, one player will control Sonic using the Wii U gamepad while the other will use the Wii remote to either help (co-op) or race against the other player (versus).

3DS Version
The 3DS version of the game will also contain fully 3D gameplay similar to the Wii U version, unlike the handheld versions of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. It will not, however, be a port, but rather, a separate game with different level design, similar to the handheld versions of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, and use slightly different controls due to the 3DS's button layout, compared to the Wii U Gamepad. Instead of the kick attack in the Wii U version, Sonic will use a Somersault attack, that can stun enemies for a short time. . The 3DS version will also offer four player local and online multiplayer modes, and connectivity with the Wii U version of the game.

While news about Sonic Lost World is mostly hefty for the Wii U version, a preview at the Penny Arcade Expo for the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Lost World, according to an Australian previewer "..did not feel enjoyable," raising questions to if the Nintendo 3DS version, which is being produced by Dimps, will be as good as the Wii U version. However, this was only a demo, as there could have been little bugs that cause the gameplay to feel unpleasant. On the August 7 Nintendo Direct, it was announced that using your Nintendo 3DS, you can help the player on the Wii U in the stage as a toy helicopter build by Tails.

Playable Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Virtual Hedgehog

Non-Playable Characters

 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Amy Rose
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Orbot
 * Cubot

Animal Friends

 * Flicky
 * Picky
 * Chirps
 * Pecky
 * Ricky
 * Rocky

Deadly Six

 * Zavok
 * Zazz
 * Zeena
 * Zik
 * Zomom
 * Zor

Levels
Sonic Lost World contains six zones for both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions. Similar to Sonic Colors, each zone has six acts. For the first time in the series, most of the acts can have a completely different theme or atmosphere, which can have different gameplay styles with old or new gimmicks and features.

Windy Hill
Windy Hill is the first zone in Sonic Lost World. It takes place on planetoids similar to Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog. Classic badniks such as Motobug and Chopper appear in the stage as well. There is a tutorial mode that takes place on this stage. The Cyan Wisp and a new Wisp, known as the Indigo Wisp, appear in the stage on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions of the game respectively. There appears to be a afternoon-time stage that appears only on the Nintendo 3DS version.

Desert Ruins
Desert Ruins is the second zone in  Sonic Lost World. Three levels of the Wii U version have been shown so far: a candy-theme act similar to Sweet Mountain from Sonic Colors, a Tree-like Mach Speed segment act similar to the Knuckles' Chaotix Special Stages, and a third that takes place in a wide-open desert, with a sand-tornado chase sequence. The level shown in the Nintendo 3DS version takes place in the desert, where Sonic goes through parts of ruins.

Silent Forest
Silent Forest takes place in a deep jungle. There are numerous small rail sections where minecarts and dangerous crocodile-type enemies are seen. There is also a second night-themed act that takes place in higher sections of the jungle. In this act, large Owls are sleeping in the night background while the player is hanging on rocky ruins with thorn vines above the jungle.

Frozen Factory
Frozen Factory takes place in a snowy region filled with various machinery, hence the name. Frozen Factory features rotating gears snowboarding sections and Sonic being able utilize and even turn himself into large, moving snowball. There are also separated casino-themed act, that bears a strong resemblance to the Casino Night Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Casino Park from Sonic Heroes.

Other Known Zones

 * Untitled tropical-themed Zone.
 * Untitled volcano-themed Zone.
 * An untitled 360 degree "Tube-stage".

Development
Originally, Sega registered the trademark and the web address of the game's website on May 16, 2013. The game was first announced at a presentation of Nintendo Direct on May 17, 2013. According to Nintendo's Satoru Iwata, it is announced that Nintendo itself has entered into a worldwide partnership with Sega regarding the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The first teaser image was revealed during the Nintendo Direct, showing Sonic and Tails flying with Tornado to the new main setting of the game, later being revealed and named as Lost Hex. A week later, Sega uploaded another teaser picture to the Facebook account, which showed silhouettes of mysterious new characters. On May 28, 2013, the debut trailer was released by IGN, revealing the Deadly Six and showing the first gameplay clips. The next day, story details, new gameplay mechanics and collectible contents was revealed.

On June 7th, 2013, Richard George on IGN showed a walkthrough tutorial of Windy Hill and Desert Ruins with Aaron Webber. While Takashi Iizuka has revealed to be producer of the game, he announced that the game is directed by Morio Kishimoto and Heido Bayashi, while the game's soundtrack is composed by Tomoya Ohtani, who has done music for Sonic Unleashed. More information is to be revealed by the game's development team in an upcoming event celebrating Sonic's 22nd anniversary, which is held at Tokyo Joypolis. However, no information was revealed during June 23, 2013 about Sonic Lost World.

Iizuka also stated game being under the development for two and half years, which has been started during Sonic Generations development as prototyping the different geometries. The reason why the game's development has been then moved on to Wii U has been giving the second screen feature for the game and Sonic's selling success on Nintendo platforms. Sonic Lost World will be playable at the 2013 Summer of Sonic event held at London, England. Both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS versions will be playable.

On July 16, 2013, new coverage of Sonic Lost World was revealed. This included the first quote of Zavok, the new zones, including a new desert-themed act for Desert Ruins and Silent Forest, and two new Color Powers: the Crimson Eagle Wisp, and the Magenta Rhythm Wisp. Several days later, Frozen Factory was revealed via screenshots, and shortly, GameSpot previewed a new stage demo trailer featuring coverage from Windy Hill, Desert Ruins, and Frozen Factory.

The "Colors Trailer" for Sonic Lost World not only raise questions on the new Wisps, but also the strange ESRB rating of "Everyone 10+". Only "Mild Cartoon Violence" is shown for the reason behind the rating, but it was learned eventually that aggressive and violent dialogue were the cause of this, having such quotes such as "You’re going home in a box" and "One second you’re contemplating genocide". Also, several scenes within the game also depict laser and fire explosions that could be crude to audiences.

At the Summer of Sonic 2013 convention, Takashi Iizuka has revealed several interesting facts about Sonic Lost World. He first stated that SEGA wants "Mario fans" to play Sonic Lost World, due to the slow-balanced platforming used in Sonic Lost World. He then later revealed that Sonic Lost World was made for the PC at first to see what kind of platformer video game that could make. SEGA then choose Nintendo platforms to have Sonic Lost World playable on [Nintendo's] systems to see which system would work best for Sonic Lost World.

On August 7, 2013, Nintendo Direct had revealed minor coverage about both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS versions of Sonic Lost World, including an item making swap where on the 3DS version, the player can make items and then swap it on the Wii U version and vice versa. What might be the most interesting coverage revealed by Nintendo Direct was on the Japanese trailer for Sonic Lost World. It featured an entire cutscene showing the Deadly Six taking control Eggman's badniks and using the robots to strike at the doctor, Orbot and Cubot, along with Sonic and Tails. It has been confirmed that Sonic Lost World will be shown at the Sega booth at the Gamescom video game convention. Gamespot also released a trailer showing the Co-Op and 2P versus mode of the Wii U version.

Music
The music composed for Sonic Lost World is composed by Tomoya Ohtani, who had previously composed the soundtrack for Sonic Unleashed. This is the reason that some of the background music used for several stages in Sonic Lost World sound familiar to the ones used in Sonic Unleashed. A list below shows the following connections and similarities to both the Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Lost World background music:


 * Windy Hill (Sonic Lost World) - Rooftop Run, Daytime (Sonic Unleashed).
 * Desert Ruins, Act Two (Sonic Lost World, Nintendo 3DS version) - Arid Sands, Daytime (Sonic Unleashed).
 * Desert Ruins, Act Two (Sonic Lost World, Wii U version) - Skyscraper Scamper, Daytime (Sonic Unleashed).

Release
Both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS versions of Sonic Lost World will be released first in Europe on October 18th, 2013. The US release of the game will be on October 22nd, 2013, while both versions of the game will be released in Japan on October 24th, 2013. Because Nintendo and Sega are working cooperatively, Sega will release the game in US and Japan, while Nintendo works as the distributor of the game in Europe and Australia markets.

Sega will also launch two accessory kits as collector items during the Japanese release on October 24th. The first kit contains a protection cover for Nintendo 3DS XL models and a small Sonic-themed storage bag. The kit also contains a bonus soundtrack CD for the game. The second kit contains two blue colored earphone jacks and two small keychains: a pair of Sonic's Speed Shoes and Tails' set of tails. The extented Gamescom trailer reveals the game having "Deadly Six Edition", that includes DLC content.

Comic Adaption
In Sonic Super Special #9, an adaption of Sonic Lost World is presented. Not much is known about this adaption yet, other than that it will contain an In Another Time, In Another Place-esque story within the issue. The game adaption in the issue is 20 pages long, making it to this day the longest game adaption featured in Archie Comics.

Trivia

 * Sonic's original Tornado is seen in the concept artwork but is slightly altered from the last version seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II.
 * This game shares its name with an action stage from Sonic Adventure.
 * Interestingly, one of Sonic Lost World's stages is Windy Hill, which is the same name as a segment from another Sonic Adventure stage, Windy Valley.
 * Most of the stages in Sonic's story of Sonic Adventure were cleared by pressing the button of a Capsule which Sonic Lost World follows this trait.
 * The music used in the debut trailer is a instrumental version of "Cinema" by Benny Benassi. The Nintendo 3DS trailer of the game uses instrumental version of "Gameboy" by Invigilators x Ceezlin.
 * The Super Peel Out makes a return in the game as Sonic's standard running animation, which was last seen in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
 * This will be the first 3D Sonic game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to feature item boxes in 3D stages. In addition, this is the first 3D Sonic game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) that allows Sonic to charge and perform a Spin Dash. This is also the first 3D Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2 where Sonic automatically grabs on to the edge of ledges.
 * The game shares some similarities to Sonic X-treme, a cancelled game for the Sega Saturn. Both games have a story where six creatures get out of Eggman's grasp (which was one of several stories for the latter), both have a first stage inspired by Green Hill Zone (the former Windy Hill and the latter Jade Gully Zone), both have freely floating level structures and both have gravity playing a key role. Despite  Sega of America employee  Aaron Webber noting the game was an influence, Takashi Iizuka has claimed that the developers of Sonic Lost World did not know about Sonic X-Treme, meaning it had no influence on Sonic Lost World whatsoever.
 * It also shares some similarities to Super Mario Galaxy, another game that has freely floating, circular level structures, traveling between several planetoids, and has gravity playing a key role. Windy Hill Zone, Act 1's segmented structure resembles the levels from the Super Mario Galaxy series and Super Mario 3D Land.
 * Interestingly, Takashi Iizuka admitted that Sonic Lost World had "...ended up a bit too close to [Super] Mario Galaxy"
 * The Badniks in Sonic Lost World bear cartoonish designs rather than their more menacing designs used in recent games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.
 * This is the second main series Sonic game to feature a double jump after Sonic Colors. The handheld version will also be the second game in the handheld series to feature the double jump, the first being Sonic Blast.
 * The Invincibility's and Speed Shoes' theme is an instrumental version of "Sonic Heroes".
 * Large floating cannons in this game are similar to ones from Oil Ocean Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
 * This is the first main Sonic game to be on the Wii U, however it is the second main Sonic game to be on the Nintendo 3DS, the first being Sonic Generations, and the second Sonic game overall on the Wii U, the other being Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed.
 * Bonus Points from the original Sonic the Hedgehog will return in the game.
 * This is the second main series Sonic game to be released exclusively for Nintendo platforms (the first being Sonic Colors).
 * Like the Wii version of Sonic Colors, the player does not earn an extra life upon collecting 100 rings.
 * In the Wii U version, the lives counter, timer, animal counter, and Red Ring counter only appear when Sonic is at a completely dead stop, but occasionally show up when Sonic destroys an enemy, gets rings or an extra life, or collects Red Rings.
 * The Wii U version has a countdown time limit in each stage, as the player has a limited time to complete each stage much like some of the Super Mario adventure platforming games. However in the Nintendo 3DS version, it's a stopwatch timer counting up just like the Sega Genesis video games.
 * When Sonic is Parkour Running on walls on the Wii U version, you can see Sonic's after-images when doing so. In the 3DS version, red and white stars are shown.
 * This is the fifth Sonic game to be rated E10+, following Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic and the Black Knight.
 * This is the first Sonic game that Eggman actually calls Orbot and Cubot by their names, as in Sonic Colors, Eggman never spoke their names.