What Could Have Been Different: The 2010s Era

[Mike Arcade]

The 2010s of Sonic brought about many changes, some that a lot of people would have wanted to be different. There are the sort of questions we ask here at WCHBD. For starters let's look at the rather polarizing game Sonic Lost World...

What if Sonic Lost World was a Modern "Boost" style Sonic game? How would that have changed it's reception along with it's future title Sonic Forces?

[WarTraveller]

7 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

What if Sonic Lost World was a Modern "Boost" style Sonic game? How would that have changed it's reception along with it's future title Sonic Forces?

 

If Lost World was anything like Forces, I very much doubt it'd be anything special. The story was already impressively poor, so the "run down this hallway" gameplay of Forces would probably be the last straw for a lot of people.

[Ishapar]

I don't think boose would have worked with Lost World's freer gameplay.  You can tell that the game wasn't meant for the full-blown speed from the other boost games.  That said, if the game focused on the boost mechanic, I don't think the game would have made much of an impact after the success of Generations.  The boost mechanic was at its climax at Generations:  Unleashed and Colors were able to get away with the mechanic because of its "coolness" of being able to boost through huge levels like a race track and revive the speed factor missing in other 3d Sonic games.  3rd times the charm with Generations, but since then I see the boost mechanic becoming a boring gimmick to even fans of the Boost genre.  It has been around long enough for the cool factor to phase out with nothing new to add or solving any of the other problems in the 3d series (exploration).  Since Lost World picks up after Generations, I think the game may have a better gameplay factor, but there would be nothing new to offer.  Sega would be rehashing the whole boost formula again in a different environment.  I doubt Lost Worlds would have been remembered as much as it is now for its controversial gameplay, and I doubt it would have affected Sonic Forces.  Sonic Forces was taking the positive feedback from Generations and trying too much to please too many various fans with a product that has less to offer.  I never played Forces, but from what I have seen in reviews, I guess the game was a big disappointment for all the hype placed into it.

[WarTraveller]

Okay, well what about the reverse? What if Sonic Forces was like Sonic Lost World in terms of gameplay?

For me personally, that almost would kind of make some sense. Just remove all of the "planets" in the game and have the gameplay in more standard 3D areas as Forces itself does. I'd think that'd work a lot better as Lost World by design encouraged actual level layouts to account for the flawed-yet-interesting parkour mechanic.