Something Old, Something Blue

As E3 approached earlier this year, I was waiting for that one game that would make me want to grab a Wii U. While a few games look like potential winners, there was nothing that stood out. At least, nothing that I expected. However, there is one game that I thought could be a system seller for me. Of all things, a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Galaxy X-Treme

It's been almost twenty years since there was a Sonic game that had me this excited. Sonic Lost World been compared a lot to Super Mario Galaxy and in a good way. That's high praise. To me, the game looks like a weird cross between Galaxy and 1996's unfortunately cancelled Sonic X-treme, which I remember really looking forward to. I see both games represented in the Lost World footage and as a long time Sonic fan, it's hard to not get excited.

Momentum, Not Speed

Far too often when reading reviews of Sonic games that haven't lived up to their hype, I come across a comment that irritates me - that Sonic has always been "all about the speed". Yeah right. Just try playing through Marble Zone on the original game and tell me that was all about speed. Let me know how it works out for you when you try to blaze your way through Sonic 2's Mystic Cave or Metropolis. 

Sonic may have been designed to be a 'faster Mario', but he was never all about speed. Finally, I read one game journalist's correction that Sonic has in fact always been about momentum, not speed. That the developers of Lost World have slowed Sonic down, forcing the player to actually hold another button to get him up to super speed, is another thing that has caught my eye about this game.

It's a Vicious Cycle

And then there's the 'Sonic Cycle'. If you've never heard of that, it basically goes like this: a new Sonic game is announced, it looks amazing and everyone gets excited about it, it ends up being an extremely disappointing mess, everyone swears off Sonic for good....and repeat from step one. Actually, in recent years, the Cycle itself has made its way into being part of that process to the point that now it is mocked along with the games themselves.

And of course, many say that the Cycle has in fact been broken in recent years. I've heard some people claim that Sonic Colors broke the Cycle, but I never got around to that game, so I can't speak to that. Others claim Sonic Generations did it, and I take issue with that. Sonic Generations was a great game, but only if you are comparing it to other Sonic games. Next to something like Super Mario Galaxy, it's a stretch to even call it good. The controls still weren't that great. The visuals were too distracting. Just the overall presentation was severely lacking.

But Sonic Lost World...I feel like this could be the game that's going to bring Sonic back and...

Oh, Wait...

...and just like that, reality creeps in and reminds that it is unwise to get too worked up about Sonic. Joystiq ran a video preview of the game recently in which their editor in chief details his time with the game. The game still looks great, no doubt about that. However, in addition to sounding like he was just being informative and not actually excited for the game, there was one thing in the video that really caught my attention. In the last few seconds of the video he declares, "Prepare to enter the Sonic Cycle yet again."

Oh boy. That doesn't sound good.