So I rented Lost World, the Wii U version, last week and made it up to Silent Forest before Saints Row IV ate up my time instead. Essentially, the first four zones out of seven (main, not counting the Hidden World) overall. [tornado fang] Frozen Factory, plain and simple.
There were some cool ideas here and there of what I played, but it didn't feel like Sonic at all. And they tried to have your jumps based off of momentum, but since going into a full-on run only takes a little under a second, jumping whatsoever before you break into a full run will completely gimp your jumps because you're not at 'full speed'; good luck if you don't have enough room to properly run, although you usually should unless it's a 2D platforming segment. Speaking of 2D, the speed and physics change between 2D and 3D sections as well, to the point that trying to run full-tilt through 2D sections if you're not accustomed to the level already will probably fling you into a pit.
The parkour was also really superficial and kinda obnoxious; running at anything with any speed at all will get Sonic trying to climb it like a kid on a sugar rush, and jumping off will try to have him launch a good distance away, making it difficult to use well and possibly detrimental to Sonic in a bad circumstance. Not to mention they barely describe how to use some of the more advanced tricks and leave it to your probable deaths to figure things out. But then the level design really doesn't care much for parkour a lot of the time.
And aside from the occasions that shoehorn Wisps in, they really felt.. off. A patch a while ago allows you to get a life every 100 rings (why wasn't that in the game by default?) as well as control all but the Rhythm Wisp with normal controls, so that fixes most of the control issues, but they're still extremely pointless compared to Colors, where those were more like an expansion of gameplay. The level design just didn't seem to accentuate them whatsoever unless it was specifically meant to be used for a segment.
Frozen Factory made me put it down in disgust, though, and probably contributed to not picking it up again. Ice physics, jumping while 'running' on ice makes Sonic get Castlevania jump physics as he does a Mario-like twirl through the air, really obnoxious level design. One part alone killed me seven times in the fourth act, where I was forced to Spin Dash to break some ice blocks - but Sonic refused to stop and would fling himself every time under two crushers right afterwards. I got lucky when he just accidentally jumped into the side of a crusher instead and that finally saved him.
Also, the 'bonus' stage of Tropical Coast, it's.. That skyfalling [parasitic bomb] feels like it controls worse than the mach speed sections of Sonic '06, which makes me dread how the full-time version in Sky Road would've been.
After playing Super Mario 3D World first and coming to Lost World, it feels like an poor man's 3D World (metaphorically speaking), not a Sonic game. But it's not like the low point of 3D Sonic games; it's playable, functional, and completable without being an affront to your sanity. Unless you go for all Red Rings in your playthrough rather than saving that for post-game. It's just not a good game from what I played, especially in comparison to 3D World, even at the most fundamental elements of being a platformer.
But that's just my opinion. I could talk about the plot since I've seen all the scenes already, but really, it's the gameplay I care about. Maybe I just came in with already-biased expectations from what i'd seen before, or maybe 3D World spoiled me in comparison.