I got my hands on Sonic: Lost World exclusively on the Wii U this afternoon at Nintendo's E3 booth, and while it's been a long time since I've played a proper Sonic platformer I found myself able to jump right in and have fun thanks to the game's simple controls and beautiful visuals. 

Speeding through the game's mixture of 2D and 3D environments should be familiar to just about anyone who's picked up a Sonic game over the last decade, but from what I've played Lost World seems to be the most polished iteration of that speedy platforming gameplay in a long time. 

That has a lot to do with the game's colorful environments. Three levels were on display and were arranged by difficulty. The attendee before me chose the "Easy" level, which was reminiscent of a floating Green Hill zone and which had Sonic blazing across a series of airborne islands. It was pretty nice-looking stuff, but a bit too familar to me. I chose the "Medium" level when my turn came, and was rewarded for my decision with a striking word constructed entirely of candy pieces. 

Running along licorice and bouncing between candy buttons was an experience as saccharine as it sounds, and brought a childlike grin to my face even on the crowded and noisy show floor. Level design was classic Sonic, too, with plenty of branching paths, loop-de-loops, and secrets to discover. A double-jump move allowed Sonic to traverse areas of the environment that he normally wouldn't be able to reach, and opened up a whole new series of platforming moves and tricks. 

My time with Sonic: Lost World didn't exactly blow my mind from a mechanics perspective; this is more of less the same Sonic we've been playing for years now, even if the double-jump does open up some new avenues for exploration and traversal. What really struck me about the title was its whimsical and colorful level design, which kept me at rapt attention. If SEGA's latest Sonic can keep up this penchant for flamboyant design, I look forward to getting lost in this world come Autumn.