Review: Sonic World R8

Hello there. Sonik, here with a new post. I want to give my thoughts on Sonic World R8 but to do that, I will need to play some Sonic World R8 (SWR8) and give my honest opinion on the game.

Sonic World R8

Going to play the game for about a good 30 mins to an hour and say what I feel about the game as a whole. And since the game has extra modes…. I will spend a few mins on those as well.

I will be starting fresh and using a new file to see what you can get or such.

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Story?

From what I played of Sonic World R7 and now R8. I don’t see a story here. It’s your fan game. There is no story from what I can tell, you get into the action, once you boot the game up. But Sonic World Devs. If there is a story, let me know in the comments, if I am wrong. :P

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My thoughts on the game

Sonic World R8 is made with the Blitz3D engine. And I must say it looks nice, but I will be playing some levels and get a better feel for the game.

And let’s talk about elephants in the room that Sonic World R8 still has.

1. The timer bug still seems to be an issue that has not been fixed. There is a dead forum post but, it does go into detail about the timer bug. Timer bug — Sonic World R7 and up.
2. And the most common issue is the game runs out of memory and crashes. These problems are mentioned in this video. I feel if the game still needed work. It would have been better to delay the release then to pump it out. (This is the video I mentioned)

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Sonic World R8 levels

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The worst cave.

It really did earn that name. It’s not fun, maybe that was the point but wow. This is ugh. This level has bad enemy placement and some wonky hitboxes. If you can withstand this level’s mach speed and get through, some fun “can” be had here.

You get rings at the start of the first section of the level, and you must get to the scripted spring which will take you to the second section. I made it to the fourth section before giving up. The enemy placement and breakable crystals, and the other crystals you can see become hazards, as you go further in the stage.

Sonic World R8 — the Worst Cave

If you can have fun in this stage, well done. Not going to try again. I beat this nightmare, and this is not fun. It feels like trial and error is needed more than skill. Because you need or have to die a lot to know what is coming up and remember the layout, which is bad design.

This level has a ramp that will let the player run up them. If you are trying to dodge objects and bad enemy placement if you are unable to run up the ramp. You will clip through the ramp and die.

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Kingdom Waterfall

A level based on sonic 06’s Kingdom Valley. This too is a mach speed section. Is this better than the worst cave? Time to find out.

Kingdom Waterfall has better enemy “placement” that is, till you run into the “jack in the box” enemy that pops out of the ground when you are close to them. A bit cheap (If you ask me), when you are in a mach speed level. But this is their game.

Sonic World R8 — Kingdom Waterfall

Again, you are met with more rings to give you a fighting chance, as for hazard placement… That is really up for debate, some seem like they are in good/questionable spots while others feel like they are just there.

It’s only near the end of the stage that running on water is a bit wonky, but what happens but it’s rare is when the player is running along the path, the player may bump something that will cause you to fall, but it’s rare.

And at the end of the stage, you run uphill where the goal ring is. It seems the path of the center is not solid, as if you run in this area, you fall through the floor.

You need a character that can double jump or fly over the area. If you are playing Sonic World R8 Solo as sonic or shadow, some stages may be unbeatable.

While playing Kingdom Waterfall, this bug tends to happen once in a while, soft locking the game, forcing the player to restart the stage.

Sonic World R8 — Rainbow loop bug

This stage is better than the last. Seems that the mach speed stages seem to be the ones with problems. If you play Kingdom Waterfall, have a character that can fly or double jump near the end.

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Hydrocity

Hydrocity, a level from Sonic 3. It’s not a mach speed stage. But is it good? Time to see.

Hydrocity offers a nice platformer stage that gives you a few ways to play the stage but overall, it leads to only one main path that has the goal.

This is a fairly open level with a lot to do here and see. It does not overstay its welcome. It’s pretty fun, a bit dull and linear in level design.

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Starlight

Based off of Sonic 1’s Starlight. It’s pretty fun, although my first run of the stage was… Something special. This was due to me messing with some settings, and the results are funny, at best

My first run in this stage

It just gets better, doesn’t it?

I sense a pattern here…

Yup, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how i ended up in this situation…

Ignoring what happened to me. Starlight is another good platformer stage, A bit too linear if I’m being honest. But it’s a good stage.

Gonna look at two more stages then look at the special stages.

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Windy Valley

Windy Valley is a 1 for 1 of Sonic Adventure Windy Valley. That is till you get to the second part of the stage that it starts to add its own spin to the level. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either, I feel this stage is pretty weak in level design, but that’s my opinion

There is not much to really say. If you like to roam the level, you may have fun. It is a big level. And it does use bits from Windy Valley, which I thought was a nice touch.

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Love Garden

What can I say? Love Garden, is your standard linear platformer level. The level is short but sweet. There is a lot to find here. But not too much. If you like to platform, this may be your level. Granted, it is basic in design.

But it doesn’t mean it is bad or anything. It’s pretty good, but level design needs some work.

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Special Stages

Special stages can be unlocked by getting 10 emblems in the game. A new way to get the chaos emeralds added just for Sonic World R8, I need to say this. The controls feel way too loose. Granted, after a while, you will get used to the player in the special stages

Special stage one is your basic special stage, you have rings and bombs to avoid and 10 rings boxes. But as a neat spin. The stages are random. The stage will never be the same if you play it again.

As you play the next Special stage, there will be more hazards. The stage will ask the player to jump, and there will be pits on the track that will cause to fall off the stage and much more

They are fun until you have to do so much in the special stage.

You can’t fly, double jump, glide, and use any powers. You are limited to a spin dash, homing attack, and a jump.

Overall, The special stages are fun but later on, feel questionable and sometimes, a bit cheap, but they can be done.

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Marathon

It is what it sounds like. You go to stage to stage in a random order. Not much to say here. If you quit, you can pick up where you left off or start a new marathon.

A neat idea but it is a nice mode if you are bored. But try it out when you can.

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Chao Garden

Not much to say here. If you loved chao and liked raising them, this may be for you. You can get chaos drives that will level up your chao, and it’s a nice little mode. Give it a go. The chao is waiting.

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My final thoughts

I won’t claim I know anything about Blitz3D engine and Sonic World R series, cause I don’t. Making a 2D game is hard, as I am a game dev, myself. And I’m sure that 3D games are harder to make as there is so much more that can go wrong.

But this is a fan game that has been released to all to play, and I want to be honest. Sonic World R8 I feel needs work. Most of the game is stable, and the game is fun. Although, it is a linear adventure that does get old overtime.

The game is anything but perfect, far from is. Sadly, there are some things that Blitz3D engine can’t handle, or some things can’t be fixed.

Trying to record an active game of Sonic World R8 will cause the game to bug out and destroy the hub objects which will lead to crash or something like this.

Sonic World R8 has left me with a mixed adventure. It’s not all bad, I had a lot of up’s with this game and a lot of down’s, but the good does outweigh the bad. There is a fun game here, but you have to find it.

Overall, Sonic World R8 is not a bad release, it does, however, need more work and a Quality assurance team to test everything with each character before releasing to make sure things are on the stable side. But with all that has happened when playing Sonic World R8, it is, for the most part, a solid game… When it wants to be.

If you like 3D fan games, give Sonic world R8 a try. You might have a better time than me.

Sonic World: https://sonicworldfangame.com/downloads/