The first trailer for the Wii U and 3DS exclusive Sonic Lost World was released today. And with a promising debut, the Sonic Cycle has started again and at least some of us are interested and mildly hyped for Sonic’s next big adventure.

More news will be spilling out about Sonic Lost World between now and E3, and hell, we'll even get to play it at E3, too! Prep your chili dog and check out what the Nintendo World Report staff has to say about the blue blur, and be sure to add your own thoughts in the comments below.

Neal Ronaghan, Director: For the first time since the failure that was Sonic Unleashed, I am kind of interested in a Sonic game. It looks primarily 2D, and the new additions seem to be implemented to make the game flow better in 3D, which is something that always seemed to hold up even the best 3D Sonic games.

Andy Goergen, Reviews Editor: I’m happy that the video isn’t just sizzle. The gameplay being shown looks promising, and although I’m physically incapable of getting my hopes up over a Sonic game, I’m at least interested. The best thing for Nintendo right now would be for Sega to hit a home run with a new Sonic game.

Justin Baker, Staff Writer: I’m really hoping Sega has learned their lesson with Sonic, because I haven’t been excited for a Sonic game in a long time either. It looks like they’ve taken design cues from the Galaxy series, but I’m a little worried about the new villains. Although we haven’t seem much of them yet, it’s been quite a while since they added a new character to the Sonic mythos that was actually interesting. That said, did anyone else’s heart rate jump when Sonic ran through that half-pipe and the gravity shifted? That was awesome.

Neal: The villains do look kind of dumb. It kind of reminds me of the throwaway villains from Metroid Prime 3 ran through a Sonic Shitty Friend filter. Can’t we just bring back the chicken and drill robot from Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine/Sonic’s stupid cartoon show?

Justin Baker: If they added chili dogs and the cartoon characters this would be a day one purchase for me. I don’t think the kid in me could resist!

Neal: Same here. But seriously, It’s no surprise that Sonic Team is handling this game’s development. With their spotty track record, I hope that Nintendo is doing more than locking down exclusivity with this game. Though I have heard good things about Sonic Generations on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3...

Josh Max, Staff Writer: I enjoyed Generations on the 3DS. It may have been short, but it was fun. The PS3 version was a little longer, and still fun. After Black Knight, I had lost all hope in the Blue Blur, but after Colors and Generations, I’m starting to think he can make a comeback. The game looks simple enough that it could be a straightforward fun game. No werehogs, no gimmicks. Just new moves and new enemies. Which could be considered gimmicks. And while some people may shout hooray for a solo Sonic game, others may shout that they wished for his supporting players to make an appearance. Essentially, there’s no way Sonic’s coming out of this uncriticized. Poor guy. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty excited about the new game.

Carmine Red, Contributing Editor: Instead of continuing to try to take Sonic into a sort of pseudo real-world setting, I'm intrigued to see how Sonic Lost World might follow in Mario Galaxy's footsteps. Mario previously escaped gravity (and any sense of a realistic setting) in order to rediscover a less encumbered brand of Nintendo-style platforming. Maybe that's what Sonic Lost World will do here too: a return to simple joys, classic platforming, and abstract levels designed with actual gameplay as their first, and maybe only, priority.

Neal: The whole setting reminds me more of the worlds in the Genesis Sonic games, which I always kind of dug. The settings in those games are fun.

Tom Malina, UK Correspondent: I don’t have nearly the history with the Sonic the Hedgehog series to be affected by the so-called “Sonic cycle”. I’ve played titles both good (Sonic Colours) and bad (Sonic Heroes), so I’m going to approach Sonic Lost World like I would any other new game - that is to say, based on this one debut trailer, I’m not ready to commit either way, but the brief glimpses into the level design are intriguing and show a lot of promise. It is quite surprising that it’s taken this long for another studio to tackle the challenge of building platforming levels around spherical objects the way that Nintendo did with Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.

One observation I did have looking at the gameplay footage in that trailer is that I wasn’t especially impressed with the graphics. Considering that 3D Sonic games are often about presenting a visual spectacle as you blaze through the stage only somewhat in control, it didn’t seem like Lost World was up to all that much in that department, especially now that the game is on a HD platform. Again though, it’s probably too early to say; maybe Sega is still has plenty of work to do on fine-tuning the visuals.

Nicholas Bray, Australia Correspondent: I was pleasantly surprised by the debut trailer this morning. I had expected this Sonic game to basically follow the Unleashed/Generations mold, I am very happy that they are changing the gameplay up yet again, whilst also further tweaking the gameplay from those other two games.

Graphically I like it, I prefer it when Sonic’s worlds are simple and colourful. This trailer instantly reminded me of the cancelled Sega Saturn game Sonic Xtreme. That came mostly from how the levels are constructed and how the camera was positioned in some segments of the video.

My main complaint with the recent Sonic games is that the character still felt unwieldy sometimes when moving him around. I hope he feels more grounded and stable in this. I like the idea of holding down a run button now, that should help whenever you do need to move at a slower pace.

J.P. Corbran, Staff Writer: I was a Genesis kid. I remember one of the best Christmases of my youth was the year I received Sonic 3. The first game system I ever bought at launch was the Dreamcast, and alongside it, I purchased Sonic Adventure. No matter what this series does to me, I can’t help but be optimistic every time they take a new angle at it, but for once it looks like this time they might actually have done it right

A lot of people are comparing what we saw in the video to Super Mario Galaxy, and my question to Sega regarding that is “What took you so long?” Those games showed how to do what amounted to 2D gameplay in 3D space, and if you’re going to steal, you damn well better steal from the best. The game looks like a Genesis 2D Sonic game brought into the modern day, and I hope and pray that Sega doesn’t let me down again like they have so many times.

Michael “TYP” Cole, Senior Editor: Sonic Colors always gave me a slight Super Mario Galaxy vibe, and is my favorite 3D Sonic game since the flawed but charming Sonic Adventure 2, so I’m glad to see Sonic Team pursue the Galaxy 3D platforming style more overtly. This game definitely has an appealing, retro world design, but I wouldn’t expect the entire game to look like what was shown. The first zones of many Sonic games are designed to resemble Green Hill, Emerald Hill, etc.--so don’t read too much into the checkered motif and simple level architecture. The success of this game ultimately hinges on its controls. Some of Sonic’s 3D outings have buggy collision detection where Sonic will inexplicably run off the edge of a platform to his doom or instead go from 60 mph to a full stop to avoid that fate. If such woes can are averted--and the planetoid gravity mechanic may help--this could be a keeper. Of course, Sonic Team is very, very good at teasing and demoing the best parts of its games, so keep that in mind.

Also, I agree with Neal. Bring back Grounder and Scratch! Though I wouldn’t expect chili dogs to show up until Casino Night Zone.

Neal: So we all agree that Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on Game Gear will be the most important Sonic-related release this year, right?

Jonathan Metts, Contributing Editor: I saw the trailer last night. It seems like a rather shameless imitation of Galaxy, but you could do much worse for inspiration. As far as  concerned, making Sonic more like Mario is always a good move. It looks a bit slower and more controlled than other 3D Sonic games, also positive qualities. The new villain designs are poor, as are the graphics overall, though I definitely prefer the cleaner, simpler color scheme compared to Sonic Colors or the quasi-realistic ones from years past. The biggest obstacles in every Sonic game are controls and camera, so I'll be paying special attention to those attributes at E3. There is definitely some promise here, as the franchise continues to struggle back into quality and relevancy.