I was very negative about this game when it was first teased back in May 2021, and everything that has been shown since didn't fill me with confidence. I can safely say that the game has a lot of issues, but it is fun and certainly better than Lost World and Forces.

The cyber stages' issues have been talked about a lot, there are like 29 or 30 of them and I don't like how they reuse themes and level design, but after getting used to the controls, they are fun to play and speedrun, but I can't fully give the game credit for that as it did copy paste level design. The few original 3D cyber stages are actually not bad, an improvement over Forces but certainly not on the same level as Unleashed or Generations still. Jumping into Arcade mode to replay some of the stages is the most fun I've had with boost stages in a long time; there are some cool skips you can do when you combine the double jump, stomp jump, and air boost.

As for the islands, a lot of people excused the theme and level design reuse in the cyber stages cause we're getting 5 whole new islands with unique themes! ...But we didn't, it's just 3 themes, and one of the islands is really short, and there are no differences between the islands outside of their enemies and aesthetics. What happened here? Regardless, Sonic controls well and the combat is good enough. I'm not a fan of how they slapped a bunch of rails, boosters, dash rings, rainbow rings, pulleys, etc. all over the island instead of properly designing the world to accommodate Sonic's movement, what happened to blending these elements into the actual environment as every other game does?

Chaos Island is easily the worst island, it has too many 2D sections that lock you in and it's unclear how to move to the other smaller islands to get the Choas Emeralds.

Bosses had great music and they...functioned, I guess? Most of the time I had no idea if I was doing the right thing, I refuse to believe that the third titan was play tested. The fourth titan is somehow the easiest, I don't understand why. And apparently, you needed to be in hard mode for the second phase of the final boss and...I have no words for the actual boss really.

Also, I'm sure this might be a controversial take, but I think Frontiers is the most unpolished mainline 3D Sonic game since Sonic 06, after 5 years in development it still somehow feels like it needed another year. A lot of things feel janky, some scripted sections straight up don't work, I've seen better animations in low-budget JRPGs, and the asset reuse all lead me to believe that this game was rushed.

The story is okay, nothing especially bad about it like the previous few Sonic games, but I wish Ian Flynn would start relying less on references to previous games during character interactions. The lore stuff will be controversial but I am okay with it, I just wish there was more to the story.

Overall this game is okay, I think it gets a 3/5 from me. I will do another playthrough for the PC version, and maybe with patches and such, it could go up to a 3.5/5.

Sonic Frontiers is Sonic’s next foray into a new era that will set the template for the Sonic games for the foreseeable future but is it any good? Bottom line, Yes & No, as a person who has played all 3D Sonic Games and a fan of this wonderfully flawed series, Frontiers is very and I mean very flawed I can’t deny there’s a good no, great foundation to plot an amazing game but Frontiers is not that game and that’s okay, especially since it feels the team who made this game really want it to succeed and be that formula for success, so much so they delayed the game from it’s initial Holiday 2021 release and really listened to player and fan feedback, so while I don’t love this game a whole lot, I feel I can appreciate it’s scale and ambition for what it wants to set out to do.

First the plot of this game, without spoiling details I find the plot to be… good, not great but a solid romp and return to the more shonen styled Sonic stories. It follows Sonic, Tails and Amy investigating the disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds, they find that it’s on the mysterious Starfall Islands, after they get sucked into a wormhole, Sonic is quickly enwrapped in a Race against time to save his friends and collect the emeralds while a mysterious new girl, named Sage tries to warn him to leave the islands. The plot is good mostly due to the character interactions, I think that’s mostly what Ian Flynn is great at it’s just fun to see these characters interact, again I gotta keep it a bit vague here but I love while Sonic doesn’t go through a major arc, he’s just a static character, his personality inspires those around him in a positive light, in turns it also sorta fixes some of the character issues in the Mainline games that are sorta inFamous in the Sonic community now, I do have a few gripes with the story however, for one i think it relies a bit to much on references in my opinion, like there’s a few lines in the game that sorta caught me off guard (in a good kind of way) that sorta did shape the world of the game and series upside down but I feel others come off as a bit unnecessary and shoe horned in. My other gripe is that I feel like the twists and such don’t really work and feel a bit anticlimactic, again gonna be a little vague here but while the stuff with the “ancients” and Koco where well done, I didn’t really found Sage to be a terribly interesting character and the pay off to her is pretty underwhelming despite there being a solid idea, it just feels rushed, plus it gets so insanely melodramatic at points even for Sonic standards, though the ending itself is well written enough. Overall I found the story while not the best in the series as I think the Adventure Games, Battle, Rush Adventure, both versions of Colours and maybe Black Knight edges out, is a fun time with likeable character that are some of the best in the series, great dialogue and overall a great tone that says prevalent throughout the game, if the twists were better, a bit more well paced, had better voice acting and maybe dialled back a bit on the references and the just talking scenes, I think this could be one of the best in series, but as it is it’s a solid enough story and better than anything in the past decade, so I’m content with it.

As in terms of Presentation of Frontiers, this is unfortunately where my more mixed thoughts on the game start to pop up, literally i mean because the pop in in this game is absurd, i don’t know if this was an [REDACTED] issue or my issues with the presentation can be linked to this but the point is, the Pop in in this game go beyond the standard Open world affair but rather something that is insanely common that it hinders gameplay. I also found the artstyle to be bland and boring, while it looks perfectly fine and i can sorta see what they’re going for especially with those enemy designs but the actual open zone looks so forgettable and bland for a Sonic game though does look fine in the grand scheme of things, i much prefer how Cyberspace looks, despite the inane reuse of these stage themes i have to admit they haven’t looked better before, they look really beautiful especially in the night. One aspect of the game that is a bit mediocre is the voice acting, while i dig Roger’s more serious direction as Sonic (which is literally Crane from Dying Light) other actors sound incredibly bored especially Sage and Eggman, The music is pretty strong, I’m Here & the Titan Bosses aren’t very good songs in my opinion but Vandalize and One way Dream are incredible tracks, Cyberspace music is great as well though the Open Zone music is a bit forgettable.

But I know what y’all here for, the gameplay and… it functions? Frontiers is essentially Sonic Forces but in an Open World, not really a bad thing but i wouldn’t say it’s a huge improvement from Forces apart from Controls which feel really nice to play around with especially using the Cyloop, just speeding through these fast lands at rocket speeds, platforming around the world in these weird sprawling sandboxes filled with Sonic iconography while using the drop dash and boosting feels so good. Sonic can use most of his arsenal from the Boost games along with the drop dash from Sonic Mania and the lightspeed dash, Sonic can also level up his speed, defence, ring capacity and power by either collecting fruit or Koco (very slowly might i add), Throughout the Islands you need to collect Memory Tokens to free your friends or talk to them, Portal Gears to Unlock Cyberspace levels, short bitesize 3D or 2D linear stages from previous games and Vault Keys to unlock the 7 Chaos Emeralds as well as Egg Memos, optional Voice recorded notes created by Eggman that expand on the lore of the series. This formula works in my opinion but the issue is, there’s not much variation, you’re mostly doing the same thing over and over again without much challenge for at least 11 Hours as a hardcore Sonic Fan, especially with the fact that the Islands don’t have much variety apart from aesthetics, There’s a fishing minigame and a casino gimmick at night and for a few missions there’s a few timed challenges, but it isn’t enough in my opinion and sometimes feel like variety for the sake of variety.

Supposedly the combat and puzzles was supposed to be the big solution to this however while fun, i think both are way too simple and the challenge is essentially nonexistent, especially in terms of combat with by light speed dashing rings or infinitely Cylopping Rings with no penalty, Combat feels it puts above all else spectacle rather than practicality which is shame, because with more challenge and less button mashy gameplay this could very be the best combat in the series, standing next to Heroes, however as it is it’s sorta just… there.

Cyberspace is one of the aspects of the game that I feel the most mixed on. While I grew to “like” cyberspace, whenever I was liking the stages, they ended just like Sonic Forces. There’s a few lengthy ones sure but they mostly value replay value with getting multiple keys by doing challenges, it’s just the controls are really bad in Cyberspace plus the 4 themes that are reused over and over for all 5 Islands again with level design from better games with better controls and aesthetics makes Cyberspace such a weird aspect for me, they serve as neat little peacebreakers at most and at worst, Sonic Forces 2.

Speaking of the 5 Islands, while i won’t spoil details i found the 4th and 5th Islands to be incredibly disappointing, one of them is insanely short and is basically a story beat island while one is a full fledged island but still has that disappoint aspect, it sorta ruined the game for me since it shows that Sonic games are still falling in the same traps over and over again. This is no more apparent in the polish of the game, the game feels unfinished at points, i already talked about the Pop-In but there’s a layer of jank in this game despite a delay and 5 year development cycle, animations and textures being incredibly inconsistent, 2D Sections in the Open World feel so jarring and janky whenever they happen, especially in Chaos Island, easily the worst and most janky island in the game and the camera in both Cyberspace and the Open World is awful, i know cameras in 3D Sonic games aren’t the best but this is absurdly bad even for those standards, it regularly clips on objects and is way too zoomed out.

I feel the camera issues are at it’s worst with the titan bosses, the minibosses are probably the best part of the game since they’re challenging while providing a bit of variety to the game, but the Titans while in terms spectacle go so hard with it’s music and designs, functional they feel really jank and way too easy, the final boss is just a shitty QTE, even if you play on hard which i did, it’s still the easiest boss in the game and it really soured the sorta solid ending the game has.

Overall Sonic Frontiers is good, and not much else? You might a 6/10 is a bit too high in your opinion with this mostly negative but that’s because, this game shows an insane amount promise and when it works, the game is a blast but as i progressed through the game it was doing the same thing over and over again and especially with the 4th and 5th Islands being so disappointing, I can’t bring myself to say i love Frontiers, nor i can’t say i hate it, it’s just okay. This is the type of game where some people might like it but hate a lot of aspects, and some people might hate this game but like a lot aspects and i think i lie on a middle, though the fact is, despite any opinions on it, everyone agrees there’s a potential for a great follow up or even for some great DLC, i really hope that the average reviews doesn’t mean the game’s will be scrapped but rather improved upon for a great new sequel, i may seem alone on my stance of this game but i feel Frontiers is comparable to Sonic 1, Sonic Rush or Colours Wii where it’s the exact game we needed at the time and while very, very flawed, the foundation is there for a great sequel. All i can hope is that these new Frontiers, won’t be forgotten.

I'm probably gonna make another review maybe when I finish it myself but at the moment I do not think I will as this game is kinda the same all the way through.
I am a huge Sonic fan. My favorite games are Adventure 1 and CD. I played all the Sonic games, hell I even beat Lancelot's Return in the Black Knight as a kid in like 30 seconds I was obsessed with this blue thing as long as I could really remember anything.
Sonic Frontiers is a very cool game stuck in a very boring world with very boring enemies and very stiff movement. Now lets get this stupid shit out the way, yeah its better than Forces but who cares. Why do we have to accept an ok game because the last game was dog water.
This game has kinda wanted me to write genuine game reviews because I should express my thoughts more I feel like I have some decent insight on some things when I can. And when I say that this game is gonna be good with mods, I mean it. This game is conceptually such a badass game. Sonic in a fucking open field running his heart out. In fact, conceptually, this is the perfect Sonic game. The peak of the franchise.
But sadly, because Sonic Team sucks at making games (which has been a true fact for awhile now) its just. Ok at best and horribly boring and bad at worst. The main thing in this game is the open world.
SIKE
I'm just fucking with you! It's actually NOT!
It's the boring puzzles and "Cyberspace" levels that is this game. Most of this game is collecting bullshit color things and giving them to Sonic friends so they can tell you to either play some dork ass mini game or go to another area to talk to them AGAIN to MAYBE play some dork ass mini game.
But there is another thing you may have to do to talk to them, get these vault keys to get the chaos emeralds so you can fight the huge ass Angel from NGE of the area (which is the coolest thing to do in this game besides the fishing).
Sadly, the only way to get this keys is by doing the Cyberspace level which are some of the worst things in Sonic ever. Remember everything bad about Forces, About Colors, About Generations? The later being good games but still having the boost games usual problems they're just stuck to having? Well they're all personified in the Cyberspace levels!
The themes are Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary, Chemical Plant, and City and the layout to these stages are usually based on an actual GOOD stage from an old game except when its a shit ton of 2D sections which sorry to say this game also has a lot of for some reason.
These stages are fuck boring with a even bigger problem which I hope they patch which is the Cyberspace level control like ass which is even funnier because Sonic Team were so stumped with Sonic's controls they gave you a control slider in the options. But it only works on the open world. So no matter what you do you HAVVEEE to play Cyberspace with some of the worst annoying controls ever on some of the most boring stages ever.
This game can be described as boring, the scenery is boring, the enemies designs are boring, the only saving grace is the Big fishing mini game which can actually give you power keys the only problem is A. finding it and B. the early ones don't give you that much unlock coins so until endgame its still annoying to find the friend tokens, the gears to even UNLOCK the cyberspace levels (which you get for killing enemies (sometimes) (also the mini bosses only give you fucking ONE by defeating them lol)) and the keys which you have to play the worst part of the game to get.
The bosses(titans), story, and sometimes music can get you through this game but its mostly just boring puzzles like jump to the switch, finish the switch maze, RUN to a switch, and more boring shit (except the pinball one which had some pretty fun music too).
This game has the ingredients to being yummy but some jackass thought it'd but funny to put cow and dog shit into the batter and so. You get the most whatever game ever.
My only hope with this game is that maybe the next game could be cooler with better movement tech that does not make Sonic stiff and the youth gets an OK Sonic game to play and geek out to for years. Its not bad, but maybe it being just boring is even worst than it being hilariously bad. Sonic Team needs to just get over the Hedgehog engine/boost formula in general and go back to the drawing board with Sonic Adventure 1, because as much as that game had its problems, it had everything fun about how Sonic moved, a fun story, and its older so its limitations can be decently excused.
Maybe not excused anymore though because it was telling back then that these guys don't know how to make a fucking game LOL. Maybe the next one will be super awesome. Maybe. Story was fun though except for like the ending it kinda ended very fast but they were able to make it interesting. Also the voice direction was bad. Lol.

Alright, ye the final boss was ass but this game was amazing for the rest of it outside of that

If this is the direction Sonic is gonna go I am all for it, open zone is amazing, cyberspace was a weaker part but still fun overall.

If Sonic Team polishes this to the extreme for next time I have full faith in saying Sonic is back

Overall fun time


Edit: After update 2 movement is much better heck they even made cyberspace a bit gas. Update 3 gonna make this a 10/10 perhaps??


Zelda BOTW if it was good

I-I. I cant believe it? After around 11 years, Sonic Team finally made not just a good game, but a great game? Seems a little hard to believe, but it's true!

Going into this game, I was expecting to play a generic, boring open world game with little to no platforming and challenge. But I'm happy to report, this was wrong. Exploring the open zone was a blast. Each collectible felt fun to collect, and you can collect a lot if you're fast enough. You can sequence break platforming challenges, use rails or ramps to travel far distances. Some of the most fun traversal I've had in a while, I didn't use fast travel ONCE over my two playthroughs.

Collecting stuff was so fun, I collected every single memory token, which would sound like it would get old, but it didnt? It was just such a fun time. The open zone is genuinely fun, unbelievable.

However, I have a laundry list of issues with this game. First off, it can feel jank at times, it's hard to explain, but sometimes it just feels a bit too buggy in general. Cyberspace is a joke, Sonic feels like the worst he's ever controlled in Cyberspace. It's close to unplayable without a mod for me. Combat while fun is very vanilla, and doesn't have a lot of stakes or challenge, which is why I prefer Unleashed or even Black Knight combat. Boss fights while amazing on the first playthrough are way too easy, they can be killed in under 2 minutes at level 1. And can feel too much like I'm watching a cutscene. And the final boss... it's literally a JPEG, what a dissapointment.

Going into this game. I was expecting a great story, but I think I set my expectations too high. I mean... it's fine? Compared to the meta era, it's amazing. But most of the story just felt like characters were standing around talking. Nothing crazy happens in the story compared to something like Sonic Adventure 2 or Black Knight where there are a lot of events. The lore is cool in this game, and the characterisation is pretty good (if not a little vanilla). So the story was good, but nothing more. A bit disappointing, but I'm happy we are out of the meta era.

A big issue people have with this game is how budget it can feel. You can tell they put their all into it this time, but with only 60 people making this, they clearly had to cut corners. Especially with Cyberspace and the last 2 islands. But despite the budget issues, it's not a huge deal for me.

Music wise this game is a masterpiece, expected from a Sonic game. However Cyberspace music sounded like it was from Geometry Dash or something, I miss the music variety, like in Unleashed, Secret Rings or 06.

Now reading this, it sounds like I'm more negative than positive. But I must reemphasise. Exploring the open zone was so fun, some of the most fun I've had in years... This is probably my favorite collectathon type game. So it nailed the most important aspect. The fact is... I can sense the heart, and soul of this game. After around 13 years of soulless and unambitious, safe games, they took a huge gamble this time. And for me, I can appreciate that over a safe, boring, soulless game.

The next game could genuinely be a top 5 Sonic game if they had more budget and manpower. Most of the issues stem from that. The fact that 60 people were able to make a game like this, is mega impressive. Well done Sonic Team, and go fuck yourself Sega for treating this I.P like dirt lmao!

The idea of an open-world Sonic game is laughably idiotic.

"Hey, y'know what we should do with the platformer character known for moving really fast? Put him in an open world durrhurr"

Not every fucking game series needs to be open-world. Just make Adventure 3 already JFC

sonic frontiers is a game i went into wanting to like more than anything. i love 2d sonic but most 3d games have a lot of problems, so it makes sense that i would want a 3d sonic game i can say with no caveats that i enjoyed. im sad to say that frontiers is no different and suffers from most of, if not all of the same issues that have plagued the series since its transition to 3d. the setpieces are bland, the music prioritizes being "cool" over the style and substance of the 2d games, needless unenjoyable 2d sections that don't even try to feel as good as actual 2d sonic, you constantly fight against the controls and camera, and the story and characterization is still laughably bad somehow, despite ian flynn being the writer this time around. ultimately i do think fans of generations and unleashed will probably like this one though.

new issues introduced are that the open world is inconceivably bland and empty as well as being aesthetically bankrupt. none of the soul or style of previous 3d sonic titles shines through with the locations in frontiers whatsoever. i played on the switch, and the only open world switch game (or 3d game ive played on it in general) that i'd say looks worse is pokemon legends arceus and uh. yeah. not a great look when that's who you're contending with. pop in on the switch version is also miserable, not sure if that's the case in other versions. the new girl character also sucks? she's an awful design and nothing about her character is endearing or interesting. the game managed to make the first time you go super sonic the most bland and miserable experience out of any 3d sonic games which is genuinely an accomplishment. they ruined the one consistently enjoyable part of 3d sonic. amazing.
by the time i got to the 2nd island, saw that it was just a vast rocky desert, and that i would have to repeat the needless item collecting for a whole other island i just couldn't bring myself to play more.

the best i can say about it is that it's an improvement over boom, lost world, and forces i guess. if anything, my only positive takeaway from sonic frontiers is that it made me want to give sa2 another chance

also the best part of the game is big's fishing minigame even if the water had weird texture glitches every few times i went fishing.

What a lot of people either fail to realise or refuse to believe is that the best Sonic games are the flawed ones. The games that try to innovate with bold ideas unbecoming of a Sonic game, or any game. We've had 'perfect' Sonic games before like Sonic Mania or Sonic Generations and those games are great but they can't hold a candle to the way-too-serious tone of Sonic Adventure 2, the quaint but pointless Adventure Fields of Sonic Adventure, the audacity to make half the game a slow beat-em-up in Sonic Unleashed. People love Sonic for its ambition, not its accomplishments. People love games for their imperfections the same way they love people despite their flaws. Sonic Team has, for decades now, dared to do things that are new, bold, and weird. Sonic Frontiers is a continuation of that vision, and to reduce it to petty statements of "open world 🤓 sega hire this man 🤓 serious plot in cartoon rat game 🤓 the controls 🤓 but he's slow" is a pitch-perfect demonstration of how Sonic is doomed to fail. Look at your favourite games and try earnestly telling yourself they're flawless.

Credit to smaench for planting this seed in my brain, actual review when I'm done playing it and can let my thoughts digest rather than spewing unfiltered drivel onto your webzone.

For those who are actually curious if this game is another sonic dumpster fire or not, this game is good! Though, it is a modern sonic game. If you don't like Generations or Colors, don't bother. But if you think those games are great, this you will see this as a worthwhile addition to the franchise! It has a bit of jank, yes. It has pop-ins like a mf. But I'm consistently impressed with movement in this game and how all over the place it is. It's wacky af and I love it. Also its really pretty for some reason. 7.5/10