I literally don't know what to say... Sonic is... Sonic... Sonic is... good?
The clock reads 4:25 AM and I have just completed Sonic Frontiers, I'm listening to the end credits theme for the second time in a row, I'm oddly emotional, it's Thanksgiving and I plan on spending it fully alone, listening to a lo-fi R&B song about Dr. Eggman. This is the state of things and I find myself oddly sentimental about Sonic of all things. This is like the one player on your favorite sportsball team who was on the team for all of its bad years, and finally got his big break and won it all after a decade plus of mediocrity. Sonic Frontiers is like that one musician that put out years and years of passable music at best, but finally got it together for that classic album. Sonic Frontiers is the Sonic that everybody has been asking for... since the dawn of the series.
Like a lot of people I've dipped and dabbled in Sonic as a franchise, with the bulk of my playtime coming in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube (Recently completed on PC this past year) and while I loved that game, it was for a lot of the wrong reasons. Outside of the stellar OST, the game didn't play all that well... but it was at least fun. It had it's moments from the initial Escape from the City to the Knuckles rap songs to the "WE ALL DID IT TOGETHER" from Miles "Tails" Prower, but it was rough, writing was below acceptable, and the Chao stuff is not as fun as you thought it was, but like I said... it was fun. Does Sonic Frontiers fix all of that? The answer is no, but it does remedy enough. Sonic as a series strikes a weird chord because it's undoubtedly meant for Children in a way that other juvenile franchises like Mario and Kirby aren't, it found itself nestled within "cringe" as a draw. Mario and Kirby aren't cringe, they're funny and wholesome (respectively,) and bring about different swaggers in their branding and presentation that have led them down their path through superstardom. Sonic has taken an even more youth-friendly approach to its games and media, which might be at the risk of how quality its forray into gaming actually is. You can't make Sonic a serious character, and they don't really try. He cracks jokes that are unironically not funny at all, but somehow... the cringe makes them work? The entire crew of Frontiers is pretty dry... but I found myself smiling sometimes? The Silly Dr. Eggman-Sonic dynamic is the same as it was way back in my childhood, Knuckles is still as stupid cool as I remember him, and Tails is uh... Tails!
Some issues include the pop-in of various courses and world elements (SkillUp did a pretty good video on this) which is in my opinion, inexcusable, but didn't impact my overall gameplay in the end. It was just kinda funny to be running along the countryside and see random loops and jump pads come into view randomly.
I don't want to bog down on the negatives too much before going into the positive but it should be spoken about. There is a narrative in Frontiers and I have to hand it to them, it was the most invested I've been in a Sonic story since, ever, and actually was pretty appropriate for the series. Given the nature of Sonic, blowing out a full story that measures like other games isn't really possible, because that's not what people play the series for. They want to go fast and do things, not sit down and watch cutscenes where the characters go and do what heroes in an epic story do, there's seperate media for that. Frontiers gives exposition to the struggles of a pre-existing civilization that has seemingly been wiped from the planet inhabit, and what the Sonic team must do to prevent that from happening again. I didn't feel bad per se for the previous society, but I did collect that they were a victim of a tragedy that I was motivated to prevent.
The vibes of Sonic Frontiers are immaculate. The first trailer I saw of this game didn't necessarily sell that idea too well, as it felt like they were really trying to "BotW" the Sonic franchise, and while that isn't really untrue, they did it in a way that works for Sonic. Gone is the mostly linear level design of previous Sonic games in favour of large open world missions that are filled with incredible vistas and a plethora of things to do and accomplish, enemies to fight, and allies to converse with. I never, ever, thought I'd have that "Witcher 3" moment that I had in Skellige in Sonic where I would stop running around like a buffoon and just take in the sights. They nailed the post apocalyptic meets Sonic that they set out to tackle so well. While the worlds aren't really teeming with life, they have a suave to them that makes them feel great to just run and run and run around in. Sonic Team accomplishes the sense of scale of these worlds, encouraging the player to trot in Sonic's trademark red shoes around this world with sky-high structures and well designed flora.
Mechanics of Sonic Frontiers aren't too different in the end from other Sonic games, as you're running along the same speed boost squares and jumping off jump pads, but that's honestly alright, the game does enough things differently that it doesn't matter in the end. While you spend a majority of this game in the open world segments, the Cyberspace areas that you use to get resources to advance the main story were pretty neat and a nice ode to Sonic of years past. These are completely linear levels that see you run and jump in isolated levels like the famed Green Hill Zone and Chemical Power Plant (among others.) They don't occupy much time, and beating the time/ring challenges was quite easy, but were a nice change of pace from the open world courses and challenges.
Music man, this might be the biggest surprise for me out of the entire game. I remember Sonic Adventure 2's soundtrack quite fondly, as I still to this day play it quite frequently, but I didn't know if Sonic Team had preserved that commitment to making the sound of their games as good as it was in Adventure 2. I can't even put into words how happy I am to report that the soundtracking of this game across the board is nothing short of phenomenal. From the ambient/light orchestral sounds of running along the countryside, to the drum and bass/dubstep cyberspace courses, to the metalcore of the boss fights, I was head bopping and messaging everybody I knew about how great the music was. I'm going to be listening to these songs for a loooooooooooooong time. I'm kind of against writing about music for the most part because it's so subjective, so I won't do that here other than to tell the reader to listen to the soundtrack if they can (on the condition that they don't intend to play the game, otherwise they should experience it there.) This has easily catapulted into one of my favorite OST's of any game... ever. Recency bias be damned.
It's not perfect but damnit Sonic really nailed this one, my 4/5 stars signify a hope that Sonic will continue to take risks and go down this path of intricacy and trying to do something new for once. The writing wasn't great, and Sonic doesn't change enough in its core gameplay loop (like a Mario does,) to make this game a must play piece of history, but I had a lot more fun than I ever could have imagined.
This review is probably riddled with typos, but sometimes that's what happens when you defend Sonic from decades of your own criticism at 4:50 AM on Thanksgiving. On behalf of Sonic Haters Anonymous, I am sorry.
I strongly recommend anybody who is willing to step out of their wheelhouse to play Sonic Frontiers. The fresh soundtrack, beautiful atmosphere, and enjoyable gameplay loop (heh) makes this Sonic's best entry, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the Blue Hedgehog.
The clock reads 4:25 AM and I have just completed Sonic Frontiers, I'm listening to the end credits theme for the second time in a row, I'm oddly emotional, it's Thanksgiving and I plan on spending it fully alone, listening to a lo-fi R&B song about Dr. Eggman. This is the state of things and I find myself oddly sentimental about Sonic of all things. This is like the one player on your favorite sportsball team who was on the team for all of its bad years, and finally got his big break and won it all after a decade plus of mediocrity. Sonic Frontiers is like that one musician that put out years and years of passable music at best, but finally got it together for that classic album. Sonic Frontiers is the Sonic that everybody has been asking for... since the dawn of the series.
Like a lot of people I've dipped and dabbled in Sonic as a franchise, with the bulk of my playtime coming in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube (Recently completed on PC this past year) and while I loved that game, it was for a lot of the wrong reasons. Outside of the stellar OST, the game didn't play all that well... but it was at least fun. It had it's moments from the initial Escape from the City to the Knuckles rap songs to the "WE ALL DID IT TOGETHER" from Miles "Tails" Prower, but it was rough, writing was below acceptable, and the Chao stuff is not as fun as you thought it was, but like I said... it was fun. Does Sonic Frontiers fix all of that? The answer is no, but it does remedy enough. Sonic as a series strikes a weird chord because it's undoubtedly meant for Children in a way that other juvenile franchises like Mario and Kirby aren't, it found itself nestled within "cringe" as a draw. Mario and Kirby aren't cringe, they're funny and wholesome (respectively,) and bring about different swaggers in their branding and presentation that have led them down their path through superstardom. Sonic has taken an even more youth-friendly approach to its games and media, which might be at the risk of how quality its forray into gaming actually is. You can't make Sonic a serious character, and they don't really try. He cracks jokes that are unironically not funny at all, but somehow... the cringe makes them work? The entire crew of Frontiers is pretty dry... but I found myself smiling sometimes? The Silly Dr. Eggman-Sonic dynamic is the same as it was way back in my childhood, Knuckles is still as stupid cool as I remember him, and Tails is uh... Tails!
Some issues include the pop-in of various courses and world elements (SkillUp did a pretty good video on this) which is in my opinion, inexcusable, but didn't impact my overall gameplay in the end. It was just kinda funny to be running along the countryside and see random loops and jump pads come into view randomly.
I don't want to bog down on the negatives too much before going into the positive but it should be spoken about. There is a narrative in Frontiers and I have to hand it to them, it was the most invested I've been in a Sonic story since, ever, and actually was pretty appropriate for the series. Given the nature of Sonic, blowing out a full story that measures like other games isn't really possible, because that's not what people play the series for. They want to go fast and do things, not sit down and watch cutscenes where the characters go and do what heroes in an epic story do, there's seperate media for that. Frontiers gives exposition to the struggles of a pre-existing civilization that has seemingly been wiped from the planet inhabit, and what the Sonic team must do to prevent that from happening again. I didn't feel bad per se for the previous society, but I did collect that they were a victim of a tragedy that I was motivated to prevent.
The vibes of Sonic Frontiers are immaculate. The first trailer I saw of this game didn't necessarily sell that idea too well, as it felt like they were really trying to "BotW" the Sonic franchise, and while that isn't really untrue, they did it in a way that works for Sonic. Gone is the mostly linear level design of previous Sonic games in favour of large open world missions that are filled with incredible vistas and a plethora of things to do and accomplish, enemies to fight, and allies to converse with. I never, ever, thought I'd have that "Witcher 3" moment that I had in Skellige in Sonic where I would stop running around like a buffoon and just take in the sights. They nailed the post apocalyptic meets Sonic that they set out to tackle so well. While the worlds aren't really teeming with life, they have a suave to them that makes them feel great to just run and run and run around in. Sonic Team accomplishes the sense of scale of these worlds, encouraging the player to trot in Sonic's trademark red shoes around this world with sky-high structures and well designed flora.
Mechanics of Sonic Frontiers aren't too different in the end from other Sonic games, as you're running along the same speed boost squares and jumping off jump pads, but that's honestly alright, the game does enough things differently that it doesn't matter in the end. While you spend a majority of this game in the open world segments, the Cyberspace areas that you use to get resources to advance the main story were pretty neat and a nice ode to Sonic of years past. These are completely linear levels that see you run and jump in isolated levels like the famed Green Hill Zone and Chemical Power Plant (among others.) They don't occupy much time, and beating the time/ring challenges was quite easy, but were a nice change of pace from the open world courses and challenges.
Music man, this might be the biggest surprise for me out of the entire game. I remember Sonic Adventure 2's soundtrack quite fondly, as I still to this day play it quite frequently, but I didn't know if Sonic Team had preserved that commitment to making the sound of their games as good as it was in Adventure 2. I can't even put into words how happy I am to report that the soundtracking of this game across the board is nothing short of phenomenal. From the ambient/light orchestral sounds of running along the countryside, to the drum and bass/dubstep cyberspace courses, to the metalcore of the boss fights, I was head bopping and messaging everybody I knew about how great the music was. I'm going to be listening to these songs for a loooooooooooooong time. I'm kind of against writing about music for the most part because it's so subjective, so I won't do that here other than to tell the reader to listen to the soundtrack if they can (on the condition that they don't intend to play the game, otherwise they should experience it there.) This has easily catapulted into one of my favorite OST's of any game... ever. Recency bias be damned.
It's not perfect but damnit Sonic really nailed this one, my 4/5 stars signify a hope that Sonic will continue to take risks and go down this path of intricacy and trying to do something new for once. The writing wasn't great, and Sonic doesn't change enough in its core gameplay loop (like a Mario does,) to make this game a must play piece of history, but I had a lot more fun than I ever could have imagined.
This review is probably riddled with typos, but sometimes that's what happens when you defend Sonic from decades of your own criticism at 4:50 AM on Thanksgiving. On behalf of Sonic Haters Anonymous, I am sorry.
I strongly recommend anybody who is willing to step out of their wheelhouse to play Sonic Frontiers. The fresh soundtrack, beautiful atmosphere, and enjoyable gameplay loop (heh) makes this Sonic's best entry, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the Blue Hedgehog.