The idea of an "open zone" structure feels like a great idea for Sonic: a wide open space to go fast, interspersed with brief platforming challenges sounds great fun. Unfortunately, Sonic Frontiers forgot to put a real Sonic spin(dash) on it. The typical open-world map progression challenges are super easy and not at all rewarding, and between item collecting, leveling up, and a skill tree, there’s just a little too much that doesn’t feel like it belongs in a Sonic game.

My biggest gripe is that the game just looks boring. The first two maps are basically “grass” and “desert” and none of the environment, enemy, or item design feels like it has anything to do with Sonic. I don't need Green Hill Zone, but some checkerboards, loops, and cartoony machines shouldn't be too much to ask for. Instead, we have mostly empty spaces connected by grind rails punctuated by some distinctly non-Sonic enemies.

And then there's the cyberspace levels, which have all of that, but there are only 4 kinds of stages repeated again and again. I would've liked to see those assets used for the main islands, and just integrate those longer speed-focused stages into the main areas, rather than have them weirdly segmented.

As-is, I've shelved the game for now — as fun as it is to zip around, after three incredibly similar and barren islands and a dozen+ cyberspace levels that all look the same, I'm not intrigued by what might be coming next. I expect it's a lot of the same.