I like to consider myself a resistant Sonic fan. I used to play many of his games back when I was a kid; in particular Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure DX, and several of his Wii titles. I fell off of the Sonic bandwagon after Sonic Generations, mostly because everything after that seemed to be significantly less quality. Sonic Mania is amazing, but its really just a Sega funded fan game and didn't really show that Sega or Sonic Team themselves were on the rise when it comes to the blue blur. So imagine my surprise when I heard that Sonic Frontiers, despite some mixed reception here and there, was considered to be amazing by the fans. I wasn't planning on picking it up, but it was 50% off on Amazon for Cyber Monday, so I thought "why not?" and made the purchase.
Sonic Frontiers is a solid game. Its not great, nor is it horrible. For everything good that there is here, there's at least one thing that is bad, or at least that doesn't function properly. But as a whole, I really enjoyed my time with Frontiers, as it shows that Sonic is on the right path from here on out.
The game is essentially open-world Sonic. Back at the game's announcement, I was really skeptical about how this would work. I mean, how can a platformer really be "open world?" However, Mario just recently experimented with this concept with Bowser's Fury, so it can indeed be done. Frontiers shows off even further that it is possible, even if it is a bit rough around the edges at times. Sonic can traverse a largely empty open world that is full of mini platforming, rail grinding, and enemy stomping challenges in order to collect memory fragments, items that are used to progress the narrative. You'll also be fighting mini bosses to collect gears that allow you to enter Cyberworld levels, which then give you vault keys in return so that you can collect Chaos Emeralds, which also further progress the story.
I'll get into more of that gameplay stuff in a minute, but I wanted to touch on the story. This was the biggest surprise for me in the game because of how chill and nuanced it actually is. Frontiers focuses heavily on its characters rather than its narrative, which I found to be a really good thing. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, and even the newbie Sage all have some great little moments individually and when interacting with each other. The overall narrative is lowkey full of contradicting information from previous games (such as the origin of the Chaos Emeralds), but most of the callbacks to previous games were used very effectively. It didn't feel like pure fan service, but rather each character reflects on the events of previous games and how it has shaped them. I don't want to spoil too much, but for a game about a fast anthropomorphic hedgehog, the story was surprisingly touching and interesting.
Back to the gameplay. While the open world is largely empty aside from many platforming challenges scattered throughout, its undoubtedly fun to explore. This is because of Sonic's movement in this game. While it isn't perfect, it feels incredibly satisfying to run around at high speeds. When you reach your max amount of rings, Sonic can go even faster, making traversal feel incredible.
Sonic also has a plethora of new combat abilities. I thought this combat was going to be extremely button mashy (which it can be if you adjust your settings that way), but it was surprisingly fun. You get a skill tree that unlocks more moves for Sonic to unleash during combat. Each of these new moves require timed button presses during a combo and can have many different effects. It was really satisfying to let loose with all of the different abilities I had unlocked during the game and see enemy health bars plummet. Sonic also has a parry ability, but my god is it too easy to use. There is not timing whatsoever required: just hold the buttons down before an enemy attack and get a free punish. I get that this game is meant for a younger audience, but this felt way too easy. It trivializes a lot of the mini bosses and regular bosses.
Speaking of bosses, all of the bosses (except the secret final boss) are fantastic. You get to play as Super Sonic for all of them and fly around these huge titans, taking opportunities to parry and strike. This is accompanied by some metal music that is really damn awesome. Sonic music is always good, but this music just hit different, even for a Sonic game.
Oh and before I move on to cons, Big the Cat is in this game and has a decent fishing mini game. This mini game can help you get a ton of collectibles for progression, Eggman logs for some lore and backstory, and upgrade materials. Its a decent distraction, but hey, fishing mini games are always a nice bonus, right?
Alas though, there are a lot of issues I have with Frontiers. Lets talk about Cyberspace: its inconsistent. There are only about 4 level themes that Frontiers uses, making a lot of levels feel samey. I like that the developers wanted to incorporate more classic boost gameplay levels here, but some of them are just...bad. Others are okay, but these levels are incredibly short. At times, they felt Sonic Forces short. Now sure, there's a whole open world to explore, so you can't get too bogged down by linear levels. But if I'm finishing levels in a minute or less on my first go...that's saying something. Not to mention that some levels introduce random mechanics that barely function. Sonic also feels significantly worse to control during Cyberworld levels. His movement and control are great for the open world, but in cyberworld he feels difficult to navigate, especially when jumping.
There are little annoying gameplay things as well. For example, upgrading Sonic. When upgrading Sonic's attack and defense, an NPC will take all of the upgrade materials you have, all at once, and upgrade your stats. This means you could jump from level 1 to 10 with the right upgrade materials all at once. This is perfect; fast, easy, and gives me the boost I need. But then, when upgrading Sonic's max ring amount or speed, an NPC makes you do it one level at a time. Why? This takes forever to do and gets really annoying really fast.
Another small gripe is have is the camera. It struggles occasionally, which I actually didn't mind. What I did mind was whenever I accidentally hit a boost pad which took me to a little platforming challenge that I already completed, the camera locks you in to a 2d plane, to which unless you purposely mess up in a way that will get you out of the challenge, or complete the challenge, won't let you out of. This means you can't just run off the side and get out of it. This may not sound like a huge deal, but people who have played the game understand what I'm talking about. This happens more often than you'd think it does, mostly because of the bad pop-in issues that cause you to not even know that you're about to start one of these challenges.
The game also struggles technically as well. There is constant pop-in during the open world segments. Rails, springs, rings, collectibles, enemies, textures, EVERYTHING has bad pop-in. And this was all while playing in performance mode on my Series X. I have heard that this is an issue on all platforms as well. I don't usually mind pop-in if its minimal and only here-and-there. But it is constant in Sonic Frontiers, making that sense of "what's off in the distance?" non existent, which is something I really look for and value in open world games.
They also flubbed the final boss so hard. I won't spoil much about it for those who haven't played the game yet, but after experiencing every boss before it and just how great they are, its a huge let down. Which is unusual for a Sonic game, as even some of his worst outings have hype inducing final bosses.
Overall though, I had a good time with Sonic Frontiers. It was much better than I had anticipated, especially coming off of Forces. I can only hope that Sonic Team sticks to refining this formula. It WORKS, so don't up and change it for the sake of...well, nothing. If Sonic Team can do that, then this franchise may be on the upswing.
Sonic Frontiers is a solid game. Its not great, nor is it horrible. For everything good that there is here, there's at least one thing that is bad, or at least that doesn't function properly. But as a whole, I really enjoyed my time with Frontiers, as it shows that Sonic is on the right path from here on out.
The game is essentially open-world Sonic. Back at the game's announcement, I was really skeptical about how this would work. I mean, how can a platformer really be "open world?" However, Mario just recently experimented with this concept with Bowser's Fury, so it can indeed be done. Frontiers shows off even further that it is possible, even if it is a bit rough around the edges at times. Sonic can traverse a largely empty open world that is full of mini platforming, rail grinding, and enemy stomping challenges in order to collect memory fragments, items that are used to progress the narrative. You'll also be fighting mini bosses to collect gears that allow you to enter Cyberworld levels, which then give you vault keys in return so that you can collect Chaos Emeralds, which also further progress the story.
I'll get into more of that gameplay stuff in a minute, but I wanted to touch on the story. This was the biggest surprise for me in the game because of how chill and nuanced it actually is. Frontiers focuses heavily on its characters rather than its narrative, which I found to be a really good thing. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, and even the newbie Sage all have some great little moments individually and when interacting with each other. The overall narrative is lowkey full of contradicting information from previous games (such as the origin of the Chaos Emeralds), but most of the callbacks to previous games were used very effectively. It didn't feel like pure fan service, but rather each character reflects on the events of previous games and how it has shaped them. I don't want to spoil too much, but for a game about a fast anthropomorphic hedgehog, the story was surprisingly touching and interesting.
Back to the gameplay. While the open world is largely empty aside from many platforming challenges scattered throughout, its undoubtedly fun to explore. This is because of Sonic's movement in this game. While it isn't perfect, it feels incredibly satisfying to run around at high speeds. When you reach your max amount of rings, Sonic can go even faster, making traversal feel incredible.
Sonic also has a plethora of new combat abilities. I thought this combat was going to be extremely button mashy (which it can be if you adjust your settings that way), but it was surprisingly fun. You get a skill tree that unlocks more moves for Sonic to unleash during combat. Each of these new moves require timed button presses during a combo and can have many different effects. It was really satisfying to let loose with all of the different abilities I had unlocked during the game and see enemy health bars plummet. Sonic also has a parry ability, but my god is it too easy to use. There is not timing whatsoever required: just hold the buttons down before an enemy attack and get a free punish. I get that this game is meant for a younger audience, but this felt way too easy. It trivializes a lot of the mini bosses and regular bosses.
Speaking of bosses, all of the bosses (except the secret final boss) are fantastic. You get to play as Super Sonic for all of them and fly around these huge titans, taking opportunities to parry and strike. This is accompanied by some metal music that is really damn awesome. Sonic music is always good, but this music just hit different, even for a Sonic game.
Oh and before I move on to cons, Big the Cat is in this game and has a decent fishing mini game. This mini game can help you get a ton of collectibles for progression, Eggman logs for some lore and backstory, and upgrade materials. Its a decent distraction, but hey, fishing mini games are always a nice bonus, right?
Alas though, there are a lot of issues I have with Frontiers. Lets talk about Cyberspace: its inconsistent. There are only about 4 level themes that Frontiers uses, making a lot of levels feel samey. I like that the developers wanted to incorporate more classic boost gameplay levels here, but some of them are just...bad. Others are okay, but these levels are incredibly short. At times, they felt Sonic Forces short. Now sure, there's a whole open world to explore, so you can't get too bogged down by linear levels. But if I'm finishing levels in a minute or less on my first go...that's saying something. Not to mention that some levels introduce random mechanics that barely function. Sonic also feels significantly worse to control during Cyberworld levels. His movement and control are great for the open world, but in cyberworld he feels difficult to navigate, especially when jumping.
There are little annoying gameplay things as well. For example, upgrading Sonic. When upgrading Sonic's attack and defense, an NPC will take all of the upgrade materials you have, all at once, and upgrade your stats. This means you could jump from level 1 to 10 with the right upgrade materials all at once. This is perfect; fast, easy, and gives me the boost I need. But then, when upgrading Sonic's max ring amount or speed, an NPC makes you do it one level at a time. Why? This takes forever to do and gets really annoying really fast.
Another small gripe is have is the camera. It struggles occasionally, which I actually didn't mind. What I did mind was whenever I accidentally hit a boost pad which took me to a little platforming challenge that I already completed, the camera locks you in to a 2d plane, to which unless you purposely mess up in a way that will get you out of the challenge, or complete the challenge, won't let you out of. This means you can't just run off the side and get out of it. This may not sound like a huge deal, but people who have played the game understand what I'm talking about. This happens more often than you'd think it does, mostly because of the bad pop-in issues that cause you to not even know that you're about to start one of these challenges.
The game also struggles technically as well. There is constant pop-in during the open world segments. Rails, springs, rings, collectibles, enemies, textures, EVERYTHING has bad pop-in. And this was all while playing in performance mode on my Series X. I have heard that this is an issue on all platforms as well. I don't usually mind pop-in if its minimal and only here-and-there. But it is constant in Sonic Frontiers, making that sense of "what's off in the distance?" non existent, which is something I really look for and value in open world games.
They also flubbed the final boss so hard. I won't spoil much about it for those who haven't played the game yet, but after experiencing every boss before it and just how great they are, its a huge let down. Which is unusual for a Sonic game, as even some of his worst outings have hype inducing final bosses.
Overall though, I had a good time with Sonic Frontiers. It was much better than I had anticipated, especially coming off of Forces. I can only hope that Sonic Team sticks to refining this formula. It WORKS, so don't up and change it for the sake of...well, nothing. If Sonic Team can do that, then this franchise may be on the upswing.