This is my favourite 3D sonic game since gens and by far Morio Kishimoto's best sonic game, this the baseline for sonic games going forward and a great template that should, and I hope does, lead to something truly incredible, as for now there are a lot of problems such as the legitimately horrendous pop in, the mix bag that is cyberspace and the general jank that the game has but the game is incredibly fun, the level design for this game is actually great except for the second island which feels the least focus and has the worst flow unlike the other 3 islands which have really great flow and focus despite what it may look like. Sonic feels great to control and the combat while simple it is also fun with bosses that emphasize that. Also this game has by far the best ost of the year like holy shit, it can be beautifully atmospheric, exhilarating and fucking hype such as the music in the amazing boss fights as supersonic, speaking of boss fights, they are an amazing spectacle and the boss designs are fucking fantastic just so inventive and fun which is how I would describe this game as a whole.

However, I do think the game is a bit disingenuous in its marketing as it says it has 5 islands when only 3 are actually unique and the other two are the same theme as the first one and the 4th island is barley even an island so there are only really 4 islands which are hugh and fun to explore but it's still disappointing which is also the same for the actual ending which has the worst supersonic fight in the game since it’s so easy and goes down in a couple of minutes and is then followed up by a shootem up section which is fun but its definitely not what I think anyone really expected since the first 3 bosses are some of the hype moments I've ever had in a game period but the music is good and the ending is satisfying, speaking of which, the story is pretty good with some of the best character interaction in the games (don't know about the comics but definitely better than the movies) and writing has been improved from sonic forces and pretty much any sonic game after sonic unleashed. However the animations here and direction are still lacking with characters that feel flat and direction that mostly lifeless but still an imporvement from sonic forces.

However, there are a lot of problems such as the mix bag that is cyberspace, this is small part of the game but it’s here and it can be really fun but that’s mainly due to the fact that many of the designs are from previous sonic games such as unleashed, gens and even adventure 2, and a lot of these are in 2D and feel quite bad, it seems like sonic should be faster than he is and he feels so heavy, this may have not been a problem if the game would let you have the same customisation of the controls as it does in the open zones but it doesn't so some stages just feel kind of bad to play through and many of these are so easy to s rank and the red rings are mostly easy to get in the stages so there isn't really any reason to replay them. Also reused level themes in cyberspace is really annoying even if they look good but I will say the music in these stages mostly bangs really hard. Now let’s talk about what my problems are with some aspects of the world design.

While frontiers looks really good I can't say I'd blame you if you thought overwise since the pop in is egregiously bad with objects popping into thin air right in front of your face, it's super distracting and actually affects gameplay since you will be wondering if you can do something and maybe missing it because it doesn't show up, and in terms of immersion it just takes me out for a sec and reminds me that I am playing a game which is annoying but you know what does that also, the platforms, springs and rails just floating in thin air. I understand there is a story reason for this, but it looks distracting and out of place, this makes it so hard to immerse myself into the worlds even if they are fun platforming challenges. Another problem I have with the worlds is that the amount of automation in them can make traversal cumbersome at times, for example you may be running to an objective and suddenly you hit a dash pad and can't move until the sequence is over and then you can go back, it only sets you back a bit but it doesn't make it any less annoying especially when you are thrown into 2D sections in this 3D sonic game. In truth the 2D sections in the open zone are not bad, they can be fun, but it is annoying to still see this stuff in what’s supposed to this big step for 3D sonic. Also while the islands literal designs are different and their themes are different there isn't really anything here that is mechanically different other than the guardians so you are, from a mechanical point of view, playing the same island '5' different times which isn't that bad because it's already super fun to play but I think the game could have varied the islands even more if the game had these mechanical distinctions in the levels themselves. Also, Sonic' critical angles for the terrain are incredibly inconsistent, sometimes you'll go off the side of a platform naturally or sonic is just slam down to the ground, sometimes sonic will woal over certain turrain such as rocks and othertimes sonic will go flying into the air, this can be somewhat frustrating and lead to diverting off course or just straight up dying.

So yeah, this game is far from perfect and is not my favourite sonic game and not even my favourite 3d sonic game but goddamn I'd be lying if I said that this isn't one of my favourite sonic games, this is some of the most fun I've had this year and I can't wait for what sonic team will do for the next game.