Sonic is back with a fresh open-world adventure - Sonic Frontiers Review
Blue streak speeds by, too fast for the naked eye, and that can only mean one person. Or, uh, one anthropomorphic hedgehog. Yes, I’m talking about none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, and yes, those were lyrics from the hit Saturday morning cartoon I watched as a child. In a way, playing Sonic Frontiers brought me back to those days.
Seeing my favorites characters—Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and yes, even Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman)—all come together for another adventure was a hit of pure nostalgia. But for as fun as it was to embrace the familiarity of old friends, Sonic Frontiers also offers a fresh new take on a series that has now run for over thirty years. Though it's not perfect, Frontiers does a great job switching up the formula and offering something new for players to enjoy.
Developed by the Sonic Team and released for PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Switch, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S and X, Sonic Frontiers picks up with Sonic, Tales, and Amy being sucked into a wormhole. As their plane is pulled into a strange, digital realm called Cyber Space, only Sonic escapes. In order to save his friends, a voice tasks Sonic with finding the Chaos Emeralds and destroying the robotic “Titans” that have taken over Starfall Islands. In addition to classic characters, Sonic Frontiers also introduces newcomers like Sage, a mysterious girl who threatens Sonic repeatedly.
From the start, it was great exploring the Starfall Islands. While I was given some direction on the starting level of Kronos Island, Sonic Frontiers left me to my own devices pretty early. With no real idea where to go, I spent my first few hours thoroughly exploring this new locale.
Exploring pays off, as there's lots to do in Sonic Frontiers. Each island has minibosses (known as guardians) who freely roam around, and you can battle them whenever you’d like. Just beware the game’s pesky camera angles, which added artificial difficulty to some of the guardian encounters.
The maps are large enough that it’s easy to get turned around, but the game makes up for that with what Sonic is known for: speed! Unfortunately, Sonic Frontiers also has a bad habit of slowing down everyone’s favorite blue blur. A lot of obstacles pop up when running, which made it difficult to stay at max speed without bumping into stuff.
Sonic Frontiers splits its time between open-world exploring and mission stages. To access a mission stage, you need Cyber Space Gears, which can be obtained by defeating guardians. Mission stages are more action-packed, linear affairs that often call back to classic Sonic memories. For example, one of the first mission stages was reminiscent of Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, up to and including that cute little ladybug enemy, the moto bug.
Mission stages can be replayed to try to get better scores, which I appreciated. I had gotten a D rank after my first playthrough of that Green Hill Zone mission, but after a few attempts, I managed to get an S rank. This is important because a stage completion time of 55 seconds or less (S rank time) was needed to get one of the keys to open the vault to obtain a Chaos Emerald.
If you’re not a Sonic expert, don’t worry; Sonic Frontiers has an RPG-style progression system in the form of a skill tree to increase your abilities. One of the first skills I unlocked was the Cyloop, a technique where Sonic creates an updraft by circling around a target, which was so fun to use and abuse on enemies. You can even use it to run in circles to spawn rings, which was a useful trick when there were no rings in sight when taking on guardians.
It’s worth noting that the hardware you’re playing Sonic Frontiers on may have a pretty big impact on how it runs. I played on PlayStation 4 Pro and encountered significant loading time between mission stages. Likewise, when running around the open map, sometimes it would need to load before new areas were rendered. According to some tests on YouTube, the PS4 and Switch have notably longer load times, as well as no graphics options, while the PC and current-gen consoles load up a bit faster. These technical issues didn’t have a significantly negative impact on my experience, but they’re a little annoying.
Sonic Frontiers is a welcome addition to the Sonic franchise. The open-world islands are filled with so much to do, and the game is loaded with nostalgia, from classic levels to fun minigames. The skill tree is a nice addition that lets Sonic learn new skills as the game goes on. And even though the movement can sometimes feel chaotic, Sonic Frontiers definitely held my interest with its gameplay and narrative. It’s great to have Sonic back!
SCORE: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
PLAY IF YOU LIKE:
• The Sonic franchise. If you’re a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, this game is for you. And if you’ve stepped away from the franchise for a bit, this is the perfect one to get you back into it.
• Open-world gameplay. This is a new experiment for this series that Sega has implemented and succeeded with. I loved running around the islands and exploring. If you like having big open maps to explore at your own pace, you’ll love the new gameplay in Sonic Frontiers.
💬 I’m on a Sonic Kick! Who’s your favorite Sonic character of all time? I'm probably going to have to go with the fighting freak, Knuckles! And don't forget to vote for your favorite Sonic game of all time.
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