Review: SONIC FRONTIERS Was a Bold Direction for the Blue Blur
Towards the end of 2022, SEGA launched Sonic Frontiers. I was really wanting to try it out at the time but was swamped with other projects. My schedule recently became a bit more free and I was able to take some time to visit this game that has proved to be an interesting ride. SEGA did provide me with a code on Xbox Series X but the thoughts below are my own. You can play Sonic Frontiers now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S (affiliate link) with physical copies available from your favorite retailers like GameStop (affiliate link) and digital copies from the respective storefronts and the Humble Store (affiliate link).
Worlds are colliding in Sonic the Hedgehog’s newest high-speed adventure! In search of the missing Chaos emeralds, Sonic becomes stranded on an ancient island teeming with unusual creatures. Battle hordes of powerful enemies as you explore a breathtaking world of action, adventure and mystery. Accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high-velocity, open-zone platforming freedom as you race across the five massive Starfall Islands. Jump into adventure, wield the power of the Ancients and fight to stop these new mysterious foes. Welcome to the evolution of Sonic games!
I want to be upfront about something. I don’t have a ton of experience playing Sonic games and most of that little experience I have is on 2D titles like Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA Genesis (thank you Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass). That being said, I’ve always wanted to play more Sonic games and the trailers always looked intriguing. Plus, the track utilized in the promotional materials (“Vandalized” by One OK Rock) is a banger and I’m slightly obsessed with it. Plus, I had listened to the review episode of Get Played where they covered Sonic Frontiers and the more they talked about it, the more intrigued I became.
In Sonic Frontiers, Sonic is charged with rescuing his friends from cyberspace and rescuing Koco. The story isn’t bad, but I feel like it does suffer from the crux of the game: it’s a slow open-world game. I remember when the game was first shown off, many compared it to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It does certainly feel like SEGA took a lot of notes from the hit Zelda game which isn’t inherently bad, but they picked a fair number of elements that make the game feel slow. Sonic is supposed to be fast, but the way the game progresses feels sluggish.
The way that Sonic Frontiers typically plays out is that you go to an area and then have to collect memory tokens that pertain to that area’s designated friend of Sonic’s (i.e., Amy Rose, Knuckles, etc.). You’ll also need to complete portals to earn vault keys and once you have enough vault keys you can get a Chaos Emerald. Once you get enough Chaos Emeralds, you get to fight the boss for the area. Other aspects of the game include obtaining gears to open portals, collecting Koco to increase speed and ring capacity, completing challenges to unlock portions of the map and get items to upgrade your defense and offense abilities, and just running around the islands.
In case you’re keeping track, that’s a lot of collectibles. Technically, you don’t have to collect all of these things in order to progress the story, but you’ll want to engage in at least some of them (really the only optional one in my opinion is the Koco collection). This is all to illustrate that there are so many different things that need attention which means the story really feels like it’s taking a backseat to the collectathon aspect of the game.
Once you unlock a portal, this changes the gameplay quite a bit. You’ll end up in a cyberspace section that will have you playing a level of a more traditional 2D or 3D Sonic game. Honestly, I only have two complaints about portals. First, I hate that you have to use gears to unlock them. Second, some of them are really hard, but I’m also not the best at Sonic games so that may be on me. Portals are the area where Sonic is able to do what he does best: make you feel like you’re going incredibly fast. Outside of my two complaints, the portals are one of my favorite things about Sonic Frontiers.
As I alluded to earlier, there are some stats that can be increased for Sonic. Attack and Defense are self-explanatory and very helpful. Speed appears to only affect your boosted speed and takes a while to be noticeable. Finally, Ring Capacity increases the number of rings you can carry. This last stat is honestly a bit baffling to me. When you max out the number of rings you have, Sonic gets a speed boost which is very nice. Why would you make it harder to get that? I guess it means that you essentially have more health, but I do question the opportunity cost.
Another aspect that I’m not a big fan of is the way that the map works. You have to find points in the world that will either involve a small challenge or you just have to do a Cyloop around them. Once again, this isn’t inherently bad. However, you unlock so little of the map and the area that you unlock seems random. There are times you don’t even uncover the spot where you are standing! I could forgive the former complaint if the latter wasn’t also present. Once again, this feels like a way that the team is trying to slow you down. Want to just rush through a Sonic game? Not on their watch!
One thing I do want to mention is that I feel I would be remiss to mention an unspoken influence. As previously mentioned, many people have compared Sonic Frontiers to Breath of the Wild. However, there’s a lot of influence from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The aesthetic of the game features a lot of ‘broken’ digitized items and artifacts that remind me of some of the art direction from Twilight Princess. Also, using the Cyloop to attack enemies in a circle reminds me a lot of combat as a wolf. I’m just saying. This isn’t a dig at Sonic Frontiers or anything, I just feel like no one talks about this.
Sonic Frontiers looks good and sounds good. It is odd to see Sonic and his friends put into an environment from a different art direction. It works though. The music does a good job of reflecting the world. The main overworld music is epic and empty. There is a juke box feature and you unlock songs for that as you run around the world and gather yet another collectible. However, once you get to a boss fight, you’re in for a real treat. I fought the first boss and the music just got me going. It reminded me a lot of hard rock and metal from the 2000s and I am all about that.
I like how SEGA took a bold move with Sonic Frontiers’ direction even if I don’t think that it paid off as well as they had hoped. I do enjoy my time in the game when I just run around aimlessly. I just get frustrated with how slow progress feels in the game. When I decide to pursue an objective, it feels like a slog. The game just has too many collectibles in my opinion. If you’ve ever wanted to play it, I would recommend waiting for a good sale before grabbing it or trying to borrow a copy from your one friend that still insists on getting physical copies of games. I’d honestly score this about a 6.5/10, but I’ll round up for the pretty graphic.
