The little blue blur that could has managed to survive a plethora of badly reviewed and poorly designed reboots and spin-offs over the years, to the point where any new title announcements are received with mild trepidation, a false sense of hope that Sega might finally deliver a Sonic game worthy of the originals. There are glimpses of positivity, but for every Sonic Generations or Sonic Mania there’s a reminder that many of Sega’s ideas have fallen terribly flat and due to their uninspired nature, mimicking their long-time rivals Nintendo too often in the hope they might find a little magic. It’s far too early to tell what kind of reaction Sonic Frontiers might receive upon launch, the previews from earlier in the year didn’t shed a good light, but I’m here to say that maybe (just maybe) Sega might finally be onto something.
Sonic Frontiers made for a bright, cheerful display during PAX Australia, with a constantly long line of fans eager to figure out whether it’s a game worth playing or just another poor attempt by Sega to awkwardly push their mascot hero into another adventure. I stood in the queue not as a fan but as someone with low expectations, hoping for something decent but expecting the worst given the track record. Once my brief time with the demo was over, I can honestly say I was surprised, not from it being blisteringly brilliant and epic in scope, but something that seems like a solid adventure with some interesting twists on the formula that might just work.
By all accounts, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Sonic Frontiers’ biggest inspiration, sending Sonic hurtling into open green fields of robotic creatures far beyond anything Eggman could ever come up with. The difference comes from how you explore these semi-open environments, which keep you moving forward to the next area compared to randomly running around as Link in Hyrule. It certainly seems that way in the early going, with some smaller puzzles and locations you can reach with a well-timed jump or dash along the way and a few seemingly requiring upgrades before you can get to them. No doubt the full experience will provide bigger, bolder areas to roam around, but it’s curious to have a traditionally controlled Sonic exploring an environment fit for exploration and secrets.
Similarly, Sonic has a skill tree of sorts this time around, giving you the chance to discover new abilities that will aid him along the way. One such ability, which has you running around in circles like a Tron lightcycle, is the key to interacting with certain objects or lifting enemies into the sky for a quick air-punch combo. There’s a handful of other abilities at Sonic’s disposal later on that tie into the virtual world concept at play, and thankfully the game’s current controls seem tight and responsive.
The sense of curiosity falls back a tad with the more traditional Sonic levels, running in third person at the speed of sound before coming to a sudden halt in front of a platform because you didn’t time your jump properly. In context, these levels are digital projections, a Matrix of sorts that Sonic must traverse in order to push the story forward. It’s unclear at this stage how many of these levels will appear, or if they’ll evolve beyond mimicking what we’re all familiar with, but it covers more traditional ground and adds a little variety to the mix.
But it’s the open-ended experience I’m far more interested in and, though the demo only held a minor glimpse of what it might truly hold, I was left curious and satisfied. Unlike the many issues early demo players had at prior conventions, the demo on hand was solid, clean and seemingly close to final code. There were no framerate issues, no long load times, and the open environment was clean and brightly designed, if a little sparse in places. Again, I do have hope that Sega has some tricks up its sleeves, some bolder design choices that they’re holding off on showing to surprise the fanbase, but at the very least some of my early concerns have been appeased somewhat.
It remains to be seen what the final version of Sonic Frontiers will look like, whether the small slice of content I’ve seen so far is a proper indication of what to expect, but I was mildly surprised and relieved to have enjoyed what I did get hands on with, and that in itself is a win in my book. But what are your thoughts on Sonic Frontiers? Are you excited for Sonic’s next adventure or equally worried about its quality? Let us know down in the comments below or on our social media channels and stay tuned for more Sonic when Sonic Frontiers launches November 8, 2022 on PS5, PS4, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
Known on the internet as Kartanym, Mark has been in and out of the gaming scene since what feels like forever, growing up on Nintendo and evolving through the advent of PC first person shooters, PlayStation and virtual reality. He'll try anything at least once and considers himself the one true king of Tetris by politely ignoring the world records.
