Sonic Frontiers is a high speed platforming game that was released on November 8th, 2022 and was developed by the Sega owned Sonic Team. Any Sonic fan will tell you that the past 20 years for the blue blur have been bumpy. There have been some noticeable wins such as Sonic Generations in 2011 and the 2D Sonic Mania in 2017, but most of Sonic’s releases have had trouble keeping up with his old rival Mario.
After being disappointed by the previous release Sonic Forces, I was unsure what was next for the fastest video game mascot. I have been a Sonic the Hedgehog fan for as long as I can remember. My first console was the Sega Genesis where I owned Sonic 1, 2, and 3, I once owned the first-ever Sonic the Hedgehog comic, and spent countless hours raising virtual pets in the Chao Gardens of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. I was skeptical about Sonic Frontiers but as more press around the game began to roll out, I could feel myself getting hopeful again.
New Islands, New Problems
The story for Sonic Frontiers is that Sonic and his friends Amy, Tails, and Knuckles are out searching for the Chaos Emeralds after learning that have been drawn away to a mysterious set of islands. On the way to these new islands, Sonic and his crew are transported into a digital world where Sonic must collect the Chaos Emeralds, save his friends, and escape.
A new antagonist named Sage appears throughout the story and makes it clear that one of her goals is to taunt Sonic about his useless attempts to save the day. Her other goal is to use the power of the digital world to force a new threat in the form of gigantic titans to stop Sonic in his tracks. Unfortunately for Sonic, he’s no match for these titans, at least without the power of the Chaos Emeralds. In order for Sonic to gain the Chaos Emeralds he will need to explore the islands and find hidden keys. Players won’t have to look too hard as these keys appear after defeating challenges around the island in the form of Cyber Space levels.
The overall theme of the story appears to be one of growth and even maturity. I was intrigued at where the story would go as there were several callouts and references to past games. Unfortunately these references don’t amount to much other than fun nods that connect all the games together. The focus on growth is also reflected in the voice delivery of many of the characters. Their tones are more serious and don’t feel as cartoonish as in the past. I even found myself feeling for characters when they lamented on their doubts and worries. It was nice to see Sonic Team recognize how much Sonic and his friends has been through and while the story didn’t build up to much, it did feel like a celebration of everything that came before.
Hope is Restored
I was initially hesitant about this latest entry of Sonic the Hedgehog, but I am pleased to say that Sonic Frontiers is a breath of fresh air. Sonic feels great to control and has a new arsenal of combat moves. Due to my experience with Sonic games, I decided to play the game on Hard Mode with Speed style. I’m not sure how the game feels at easier difficulties but during my 21 hours with Sonic Frontiers I had a blast. The way that Sonic moves at top speed feels powerful but balanced in a way that you can still maintain control of where Sonic will go next. The soundtrack was also something I was not expecting to fall in love with and several quality-of-life features like instant load in times for fast travel, made the game feel more modern than any previous Sonic game.
The game unfortunately isn’t perfect and has some issues that need to be corrected. Despite those issues, the pros outweigh the cons. I definitely think this is the best Sonic experience in a long time even if I do have some ideas on what could have been done differently.
A Playground for Speedrunners
When it comes to how you navigate the world around you, freedom always seemed foreign or even an impossible task for a Sonic game. While past games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Adventure did allow for open environments and zones, they didn’t feel like they catered to Sonic’s signature speed. All the fun and platforming would only occur within a level but never the overworld itself.
Sonic Frontiers takes level design to new heights for the series by making each area an opportunity for Sonic to show off his skills. The open playground environments are crafted in a way that the iconic speed and platforming moments seem to never end. It feels great to boost midair to a rail and successfully go through a loop while doing a few tricks along the way to keep the momentum going. You then get a collectible item and in the process have ended up miles away in a matter of seconds as you continue to ping pong off of springs, lightspeed dash through a trail of rings, and homing attacking your way from enemy to enemy.
Homing attacks are no longer the only way to fight back against foes as it has been in previous Sonic games. Sonic has a skill tree of unlockable abilities and stats that can be upgraded as you explore. There is also a signature ability known as the Cyloop that allows Sonic to solve puzzles and begin combat encounters. The fighting in the game isn’t terribly deep, mainly consisting of stringing together very simple combos and dodging at the right time for more challenging enemies. Despite the combat being somewhat simple, it feels like a huge step up for Sonic as it allows him to feel powerful and demonstrate how far his speed can take him.
The boss fights on the other hand offer a completely different kind of encounter that at first may be reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus. Sonic will have to scale the new titan threat at the beginning of each fight before finishing off the titan as Super Sonic. These fights really ramp up how serious the stakes are as we see Super Sonic unleash over-the-top moves that feel straight out of an anime. For the first time in what feels like forever, Sonic feels legitimately cool again.
Can’t Outrun Your Memories
When you’re not traversing the world around you at breakneck speeds or blasting through enemies with Sonic’s new abilities you’ll be taking on challenges in the smaller Cyber Space levels. These levels may be bite size and can be completed rather quickly on a first attempt, but it’s the challenges they offer that will keep you coming back for more. Each Cyber Space level offers Sonic four different goals to complete, one of which is just finishing the stage. The other three are gathering a specific amount of rings, locating five special red rings hidden within the course, and beating the level in under a certain amount of time. The difficulty of these challenges will range from beating all of the challenges with one run to each one requiring multiple attempts.
The Cyber Space levels were a ton of fun, even if I spent far longer than I should have on them, but I was both astonished and disappointed by them. My disappointment came from the overall aesthetic of each level. The lore behind the Cyber Space levels is they are fragments of Sonic’s memories. Long-time fans may recognize level layouts that are very similar to those of past Sonic games. However, despite having a wealth of great levels to pull from, we only see a few different design choices represented. Most of the levels I encountered were some variation of Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, and Sky Sanctuary Zone, from the 2D games. There were a few outliers but those were few and far between. I loved that Sonic Team created designs that honored the previous games and leaned into the cyber look Sonic Frontiers was going for, but it felt like there should have been more variety.
Slowing Down
Fast-paced fights and running around at the speed of sound are not your only activities. If you’re looking for somewhere to take a break and slow things down, you can try out the fishing mini-game featuring Big the Cat, who is best known for his fishing-style gameplay from Sonic Adventure. Luckily, it’s Sonic doing the fishing this time and it’s completely optional. If you do decide to partake, you can earn additional resources to progress if you’re stuck, fast travel items, and even pieces of lore that connect to past Sonic games.
Other types of mini-games appear throughout the main story and most of them are fine except for one, a very frustrating game of pinball. Sonic is no stranger to pinball but the execution in Frontiers isn’t great. The pinball game comes out of nowhere, and yes it is a fun nod to Sonic’s legacy, even though he isn’t the pinball this time, but it just takes too long. It felt like unnecessary padding before moving on to fighting one of the later bosses in the game. This was the only part of the game where I wasn’t having fun because I felt like I was being blockaded by something that felt extremely out of place.
The Soundtrack is One of a Kind
While playing Sonic Frontiers you’ll experience one of the three different soundtrack variations. The first is a set of tracks that are light orchestral arrangements with soft piano sometimes leading the melody. These mostly appear in the overworld environments and it’s clear that these songs were composed to create a sense of mystery and exploration. The other two soundtrack types only occur within the Cyber Space levels and within the boss fights.
The music found in the Cyber Space levels consists of the high-paced liquid drum n bass electronic genre, some of the songs wouldn’t feel out of place at n early 2000s rave or music festival. It sometimes feels reminiscent of the Dreamcast era for Sega. The boss fights also features fast-paced high energy songs but these are from the metalcore music genre and feature the vocal talent of Kellin Quinn who is best known for his band of the same genre, Sleeping with Sirens.
Music designed to hype the player up is nothing new to Sonic but the heavier metalcore music was an unexpected surprise. When paired with Super Sonic’s anime-eqsue fight sequences it’s very hard to not get fired up and feel the intensity of each boss battle. I even found myself listening to several of the boss fight tracks after finishing the game because I wanted to keep reliving those moments long after.
Final Thoughts
Overall I had a great time with Sonic Frontiers. While the story could have ended on a much stronger note it was the gameplay that really sold the experience. It really feels like Sonic the Hedgehog is finally having his true comeback moment. From mostly great gameplay designs to pushing the boundaries of character expectations, and doing it all with an amazing soundtrack Sonic Frontiers is easily one of the best Sonic games in a long time. We’ll have to wait and see if Sonic Frontiers gets additional support and DLC content but either way I’ll be looking forward to the blue blur’s next adventure.
