REVIEW: Sonic Frontiers
Developers: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA Corporation/SEGA of America
Released: 2022
Platforms: Epic | Steam | Switch | PS4, PS5 | Xbox One, Series X/S
I enjoyed my time playing Sonic Frontiers. However, that doesn’t mean it’s good.
I grew up with Sonic's pivot to 3D. I’m used to janky and oftentimes half-baked experiences, but if at least one idea is executed well, I’m entertained.
In Frontiers, it’s running in the large open maps. Sonic controls smoothly for the first in a long time. It’s refreshing to efficiently run through an open world; at full speed, Sonic can clear one side of an island to another in 5 minutes or less.
At least on PS5, the game’s engine is sturdy and makes traversal smooth. There’s a lot of pop-in, however, but for some reason I didn’t notice it as much as I should have. It usually happened to the obstacle courses in the sky, and thankfully not the main terrain Sonic needs to run on.
All that being said, Sonic Frontiers is a glorified tech demo.
The overworld is the game’s strongest element, but it’s also a severe disappointment. It’s nearly empty, primarily adorned with neon springs, boost pads, and dull gray sky rails. They look especially ugly because Sonic Team can’t let go of their old design philosophy. Rails have to be gray! The boost pads cannot deviate from their modern treadmill design!
It’s laughable how disjointed the obstacles look against the realistic backdrops. SEGA might as well publish a “Sonic Maker.”
Most obstacle courses are easy for the intended younger audience to complete, so my issue is that they’re boring to watch. Vacant skies and empty fields are no spectacle to behold.
All these platforming segments are in service to an excessive collect-a-thon. In order to progress the story, every island (spare one) requires grabbing hundreds of charms. I’ll admit that collecting them was a guilty pleasure, but only within my threshold of patience.
In addition to charms, island maps are slowly uncovered by solving basic puzzles. There’s some variety to them, but they’re nothing special (again, because they’re built for a younger demographic).
The best way to shake up Sonic’s dry gameplay loop is with combat. There’s the occasional battle against stock grunts, but more significant are the minibosses. Almost all minibosses require pestering them into a weakened state before damaging them. Sometimes the “classic” Sonic jank shows up (i.e. camera or physics engine hiccups), but overall the fights are satisfying.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about major boss fights. Almost all of them play themselves. I was able to brute force the final boss’s initial phase. Only one boss required some strategy, where I lined up Sonic like a Beyblade.
Returning to Sonic, he has a new set of melee combos at his disposal. They’re decent for a kid’s game, being simple but varied enough as an entry point for similar mechanics elsewhere. I wasn’t surprised to find that some were easy to cheese with.
Even more busted is an auto-parry mechanic. Holding both shoulder buttons causes Sonic to curl into an invulnerable state and counter the next enemy attack. This state can be held indefinitely and requires no timing. I found this to be the most absurd ability, because even for a kid’s game I feel it’s too broken. I couldn’t simply ignore it, however, as several enemies make its use mandatory.
A miscellaneous ability in Sonic’s kit is the ability to draw magic circles. “Cyloops” can be used to interact with puzzles or wrangle a group of enemies. Even though I frequently used Cyloops to my advantage, I’d describe the mechanic as, “It exists.” It doesn’t shake up Sonic game mechanics that much. Sonic controls a little weird while drawing circles, though it’s nothing unmanageable.
Outside of the overworld activities, there are traditional linear platforming stages, and this is where my mood dramatically shifts. They reinforce the worst aspects of modern Sonic games.
The instant-boost button has been more of a curse than a blessing for about a decade now. Sonic can instantly zoom out of blocked pathways or puzzle-platforming sections. It ends up being a crutch to escape dead content.
One of the biggest memes about Sonic games - even from the beginning - is that you “Hold right to win.” I find this is a philosophy that both lampoons as well as exposes a core flaw to the series. Part of a Sonic stage’s appeal is the feeling of riding a roller coaster. However, it’s deflating when said coaster practically automates challenge quests (e.g. achieving an S rank). The boost feature intensifies this problem, since it’s required to clear some of the so-called “challenges” fast enough.
A lot of my frustration comes from memories completing all of Sonic Adventure 2. Although most of its level designs are “hold [forward] to win,” the challenge quests require more skill than in Frontiers. Adventure 2 isn’t perfect, but it’s built in a way that’s approachable to young players while also engaging to those who are seasoned. That’s what I’m looking for in a Sonic game, but Frontiers is missing that.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the stages in Frontiers reuse the same 4 tilesets. Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zones over and over, until your eyes melt. The story lore explains this as being “reconstructions” of Sonic’s memories as he traverses cyberspace. I’m not falling for the excuse.
Having exhausted discussion about the gameplay, I’ll wrap up this review with some brief story talk. Overall, it feels like a standard Saturday morning cartoon plot (so a Sonic story), with a few interesting ideas sprinkled in. I’ll go into a little more detail in the Best/Worst list.
The weakest elements are the mini arcs Sonic’s friends go through as he collects more tokens. It’s all repackaged material that other Sonic games and cartoons have covered. This is likely intentional for new audiences to learn about, but for me it’s a dull reward for trading in a bunch of McGuffins.
While promising on a technical level, Sonic Frontiers isn’t really a redemption for the blue hedgehog’s legacy. It’s bare bones in a lot of aspects, and not worth the full $60. I don’t feel buyer’s remorse, but I strongly recommend buying it on a mega sale if at all.
Would I want to see more Sonic games that improve on Frontiers? Sure. I’m not holding my breath, though; Sonic almost always scraps and rebuilds himself after each game. If a sequel hopes to surpass its predecessor(s), it needs to grow out of Sonic Team’s bad habits.
Meh
