THE COMBAT
Roll up your white gloves – time to run circles around your enemies
Overlooking that one time he turned into a werehog, combat for Sonic has largely consisted of his jumping spin attacks, with the 3D era ushering in the homing attack to zero in on enemies. Given how enemies might include a line of robots you have to destroy in order to get over a chasm, it’s clear combat has always been secondary to traversal. In Frontiers this has been overhauled to give combat a more meaningful role, while still feeling like Sonic should – we can promise you the hedgehog is not packing any guns (we’d buy a Shadow expansion though, Sega, if you’re reading).
Combat has evolved because the enemies Sonic faces are more than run-of-the-mill bots that get destroyed in one hit. One of the first new robotic enemies we encounter on Starfall Islands, Ninja, is essentially a boss, combining balletic movement with deadly precision, blade-shaped arms swiping swiftly at you. Getting hit will, of course, mean losing your rings, although this now triggers after Sonic has made impact with the ground rather than at the point of injury. As ever, the time it takes for him to get back up can easily leave him open to a quicker foe’s followup – they’re smarter and hit harder than the stupid stationary enemies most Sonic games are peppered with. Fortunately, dodging and parrying are also within your repertoire.
SPIN CLASS
If dodging, parrying, and locking on sounds all a bit Dark Souls, relax – this isn’t Elden Hedgehog. Sonic’s moveset is still straightforward; a mash of r is all we need for him to spin naturally from repeated homing attacks to deftly animated punches and kicks, with the latter finishing with him flipping to create distance before resetting and preparing for another attack.
Some enemies won’t simply stand around to take a beating, in which case you’ve got the new Cyloop move, which takes inspiration from older Sonic Team title Nights Into Dreams. Hold w while running and Sonic leaves a trail of light behind him. Drawing a circle with it creates a powerful updraught that lifts heavily shielded enemies in the air, leaving them briefly exposed. By locking onto an enemy, you should also be able to push the stick in one direction in order to run a circle around them, although our attempts to try this sometimes result in Sonic running a larger circle than necessary. But considering the Cyloop is just the first unlockable move in a new skill tree, while other stats, including speed, can also be upgraded over the course of the game, Frontiers’ combat looks like it’s going deeper than that of any Sonic game to date.
It also hints at tougher foes to come. We can be sure that the threats grow in terms of size, as we get to fight a range of enemies, from mini-bosses roaming the world to bosses on a much more gargantuan, Shadow Of The Colossus scale. Asura certainly lives up to that comparison – they’re a huge robot that clomps around, and we can barely fathom how to take them down, while later we also attempt a breathless airborne pursuit of a flying mechanical titan.
“RUN A CIRCLE AROUND ENEMIES, AND YOU’LL CREATE A POWERFUL UPDRAUGHT THAT LIFTS HEAVILY SHIELDED ENEMIES IN THE AIR.”