Sonic Frontiers
PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Homing-attack chains seem to take an age, which means you’re often better off skipping enemies entirely
Developer Sonic Team
Publisher Sega
Format PC, PS4, PS5 (tested), Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release Out now
Ambition can be a double-edged sword. While on the one hand it has pushed Sonic Team to create its boldest departure to date from the series formula, it also explains the sorry state in which this ‘open zone’ effort arrives. For every moment you spend sprinting across lush fields, unbound from the strict level pathways that have defined Sonic’s previous outings, there are a dozen more when the struggle to build a compelling game within them is all too apparent.
True, there are moments while exploring these five sprawling maps when Frontiers captures something of the ambience of Breath Of The Wild – tinkling piano and drizzling rain creating a sombre atmosphere unlike any other Sonic game. Otherwise, there’s a bizarre desperation to shove a series of gimmicks in your face – from a brutally hard pinball minigame to slowly moving a crane to pick up coloured balls and deposit them into the right holes, and physically herding the diminutive Koco (a poor substitute for the Dreamcast-era Chao) within a time limit. These aren’t diversions, but mandatory tasks thrown at you in a desperate bid to fill time. Optional ‘challenges’ (which unlock a rail-based fast-travel system across the world), such as skipping-rope trials, skydiving interludes or Tetris-like puzzles, are even more tedious.
The plot involves Sonic and his friends chasing Eggman to the ruins of the Starfall Islands to foil his latest masterplan. For the most part, this involves Sonic gathering a range of currencies that would make Destiny 2 blush. To defeat each island’s boss, you must collect all the Chaos Emeralds. To obtain those, you first need keys, earned in ‘Cyber Space’ platforming levels. But to open those up, you need special gears dropped from minibosses, and so on. There are also skill points to work your way through the obligatory skill tree; purple coins used for a fishing minigame with Big The Cat; red and blue fruit which level up Sonic’s attack and defence respectively (the aforementioned Koco are used for boosting his top speed and rings); and memory tokens to progress the stories of Sonic’s friends, which are also mandatory for story progression. It’s exhausting.
Scattered throughout each open zone are floating arrangements of platforms designed solely for the purpose of hoovering up collectibles – although, thanks to the awful pop-in (even on newer systems), you may not see them until they’re right in front of Sonic’s pointed nose. These are very slight variations on the usual platforming gauntlets: you’ll pull off homing attacks on robots to bounce across gaps, run across walls, grind rails, etc. These would be straightforward enough were it not for fixed camera angles that can be a pain to wrestle with. Still, it’s here where Sonic’s sluggish pace across the ground begins to make sense. Since he comes to a dead stop when you stop tilting the analogue stick, at least you can be confident he won’t slide off the edge of any platforms, though the wide turning circle he’s been given means falls are likely should you overshoot anything you target with his air-dash.
Despite the ability to calibrate how Sonic controls, on almost any setting his defining trait feels shackled. While we doubt the abysmal handling is an intentional nod to Game Gear title Sonic Labyrinth, perhaps we’re mistaken; when you hop into the Cyber Space levels they’re packed with callbacks to the mascot’s past, with the unfortunate side-effect that you’re reminded you could be playing any one of his older, better games. The layouts of these short challenge levels are often unashamedly ripped from Sonics
past, reskinned to resemble a handful of classic games (Sonic Adventure 2’s Sky Rail, for instance, is done up to look like Green Hill Zone). It’s telling that, outside a line of cutscene dialogue about them being built from Sonic’s memories, this repurposing isn’t highlighted. Even the Arcade Mode in which you can play Time Trials is tricky to navigate, the samey visuals and generic ‘2-1’-style numbering meaning they largely blend into one.
It’s here that the controls really become a problem. On several occasions we hit a boost pad only to come instantly to a halt because we’re not pushing a direction on the stick. Homing-attack chains seem to take an age, which means you’re often better off skipping enemies entirely. And holding the trigger for Sonic’s boost ability feels like you’re giving him a gentle nudge rather than a thrilling push forward. It’s a sad state of affairs for a series built on momentum-based physics: while its pale imitations of the two-decade-old Sonic Adventure 2
briefly transport you back in time, it’s like playing with a half-broken thirdparty Dreamcast controller.
If all this is horribly disappointing, the emphasis on combat – never a Sonic strength – is outright baffling. From bog-standard robots to minibosses and the hulking titans that preside over each area, all have one thing in common: they’re as much a slog to fight as Sonic is to control. Many have gimmicky vulnerabilities: you may have to complete a ‘cyloop’ around them (slowly steering Sonic to trace a specific pattern with his shimmering trail) to remove their shield, or complete a protracted QTE sequence as Sonic clings on for dear life.
Once they’re open to attack, combat involves you mashing the attack button to perform combos as you chip away at those overly long health bars. You can unlock more powerful moves via the skill tree, either ending a chain of attacks with a more powerful strike that locks you into a lengthy, tedious animation, or a dash-based start to a combo – which also locks you into a lengthy, tedious animation. Given the persistent control problems, you might think these occasions when Frontiers takes charge would be a blessing in disguise. But they speak to a game that never feels comfortable giving you full command of its star. We’re left feeling blue, but not in the way Sonic Team intended.