By Walker Kesler

Sonic the Hedgehog has had it pretty rough in the 21st century. The blue blur has a lot more misses than hits when it comes to his 3D games due to their subpar gameplay and their buggy and unfinished nature. However, with two popular live-action movies under his belt, Sonic has had something of a comeback. And what better way to use this momentum than to make a 3D open-world Sonic game? So, is Sonic Frontiers the boost this franchise has needed? Let’s find out. 

(Disclaimer: This review was written after playing through a majority of the game, but the game was not finished before writing it. The ending of Sonic Frontiers has not affected the opinions expressed in this article)

My Ranking System 

⅕ Terrible: Could not in good conscience recommend this game to anyone. Usually given to games that are rendered unplayable to countless bugs or just bad design.

⅖ Bad: It may have a few redeeming qualities, but overall not a fun game. Plagued with many design problems but you may get some enjoyment out of it.

⅗ Good: Not great, but not bad either. I enjoyed it but it probably wasn’t worth the money I spent on it. If it’s on sale and I think you might like it, I’d tell you to try it. 

⅘ Great: A well-designed and enjoyable game. Only a few minor problems, but it is easily worth your money. Very similar to a ⅗ but with enough polish to make a difference. Strong recommendations.

5/5 Masterpiece!: A flawless game, with virtually no problems whatsoever. Probably a game they’ll be talking about for decades because of how incredible and important it is. In fact, how have you not played all the 5/5s? There are not many out there.

Pros 

Engaging Story 

Sonic Upon Discovering One Of His Friends 

2D Sonic has always been more conservative when it comes to story, and the 3D Sonic games that I’ve played have some of the worst storytelling I’ve seen ever. I’ve never seen a story explain what’s going on in a scene so blatantly while also failing to ever explain what’s actually happening in the overall scope of the game. The story was somehow so simple, yet so confusing at the same time. Thankfully, Frontiers does not do this. The game opens with Sonic and Co. searching for the chaos emeralds on Starfall islands. Upon their arrival, they are sucked into cyberspace, a digital world that Eggman, Sonic’s arch nemesis, has also managed to get himself stuck in. Sonic is able to escape, and a mysterious voice tells him he is the first to ever do so. The voice also gives him directions on how to free his friends from cyberspace. The story is filled with mystery as Sonic and his friends try to figure out the history of Starfall islands, how it’s connected to cyberspace, and what Eggman was doing there. Frontiers’ greatest enigma is its new character Sage, a mysterious figure who wants to stop Sonic from saving his friends at all costs, claiming that his actions threaten the world. The game leaves you with a lot of questions, keeping you engaged, and while the story contains a few too many filler cutscenes and missions, the overall plot has been really fun, and I can’t wait to see how it’s brought together. 

Sonic Is A Fun Character To Control 

An Example of Sonic’s Boost Mechanic 

When it comes to the previous Sonic games that I’ve played, I’ve always found the hedgehog a little difficult to control. It’s always existed in these two extremes where sometimes you’re controlling him in these annoying platforming segments that never feel fast, and sometimes you’ll be moving super fast in a loop or down a steep ramp, but you’ve lost control of Sonic in what feels like a cutscene. Sonic Frontiers has remedied this problem, especially in the open world areas, with new controls that involve a boost button. It’s a pretty simple control: press the button, and Sonic runs faster. However, this creates more of a feeling that you’re controlling Sonic by managing his speed. This new feature, along with a few new tweaks, really captures the speed that Sonic is known for and makes traversing through Starfall Islands a delight. 

Revamped Combat 

Showing Off Sonic’s New Cyloop Ability 

The game’s strongest aspect is its new combat encounters that occur in the open world. Instead of the simple one-shot enemies that you take out with a homing shot (which are still in the more traditional Cyberspace levels), Frontiers has you fight strange robots with more beat-em-up style controls. The game slowly builds up the number of moves you have in combat using a skill tree. Pretty soon, the goal wasn’t just how quickly I can kill an enemy but how cool I could look doing it as well. The game’s mini-bosses are also very entertaining. Despite a few ideas that didn’t seem to hit the mark, the game ensured that most of the mini-bosses were unique, with each different one requiring a different task in order to defeat it. Each main boss fight also made you Super Sonic, Sonic with the power of the chaos emeralds. These boss fights are really fun, giving you invincibility, flight, and super powerful attacks, which help put you on par with the gargantuan titans that you have to fight. However, you could only be Super Sonic until you run out of rings, which meant you had to collect more throughout the fights. All in all, the combat served as a great example of the new direction Sonic is taking in the games and how this new direction will hopefully lead to better games. 

Cons 

Unrefined physics and Design Hamper the Experience 

Some Weird Climbing Mechanics In This Game

Despite the revamped controls bringing new life into this franchise, Sonic Frontiers can’t escape Sonic Games’ unpolished nature when it comes to actually playing the game. Don’t get me wrong: when the game works, it’s fun. But a lot of times you run into weird areas where the game starts to break on you. These are not necessarily glitches, but the game feels like Sonic and the world he’s running through aren’t connected. I think if this game was given a few more months in development to polish everything up, this would have been fixed. But unfortunately, we received an impaired product. 

Lack of New Ideas Later In the Game Leads to Annoying Repetition

Not Necessarily The Most Fun Or Creative Puzzle

The game’s first area showed me just how much there was to do in this game. From the main quest, collectibles, the open world, miniboss fights, cyberspace levels, and even a fishing mini-game, it seemed to me I would never get bored during my playthrough. Unfortunately, about halfway through the second island and during the third island, I realized that everything I saw in the first world was all this game had to offer and that the rest of the game would be recycled material. Sure, there were a few new enemies and puzzles here or there, but overall, each island just felt like a copy of the last with merely new textures added on. Each island had the exact same objectives in the exact same order: Fight enemies to unlock cyberspace levels,  complete cyberspace levels to unlock chaos emeralds, collect memory tokens to talk to your friends and complete their missions so they can find chaos emeralds, etc. This monotonous process combined with limited fast travel makes for a game that sprinted during a marathon and proceeded to pass out midway. 

Verdict

While it’s still a flawed game, Sonic Frontiers still comes out the other end as one of the best Sonic games in recent years, which goes to show you just how off-track this franchise has been. Sonic fans will be overjoyed to have this game, but if you’re not necessarily a Sonic fanatic, I think your sixty dollars would be better spent elsewhere.

3/5