Sonic the Hedgehog has had a pretty rough life. He’s gone from shining points (the original his Genesis and his Dreamcast games) to pretty horrible failures (Sonic 06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic Forces – yep, I went there). The Sonic franchise isn’t afraid to experiment, but let’s be honest, most of them didn’t work. Sonic Frontiers set out to take experimentation to its most daring level yet. Sonic Frontiers takes inspiration from other franchises turning into open world experiences and pushes Sonic into a big “open zone” experience. The result is not at all what I expected. While the game has its fair share of glitches and overall weirdness that isn’t always understandable, Sonic Frontiers is a surprisingly fun game to check out. Please know that it is not an experience.
sonic frontier Start with a brief introduction to our heroes Sonic, Tails and Amy. After the Digital Anomaly, Sonic is mysteriously pulled into a tutorial level set in “Cyberspace”, or in this case, the Green Hill Zone. Dropped on Kronos Island. It turns out that Sonic’s friend is missing. It’s up to you to find them and rescue them.
One of the major aspects of Sonic Frontiers is its open zone gameplay. Why open zone instead of open world? While “open world” means a much larger world to explore, Sonic Frontier offers vast, disconnected, contained areas. Having so much space for the series to run around is a great starting point, and it works surprisingly well. This freedom ultimately makes Sonic’s speed always fun to use (once you upgrade your running speed to faster than the default. Discover new paths to new areas of the map.
This open-world feeling is taken to a whole new level by the different rails scattered throughout the zone. These rails lead to other platforms, either high in the sky or on the water, leading to rewards and goodies (heart pieces, money, hidden treasure, etc.). It’s a lot of fun to explore, so I highly recommend taking the time to run around each zone.
The zones themselves are interesting to explore, with all sorts of things you can do, interact with, or fight in each area. Each zone has different locations to discover. From ancient ruins to giant titans (you might not want to fight them right away) to hidden paths in waterfalls, each zone has plenty to discover. With that said, it should be mentioned that the game requires you to unlock the map bit by bit by completing mini-games that open random parts of the map. Secondly, the more you unlock, the more complete the picture of the island. The island isn’t that big, but if you haven’t unlocked the map much, you can get a little lost.
This is one of the downsides of Sonic Frontiers – discoverability. While games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild engage users by teasing them with identifiable world markers (shrines, villages, what’s sticking out over there), Sonic Frontiers I have a problem with pop-ins. Not seen unless you are on top of them. It’s not a big deal, as running around the zone is a lot of fun and it’s nice to come across surprises, but it’s hard to know where you are or where you’re going.
There’s also a fair amount of variety in the minigames that Sonic Frontiers throws across its world. Some of these range from simple “race to this marker before time runs out” to fun callbacks to previous Sonic games. Big the Cat is back and you can play a fishing mini-game with him. Sonic can also go back and experience the entire mini-game set in Genesis his Sonic Spinball and more. It’s fun and honestly, the past minigames are my favorite. Indeed, we finally find out that an hourglass means a race, and that fishing takes place closest to the water. Still, there’s enough variety to get you hooked on these side his quest minigames.
That said, how you enjoy the minigames may depend on your previous experience with Sonic. If so, throwbacks mean nothing to you. I know a few people who hated the fishing minigame in other Sonic outings, and understandably, they hate it here too. Finding mini-games can be your biggest challenge, as they may not be there. Unlocking the entire map unlocks the map, and is the term the game uses to describe when it “throws” all icons, markers, character locations, treasure locations, and beacons into the map. You can experience “slow up”. , puzzle locations on the map at once.
One of my main issues with Sonic Frontiers is glitches, a fairly typical problem with Sonic games. Sonic Frontiers feels like it could have spent a few more months polishing as it has glitches on almost every aspect. (Looking at you, the gear piece that glitched inside the rock), ubiquitous hit detection is commonplace. You can usually reload or retry minigames/sidequests/missions to get around the problem, so it’s not a deal breaker. is the only way forward. Perhaps future patches will fix these issues, but for now, glitches are everywhere.
Another problem I have with Sonic Frontiers is its overall weirdness. All Sonic games have some degree of weirdness, but Sonic Frontier is weird because it can’t explain itself. For example, consider the interaction with Amy. After freeing her from her cyberspace prison zone, you have to talk to Amy on a regular basis. why? not clear. The game says that these heart pieces are Amy’s memory pieces, and that giving her hearts will unlock more of her. It doesn’t make sense, and stuff like that happens consistently during playthroughs. One quirk is that parts of the map are unlocked when you complete the minigames, but strangely not the part of the map where the minigames are located. Even fighting the Titans has little explanation other than “because they are Titans.” There are a lot of moments where you’re like, “Eh, eh?” And it really comes from a place of confusion rather than surprise.
The last thing we have to mention is how the game looks and plays on the Nintendo Switch. Playing in docked mode, it’s clear that running the game on Switch took a steep graphics hit. The environment and details are a bit vague and pop in most of the time (although I’ve heard this problem also occurs with newer and more powerful hardware on the market). This isn’t a serious game-breaking issue, but it’s very noticeable at every moment of gameplay. Pop-ins typically occur within about 30 feet of Sonic’s position and aren’t limited to just enemies, but platforms, buildings, and even Titans. Graphics aren’t much of an issue when playing in handheld mode. The smaller screen helps, but you can still see things downgraded. Regardless of which mode you use, the game runs at a very consistent framerate throughout your playthrough. Ultimately, it’s exactly what we’d expect from a third-party title on Switch in 2022.
So is Sonic Frontiers worth playing? Surprisingly, yes. Sonic Frontiers is making a big bet to change the entire gameplay presentation, and the open zone approach mostly works. It’s fun to run around these open zones and discover everything they have to offer. you can’t That said, Sonic Frontiers is glitchy and presents graphical problems in almost every section. It also suffers from major pop-in issues such as noticeably blurry visuals and degraded graphics compared to other hardware. It’s also a strange game, even by Sonic standards. Sonic Frontiers has a lot more to enjoy, so I encourage you to check it out. For the first time in years, 3D Sonic is worth playing, and I honestly can’t wait to see how they build this game for a possible sequel.
