Sonic Frontiers Review – Rolling at the Speed of Sound (Xbox Series)

Sonic Frontiers Review

At 31 years old, Sonic is bonafide video game royalty. I’m nearly as old as the franchise, and despite the fact that I grew up in a Nintendo family, he still played a major role in my and everyone else’s childhoods. For me, it was early PC ports of the original trilogy, the first few spinoffs, and the anime cartoon. For others, it was the Rush games on DS or the later console games like Generations and Unleashed. He has been on almost every console since Sega stopped making their own, and he has jumped several genres, including multiple racers, RPGs, puzzles, and even pinball games.

On paper, it would seem that Sonic should have a cabinet full of classics that have defined their era: much like his counterparts from other companies have. But somehow, there are only a handful of games that most people think of as good. Sonic has always had serious fans, myself included, but his games have never been held in high regard beyond the original Genesis trilogy. He’s one of the boldest examples of a character surviving on star power alone. So what are we to make of the first real attempt at an open world Sonic game? Given that this feels like it should have been an obvious choice for the past 15 years. As it turns out, it’s as much of a mixed bag as you might expect from the Blue Blur.

Setting the Stage for a Heroes Parade!

Sonic Frontiers opens with a familiar sight: Dr. Eggman up to something nefarious with ancient technology and Sonic riding on the wings of Tails’ plane as they are off to search for the source of Chaos Emerald energy fields. Amy Rose, Sonic’s sometimes unwanted romantic advancer, sometimes needy cousin (depending on what source you’re using) is along for the ride. Things go wrong immediately. The friends get separated and trapped in a parallel dimension called Cyberspace. You play through a typical 3D Sonic level and are then spat out into the the open world environment.

It is a particularly uninspired opening, even for a Sonic game, and it feels oddly barebones. As you learn about the mystery of what’s going on on the island chain and the story unfolds, I couldn’t help but feel like these were narrative beats and cutscenes that would have made sense in 2006. But the game presents its story with a dedicated and heartfelt sincerity. I get the feeling that Sonic Team really wants you to feel something playing this. The bones of a compelling narrative are there and I’m sure that some people will be able to look past the severe lack of polish. It’s just that the presentation lets it down in major ways that made this brand new game feel like it could be over a decade old. You would be forgiven for thinking that Sonic Frontiers was originally a late era XBOX 360 game. If feeling something from the story was the goal, there should have been more care put into the graphics and animations.

Given the success and legacy of the franchise it is disappointing to look at. Textures are basic. The environments feel like a demo of SpeedTree and there is very little of the striking personality that Sonic’s world is normally filled with. Zany grid pattern grass and bold colors are nowhere to be seen and what is there is extremely generic looking naturalistic fields and desert.

Compounding this is the fact that this game is clearly heavily inspired by Nintendo’s two recent Zelda and Mario games (Breath of the Wild and Odyssey respectively), both of which were known for their strong art direction. I’m going on about this because I actually think the gameplay in Frontiers is a fun breath of fresh air for the franchise, and has a mildly addictive throwback collect-athon kind of quality to it. It’s just so bizarre that it is wrapped in a bundle with the graphics and presentation here. But even in regards to the gameplay, there are fossilized mechanics lurking around.

Got Ourselves a Situation, Stuck in a New Location, Without Any Explanation, No Time for Relaxation!

After finding yourself in an open area and trying to familiarize yourself with controls that are more detailed than most Sonic games have been, the collecting begins. The game is split into five different areas, four of which are large open islands that have maps full of collectables to go after. There are at least half dozen collectables ranging from the standard Rings to the Chaos Emeralds themselves. Character gems are the lion’s share of the action. Throughout the worlds are what amount to short little trick courses you might see filling a normal 3D sonic game that have the character gems at the end. The part of this that’s so addicting is the density. There are hundreds of these. The loop of running as fast as Sonic ever has, hopping from one short course to the next feels kinetic and fun.

It’s in these moments that the potential shines through. But then there are still design issues that feel dated by decades. Exchanging the little Koco characters for speed and ring capacity is a prime example. You have to select every single point you want to assign one at a time. That means going through the full 13 second animation and menu selection for every single individual point. Once, after I collected 40 to 50 points or so worth of the Koco’s, I spent nearly 10 minutes slowly upgrading my speed one point at a time. It makes no sense especially considering that you can upgrade your attack and defense all at once by just asking to upgrade both.

Then there’s the difference in controls between the open world and the traditional level/Cyberspace shrines. While the button inputs are the same, the feeling and reaction feels entirely different at times. With the controls in the levels being much looser and less precise. It often feels like you’re having to learn an entirely different set of physics for these levels. The level design is mostly solid for this style but the juxtaposition between the two can be positively infuriating at times.

Trustin’ in What You Can’t See

Despite the strange holdbacks and design anachronisms, I really liked this game. I think it’s one of the strangest games I have ever played. The oddity of Sonic and company being as cartoony looking as ever running around a naturalistic environment seriously reminiscing on things like friendship and legacy will never not be odd. But the moment to moment action can be some of the best Sonic has ever had. Even the music is a mix of the usual fantastic music associated with the franchise and softer more contemplative tracks that again, make the whole thing feel frequently bizarre. More than once I found myself literally shaking my head.

Open world Sonic should have happened a long time ago. One can only hope that they decide to give it another shot. Should that ever happen, we can just hope that they learn their lessons making this one. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a new Sonic game or are interested in a light single player experience, you could do worse than Sonic Frontiers. You could probably do better, but you could definitely do worse too.

Score: 7/10

Pros:

  • Open World Sonic
  • Solid Level Design
  • Strange in an Endearing if Frequently Frustrating Way
  • Some Great Music

Cons:

  • Poor Graphics, Cutscene Animations, and Textures
  • Strange Dated Design Choices
  • Control Inconsistency in the Levels
  • Some Out of Place Music

A copy of Sonic Frontiers was purchased by MP1st, played on Xbox Series You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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