Sega’s upcoming open-zone platformer Sonic Frontiers is a bold new direction for its iconic hedgehog mascot. As beloved as the character of Sonic the Hedgehog is, his video game history is spotty at best. Following a pair of successful movie releases, Sonic is returning to the video game scene with a journey to the Starfall Islands, a mysterious environment that stands in stark contrast to the more cartoonish realms that usually serve as the hedgehog’s stomping grounds. During Summer Game Fest, Screen Rant got a chance to go hands-on with the game in a brief demo that outlined some of the mechanics fans can look forward to when the game finally launches.
The Sonic Frontiers demo begins with Sonic waking up in the Starfall Islands, following an unidentified traumatic incident that has separated him from his friends. A mysterious voice gives him a nebulous goal and he jets off. The Starfall Islands are clearly unfamiliar to Sonic, and the visual dissonance between the cartoonish hedgehog and his photorealistic surroundings helps highlight this unfamiliarity. Despite all the visual realism, though, the area is still cluttered with the franchise’s usual collection of bounce pads and rails, tailor-made for Sonic to speed through quickly. The more linear sections of the demo were littered with alternate paths accessed through these special mobility aids, and multiple types of collectible await players capable of navigating brief obstacle courses.
When Sonic Frontiers‘ level design opens up, the game introduces minor puzzles. Solving these distractions rewards players with increased visibility of the surrounding area on their map screen. Some of these puzzles have been shown off in Sonic Frontiers‘ gameplay teasers ahead of this demo. It’s a bit jarring for Sonic to slow his constant forward momentum to solve a quick puzzle, but the ones shown off in the demo were all very rudimentary, and generally revolved around destroying all of a specific item in the area. They feel more similar to Breath of the Wild‘s famous Korok seed hunt than to the sort of deep brain-teaser seen in a more puzzle-oriented game.
Sonic Frontiers Gameplay & Skill Trees
When it comes to Sonic’s basic moveset, Sonic Frontiers doesn’t deviate too much from the norm. The blue blur has his classic homing attack, a double jump, a quick side-to-side dodge, and a boost. The boost speeds Sonic’s movement for a limited time, addressing concerns that Sonic Frontiers‘ open-zone nature would slow the character down too much. The duration of the boost ability is demarcated by a slowly depleting wheel, which should also look familiar to fans of Breath of the Wild. In the demo, the wheel depleted so slowly that it was genuinely hard to get Sonic to run out of juice, so players can probably expect to move around at a decent speed for most of the game.
Sonic Frontiers also has a skill tree which will allow Sonic to unlock a variety of additional abilities as he explores the Starfall Islands. The ability at the top of the tree is one of the game’s signature moves, the Cyloop. As seen in Sonic Frontiers‘ gameplay previews, the Cyloop allows Sonic to trace a circle of energy on the ground, which will apply a variety of effects to anything caught within. The Cyloop has considerable applications in combat; not only can it damage enemies and, in certain cases, knock off their shields, but if Sonic traces a circle around nothing, he will conjure a handful of rings. Rings function largely as they’ve always done in Sonic games, so an opportunity to boost one’s ring count quickly in the midst of a tense boss fight is welcome.
Sonic Frontiers Boss Fights & Combat
In the demo, bosses could be found throughout the overworld, and for the most part they are simple but challenging combat diversions. All of the enemies seen in the recent Sonic Frontiers combat preview were demonstrated, along with a sword-wielding robotic boss called the Ninja. This is a simple, early game boss with a wide-reaching slash attack and the ability to duplicate itself to add pressure to the battlefield. All featured bosses were standard robotic foes, but a few cutscenes in the demo teased the presence of a mysterious robed antagonist, so more involved battles with this figure and their minions will probably appear in the full game.
Sonic Frontiers is an ambitious project. The demo teased a myriad of features to come down the line, including stat upgrades and unlockable combat maneuvers, and the islands are clearly richly populated with activities. The variety of collectable items and interactive elements in the map is staggering, but it remains to be seen how well Sega can differentiate the experience of interacting with these objects in order to make exploring the Starfall Islands feel worthwhile. The demo showed potential, but time will tell how well Sonic Frontiers sticks the landing.
Sonic Frontiers will release for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in the Holiday season of 2022.
