[Review] Sonic Frontiers — A (Chaos) Emerald in the rough

When trying to make something new, there’s always going to be doubts. Will this new formula work? Will you be able to make something worthwhile? This is doubly so when your record in the past is…spotty and inconsistent like Sonic Team’s has been. However, with the release of Sonic Frontiers, there is a clear determination coming from Sonic Team that we have not seen in a long time. They have a dream to become a beloved game developer again, and this is their first step to getting the Sonic games back on an upward climb in quality. Will they succeed? Only time can tell, but I think this is a really good start.

Reaching far across these new frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is an open zone platformer with some action combat sprinkled in. I say open zone rather than open world, because each island you explore is separate and not part of one big open world. At first glance it seems like it might be like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the art style of the environments would certainly make you think of that game, with wide open plains, forests, deserts and whatnot that have a more realistic look to them than Sonic does normally. These environments generally look good for the most part, and character models are reasonably detailed and well done, however the pop in in this game is very rough and visible, even on PlayStation 5. Rails, platforms, and objects will just appear from nowhere, which can be distracting, but not a deal breaker. So overall I’d say it looks decent, but nothing special.

As for the gameplay, Sonic Frontiers involves you exploring several wide open islands, kind of like mini open world areas. You race around completing small platforming challenges and battling enemies and mini-bosses in order to gain the collectibles you need to unlock story scenes with certain characters and the Cyberspace levels. These levels are similar to “boost” style levels found in previous games like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Forces, being fast linear levels with multiple routes. Completing certain goals like getting a high rank, collecting enough gold rings or getting all 5 red rings will reward you with Vault Keys. These unlock the Chaos Emeralds, and once you collect enough of those you will face the main boss or “Titan” of that island as Super Sonic.

This structure works fairly well for an open world style game, and what helps is you have a lot of freedom in how you get the collectibles, and you’re never forced to do anything you don’t really want to. Each collectible can be found in multiple ways, such as in the environment or bought through Big the Cat’s Fishing Spots. That freedom as well as the general structure help make the initial surface level similarities to Breath of the Wild (The Boost Gauge looking like the Stamina Gauge, the Koko being like the Koroks, etc.) all fade away as these cues remind me of Super Mario Odyssey instead. The similar focus on micro platforming and exploration, the abundance of collectibles that you can gather at your own pace and pick the ones you prefer, it really works well in both Odyssey and in Sonic Frontiers.

Then there is combat, which is significantly more in depth than most Sonic games in the past. Sonic has a host of new combat moves, a combo system, a parry/block, dodging, and more. While it seems fairly simple at first, it has a decent amount of freedom and creativity if you take the time to learn it’s quirks and how to vary your combos and use the right moves at the right moments. Enemies are reasonably varied, with lots of different strategies required to defeat them, however some enemy types can be annoying to deal with. The only other issues with combat include an auto-target system that can sometimes target the wrong enemies, as otherwise combat is fast and never takes too long to get through. Boss fights are usually big set pieces that feel exciting and dramatic, with unique mechanics and some quick time events that are used for spectacle, with lots of cool story moments involved as well.

A new world worth fighting for

Speaking of the story, it begins with Sonic, Tails, and Amy tracking the Chaos Emeralds to a group of islands, when a big energy wave appears and sucks them through a portal. Sonic wakes up only to hear a voice from the sky, telling him to take down several powerful machines known as “Titans”. He now must explore, take down these new foes and save his friends, all the while dealing with a mysterious young girl known as Sage who seems to be antagonistic toward Sonic for some reason.

From here we get what would be a fairly standard Sonic plot, but the writing in this game is significantly better thanks to Ian Flynn (the longtime writer of the Sonic comics) taking the reins, and it shows right away. This story is delivered with far more sincerity and a more serious tone than previous games. It’s just the right level where you can still have a joke occasionally, but the stakes are high and taken seriously by the characters. We also get lots of continuity with other Sonic games, with the characters reminiscing and referencing past games in a natural way, which helps the characters feel far closer to their original personalities rather than the dumbed-down versions they have become in recent titles. This tone also allows for big climatic moments to feel much more exciting.

What also adds to this is the music, which in my opinion is excellent. During the exploration you get peaceful tranquil, almost somber music, while in combat you get faster, upbeat tracks. When you are racing though cyberspace levels, you get these techno, pumping beats that work well with the fast paced boost gameplay, and in the boss fights you get these heavy, rock/metal vocal tracks that feel a little cheesy, yet epic enough to elevate those encounters into pure hype filled moments. There’s not much else I can say other than I love this soundtrack, and the vocal tracks are scratching the same itch as the ones in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance.

An imperfect, yet strong effort from Sonic Team

Coming with a conclusion and a score for this game was harder than normal for me. There’s plenty of issues this game has, like the occasionally janky and sometimes messy mechanics, the large amount of 2D sections in the 3rd island that make exploring difficult, the controls in the cyberspace levels feeling not as good as previous boost games, and a lack of variety in the environments between certain islands. But at the same time, it’s so much fun to play, the mini challenges and combat are constantly engaging, the boss fights are huge and exciting, the soundtrack is great, and the story and dialogue hit the mark perfectly for a long time Sonic fan. More importantly this game has a sincerity that I haven’t seen from Sonic Team’s work in a long time. I think it’s a great game overall, but if you aren’t a Sonic fan you might want to take a point or two off my score. I can’t wait to see what Sonic Team does next on their pursuit of their one-way dream.

For the purpose of this review, we played Sonic Frontiers on PlayStation 5. The game is also available for Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 4.

Score: 8.0/10