Sonic Frontiers may be the happiest I've ever been about feeling that a game is pretty good.
I'll be honest, I was a complete doubter when it was first revealed. I thought that the aesthetic was poor, the game looked incredibly buggy, and that placing Sonic in an open area was a risky idea. After playing it, all of my worries were correct! The Starfall Islands are visually underwhelming, which isn't helped by the garish rails and platforms that litter the landscape and sky with some of the worst pop in I've ever experienced. The game is incredibly buggy, if Sonic hits a rock at a wrong angle, he will launch off into the air, sometimes ruining your attempts to use the Cyloop. Placing Sonic into an open area was a risky idea.
Luckily, I think that risk payed off.
Sonic Frontiers, warts and all, was one of the most fun experiences that I have had this year. Ultimately, this game is Sonic's first real stab at the 3D Collect-a-Thon formula. The main levels are dotted with boost pads, rails, springs, short missions, and linear platforming stages. In terms of the amount of collectables, and the mechanical intrigue of actually collecting them, Sonic Frontiers should be one of the worst Collect-a-Thons of all time. There are an absurd amount of collectables, and the vast majority of them are gained from the least interesting tasks imaginable.
Sonic has something unique though, his speed. In the worst of 3D Collect-a-Thons, it can take ages to comb through a stage for all the trinkets, and boring minigames can take minutes of your time, bringing the pacing to a screeching halt. In Sonic Frontiers however, the most menial of missions last only moments.
You start off using the games movement to launch Sonic off a slope into the end of one platforming challenge, before using a homing attack cancel to soar and land into an entirely separate collectable, finally landing back on the ground on top of a quick puzzle. Throw in some more involved moments into the mix like short boss fights, narrative segments, focused platforming stages, and fishing. Cap it all off with a mechanically simple, but enthralling boss fight. That is a killer formula.
I was genuinely positively surprised by Sonic Frontiers. If the next game that Sonic Team makes follows up on this formula, then consider it one of my most anticipated games for the next few years.
I'll be honest, I was a complete doubter when it was first revealed. I thought that the aesthetic was poor, the game looked incredibly buggy, and that placing Sonic in an open area was a risky idea. After playing it, all of my worries were correct! The Starfall Islands are visually underwhelming, which isn't helped by the garish rails and platforms that litter the landscape and sky with some of the worst pop in I've ever experienced. The game is incredibly buggy, if Sonic hits a rock at a wrong angle, he will launch off into the air, sometimes ruining your attempts to use the Cyloop. Placing Sonic into an open area was a risky idea.
Luckily, I think that risk payed off.
Sonic Frontiers, warts and all, was one of the most fun experiences that I have had this year. Ultimately, this game is Sonic's first real stab at the 3D Collect-a-Thon formula. The main levels are dotted with boost pads, rails, springs, short missions, and linear platforming stages. In terms of the amount of collectables, and the mechanical intrigue of actually collecting them, Sonic Frontiers should be one of the worst Collect-a-Thons of all time. There are an absurd amount of collectables, and the vast majority of them are gained from the least interesting tasks imaginable.
Sonic has something unique though, his speed. In the worst of 3D Collect-a-Thons, it can take ages to comb through a stage for all the trinkets, and boring minigames can take minutes of your time, bringing the pacing to a screeching halt. In Sonic Frontiers however, the most menial of missions last only moments.
You start off using the games movement to launch Sonic off a slope into the end of one platforming challenge, before using a homing attack cancel to soar and land into an entirely separate collectable, finally landing back on the ground on top of a quick puzzle. Throw in some more involved moments into the mix like short boss fights, narrative segments, focused platforming stages, and fishing. Cap it all off with a mechanically simple, but enthralling boss fight. That is a killer formula.
I was genuinely positively surprised by Sonic Frontiers. If the next game that Sonic Team makes follows up on this formula, then consider it one of my most anticipated games for the next few years.