this game is......weird. after a week of binge playing this game only taking breaks to play yakuza 6 and travis strikes again for tiny bits it's safe to say that i still don't know what to think about this game. im making this review to see if i can manage to gather my thoughts about this weirdo ass game because i feel like there's so much to talk about.
ive been a sonic fan for what 2 years now? though my experience with the franchise is limited, only really playing the games that are easily accessible like gens, the adventure games, mania etc. so getting into frontiers i only had one wish, i wanted sonic to control well and he absolutely does. rail jumping and just boosting around the islands with mach speed is absolutely stupid fun it's crazy. but sometimes i also feel like my experience with the game isnt genuine kinda? most of my enjoyment came from trying out the silly exploits and seeing how far i can go with breaking this game, kronos and ares granted me this satisfaction, it was like playing around the adventure fields from sa1 all over again. then chaos and rhea hit and the cracks started showing, unfun 2d sections galore and there were so much that i was just so ready to get over it. ouranos was kinda fun i guess? but at its core it's just a reskin of kronos with more things to do.
speaking of reskin cyberspace! my hottest take is i actually really liked some of cyberspace, but like, only exploiting cyberspace. the most fun ive had with them is homing attack cancelling my way through the stages trying to see how low i can get my time to be. the 3d stages with layouts from gens and adventure 2 were the ones that were really fun but the 2d levels were absolutely horrendous, i never noticed how slow sonic ran until i played these it's horrible, but like, it's still fun to exploit them and speeding through them with how slow sonic is is satisfying atleast.
but the absolute highlight of the game for me were the spectacle, watching sonic take down bosses in the most over the top way possible is so awesome it reminds me of how cool these characters really are, i also really enjoyed how ian flynn wrote these characters, ive never felt this much gay energy between sonic and knuckles ever it's so fun watching these characters interact like this again. tails' whole arc resonated with me specifically kinda, all this just made me super excited about how they're gonna wrap this up, and uhhh
the ending sequence sucked. they fumbled the ending so hard it honestly lowered my opinion of the game, no spoilers but the final boss being either THAT on hard or a basic QTE in normal and easy is honestly so disappointing, main antagonist wasn't even that cool i really wish they'd flesh out the stuff with it a bit more.

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ok actually writing down my thoughts just made me even more confused on what to think. i definitely enjoyed the game but there are so much glaring flaws and issues that i'd like to be addressed to call this game on par with something like colors maybe gens but at the same time im super satisfied with how stupidly janky this game is?? my little small brain was already easily satisfied with how stupid fun running around the islands were so it wins i guess????
im sitting in the school library writing this down at awe at how weird this game is but at the same time im also thinking about how awfully paced this review is, just a random scramble of words that i decided to put together with this dumbass vent at the end. but like, i had my fun right? yeah maybe that's it actually. this game is weird, definitely flawed but at its core it's super fun despite everything. and i love this game, this series, that way.