Summer Game Bang! - Sonic Frontiers Gameplay Reveal

Yesterday IGN gave us our very first look at the gameplay for Sonic Frontiers. Frontiers is Sonic’s first foray into open-world adventure, and I have been dying to know how Sega planned on applying Sonic’s high-speed platforming to a larger, open space. Based on this first look, however, I’m not sure this is the best approach.

The thought I kept repeating to myself over and over was “This looks like one of those ‘Mario in Unreal Engine’ YouTube videos”. The environment is pretty enough, but Sonic looks very out of place in my opinion. Most of what I would expect from a Sonic game was missing, bright colors, enemy robots, and power-up boxes seem to have been traded for a tranquil landscape littered with ruins. Springs, rails, and boost pads are present, but they don’t feel about as out of place as Sonic does. Throughout the seven minute video, I could not shake the notion this looked fan-made.

The music doesn’t do much to help the situation, either. Sonic games usually have energetic, catchy music that gets stuck in my head for hours after I’m done playing. Sonic Frontiers, or at least what we’ve seen of it, seems to have opted for a minimalistic piano-focused soundtrack reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. I wasn’t a fan of minimalist background music for Zelda, and I’m even more opposed to the notion here. Making the situation worse, rings and springs maintain their traditional cartoony sound effects that clash pretty hard with…everything else.

Some environmental puzzles were shown, and I’m not really against their inclusion. Done right, puzzles can provide a welcome break in the action. The rewards for the puzzles seem to be…fruit(?), but until we get more details it’s impossible to make any sort of quality judgement. Platforming challenges seem to reward a similarly mysterious pink gem. As long as these rewards are useful or worth pursuing, I think both could be excellent changes of pace.

Ultimately, we still don’t know very much about Sonic Frontiers. IGN promises more coverage across the month of June, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on their coverage. Unfortunately, right now, Sonic Frontiers has me feeling less-than-confident about this new direction for my favorite blue hedgehog.