The latest game starring Sonic The Hedgehog successfully evolves the fast-paced 3D platforming formula Sonic Adventure established, but almost every great thing about Sonic Frontiers on Nintendo Switch is weighed down by its performance and design choices. The anxious wait for a modern 3D adventure starring the Blue Blur has finally ended, and while it may have several issues that its predecessors share, Sonic Frontiers is still a game that, however inconsistently, recaptures the magic of some of Sonic's best adventures.
Many modern iterations of classic franchises have moved their series into an open-world format, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Sonic Frontiers does something similar, but instead of one massive interconnected world, the game is broken up into four large islands for players to speed around and explore. While each land is supposed to have its own theme, each of Frontiers' overworld stages feels and looks very similar, with some slight differences.
Every island contains open fields scarcely populated with ruins, grind rails, enemies, and jump pads that are fun to traverse, but do little to set one another apart. Players will also need to battle enemies and find an overwhelming amount of collectibles that help move the story forward and level up Sonic's speed, stats, and ring capacity. Frontiers does its best to explain all of this in its first few hours, but the large amount of information that's suddenly dropped on players can be a lot to .
The skills that can be unlocked in Sonic Frontiers improve combat and make it much more varied and enjoyable than it has been in past games. A skill tree adds parries, counterattacks, and combos that makes Frontiers' combat sometimes feel more like a Devil May Cry game than Sonic, and it works surprisingly well. The upgraded combat is a welcome change that challenges players to mix up their tactics as they face the game's increasingly difficult foes. However, Sonic Frontiers' most frustrating parts are a little less stressful because it does not have lives, or a game over screen, like past Sonic games. Instead, players will reset where they were last safe or at the last checkpoint they reached, depending on the circumstances.
Minibosses and map-unlocking challenges populate each island and will test players' combat skills, wit, and speed. However, besides its combat, Sonic Frontiers Cyberspace levels are where the game gets most interesting. These special stages strip away Sonic's new combat abilities and the overworld islands altogether and are where the game's catchy and high-energy soundtrack shine. These stages are where the gameplay focuses on the fast-paced platforming that has often been the highlight of contentious Sonic games like Unleashed and Generations. However, the high quality of the Cyberspace stages makes Sonic Frontiers' gameplay issues more glaring as soon as players return to explore its overworld.
As the Sonic series transitioned from 2D to 3D, it became easier to accidentally send Sonic speeding in the wrong direction or off a fatal ledge, which has been an issue for more than a decade. Sonic Frontiers is filled with moments that force players to transition between 360-degree free movement and 2D side-scrolling moments. These moments lead to inconsistent gameplay mechanics and confusion for the player when determining which direction the game wants players to move. Sonic Frontiers often switches up its gameplay, with epic Super Sonic battles against huge Titan bosses another offering that looks to add variety. However, like its disappointingly shallow minigames, the game's controls and lack of cohesion often lead to frustration rather than excitement.
Sonic Frontiers takes many steps in the right direction for Sonic games. Still, its biggest fault is that it tries to do so much, with how well it accomplishes everything varying greatly between interesting and frustrating. Longtime Sonic comics writer Ian Flynn penned parts of the story, and its narrative and music are some of the game's highlights worth mentioning. The moments that work in Sonic Frontiers can be fun and captivating, but as soon as players start to feel a groove, they're thrown into something different, changing what they're doing and creating a choppy flow to progression. The foundation for a consistent experience in the next 3D Sonic game is here, but Sonic Frontiers feels more like a test than a proper renaissance for the series quite yet.
Sonic Frontiers is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A code for Sonic Frontiers on Nintendo Switch was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.
