Over the years, the Sonic series has had its share of ups and downs.
Though there have been some fairly recent successes like Sonic Mania,
Sonic games, especially the 3D ones,
have had a string of rough entries, with games like Sonic Forces and Sonic Boom.
This time around though,
Sonic Frontiers brings the Blue Blur to huge open zones for you to explore.
Although it doesn't reach any grand heights, Sonic Frontiers is an improvement overall,
and one of the most interesting and ambitious entries the series has seen for a long time.
The story once again revolves around Sonic, his pals, and the diabolical Doctor Eggman.
After tampering with some ancient ruins, Eggman gets all of them trapped in digital space.
After escaping, Sonic finds himself on the mysterious Starfall Islands.
Now it's up to him to once again save the day.
Like many Sonic games, Frontiers takes its story seriously
but isn't afraid to have some lighthearted moments along the way.
There are a lot of cut-scenes here, fleshing out the overall plot and character motivations,
but unless you're really into Sonic,
it's unlikely the narrative will do much for you.
The biggest selling point of Frontiers is its world design.
Instead of focusing on linear stages like many past entries,
zones now consist of massive sandboxes, with different areas to explore,
including grass and desert regions.
While you have the freedom to go where you want,
you need to collect various items to progress,
such as gears to open new stages, keys to get Chaos Emeralds,
and character-specific items like hearts for Amy.
Thankfully, these tie into pretty much everything you do
with several activities to take on, including gauntlets full of jumping and grinding,
and other small miscellaneous challenges such as needing to walk across specific light-up tiles
or running on a device similar to hamster wheel.
Additionally, completing any of the challenges labeled with a red question mark
will reveal more of the map and points of interest around you.
There's a surprising amount of variety here, which is appreciated,
and most of the challenges go by quickly, feeling like bite-sized obstacles,
rather than long-winded stops that hinder the quick pace the series is known for.
In each zone, there are various enemies and mini-bosses scattered across the map,
such as a tower robot that's weak to your Cyloop ability.
a shinobi robot that you need to parry,
and even a giant colossus whose arms you run up when it attacks.
They're not the most challenging encounters, but there is a decent number of types to fight and defeat.
There are a lot of them too, but you don't need to defeat that many to progress through the main story.
Although we won’t spoil them here, each region also has a large-scale boss battle.
On the positive side, the game goes all-in with these fights,
but for the most part, they're pretty sloppy, with disorienting camera movement
that makes it a struggle to even hit the enemy or keep track of yourself in the chaos.
Overall, the open-world structure is a fresh and welcome addition.
Things can feel goofy and out of place at times
when you see a bunch of rails and platforms floating around,
popping in and out as you run by, but they're still fun to engage with.
The zones themselves look kind of plain but they get the job done.
While the focus is on large environments,
there are still plenty of traditional 3D
and side-scrolling levels scattered around each map.
These play out as you would expect,
as they’re full of jumps, grinds, and plenty of speed.
They're fun to go through but rarely put up any sort of challenge,
typically clocking in around one to three minutes for a first run.
Many of the stages can also bleed together
with only a handful of themes throughout the entire game,
like a Green Hill Zone style, a factory, and a city.
You are encouraged to replay these stages, with different challenges in each level
that include finishing with a certain number of rings or collecting five red star-rings.
Most of these are very easy though and can usually be done on the first attempt,
with only the time attack challenges requiring some extra effort.
Despite all of this, there’s still fun to be had here,
and rushing through stages as Sonic feels good, finding shortcuts or skips to shave off a few seconds.
Like many open-world games, Sonic has a progression system
with stats to raise and abilities to unlock.
Defeating enemies awards you skill points
that are used to acquire new combat abilities.
Sonic Boom is a shockwave attack that allows you to pummel enemies,
while Wild Rush is a high-speed zigzag attack,
giving Sonic more flexibility than before.
Some of these moves are great and really help out in combat,
but some feel too similar to each other
like Sonic Boom and Cross Slash, which both have Sonic shooting out blue projectiles.
You can also increase Sonic's damage and defense stats
by collecting red and blue seeds and bringing them to the Hermit Koco,
while finding and bringing wandering Koco to an Elder
will allow you to increase your speed and ring capacity.
Raising your stats isn't very exciting,
but having progression that doesn't feel very intrusive is nice.
In between zooming around, you can slow things down
and fish with Big the Cat by visiting a fishing spot on each map.
It's very basic, but fishing at least nets you some tokens
that you can use to purchase extra items
if you'd rather not track them down on the map, like blue and red seeds and Lost Koco.
You can also find items by fishing
that allow you to fast travel in specific regions,
which is a nice reward.
Though there is a lot to see, Frontiers doesn't drag its feet with its playtime,
clocking in around the 16-hour mark, which feels appropriate for the scope of the game.
However, if you want to see and do everything, that can easily increase by several hours.
The music here is solid.
There are still plenty of fast-paced jams and rock anthems,
but many of the regions also feature nice strings and classical work
that give exploration a much more chill vibe.
As a cross-gen title,
Frontiers gives you the option on current-gen hardware to switch between a 4K mode or 60 FPS
which is always a welcome feature.
For the most part, the years haven't been kind to the Blue Blur,
but while Frontiers has its problems,
it's by far the most enjoyable and ambitious 3D entry in a long time.
Its huge open spaces add a refreshing take,
and zooming around at high speeds is still fun even after all these years.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a glorious comeback for everyone's favorite speedy hedgehog.
Final score: 7.5 out of 10.
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