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Sonic the Hedgehog has had a pretty rough life. He\u2019s had bright spots (original Genesis and Dreamcast games) to pretty horrible failures (Sonic 06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic Forces \u2013 yep, I went there). The Sonic franchise hasn\u2019t been afraid to experiment but, if we are honest, most of the experiments haven\u2019t worked. Sonic Frontiers looked to take the experiments to their boldest levels ever. Taking inspiration from other franchises transforming themselves into open-world experiences, Sonic Frontiers thrusts Sonic into a big \u201copen-zone\u201d experience. The results are genuinely not at all what I was expecting. While the game has its fair share of glitches and an overall weirdness you can\u2019t always follow, Sonic Frontiers is a surprisingly fun game you should check out. Just know that the Nintendo Switch experience won\u2019t be as strong of a graphical experience as other platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sonic Frontiers <\/span>starts off with a brief introduction to our heroes Sonic, Tails, and Amy. After a digital anomaly, Sonic mysteriously gets pulled into the \u2018Cyberspace\u2019 or in this case, a tutorial level set in Green Hill Zone. After you\u2019ve completed this, you\u2019re dropped into the first of five open-zone locations: Kronos Island. It turns out that Sonic\u2019s friends are missing and it\u2019s up to you to find and rescue them.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the major aspects of Sonic Frontiers is its open-zone gameplay. Why open-zone and not open-world? \u201cOpen world\u201d implies a much bigger world to explore, whereas Sonic Frontiers gives you large, contained areas that aren\u2019t connected. It\u2019s a big departure for the series to have so much space to run around in and it surprisingly works. This freedom finally makes Sonic\u2019s speed a pleasure to use all the time (once you\u2019ve upgraded his running speed to be faster than its default. Honestly, it\u2019s never been more fun to just speed around the zones and see every inch of the island or discover a new path to new areas of the map.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This open-world feel gets elevated to a whole new level with the various rails scattered throughout the zone. These rails lead to other platforms, either high in the sky or out over water, which in turn lead to rewards and goodies (like heart pieces, money or hidden treasure). It makes exploring a lot of fun and I highly recommend taking the time to run around each zone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The zones themselves are interesting to explore, with all sorts of things you can do, interact with or fight in each area. It\u2019s easy to run for a few minutes and bump into all sorts of different challenges, enemies and side quests. Each zone has a variety of locations to discover. From ancient ruins, giant titans (that you may or may not want to fight right away), to hidden paths inside waterfalls, there\u2019s a lot waiting to be found in each zone. Having said that, I should mention that the game requires you to unlock the map bit by bit by completing minigames, which will open random parts of the map. In turn, the more you unlock, the more complete a picture of the island you get. Although the islands aren\u2019t overly big, it\u2019s still possible to get a bit lost if you haven\u2019t unlocked much of the map.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s one downside to Sonic Frontiers, its discoverability. Where a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild pulls you in through teasing you with identifiable world markers (shrines, villages, what\u2019s that thing sticking up over there) Sonic Frontiers has issues with pop in. This means that those identifiers can\u2019t be seen unless you are up on top of them. It\u2019s not a major issue as running around the zone is quite fun and it\u2019s great to run up on a surprise, but it does make it challenging to know where you are and where you are going.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s also quite a bit of variety in the minigames Sonic Frontiers has thrown throughout its world. Some of these range from simple \u201crace to this marker before time runs out\u201d to fun callbacks to previous Sonic games. Big the Cat returns and you can do a fishing minigame with him. Sonic can also go back and experience a whole minigame set to the Genesis Sonic Spinball, and so much more. It\u2019s fun and honestly the throwback minigames are my favorite, mostly because you don\u2019t know what is until you play it. Sure, you eventually figure out that an hourglass means a race, and fishing takes place closest to the water. Still, there\u2019s enough variety to keep you engaged in these side quest mini-games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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That said, your enjoyment with the mini-games will likely depend on your previous experience with Sonic. If you are someone who has never played previous Sonic titles or you\u2019re relatively new to the series, the throwbacks won\u2019t mean anything to you. You might enjoy them, you might hate them. I know some people who hated fishing minigames in other Sonic outings and, no surprise, they hate them here, too. Finding the minigames might be your biggest challenge, as they are scattered throughout the zone and sometimes aren\u2019t clearly marked. If you manage to unlock the whole map, then you get to experience the \u201cmap throw up\u201d, a term I use to describe when the map unlocks and the game \u201cthrows up\u201d every icon, marker, character location, treasure location, beacon, puzzle location on the map all at once.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>One of my main issues with Sonic Frontiers is something that seems pretty typical of Sonic games: glitches. Sonic Frontiers feels like it could have used another few months for polish because almost every aspect has glitches. It\u2019s common to glitch through platforms, miss rails, have rewards spawn inside objects (looking at you, gear part that glitched INSIDE a boulder), and hit detection that is all over the place. It\u2019s not a deal breaker as you can usually reload or retry a minigame\/side quest\/mission and avoid the issue. I shouldn\u2019t have to do this of course, but the issue is so common, that\u2019s the only way to progress. Perhaps a future patch will fix these issues, but\u00a0 for now, the glitches are everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other issue I have with Sonic Frontiers is its overall weirdness. All Sonic games have a level of strangeness to them but Sonic Frontiers is weird because of how it fails to explain itself. Take, for instance, your interactions with Amy. After releasing her from the Cyberspace prison sphere, you regularly have to talk to Amy by bringing her heart pieces. Why? Unclear. The game says those heart pieces are Amy\u2019s Memory Pieces, and by giving her more hearts you unlock more of her. Except giving her these pieces has her tell you about the island natives, not her memories or information about the enemies you have to defeat. It doesn\u2019t make senses, and that sort of thing consistently happens during your playthrough. Another oddity is that finishing minigames unlocks parts of the map but weirdly not the part of the map where the minigame is located. Even fighting the titans that roam the zones at first have very little explanation besides \u201cbecause they are the titans.\u201d There are many moments where you say \u201cwait, what?\u201d and it\u2019s genuinely from a place of confusion rather than surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The last thing that should be mentioned is how the game looks and plays on Nintendo Switch. It\u2019s obvious when you play in docked mode that the game took a steep graphical hit to run on Switch. Environments and details are a bit fuzzy and pop-in occurs at nearly every moment (although I hear this issue occurs on even the newer, more powerful hardware on the market). It\u2019s not a major, game-breaking issue but it is quite noticeable at every moment of your gameplay. Usually the pop-in occurs within about 30 feet of Sonic\u2019s location and it\u2019s not just limited to enemies but platforms, buildings and even the titans. The graphics aren\u2019t as major of an issue when played in handheld mode \u2013 the smaller screen does help \u2013 although you can still tell things have been downgraded. Regardless of which mode you use, the game runs at a very stable framerate throughout your entire playthrough. Ultimately, it\u2019s exactly what you expect from a third-party title on Switch in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, is Sonic Frontiers worth a play? Surprisingly, yes. Sonic Frontiers takes a huge gamble on changing up its entire gameplay presentation and the open-zone approach mostly works. It\u2019s a blast running around in these open zones discovering all there is to offer. There\u2019s also plenty of variety in the side quests and minigames, although you won\u2019t truly love the throwbacks unless you\u2019re a long-time Sonic player. That said, Sonic Frontiers suffers from being glitchy, where you run into graphical issues at nearly every section. It also suffers from major pop-in issues, with noticeably fuzzy visuals and downgraded graphics from other hardware counterparts. It\u2019s also a weird game, even by Sonic standards. There\u2019s still a lot of fun to be had in Sonic Frontiers and I recommend checking it out. It\u2019s the first time in years a 3D Sonic outing has been worth playing and, honestly, I can\u2019t wait to see how they build upon this game for a potential sequel. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sonic the Hedgehog has had a pretty rough life. He\u2019s had bright spots (original Genesis and Dreamcast games) to pretty horrible failures (Sonic 06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic Forces \u2013 yep, I went there). The Sonic franchise hasn\u2019t been afraid to experiment but, if we are honest, most of the experiments haven\u2019t worked. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/purenintendo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/sonic_frontiers_main.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[576],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nintendo"],"yoast_head":"\n