The last game in the series of adventures of the blue hedgehog in 3D is Sonic Frontiers, which is also the first game that takes place in an open world with which you can explore the vast Starfall Islands in a quest to save his friends.
Not the Sonic you know
Sonic Frontiers is really unlike any of its predecessors. The biggest and most noticeable change is the transition to an almost open world divided into several islands that Sonic is free to explore. In the game you have to defeat mini-bosses, unlock new missions and challenges, collect keys, get stronger and defeat the titan of the island in a decisive boss battle. Later, you also discover small challenges that will be rewarded with upgrade items such as memory tokens that you collect along the route to free Sonic’s friends and advance in the game.
Video: Sonic Frontiers in review
In each map there is a portal that must be opened after defeating the mini-bosses. The portal combines missions in which you collect keys to open the Chaos Emerald vault, thus strengthening in order to defeat the Titans in each area. Each portal comes with a series of challenges and side missions through which you reach the finish line with a certain number of rings and finish them with the highest rating.
And there are also puzzles and riddles
The puzzles and riddles in Sonic Frontiers require a bit of logic to complete them successfully. At first it will feel easy, but over time you encounter more complex challenges that in order to pass them you have to use a variety of techniques that are learned slowly from task to task.
So is the fighting skill that is becoming more and more complex. At first the attack is based on only one button, and gradually more abilities are opened through the new skill tree. Among other things, the Cyloops ability, which will allow you to draw circles around the enemies and cause damage to everyone inside. Other moves will allow you to shoot light and shockwaves from a distance, counter-dodge with a zigzag attack, or hit enemies with a flying kick.
side games
Sonic Frontiers is packed with several additional game modes such as an arcade mode located on the main screen, which you can directly access and play through all the stages of Cyber Space but not before finishing the game. In each area there is a portal that leads to mini games such as a fishing game with the Big Cat, the challenging pinball game and even a game with a slot machine through which you can win tokens to play the fishing mini game or exchange them for all kinds of important things.
The bottom line
Despite the exciting story and the engaging portal stages, we felt that Sonic Frontiers was a bit repetitive and didn’t create too much interest. The idea of an open world in 3D seems to be a positive direction for the Sonic series of games, but in Frontiers we encountered difficulties in moving, running and fighting on the ground as Sonic due to compositional problems and camera angles that significantly affected the entire game experience.
The game is available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch consoles. The price is NIS 249 and is distributed in Israel by Adli United.