Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is the next installment in the series of arcade games about the title character, Sonic the Hedgehog. It was released by the Japanese company SEGA, while cooperating studio Sonic Team is responsible for development. Work on the title began in 2017 after the release of Sonic Forces. The script for the game was written by the creator of the official Sonic comics - Ian Flyn.

Plot

The action of the title takes place in Starfall Islands - the cradle of an ancient civilization, whose impressive ancient buildings enrich the vast areas of the archipelago. It is here that Sonic's eternal enemy - Doctor Eggman - makes an intriguing discovery. He finds a mysterious artifact on one of the isolated islands, where he decides to install an AI program to hack his system. The result, however, is the activation of the island's protection protocol, which absorbs the man.

At the same time, three friends - Sonic, Tails and Amy - are heading to Starfall Islands, where they plan to unravel the case of the missing Chaos Emeralds. During the trip, however, their Tornado plane encounters an unexpected problem, and the entire group is sucked into an interdimensional portal. Separated from his friends, Sonic lands in Cyber Space, but manages to get out of there and eventually reaches one of Starfall's islands - Kronos Island. Unfortunately, his friends remained on the other side, so the protagonist has no choice but to face time and set out to rescue them. During his mission, he meets Sage - a mysterious character who tries to convince him to leave the island at all costs.

Game mechanics

Sonic Frontiers is an action platform game, in which we observe the gameplay from a third-person perspective (TPP). What primarily distinguishes it from previous productions is the open world, which we can explore at will. So our blue hedgehog dashes through the vast terrain of five islands, attacking his enemies and eliminating them at the speed of light.

Also in this part, the main character has a number of skills known from other installments of the series. Among other things, among others, run with dizzying speed, slide on rails, jump or climb giant objects. During exploration he collects various items, among others, rings scattered around the platforms. Also hidden on the map are useful finds, such as Memory Tokens, which Sonic can use to free his friends.

Fighting various enemies is one of the key elements of the gameplay. The confrontations here are more complex and sometimes require the development of a good strategy, especially when the hero comes to face a bigger and stronger boss. However, Sonic can boast an extensive arsenal of attacks, deriving impressive combos. Among the moves appearing in the game, we can distinguish, among others, the Quick Cyloop - a new skill, based on creating a cybernetic loop around enemy units, which, when performed correctly, throws opponents into the air and makes them more vulnerable to attacks.

As part of winning, our hero receives experience points, which allow him to unlock new moves. As the gameplay progresses, Sonic can also enhance his basic abilities: speed, attack, defense and ring capacity, protecting him from death from excess damage.

However, fighting is not all, the game also features various platform challenges and puzzles, marked by special signs with a red question mark. There are also timers, the premise of which is to get from one point to another before a certain time.

Technical aspects

Sonic Frontiers features pleasant three-dimensional graphics. Jun Senoue and Tomoya Ohtani the composers behind the soundtrack. The production's theme song is I'm Here, performed by Merry Kirk-Holmes of the band To Octavia. The song accompanying the closing credits was announced as Vandalize by the rock band ONE OK ROCK.

Other information

The game was promoted by an animated series announced at a liveastream hosted by Sonic Central. Sonic Frontiers Prologue focuses on the events preceding the story known from Sonic Frontiers. Its protagonist is Knuckles guarding the Main Emerald on Angel Island.