Sonic Frontiers has traditional 2D and 3D Sonic levels, too

Sonic FrontiersSega and its developer have been making headlines recently, but maybe not for what they would like. Fans have expressed skepticism over what they’ve seen of the Sonic the Hedgehog’s next game, even calling for its delay. Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka recently told VGC that these fans simply “don’t understand what this new gameplay is.” And he’s right — until Tuesday, fans haven’t seen the larger scope of Sonic FrontiersThis is because large parts of the game have been embargoed.

Yes, Sonic Frontiers is an open-world Sonic game, or, as Iizuka calls it, an “open zone” game. There are also portals within these open areas that take Sonic to Cyber Space. This alternate dimension is where Sonic can sprint, grind and jump through classic Sonic levels. It’s actually very fun.

I played Sonic FrontiersEarlier this month, the demo featured exploring open spaces and searching for Cyber Space portals. It is also the demo that caused a lot of confusion earlier in the month. This was because reporters had to hide a large portion of the game. Let’s now talk about the potential scope. Frontiers’ gameplay.

The demo began with Sonic waking up in a lush green field and being informed by a disembodied voice that he’d successfully escaped Cyber Space. It was early in the game after what looked like an introductory level. The demo presented many confusing issues, such as the incorrect button prompts I received for my controller, the weirdly low resolution, and windowed layout. At the preview event, the attendants could not provide additional context or information on any aspect of this game. Please bear with my guesswork.

Image: Sega

This early area of the demo was heavily tutorialized, explaining that I could play in “action” or “high-speed” mode, that I had a map, and that I would need to solve puzzles to earn skill points, collect seeds, vault keys, and little creatures called Kocos, and that I could reclaim Amy Rose’s memories via some kind of tokens. Sonic Frontiers’ demo threw me into the deep end and my half hour with the game didn’t illuminate much.

Sometime in the past, I was given instructions to use my skill points to unlock Cyloop. This allows Sonic to draw a line ahead of him while he runs. This skill point can be used in many different ways to interact with other parts of the world. You can even stun enemies by drawing a circle around them. This ability is also useful for solving puzzles. It can sometimes produce a surge of gold rings when you do it, but it wasn’t clear from the demonstration why this might or wouldn’t work.

Sonic can run, jump, and slide while holding down a trigger. It feels great to run around the globe, particularly when the hedgehog is in autopilot for a series of loops, rails and bumpers. The environment whizzes by in a blur, while you keep an eye on what’s ahead to try and grab as many rings as possible.

During combat, you can lock onto foes, which centers the camera on them and helps aim Sonic’s homing melee attacks. The controls and Sonic’s abilities have been noticeably tweaked for this more open 3D space, but the game will feel largely familiar for anyone who’s played a 3D Sonic game before.

Sonic Frontiers didn’t really start to click until I reached my first Cyber Space level. The portals to Cyber Space can be unlocked using portal gears. This item is available from bosses within the open zones. My encounters with bosses included a tiny enemy known as Ninja, who used quick combos to attack Sonic while Sonic circled it. There was also a drill that mostly spins in place and Sonic repeatedly smacked it. Finally there was a huge tower whose spinning arms had helpful blue booster rings which allowed Sonic to reach its top and strike its weak points. These bosses all shared the same otherworldly sterile sci-fi robot aesthetic, and they weren’t exactly challenging. It was early in the game.

Three Cyber Space levels were completed by me. There were two 3D courses where Sonic was following the camera, much like the Sonic Adventure games. In the third, the camera spun around to Sonic’s side, turning the 3D course into a side-scrolling 2D level à la classic Sonic the Hedgehog. All three courses were pure Sonic: I strung together jumps and slides to maintain the hedgehog’s speed, bouncing from obstacle to obstacle, dodging enemies, collecting rings, and hurtling through checkpoints to reach the next set of boosters, bumpers, and rails. Despite the fact that Sonic does not have roll abilities in this game, these levels were still enjoyable and satisfying to play.

Cyber Space will seem like the true meat. Sonic Frontiers. It’s possible to imagine a loop in which you travel the open space, find solutions to puzzles and beat bosses to gain access to portals to Cyber Space, where you can have classic Sonic-style fun.

This format highlights one issue. Frontiers: If the classic-style levels are what’s really fun about the game, why not just make ThisWhat is the gameplay? The open-world puzzles will have to become a lot more engaging — and the bosses more challenging — than the ones I played in this demo in order for this “open zone” mash-up to work.

Otherwise, Sonic FrontiersYou will find yourself stuck with a bunch of Sonic levels, which feels like filler.